Tuesday April 22 - Jane is due to arrive at Richmond Airport about 6:30 pm. James tracks her flights on his phone to see whether she is on time. We have a light supper and talk. She is blessed like her brother that she can sleep when she wants to and is in good form.
Wednesday
Jane's first day and the weather is nice. We go to Strange's to get annuals to plant. My looooong time friend Inge in Germany gave me "60 fleurin" (tokens from Fleurop) for my 65th birthday which needed to be cashed in. This was the third time and we knew this garden shop takes them. We know now how it works but it is always fun to see how they figure out what to do. We are way ahead now because we can tell them to call their bookkeeping department.
We had a great time choosing plants from thousands of these little darlings. Geraniums had done so well last year, and zinnias and those little blue ones (forgot the name). Of course had to have a mandeville for the back. The hummingbirds like it.
Inge, see the car full of beauties? Thank you!
The pansies we have in the planters during the winter actually still look nice but in a week they will get leggy and since we will be gone ... etc etc ... Sorry pansies! If you have somebody who wants to plant the new ones for you, you go for it!
Yes, thank you Jane for planting the newbies. We will enjoy them all summer!
Sarah came by with Caleb to say hello to her aunt. And Jane was put "to work" right away again.
Thursday is my "Stitchers for a cause" day. Every Thursday from 9 to 2 with a potluck lunch about 2 dozen people (mainly ladies but also 3 men) meet to sew, cut and iron their little hearts out to create quilts and other things for a good cause.
You can read about it here! It is a very impressive group and everybody is so nice.
I had asked Jane whether she would like to go and she did as long as I had something for her to do.
Oh yes, I did. We were a team and made good progress on my project.
Lunch break!
I had to show Jane some of the donated things, fabric, irons ... everything there. Just bring time.
Each volunteer has a "drawer" with their name on it for their project . I do too. Here are only some of them.
One of the leaders, when he said table prayers, gave us an update that he had just been contacted by a certain hospital that quilts were needed and he had brought 105 over to them. He also reminded everybody that if they knew about a friend or neighbor who was in a bad situation and could be comforted with the loving gift of a quilt to let him know. I told him that Jane had just told us the previous night about two good people in her congregation recently diagnosed with cancer.
Look what Jane has to take to England!
Sarah comes by with Caleb when she can.
Ha, look at this video!
In the evening we watched the movie "Philomena" on the TV. Jane had read the book on the plane and then just finished it here so she liked seeing it too. Good one!
Friday is Sarah's day off so we had planned to go to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. James and I have a membership for Cheekwood in Nashville so they let us all get in free. Very nice!
This is what I should do with our peonies. Mine are beaten down if there is a strong rain.
I did not know there was such a thing as a tree peony.
The dogwood and the statue ... I could not resist to take a photo.
Caleb does not like the carrier for walks any longer. He likes to sit up and look around. But there comes a time ...
We parked grandpa on a bench while the three of us had a look in the gift shop.
And when we came back to our cars, look what was right in front of both of ours?
Sarah had invited us for lunch at their country club. There was a tournament today and we had lots going on before us.
Doesn't he look like he wants solid food?
Because we had such a good lunch we only had salad and bread and cold cuts or cheese for dinner. Julie said she didn't mind and joined us. Julie had been the host for "the British" when they came for Sarah's wedding and they know each other since then. Memories, memories.
Saturday
James and Jane went for a walk along the river. I had things to do but James promised me to take a few photos.
Wow, James, good selfie.
The young family came over for an early dinner. They have to be home for Caleb's bedtime 7/7:30 pm. Caleb has to fit in and be flexible during the day, but his bedtime is "written in granite". And it works very well for them.
We had the lamb roast which we didn't have at Easter.
Sunday
James, Jane and I went to church. Many of our friends remembered Jane from previous visits.
Then we met the others for lunch at The Grill. Caleb had the corner seat.
But not the whole time as you can see.
Video 1!
Video 2!
Monday
Jane had mentioned on arrival that she would like to go to Washington D.C. one day. So she and James took the 7am train. I brought them to the station for the 2 hour journey.
The weather had been a bit of a worry but they were lucky not to get a drop while we had drizzle all afternoon. They had a good time.
Tuesday. The weather ... are we in England?
Oh my, rain, rain, go away ... can't really do much else but do errands like
dropping the car off to have the tires rotated and then pick it up again. We went shopping and had at least 6 stops. At least we were successful and Jane found something to take home too.
Sarah came by with Caleb to say good bye.
Wednesday
More rain rain rain.
Jane and I went shopping again. After lunch we were sitting in the living room when I suggested to James to show Jane the "angry birds" game which we played on TV on New Year's Eve. Jane thought it was very funny/entertaining.
I had a 2pm appointment to have my hair cut. When I came back ... the birds were still angry, ha-ha.
And the rain was still coming down.
5 inches last night and more than 1 inch since lunch time.
At least the storm lets up a little for Jane's 7pm flight. Safe travels! I think she (and we too) had a good time. Most of the days the weather was very nice and weather is not everything anyway.
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