At Helen's

We stayed with Helen and Nick from Monday night to Friday afternoon.

The plan had been that Helen would not be working for 3 of the days that we were there, but it didn't quite work put that way....

Helen has been taking an evening course in Landscape Architecture since September, but the other than her own, she hadn't designed a garden. She entered a BBC Gardeners' World garden design competition and is one of four winners! Her garden will be constructed at the NEC in Birmingham and will be on show from June 13 to June 17. Naturally, this has added to her work load and so most of the time that we were there she was very occupied with the planning and with a site visit to the NEC.

We kept ourselves busy with shopping and pottering around the flat, potting plants, cooking and shopping. While we were there, Pat and Helen went shopping for fabrics for Pat's next projects: a roman blind for the nursery and a play mat. We also looked and baby transport systems; Helen has a shortlist to see before buying. It really is much more complicated now than when we bought a pram for James.

John arranged to meet Linda in Lincoln's Inn. Linda is the daughter of John's second cousin, Georgina, who we plan to visit in South Africa in early 2013. John will post photos later.

We left Helen's on Friday afternoon heading for Folkstone. South of the Blackwall tunnel, on a crowded A120, we ran over some nasty metal rubbish, probably dropped from a lorry and resulting in a puncture. There was a slip road to hand and so we pulled into that. Fortunately, being in a french car that is equipped for driving in Spain, we had all the kit, warning triangles and hi vis jackets. Pat stood in the slip road by the triangle, ready to jump out of the way if necessary, while John changed the wheel all too close to fast moving traffic. It was all very scarry! The deed done, we then needed to get to a garage to deal with the damaged tyre - we have a sporty sort of car that has just a 'get you to a garage' spare. By now it was rush hour on a Friday but we didn't have far to go and were soon on the road again.

We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express close to the Channel Tunnel. It was perfectly adequate for a stopover and we met an interesting couple who were walking from their UK home in Shropshire to their apartment in Italy over a period of 6 months. It's one way to avoid the Olympics, I suppose!

We are now speeding through France towards Alsace. It is 22 degrees and the motorways are empty compared to the roads we drove on yesterday. The wild roses on the central reservation are in flower. We have driven this route many times before and know it well. We will spend the next three nights in Andlau and hope to do some walking, weather permitting. We will also visit the winemaker that we have been buying from for more than 20 years.


Pat and John on tour