2026 Diary - Page 67

11 February

My main activity today was joining a call with Carole, Pauline, Mum and Peter Whitaker, the minister for Dad's funeral service.

I had to wait in for the post from Gareth (it arrive mid call) so then I could do to the Post Office and pay Dad's cheque in.

With those two done, I went for a walk then joined Tina and a few others at Knit and Natter at St. John's.

Jonathon and I went to the GPO quiz in the evening. As usual, we came 5th , this time with 52.5/81 so a reasonable score.

12 February

We came across a couple of lovely tributes to Dad on Facebook today. It's lovely that so many people are remembering him.

This one and the photo came from Knaresborough Cricket Club's page.

The sun was shining first thing - it didn't last long so I took a photo while it was there! The rain meant no gardening this afternoon so that plan went by the by.

Went to the gym then took the dogs out for the weekly walk (stayed dry most of the time).

Carole sent the draft service sheet through for our comments and Pauline confirmed she has booked an appointment with the Registrar to register Dad's death so everything is progressing well.

Unfortunately, the cheque from YBS isn't yet showing on Dad's account. Hopefully it will be there tomorrow.

13 February

Went for a walk around before heading to the gym - good job I did my steps that way because the treadmills were all busy.

Saw some really interesting fungus along the way.

Joined the Friday walkers for coffee at the GPO (too wet to walk according to the forecast but it would have been fine in reality).

14 February

Dad's notice was in the Yorkshire Post today (Knaresborough Post was Thursday).

After a quick gym visit, I took the Knoll walkers for a test walk for tomorrow. It's still too long for the Knoll group so I'll need to shorten it even more for tomorrow.

It was lovely to see a fox curled up having a nap in the sunshine when I got back.

Finally got my Autumn Bliss raspberries cut back and mulched.

Spoke to Mum on FaceTime. She is absolutely shattered with everything that's going on. I think she'll be pleased when this week is over.

15 February

I decided to do weights at home rather than go to the gym this morning so I could do a couple of loads of washing before church.

We only had a couple of dry hours today and, by happy coincidence, that was the time I'd agreed to lead the Knoll walk.

We followed the same route as yesterday for the first part then came back alongside the river so Coco could have a run around.

The rain started as I walked back through our front door but brought a beautiful rainbow with it.

Caught up with Christine as usual.

16 February

Got up early because I couldn't get back to sleep and started to do the packing for tomorrow. I popped to get a Mother's Day card so I could take it with me then went to Andersons (Oli's vets) to deliver the latest batch of old newspapers.

The cheque is finally showing on Dad's account, albeit "pending". At least I know where the cheque is in the process now.

Gilda came for our Monday walk, thankfully it was dry. We met Jonathon in the British Queen for dinner - yummy fish and chips for me.

Alma came and did the cleaning by which time it had started raining so the gardening I had planned to do this afternoon was delayed but I cut back the honeysuckle near the back door and made a start on the pampas before it started raining again.

17 February

A short visit to the gym then we finished packing and set up the den and kitchen for Oli while we're away.

We made good time on our journey, had dinner at OK Diner and popped in to see Mum to sort out her hotmail account and get some documents before checking in to the Crowne Plaza.

We got settled in then went to Vivido for a snack tea (minestrone soup - yummy) followed by (for me) a quick walk round to finish my steps.

19 February

A trip to the gym then into town to get my paper and some bits and bobs from Sainsbury's (including some batteries for Christine).

I went to M&S after breakfast to get some fruit to take to Christines (and a salad for my lunch).

We went to Pocklington to get some savoury goods for J, Christine and Gordon then I visited All Saints Church while J prowled round the charity shops.

While we were busy doing that, Carole took Dad's funeral flowers to Whixley to put on Grandma and Grandad Daniel's grave.

The church had quite a few beautiful stained windows and a lovely mosaic floor near the entrance door.

After dinner, I took Bertie for a walk round the fields. He has been playing up for Janine (she's walking him while Christine recovers from her knee op) but he was very well behaved with me.

Tea was in the Club Lounge at the hotel.

20 February

Gym then a detour via the Valley Gardens to get my paper and a few provisions.

I advised Prudential and Standard Life online about Dad then spoke to Virgin Money.

We decided to go to Knaresborough today. On the way to the bus stop, we called into Virgin Money to let them have sight of Dad's death certificate so, hopefully, that will all go smoothly now.

We had a snack lunch in Knaresborough Market Place then Jonathon went to look round the charity shops while I wandered round Bebra Gardens and along Waterside. It was very wet at times!

Tea was at West Park Hotel - very tasty and even better as it's Harrogate Restaurant week so they had a special fixed price menu.

21 February

Gym, get paper then breakfast followed by a very quick local walk before getting ready to go to Halifax for Anna and Graeme's wedding.

The table plan was cricket themed - we were on the "Deep Cover" table.

It was all quite relaxed, the ceremony went smoothly so the are now Mr. and Mrs Scully-Whiles. The food was lovely. Anna's Dad's speech was a bit long-winded but heartfelt. The band for the evening part of the festivities was good and we left everyone dancing at around 9.20 p.m.

22 February

I popped into town after gym and breakfast to get Mum a new phone case then off to Knaresborough we went to deliver that and pick up a couple of cards.

Our main activity was a visit to RHS Harlow Carr (via Betty's in and out today). There were, literally, thousands of snowdrops - they looked lovely. More surprising, one or two of the rhodedendrons and azaleas were starting to flower.

Jonathon culled his wedding photos and sent 700+ to Graeme and Anna to choose from. I've been through them and hearted a few that I like and shared the ones from Facebook with the clan.

We went to Vivido for tea - yummy as always - then back to the hotel to do some packing ready to head back south tomorrow.

23 February

Time to head back down south but gym first, then a quick (damp) walk in the Valley Gardens. We called in to see Mum on the way and dealt with her house insurance. That was the last thing on my list so everything is with the other parties now.

The journey home wasn't too bad and we were both really pleased to be home. Oli kept checking we were still there and he hadn't imagined our return.

Peter and Jenny were pleased with their cheese thank you. Jenny had taken all my flowers home and had arranged those that were left into a smaller vase for me to come home to - a lovely surprise.

24 February

Lovely to see our prunus in blossom when I went to the gym this morning.

I took the latest batch of hearts to Francis Chappell then enjoyed the rest of the sunny day in the garden. It was warm enough to have lunch outside and admire the bulbs that had popped up in the grass while we were away.

Oli was keen to help me with the pampas today - he scrambled up the netting round the veg beds and inspected my work very carefully.

25 February

A quick gym visit then changd and washed our duvet covers so I could dry them outside and take advantage of the lovely Spring sunshine.

I met up with Nigel for a wander around Horseguards Parade, St. James's Park and Green Park (the pelicans looked lovely in the sun).

We had lunch at the Royal Academy of Arts (Nigel is a member) then went our separate ways.

I joined Tina and Margaret at Knit and Natter. We had a few visitors today which was good. Sohail came towards the end.

Carole received the bill for Dad's funeral so that's now paid.

The biggest challenge of today was changing Oli's collar - he's now sulking and ignoring us!

26 February

We've been married for 21 years today so we went to Chapter One for lunch.

Before that, I did some weights at home then took the dogs for a walk so they didn't miss out. It was chilly but they had their woolly jumpers on and seemed fine.

Jonathon went off after lunch to do a photo shoot (gather it was a bit of a disaster as an event) and Ginny and I went to see Inala at the House of Sisters Grimm. A very strange place, tiny theatre and art gallery. The show was good but the dry ice was too much!

27 February

No gym this morning. I joined June and co for our Friday walk, admiring the beautiful daffodils on Broxbourne along the way. The paths weren't too muddy which was a nice surprise.

The new topper on the postbox in Petts Wood reminded me of playing memory cards at Graeme and Anna's wedding!

28 February

It appears that war has broken out in the Middle East today. President Trump seems to have allied the USA with Israel and attacked Iran who have retaliated by scattering bombs in Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai to name a few. It will be both interesting and scary over the next few days to see how it develops.

In far more mundane news, I did most of my steps at the gym today. We started pulling together a list of what we need to pack for Kenya (I'd have preferred a longer gap between Yorkshire and Kenya given the choice). I searched and searched for the sun cream and insect repellent without success so we bought more repellent only for Jonathon to find our store later. Better to have more rather than less but ...

Stocked up on books for Kenya as well so I'll have plenty to read and leave there.

Caught up with Mum who seems to be coping OK. Her first carer visit happened on Friday and went well and she'll work out if the time we've booked is long enough or if she needs a bit longer per visit.

1 March

Gym first then I took the Knoll walkers to Royal Tunbridge Wells for our walk today. Ginny had found a route and I'd adapted it to suit the group.

The rocks are typical of RTW and very dramatic.

This must be the best decorated loo block anywhere!

Caught up with Christine after tea - she's going to try swimming this week having been given the OK by her consultant.

2 March

Gym then Mark and Gilda came for a walk. We did one of June's walks (with tweaks) because Hawkwood is dry enough to walk through now.

Jonathon joined us at Luma (formerly Aqua) for lunch - we won't be hurrying back.

Alma came and did the cleaning. I contacted NYC re Dad's refund so that should be processed in the next couple of days.

3 March

Gym for quite a few steps then home because Ben came to help with the garden. His main job for today was clearing ivy in the pond bed - it looks a lot better now. While he was doing that, I cleaned the bird feeders and table and chairs ready for Summer. There are lots of Spring flowers starting to show through - looked lovely on such a sunny day today.

Our second Ben of the day was our travel agent, tidying up the last few points for our holiday to Kenya next week. All good at the moment (unless the FCO advises otherwise before Monday).

I checked on Jo's flat - she has no water (she was aware of that as waiting for a plumber) so I'll need to take some with me to water her plants tomorrow.

Sohail came round for a chat - he has a target to meet 80%+ of church memebers / regular attendees by 15 March (his anniversary of arrival at St. John's) so I was one of the last few for him to chat to.

4 March

No gym today because I had jobs to do and errands to run this morning. I took water to Jo's so I could give her plants a drink then dropped some stuff round to Orpington Cat Rescue on the way to M&S. It was really misty as I walked over to The Nugent Centre.

I saw my first bluebells of the year by the River Cray on the way back.

My other important job today was talking to Aviva about Dad's life policy. I got there in the end but I don't want to hear Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons again for a while.

My afternoon was full of chat. First off was the Knoll Chit Chat group. 12 people today which is a really good number, especially as four were going to stay for an early dinner.

Next up was Knit and Natter at St. John's - think I've done enough socialising for a few days now!

5 March

Gym then dog walking filled this morning. Tisha was at the groomers yesterday and looks very smart. Carol is delighted because Tisha is really nervous when being groomed following hte accident a couple of years ago - this new groomer seems to have a much better idea of how to deal with nervous dogs.

Oli and I did some gardening in the afternoon. I walked round with the lawnmower but it was still a bit wet so I just topped the worst of the growth off and will try again when we get back from holiday. I did some lawn edging but ran out of time before I'd finished.

The Hellebore was today's star of the show.

A few of us went to Sadlers Wells to enjoy "Mary, Queen of Scots" - a confusing story but the principal dancer was amazing.

6 March

Got my paper then joined June and co for our Friday walk. The blossom is looking lovely, despite the greyness of the day. There seemed to be a lot of robins around in Jubilee Park and some of them posed very kindly for us.

I had my holiday haircut after dinner so it's very short now.

Caught up with some admin, including speaking with Standard Life about Dad. They confirmed they'd received the notification and it was being dealt with.

Went to Thera Dance in the evening and had a good bop around.

7 March

Lots of walking jobs today. First to Jo's with some filtered water to put in her fridge then with her usual milk and juice.

I had a two hour stint collecting for Marie Curie at Morrisons in Petts Wood. I'm not sure how it went but at least they let me have a card machine this time which helped. I'd hoped to buy some sultanas while I was there but I couldn't find them in the shop so came home empty handed.

Next walk was with the Knoll group (only three of us today). I decided the advertised route would be too slippy / muddy so we went round a few country lanes instead. It was surprisingly misty when we were at the heighest point.

Jenny came round to tell me they can't look after Oli from Tuesday morning to Thursday afternoon for family reasons but, thankfully, Jo has agreed to cover those days.

My final activity for the day was meeting up with most of the other Mud Appreciation Society members for dinner at Ephesus (Jo was on her flight home from Romania) .

8 March

Gym first then church and that was the morning gone!

Music group actually sang from the front of the church for the first time in ages (only one song but it's a start).

I topped up all the bird feeders, and checked on the pond / fish while dinner was cooking. The garden continues to produce new flowers for me to spot as I walk around.

Jo called in to get her "instructions" for looking after Oli while Jenny and Peter are also away and for looking after our rehab fox (he seems to be much better than when he first came home a few days ago).

Caught up with Mum on Facetime but didn't talk long - she seems to be doing OK.

Finished the packing for our holiday tomorrow - just hope there isn't too much more rain in Kenya and that the airport is open and the roads from there to our first camp are drive-able.

9 March

Went to the gym, delivered something from the Sharing Group and took the newspapers to Andersons.

The taxi arrived 10 minutes early (prefer that to them being late) and we made really good time to Heathrow so we had to wait to check in.

Once through, we could use the Plaza Premier Lounge so plenty of power points, food etc. Jonathon was clearly giving a lot of thought to whatever he was doing.

We flew Kenya Airlines - really good service and the food was lovely. I managed to get some sleep but not very much. We went through some turbulence but nothing major and landed on time.

10 March

We had to wait on the plane for a technician to come and take Jonathon's seat to pieces to retrieve his glasses. Thankfully he arrived quickly and the glasses were undamaged.

We were met airside at Nairobi and guided through then handed over to Boyd to drive us via the Great Rift Valley (or part of it) to Karen Blixen Camp in the Mara North.

We stopped a couple of times on the way. First for a drink and to look round Buffalo, a tourist shop and cafe then later at ArtCaffe for brunch. We still got to the camp earlier than we expected, and that was despite the flooded roads along the way.

With arriving early, we were offered a bonus game drive so, of course, we said yes. Our driver is Francis and he has a trainee called Jack. The drive was excellent with loads of sightings (and lots of mud to get stuck in!)

I used my iPhone for photos whereas Jonathon had hsi proper gear with him. His photos are on the Kenya 2026 page.

We got drenched coming back from the drive - We knew it would be the wet season when we booked but they have had an exceptional amount of rain this season.

Dinner was nice and easy and bed was nice and early to try and catch up from the last 48 hours.

11 March

There's nothing like setting out on a safari game drive before dawn, and there's nothing to beat an African sunrise - spectacular in the huge skies.

The animals didn't wait for the sun to come up but it's alot easier to photograph them when it's light!

My usual view as we're driving around Mara North was the back of three heads.

The zebra were particularly frisky and noisy as we drove around this morning.

We got back to camp in time for brunch (far too late to call it breakfast). Lots to choose from, all very tasty and served with a smile by Solomon.

By then, the sun had decided to come out for a while but the hippos were resting and there was no sign of the crocodile.

Had a lovely surprise when I was going through my photos on our balcony - a giraffe walked past on the other side of the river - too far away for me to photograph but lovely to see.

I checked out the River Lounge, just to say I'd seen it. It was surrounded by Banded Mongoose but they were far to fast to be photographed.

We set out on our afternoon game drive in torrential rain, complete with thunder and lightning. Francis offered us ponchos (we were already wet by then) and also offered to put the plastic sides down but we might as well go back to camp if he does that because it's hard to see through thick plastic and impossible to photograph through it.

The only other animal I photographed this afternoon was hippos. There were dozens of them in the pond, making quite a racket at times. Jonathon, meanwhile, took quite a few bird photos - they are on the Kenya page.

Back for dinner and rather than the quiet affair it was yesterday, it was quite noisy as a party of Danish students had arrived. They weren't creating any noise but their teachers stood regularly and addressed the party, and anyone else in the dining room. It didn't stop us enjoying our food but we would have been happier without their announcements.

12 March

My birthday - I'm now officially an old age pensioner. I've had confirmation of both my state pension and my Freedom Card so all ready to go when we get home!

We had an all day safari today. I thought that would mean a 9 a.m. start but, no - Francis had other ideas and off we went just before 7.30 a.m. It did mean we caught the last of the sunrise which was really pretty.

We drove over to the main Maasai Mara Reserve. It is enormous and had a completely different feel to the Mara North Conservancy where we'd been for the other drives so far.

There were loads of elephants - some of them huge and ancient and some really tiny.

The elephants seemed to like being in and around these trees.

I'm not sure what spooked the Impala but they certainly galloped across the road. The male was careful to ensure all his females were rounded up.

This Water Buck was a nice surprise but I don't know where his female was.

As usual for this part of the trip, there were Topi everywhere we looked.

The Baboons seemed to think they own the place and sauntered around accordingly;

The Buffalo, who probably do own the place, were far too busy wallowing in the streams to strut and saunter anywhere; and

The Wildebeest were far too busy eating to care one way or another.

We had packed lunch on the top of the Mara. The sun shone, the food was good. Francis and Jack had dressed up in Maasai clothing for our safari - I'm not sure if they are of Maasai descent but they looked good.

My final treat for the day was a full African serenade and birthday cake. I really enjoy having birthdays in Africa. Thankfully the research students polished off the cake once we'd had a slice each.

It's time to change camps so I'll start a new page now.

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