DAY 100 - Thursday 11th August.

Ian here.
Sorry, it's been some time since we have blogged.  Once we had arrived in the UK it's just been go - go - go.  

Old friends, not seen often enough.

It's been wonderful catching up with loads of old friends and family up and down the length of the country. It has been a different sort of "holiday" for the last three weeks as we have not been traveling around England and Scotland viewing things through the eyes of a tourist but as returning expatriates!

English garden inspections - they have real grass here

We arrived at Heathrow, the dreary hub of UK air travel, pushed a wonky trolley along miles of potholled footpaths to a pickup point for our hire car. In the rain.  Piled the luggage into a car and headed out onto the worlds biggest car park, the M25 motorway!

Joanna's cosy cottage in Burford.

This was the wet start to a great week when we linked up with the Fallaces (thanks for the wonderful hospitality Steve and Jane, and insights into X Box land, Ollie and Will) and then on to Joanna's fab house in the Oxfordshire countryside, where we were able to enjoy short and long visits from lots of dearly missed friends.  Thanks everyone for making the efforts to come and see us - we hope the trip was worth it for you - it certainly was for Jane and me. 
 

Jane inspecting Mitford graves in Swinbrook

We made day trips to a wonderful garden at Hidcote, and a local garden centre like "Garden Way" on steroids, everything from plants to rocking horses to real chickens! The local churches were very old and rightly famous for their history and occupants, including most of the Mitford sisters, except for the one not dead yet!

Jane and cousin John following in the footsteps of St Columbus.

Then we flew up to Scotland to Jane's old family home in Rosyth, to see the renovations that her sister Judy has recently completed. 

In the last two weeks up here we have seen all the local family and driven up to Oban to see aunt, cousins and pet ferrets, and have a great boat trip, in the rain, to visit an early Christian settlement island up the Firth of Lorn that predates Iona.

My godson's wedding -note the sun is shining.

A delightful coincidence of timing enabled us to make the wedding of one of Ian's godsons, so it was back down to Yorkshire on the heaving motorways in the pouring rain, which fortunately stopped for the big day, which was a lovely family event.

 Back in Edinburgh, the rain, the Fringe and now the main International Festival have all started.  It's too good to miss; at last count we will have seen 7 Fringe shows, 2 art exhibitions, a ballet and 2 concerts. But there's the chance we'll slip in a few more shows before we start our flight back to Australia via Singapore on 18 August.  Today was Sunday lunch for siblings, partners, next generation, and glasses raised to family. We are truly blessed.

And cheers to absent family and friends!