Monday.

Been a busy weekend. Ann's sister in law, Erica has been very ill in Addenbrookes Hospital. Eventually, on Saturday, an operation was performed to relieve pressure on her brain. She spent Sunday in intensive care, unconscious, with her husband and children around her. They were told on Sunday evening that the next twelve hours would be critical. This morning her two daughters were sitting with her when she opened her eyes and gave them what the youngest daughter described as " the best smile she had ever seen." She's not out of the wood yet, but there's some slight improvement.

As an indirect result of all this we spent yesterday with Gran, and came home in the evening via Littleport. When we were nearing Lavenham we saw a young barn owl (one of last years I should think) alight on a road sign ahead of us. We passed him within about three yards. We were so pleased as we hadn't seen one in our area for about five years. A few miles further on we saw one of our little egrets.
This morning we both sang in the choir at the funeral of a friend of ours. When we first met her, about fifteen years ago, I said to Ann that Jenny was a person that you couldn't meet without feeling that you'd made a friend. After the last hymn -Great is thy faithfulness- was sung, I don't think there was a completely dry eye in the Church, and most of the ladies said they couldn't complete the last verse. She will be greatly missed. She was sixty four.
When we got home from the service a friend had left a message on our answerphone to the effect that an auctioneer in Sudbury is selling off a collection of antique guns tomorrow. So we drove across to Sudbury to view the sale. Disappointing!!! Mostly a thoroughly tired old lot. As we've friends coming to lunch tomorrow I can't attend the sale, so I've left bids on five of the lots. We'll see. The above cottage is in a tiny village on our way home. It consists (as far as I can see) of a superb late Tudor chimney stack with a tiny thatched cottage build arround it. I love the look of it, but think it might be very inconvenient to live in.
More later perhaps.