Some interesting discoveries...

It's been a busy 24 hours! The Wine Evening last night was extremely enjoyable and we drank some beautiful wines. Mum and Dad hosted it so we all walked up in a group as their house is only half a mile away. We enjoyed wines from Greece, New Zealand, Spain, Australia and France and only one was a bit dodgy! Paul and Sue won again with their Australian red, the Snapper Cove Shiraz while one of mine, a New Zealand Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, came in second. We had lovely food and there was a lot of laughter and chatter around the table but not much wine talk! Walking home at midnight was wonderful - the stars were all out and competing for brilliance with the almost full moon and I'm happy to report that not one of us fell over!

This morning (a little too early) mum and I drove down to Kent to see Nan. We had a quick lunch, did some shopping with Nan and then went to Stone to find the church of St Mary the Virgin. I was really hoping to see a tombstone with my ancestor's name on, but the graves were all very old, crumbling and hard to read. I should imagine it's a very spooky place at night! The church dates from the 13th century and we were lucky enough to be able to go inside where a couple of ladies were preparing for the Harvest Festival service. They chatted to us for a while and one of them remembered the Frenches living in Stone and knew of the Lamb Inn pub nearby which has since gone. It was great to chat to them and build up a little picture of my Great Great Grandfather's pub.

Back at Nan's we found all her photographs and had a great time looking at pictures of the family from years ago. We were also amazed to find a photo of my Great Grandfather, William, and his wife so I borrowed it to scan it onto the computer and keep it safe.

The journey home was not so enjoyable. It rained the whole way and we crawled along the M25 as per usual. We had one very sticky moment on the M1 when I took the single lane through the roadworks and everything ground to a halt. We were completely stuck and I feared we'd never get home in time for the table we'd booked at the pub for dinner to celebrate Keith's birthday. Luckily after about fifteen minutes we moved and I arrived at the pub just in time for a drink before our meal. Phew!