Back to Bosworth

The drive back to Bosworth was uneventful because we have become quite expert at negotiating the motorways. However, we did inadvertently arrive at Bosworth when only 5 miles from it by an extremely circuitous route.....the only "failure" of my navigator. We kept seeing signs "Bosworth 2 miles" and after driving two miles saw another sign saying Bowsorth 3 miles and this was repeated at least twice.....talk about an endless road. Getting a little lost in this part of the world is no chore at all because the country lanes are so beautiful, it is hard not to just drive along for the sheer pleasure of it.
Den and Barb and Lizzie were overjoyed at our return and had lined up a series of lunches and dinners to catch up with their son, Steve and his beautiful fiancee, Deborah, their daughter Beverley and her husband, Graham. The evening with Steve and Deborah and our party of five was very pleasant and we drank two beautiful wines, a Puligny Montrachet and a St Emilion red...absolutely delicious. Our evening was a little marred by the next table of 20 who were celebrating a birthday very, very raucously and not a little drunkenly. No one was nasty but they were having a really good time and the noise eventually drove us out before coffee. We returned home for a lovel;y chat long into the night.
Bev and Graham have bought two Victorian workers' cottages on over an acre of land, complete with orchard and have spent the last several months turning these two into a lovely two storey home for themselves.....it has come up very well and is really lovely and rural. To cap it off they have bought four acres of pasture next door and intend to run a few sheep on it. Both are animal mad and have two lovely labradors, both huge, and four cats. The animals are like children to them as Graham's children have all long since left home and one of them has just had his own little girl.
We visited the historic site of the Battle of Bosworth where King Richard III met his demise and ended 331 years of Plantagenet rule. It was yet another beautiful day for our visit and the visitors centre was very entertaining and informative. There were locals there who were really archers who demonstrated all the old bows, the many different types of arrows, the genuine old swords and daggers as well as a mock fight between pikemen......all dressed up in replica costumes of the 15th century. Pictures will be posted when we get to Calgary. We tried on some armour and I nearly buckled under the weight of a chain mail vest!!!!
The rest of the week passed in ablur of lunches and dinners, the highlight of which for me was a lunch at a local pub that served a truly delicious shepherds' pie, peas and chips. Susan and I have gained twenty kilos between us and will use out time in New York to stem the fat flood!!