I was woken at 3.40am by Sir Winston, who had, up until then, been sleeping peacefully on my bed but was now whining to go to the loo, which was fine, I just had to work out how to navigate descending the rickety staircase, the creaky floorboards, find the correct light switch, open the door to the garden using the dodgy key, doing all this with a wriggling Winston under my arm and without waking the other inhabitants of Stone Cottage. Alas, it wasn’t to be. The creak of the floorboards seemed to amplify in the darkness. Finding ones footage on the rickety staircase with a squirming Winston in ones arms is definitely not recommend and grappling on the walls for the correct light switch resulted in all the lights coming on, thereby waking up Maice from her slumbers. Ah well, I tried.
Winston enjoyed a long pee in the garden beneath a starry, starry night sky. The night was pitch black, the stars were shining bright and you could make out all the constellations in the sky. It was glorious. Why I didn’t think to take a photo I’ll never know….it was definitely a missed opportunity. Winston’s ablutions done we went back to bed for a few more hours. I had hoped he’d stay with Maice but when he heard me try to sneak up the stairs without him he followed me up and that was that! I suppose it’s for the best really. Apparently Maice was having an uncomfortable nights sleep due to her bad back, so we fed her some tablets and hoped they’d work their magic.
We were up and on our Yoga mats by 8.30am stretching and busting some yoga moves…..even Winston joined in with his favourite downward-facing-dog stretch…..a concept that has to be seen to be believed! Our yoga efforts were rewarded by a lovely power-shower in the ‘green’ bathroom from whence we pottered down the green staircase to the green kitchen for breakfast where a discussion ensued on the days proceedings. The clear night sky had given way to a gorgeously sunny but cold day….perfect for exploring the village and the surrounding countryside. Great, sorted. All we needed to do now was load the dishwasher and we’d be off however, easier said than done for when we selected the ‘on’ button, nothing happened. The plug behind the dishwasher was switched on so why wasn’t it working? We decided to switch plugs and when we selected the ‘on’ button again we heard a beep but still nothing happened. We must have stared at the dishwasher for at least ten minutes trying to work out why it wouldn’t work. As we changed the plugs back again we followed the cable and realised that the plug in the socket didn’t belong to the dishwasher at all but to the washing machine, which is next to the dishwasher and that’s the beep we heard. The other plug belonged to the microwave! It soon became apparent that the plug for the dishwasher was located behind the fridge/freezer and had been switched off at the wall! Honestly, words failed us. How deceiving was that! Finally, twenty minutes later we’d donned our hats, coats and scarves, hooked Winston up to his red outfit and set off on our walk. We wondered if we’d find a cafe in the village where we could stop for a cappuccino because by this time were in need of caffeine! Just sayin!
The village of Weobley is really quaint with its black and white timber framed houses, two pubs, two cafes, two food shops, two churches, two hairdressers/beauty salons and a village green where a group of local people had congregated together with the two vicars/priests to sing Christmas Carols on the green. We would have stayed for a sing-song but Winston seemed to be on a mission so we just ‘went with the flow’ and followed him. We ended up at the Church of St Peter & St Paul and went inside to light a candle for all our family and friends, past and present. Unfortunately there were no candles to light so we’ll find another church when we‘re out and about over the next few days and light one then. You can tell there’s a real community spirit within the village as there must have been at least twelve ‘Christmas trees’ displayed in the church, put together by different groups, ranging from the WI, the Allotment Society, The Village Crafters,The Gardners club….you get the drift. They were very cleverly put together and given us some great ideas for next year!
From the church we walked around the water meadows then found ourselves back at the village green where the Christmas Carollers were just packing up…what a shame, we were just too late to participate. Fortunately the Three Bean Cafe/come local delicatessen was open so we popped in for a cappuccino only to find that the cafe part was closed. However, in the true spirit of Christmas the staff made us two take-away cappuccino’s which we took home and enjoyed whilst we rustled up our lunch. We sat around the kitchen table and enjoyed a Prosecco lunch whilst carrying out our ‘social admin’. I know, what’s that all about?
Before it got too dark we took Winston out again via the back gate and straight into the ‘castle’ grounds. There’s no castle there anymore, all that remains is a mound of small hills and grass but it leads out into the surrounding countryside which is lovely, perfect for walkers and dog walkers. Everywhere is very well marked and it would be an impossibility to get lost, all you need to do is follow the signs, which other places we’ve encountered have been missing. No wonder we get lost so often! We ended up walking back through the village green where Winston stood and admired the Nativity Scene. Seems he too wanted to get in on the act and join the donkeys and the lambs. Maybe next year Winston, maybe next year!
Back home we enjoyed a buffet style supper with Prosecco and retired to the ‘pink’ lounge to watch the Celebrity Christmas Sewing Bee before sitting down to watch the film Moulin Rouge on ITVBe. Well we would have watched it if we could’ve got the ITV APP to work on the TV but try as we might we couldn’t get it to work so we parked that idea and decided instead to watch Notting Hill on the DVD player. It took us at least ten minutes to work out how to use it but eventually, after having pressed all the buttons on the DVD and TV remote controls the DVD player sprang into life and we settled down to watch the film, Maice stretched out on the sofa languishing with her glass of Prosecco and me squished into the single chair with Sir Winston taking up most of the space. So, here ye, here ye…….I’m putting it out there now…….tomorrow the sofa is mine, all mine!
Night all……see you on Christmas Day x
M&A and Sir Winston