Easter Sunday.........

We went to the Easter service at the local church this morning. (Festivals like Xmas and Easter tend to make more sense over here) and we wanted to hear the choir as one of the friends we've made is the choir master and his pianist is disappearing for a holiday and he needs someone to play behind the choir at a community concert coming up in May. (That's
Rod).
After the service a couple of people we knew asked if we were at a loose end would we like to come for a trip with them in a helicopter for an hour or so. Ummmm let us think about that??????. It was fabulous! They took us sightseeing up through the Cotswolds, it was interesting to see the famed Cheltenham Raceway and the usually frantic M5 devoid of cars.
We flew over our place and while things are looking good here and steadily improving, it’s still very much a work in progress. However the tennis court is nearly finished and we've started playing our very much “free form style of tennis”. If the ball is in motion you can whack it!!!
Spring is in full ‘burst’ and the wild flowers are gorgeous. We've found a lovely walk by the Thames Stream quite close to the manor where a swan has built a nest and is sitting on her eggs. The trees are budding and we can hear woodpeckers. Life is pleasant enough here. The work is good and the environment is looking lovelier by the day. We're 'on hold' a bit as far as continuing our sojourns around Britain & Europe are concerned. There are a few fish -hooks that need to be worked out regarding the time we have off and what we can do with it. This revolves around security issues here at the manor. Everyone agrees that we can't be expected to be here on-call 24/7 but no-one's actually making any moves or even suggesting how it can be otherwise. None of these difficulties are with our employer. His head-honcho for his European and British property interests is involved and learning how to negotiate effectively with him is a whole new art-form. However, we're confident it'll all work out in the end. We hope you had a wonderful Easter Break…….much love xxxxx