Winter in Farnborough

We flew to England on Jan 2 which I don't recommend. It must be international screaming children in flight day. We got settled in to the Lodge pretty quickly. I found the Lodge on the internet last year and in the meantime one of Robin's co-workers had stayed here and gave it the thumb's up. It is really close to the wind tunnel for Robin's work, just a 5 minute walk to the train station with quick access to London, another few minutes to town centre for shops and library, and about 4 miles from the sports centre I joined last year.

Our Renton neighbor, John, and his friend, Doug, came to visit for a couple of days on their way through to Delhi. We did a little sightseeing with them and enjoyed their company.

I was happy to meet Brenda Bayles, the wife of one of the other Boeing guys. We hit it off immediately and had great fun hanging out together. Brenda is very adventurous. She bought a rail pass and many days would go to the station, jump on whatever train showed up first and off she'd go for the day with no plans in mind. We walked together, went swimming, did a little shopping, and mostly laughed. She and I also took the rental car several times and explored places the train didn't go. We went to an organic farm shop, looked at other home rental possibilities, and visited Eton and Windsor Castle. Here are some pics I took in one of my favorite little villages, East Meon.









Brenda went to Heathrow and London with me too one day to meet my friend Judy who was passing through.















My brother Paul decided on a spur-of-the-moment visit and arrived on Feb 2. While he was here we did a couple of walks, visited Portsmouth and the New Forest, spent a day in Winchester with Brenda, and spent a day in London including a play called "Boeing! Boeing!". During his visit Robin and I both got sick! Poor Paul had to put up with some very low energy and probably grumpy hosts but luckily Brenda came to the rescue and took him out for a couple of days adventures.













During this trip we did a couple of organized bike rides and many other disorganized ones, got to visit our friends Jean and Robert and have them over for dinner, met friends Ken and Barbara at our favorite restaurant, The Grapevine in Odiham, for dinner, and saw The Hound of the Baskervilles in Windsor with Brenda and Dave, and attended a nice dinner party hosted by friends Christine and Bernard. We made it to the Rowhill Nature Reserve to work only once but we now both have new wellies so we are ready for more - and mine are red!











Our backyard in Farnborough after a snowfall.