Sequoiadendron giganteum

On the way back from dropping Son2 off yesterday we stopped off in Eversley and had a mooch around the church. The author of The Water Babies, Charles Kingsley, used to be the rector there and when he died his daughter planted two sequoia saplings she grew from the seeds of a pine cone they had brought back from America. One is planted over the road from the church somewhere and the other now towers 50m over the churchyard. Sequoia always remind me of Berkshire as when we lived there we were just round the corner from from Wellingtonia Avenue, a very striking road lined with more than 100 of them, dating back to 1869.

Talking of Son2, he seems to be settling in quite well. It's hard sometimes to work out how things are going based on the snippets that come through but my, Mr DA's and Son1's combined correspondence today indicate that he has: been partying at the student union with an old friend from school who is also there, met with his French tutor, and cooked pasta for his dinner (I have photographic evidence of two of these).