A few days with friends

I had my first motorway driving experience in my new car this week. I drove to Leicester and back to visit friends. It's a bit less than 200 miles but I was very pleased with myself for taking the bull by the horns and going for it. I had bought rail tickets but with the strikes threatening I cancelled them and decided to drive. I'm so glad that I did as it's given me huge confidence to go further afield now. 
I had a wonderful few days catching up as we hadn't been together since 2019 when we moved up to County Durham. They are long time friends and I'd missed not seeing them. We had some lovely walks in Bradgate Park. It is a special place for them as their son's ashes are there. He died tragically 17 years ago at just 24. The wildlife was super, deer running across in front of us, wish I could put the video here, and many more creatures and birds. The tree in the photo is in a small remembrance garden within the park and the little plaques are engraved. There  were quite a few trees and a couple of benches and it's obviously evolving. My friends said they hadn't seen it before so they think they may have a plaque put there for their son. It was a peaceful place. We only walked a very small proportion of the park but it was lovely. A super place for fresh air and whole lot of chatting. 
We also spent some time with their daughter, who I know really well from holidays together as a child, but I'd never met her children. She has a boy of 7 and twin boys who are 5, we went to meet them from school; lovely boys. 
I was lucky to have some pleasant sunny weather while it was wet and gale force winds at home. All in all a super trip and I'll definitely be doing it again!