Thursday

After dozing off last night in a very nicely air conditioned hotel room, I woke at 7am feeling very chilly and promptly switched it off! With no Classic FM reception on the telly last night, Radio 3 had been popped on as a plan B and had worked a treat...sleep was deep :-)

Breakfasting with colleague, we were surrounded by Gals in a spectacular range of hats and guessed correctly that it was Ladies Day at Ascot. This one hadn't taken a Hat and had a North to get back to, so we hit the highway M25 and passed beneath aircraft after aircraft climbing out of Heathrow, soon crawling around to the M40 where things began to move a little more freely.

After getting passed Brum onto the M6, we peeled off into Stafford Services for a nip to the loo and a cuppa, sitting outside in the sunshine next to a lovely big duckpond. Bestie sent me a selfie from Edinburgh's Calton Hill so I responded with one from the services, sans' a Hat worthy of Ascot but sensibly sporting Sunnies at least (left)

After arriving home in the late afternoon, hanging some clothes out to dry & popping another load into the washer, I joined Youngest in her hut for some shade with a breeze blowing through. She knows how to rock a summers day :-) (right)