The cats got delivered on the Saturday to Grange Cattery in Waterbeach, to be looked after by the reliable Phyllis. There's at least a pond with fish in it for them to look at. The road there is so uneven it's like driving over the sea if the sea were frozen in a split-second of time! Saturday evening saw packing, I only took the iPad for reading currently I'm reading my way through the works of "Edgar Wallace", a prolific writer of thrillers. He also did the screenplay for "King Kong". This time among other books I read his minor novelette "Planetoid 127", a rare excursion into Science Fiction for him. This had in it the idea there's a second Earth on the opposite side of the sun to us so we can't see it - an idea used later on. A long drive on the Sunday up to the Lake District, made more miserable by the cloudbursts, seeing dead foxes along the road, seeing sheep crammed like sardines into a lorry, by miles and miles of roadworks, by being ripped off for diesel at a service station. The markup is extortionate. We reached "Abbot Hall Hotel" safely, after some confusion thanks to the Satnav. I would have to describe the hotel as pleasantly rundown, it has character due to its haphazard history, the staff were friendly, we shared meals with the other residents (though we did lower the average age somewhat!) It made a good base. Rooms have been recently renovated there so rundown is a little unfair. The food was pretty good though Virginia is on a dairy-free diet and felt the choice was limited to non-existent at times.

Virginia and I got married in July then had a honeymoon in the Lake District. The wedding passed off well - the sun shone at the right times for the pictures, I survived making a speech in public. The Lake District is a key area for me because of the Arthur Ransome connections. His Swallows and Amazons books are key images to me. But the Lakes have other connections - Beatrix Potter who in later life was important in Britain's National Trust. The Lake poets. Just the harmonious scenery. A place to wander lonely as a cloud - but we stayed in the valleys.