In a new, chatty letter from the UK, Lyn writes...

The weather in England is peculiar!! BBQ awaits its first summer using.

When we expected cold weather it was warm and when we now await the sun in 'flaming June' it will not appear. Yesterday we had strong gales which ruined the flowers and overnight extremely heavy rain to make sure they would never stand up again. Our BBQ awaits its first summer using. We will have to do the same as our Canadian cousins who don overcoats to BBQ in the snow and carry it into their house. Even our usually lovely May, disappointed us. As for the April showers, they were cold and heavy downpours. However, when the sun shines, the wonderful green of the countryside makes it worthwhile (just).

It has therefore been doubly exciting to have grandchild number five to stay this week. Julie is almost 19 and is the youngest of Anne, my eldest daughter's four children. She completed her A levels on the 18th June and has visited before starting numerous jobs she has obtained, to save money for her trip to New Zealand and Australia during our winter. So we have been trawling the net together, looking for backpack accommodation around both North and South Island and also seeing where there may be fruit picking, or other non skilled jobs available. She intends to work her way and meet people as she does so. Providing she can cope, she and her two friends will then come home via the States. So if you ever hear of jobs in NZ which may be suitable, please let me know and she will contact them. Having been brought up all her life on a farm, she is well used to country life.

Julie is an extremely outgoing and friendly girl who has lots of interests from playing the clarinet, helping at the cub scouts, working during vacations at shops, garden centres and child-minding. In fact, she was camping over the weekend with the cubs and came home very happy if tired. She thinks it is good to come to grandparents for a little bit of 'spoiling'.

Her sister Louise has now finished University until the fall and has just returned from a field trip in Portugal. She was studying the sexual variants of the dung beetle at University last year and so they were searching for other insect of a similar nature. Gosh! what fun!!. Next year she will be studying tigers at a safari park near the University, which sounds far more desirable. She is thrilled to have been given this assignment for her dissertation, rather than more dung.

My family seem rather odd I must admit. My youngest daughter Heather had the distinction at one time of being the only officially recognised artificial inseminator of rare goats in the North of England. My friends were boasting about grandchildren who were air hostesses and models, so I kept that bit of information to myself. She has now let her rare breeds of goats go because she is too busy working and looking after her horse, not to mention husband and children.

Unfortunately we have not been out into the country much this year due to the weather. Apart from bird watching off the North Sea coast in February during a visit by Louise, we have not ventured far from our garden. She is a keen photographer and animal biologist and ignored the gale force wind which almost blew us into the sea. Actually we all enjoyed it tremendously but I admit the picnic was eaten in the car.

Why do visitors to this country always visit the South? 'We have been to London and Devon and Cornwall' they always say when we meet them abroad. Why?? The most beautiful countryside is in the 'industrial' north of the country. Beyond the north of England there is Scotland which is outstanding too. If only they took the time to tour around for even two weeks they would discover the lovely dales and pretty villages of North Yorkshire and the moors and other countryside. I admit they would be well advised to merely look at the sea and not to venture into it....................really cold.

 -- Lyn
 
If you have interest in this subject, do write to

You can use a nom-de-plume but must prove you identity to the editor in confidence.