Never say Never

Overcast but pleasant. It was a busy family day involving one of our sons, two daughters and a second-hand car. Being 100 miles away removes us from being involved directly and allows us to be sympathetic and supportive from afar. To cut a very long story short the younger part of the family stuck together and the situation was resolved, which was very satisfying for us as it confirmed our values had been well transferred and implemented. Exactly as families should be. A proud day. My walk today took me through Bradgate park the opposite way to normal. (I was going to say in reverse but I thought that left me open to ridicule). The fallow deer in the park are of the plain dark brown variety (as they should be apparently). Sadly none of the beautiful Bambi-like spotted type, although a few are white, which raises the question, why keep the white ones when they are also not true to type? I'll ask next time I walk past the information centre. Standing close to a red deer made me think they were probably an early prototype for camels. All those people who asked "Who the hell would want to live near Leicester?" I would like to stand next to Old John or St. Bernards Abbey and take-in the spectacularly beautiful views over Leicestershire and Derbyshire. They would immediately withdraw their comments. Having said I never want to see a blind again (excuse the unintended pun) our dining table is now full of them, or to be more accurate, parts of them. It seems crazy in these times of financial hardship and shrinking production it is almost impossible to get supplies of linen. The pattern we want is not in stock anywhere around here and seems to be in very slow production. Thus the company we wanted to make our blinds cannot until after we set sail, leaving Lynne to make them when and if the linen eventually arrives, on-board if necessary. Around the corner from our house is a tiny factory. Under the company name is a statement: "Cardboard Box Craftsmen". I can add nothing to that.