Winchester with the Tibbitts family

 

June 24-27


I hopped on a few trains and underground transfers from Stansted and arrived in Winchester at 330 and Shane picked me up at the station.  Was so lovely to spend time with Shane, Melanie and Max’s younger brother, Hugo in their own home and see where Max grew up.



Out for a dog walk w Shane on Tuesday night.
On wed morning I headed out after a session w Melanie the night before on a circle route walk of the neighborhood.  I said I would like to make dinner wed night so I went to Cobbs Farm Market on my way home.  It was 12.5 km but the hardest part was the last 2.5 km with all the good food and wine in my back pack.  My back pack was a very heavy unit lol.  






As I was walking by the Kingsworthy golf academy I stopped in for a latte.  Best coffee so far and highly recommend The Kitchen.  Food looked so good as well.



Next stop was Cobbs after putting on an extra 2 km getting onto Farmers Lane.  Note to Jill not all trails through farmers fields are going the right direction.  Apple Maps came to the rescue.






Steak dinner w a very nice cab sav…. fresh new potato’s and asparagus.   All from Cobbs farm market.
Then back out w dogs for an evening walk.

The beech forest w many different trail options 





On Wed Shane took me into Winchester for a look and to pick up fixings for our evening on the river Itchin.

Winchester Cathedral
This grassy area used to have a winter ice rink set up in it around Christmas time and Max was in charge of setting it up and managing it.



Above and below are on the river Itchin, a top fly fishing river.  Shane’s friend owns the land and was kind enough to offer the site to us for Thursday evening.  It is Melanie’s Friday as she doesn’t have children tomorrow, so we enjoyed some Pimms and had a nice barbecue with Hugo as chef, had a relaxing visit and enjoyed the serenity of the water and habitat while Shane got on w the fishing.









I’m now on a train to Folkstone (via Maidstone lol). With a tent and camping supplies on my back, as I am tenting at the Groundswell festival next Tuesday.  

When I got off the southwest line at Waterloo there were 2 large serious looking fellows in sw uniforms that asked to see my ticket.  They were very cross as I had a prepaid ticket for the 1052 train out of Winchester and in my flap to not miss the train this morning I must have hopped on the 1048 train.  This was a serious offence in their world and they were going to take me to their office and make me pay for a whole new ticket.  After quite a bit of discussion they let me go w a warning and off I went to find Waterloo East station platform C for my train to Folkstone via Maidstone.  (2 more transfers)

There was a cute little Starbucks at platform c all by itself so I thought a nice London fog would be good to help unravel me.  The nice young girl asked me how to make a London fog.  Well that was a very sweet moment for both of us as we reflected that we are in a very busy train/tube station in London and I came from Canada to help her make her first London fog.   She made it a perfectly w the no sweet and all and I was back in a happy place lol.  

I made darned sure that I was on the 1152 train as I checked my time and it was 1151.

Now on to Katie and Tom - can’t wait to see them!

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