Sun and Trains

I'm not sure how many ways you can say it is another fine day. I think I might have used up all the common ones. So lets just assume you know the weather is still lovely and move on to a day in sunny Rutland.

As is common during the school holidays, now the girls are getting older the mornings are always lazy with the girls getting up in their own time. This morning was different in that their was only one girl to get up, Emily. Catherine had a sleep over at Charlie's so when I got up there was nothing to do except drink my coffee and reflect on life's events. 

The morning was just spent around the house, everyone waiting for Catherine to return to start the day. The preparations for the sleep over were so hasty that we all forgot to ask what time she was coming back. It was just before we were leaving for Oakham in the car to get some lunch that we spotted her and Charlie's brother George heading towards home. She went home and we continued her journey to get some food knowing she needed lunch too.

When we got to Oakham we popped into Leeson Family Butchers. They do their own home cooked range of pies, pasties and sausage rolls. They have even won awards for them and I can recommend their range of pies. It is a great place to pick up a quick lunch and there is even a good sandwich shop next door, although nowhere as good as the one in Uppingham.

With lunch brought we headed home to eat before going out for the afternoon. The idea being that today we would managed to do what we missed out on on Tuesday. Going to the the Rutland Railway museum with Emily and Catherine. They had both seen the pictures from when Lucy went there but they had never been their themselves.

It is not far to the museum from the village. Just a short drive through Ashwell and back into the countryside on the way to Cottesmore. In fact it use to be on the flight path into the runway of the RAF base there before the idiots that run the country decided to close the base and make a mess of sacking the pilots. 

Once we arrived my first impression was of how much the place had changed since I last took Lucy there. It was like someone had given the place a makeover as well as a new name. It is now called "The Living Ironstone Museum" and has a new website to replace the old Rutland Railway Museum" site. It all looks rather impressive and I hope that the new image gets the hard work of the people their recognized. They put a lot of hard work into the place and they deserve some success. 

When we got there we started to look around. I took Catherine down the nature trail and Emily decided to stay looking round the main part of the museum. It was lovely down the nature trail that follows the track to the end of the museum site. Catherine and myself walked to the end. It was lovely to just chat to her as we walked. We don't get much time to chat when the house is full of people and she is much more complex person than she appears on the outside and has more insight than you would imagine for a ten year old. The countryside was beautiful and in contrast with the industrial nature of the museum it just highlighted how lovely it was.

When we walked back to the main museum site they were moving some of the trucks around with a diesel engine. It took as a bit by surprise. When where there once countryside suddenly there was trucks. It made us both double take until we looked down the line and saw the engine going back down the track. One thing I know nobody expected was that Emily old boyfriend from when she was in year six would be there. Catherine spotted him as we walked back. I remembered he wanted to be an engineer when he finishes school and there he was working as a volunteer at the museum. 

When we got back to we found Emily sitting on a bench. She had walked to see the engines the have been restored or are waiting restoration and it was where Catharine and myself headed off to next after telling Emily we had seen her ex-boyfriend. I was a bit surprised that it was Catherine that was taking such an interest in the museum I thought it would be Emily given her tomboy tendencies of the past. Clearly those are being replaced as she approaches womanhood. Catherine loved the engines and was asking all sorts of questions some of which I didn't know the answers to and the information displayed with each engine didn't explain. So they had to go unanswered as we moved onto the quarry area to see the diggers. 

It was just before closing time that we left. It is a wonderful place to just stroll around and the work the people put into the place for nothing is commendable. To think all this has been created with such a small amount of money is amazing. It really is a credit to the people that have worked on the project over the years. While we were there the temperature peaked at around twenty six degrees and I think we were all glad to be in the shade when we got home and drank the drinks that Emily go from the wine merchants in the village. 

The rest of the afternoon was just spent just cooling off and as Emily would say chilling. Emily wanted me to play a computer game with her over the internet but we couldn't find the other disk. It is in the house somewhere but the where bit is the problem. Catharine disappeared into her bedroom and was chatting to her friends and after the unsuccessful disk hunt Emily went into Lucy's room to use the computer there. The lower half of the house fell quite and their was nothing to do other than relax until dinner.

After dinner the relaxing theme continued for everyone. The house was till hot from having the sun on it all day and the windows were open in hope of catching some cool air and the ones upstairs remained open for most of the night. Eventually bedtime came and Emily and Catherine retired for the night and they went off to bed. I hope to dream of happy times.

It's been a smashing day. You couldn't ask much more of it. The weather has been lovely and I hope the promise of the sunset means we have a great day tomorrow. Hopefully it is just that little bit cooler and we can do all I have planned when we have Lucy with us. It's been so long since Emily and Catherine have seen her that I can't wait to see all their reactions.