w/e 22 March – Riding the Rails
This week’s bulletin is all about the long weekend from Friday to Monday, so strictly speaking this is w/e 23 March!
‘Busy’. That is the one word which sums up the area we visited. Busy, built up, and big. It was bewildering as so much had changed since I had last been there. This time it was as though I had never been there before in my life.
Having to travel by train certainly added to the already convoluted arrangements. What would have been easy and quick by car, took us on a meander on the rails, passing so many towns close together, so unlike lovely Devon.
Day 1 saw us travel from gently rolling landscapes to the flatter plains of the southeast. We enjoyed some precious time with a friend in Newbury who made us welcome with a delicious lunch, before delivering us back to the rails for our night stop in Bracknell, the place in which I struggled to identify anything familiar. There were not many stars.
Day 2 was full of sunshine and warmth from seeing an old friend. We began the day with a light breakfast and a stroll outside to see if I could identify the nearby roundabout. I could not. I felt hemmed in. There were no hills, no points of reference.
Defeated by the public transport, a taxi swiftly took us to the venue where a celebration of a recent marriage of the friend’s daughter was to take place. There were lots of people. We sat with the groom’s friendly parents which was really nice. I spoke to people from the Old Days, most of whom remembered and recognised me. There was a tasty selection of buffet food, with champagne and wedding cake. Thankfully, my friend gave us a lift back to the hotel from where we enjoyed a short walk to a local feature called Bill Hill. This was an odd hill topped with a Bronze Age round barrow, with bluebells just beginning to come out. It was great to see a patch of Berkshire violets and some cowslips, and views of the surrounding forest of fir trees. The pleasant walk was accompanied by the constant drone of traffic.
Day 3 saw us travel (by train!) back to Reading and thence to Maidenhead for a Sunday lunch gathering with some other old friends. Lunch was delicious and we were able to catch up comfortably in a quiet corner of a once-familiar pub. That sounds bad! It was once a familiar landmark, near some relatives of mine…that is what I mean. We spent the rest of the all too short afternoon at one of the friend’s homes before being taken to the railway station for another leg of our journey. It was back to Reading again, before heading to Newbury, again, but this time to spend some time, including an overnight stop, with my daughter. We were feeling more than a bit weary by this stage, although I soon perked up to enjoy a nice evening chatting with my daughter.
Day 4 was hard. Time with friends and family had flown by and now we were dropped off at Newbury station to head towards Reading for the final time, to transfer to the line back to the southwest. The weather thankfully was dry although turning a little cooler. I was looking forward to putting on a thicker jumper. The train was busy and we were crammed in our seats with our small cases on our laps, until a helpful guard took us down to another carriage where there was luggage space. We then settled back and dozed while the towns gave way to rolling hills once more. Axminster was reached and time to retrieve our cases. Roy strode off to his choir, while I caught the bus to Tesco for milk and then home.
The garden was ablaze of colour, more blossom had come out in the warm sunshine. I soon settled down with a nice cup of tea to enjoy the birds and the blossom.
Was it worth it? Yes, of course, it was. I miss my friends. Although I have rebuilt my life here, part of me will always remain in that pretty part of Berkshire where the Thames gloriously weaves it way upstream into the Chilterns.
Karen Hedges 