Back to Britain – March 2026 (Month 12)

March has been quite a busy month as Klaus was feeling a lot better and has in fact now arranged to start back at work in mid April.

We took the opportunity to have a few days in the south west of England and you can read about that later on in this post. But first…

Doggie walking

As I mentioned last month, we have now got to know several dogs and have started walking two of them.

Aggie the Cockapoo

I had been on a walk with Aggie along with her owner but this month was the first time we had her alone.

Her owners were going out for a long Sunday lunch with friends and asked if they could drop her off with us for a few hours. Of course!

She seemed entirely unperturbed that she had been left somewhere by her owners and made herself comfortable.

We let her lie on the back of the sofa for 10 minutes (for photographic purposes) and then after that we didn’t allow her to do that any more as it would eventually damage them.

She was a very good girl, came out on a walk with us on the lead.

And then a bit later that afternoon friends Gwenllian and Mark popped round with their two dogs, Molly and Storm. All three dogs mostly got on but Aggie did occasionally decide to bark at them.

Molly very much took to Poppy’s car basket.

This basket is now in my car and Aggie has settled in to it very well.

Klaus and I picked Aggie up on another occasion and walked her in Ickworth Park (National Trust). She had to stay on the lead there but we were fine with that as she was just getting to know us.

And then on another occasion I fancied a nice long walk from Nowton Park (a 5 mile loop) and asked Aggie’s owners if she would like to go. The answer was yes, and so I bought a flexi lead (they don’t have one for her) and the two of us had a lovely walk. When I was out in the middle of nowhere I tested her off the lead and she was absolutely fine.

We had a great walk together and I dropped her off at home to owners who were very happy to have a tired doggie. I am considering having her do a Parkrun with me some time to tow me around and help out my speed a bit!

Lottie the Miniature Labradoodle

Klaus and I had our first walk alone with Lottie the miniature labradoodle. As we were walking in the park where she walks daily, and her house is right round the corner, we didn’t let her off the lead as her owner thought she might take it upon herself to go home.

She was very good on the lead and we had a nice walk. On a future walk when we are somewhere different and away from roads we will test her off the lead, but not just yet.

Minnie the whippet

Choir friend Kate had told me about her whippet Minnie who would not go for a walk with anyone else but might like to chill out in another house from time to time. So Kate came round for a cuppa and brought Minnie with her – and Minnie happily settled down to sleep on our sofa.

She is a very elegant looking dog and was really well behaved and calm. She does have separation anxiety so there is the possibility we will look after her for Kate from time to time but that would be at home, no walkies as she would not go with us (reminds us both of Poppy’s occasional refusal to go for walks with me!)

Rambling

Rambling has continued this. month and as Klaus was still off work due to stress (he will start back at work in mid-April) he did some rambles with me, although also had a nasty cold during the month so was out of action for a week.

Yet another lovely Suffolk church.

The sale of Mum’s house

Some really good news this month – my late mother’s house finally sold. It was. bought by a very nice chap called Stuart who is early retired and hoping to do a lot around the house by himself. Anna and I met him a few days before exchange of contracts and we also took him to visit Maureen the neighbour who has been so wonderfully looking after the house over the last two years since Mum died. She is a really helpful neighbour and I’m sure Stuart will benefit from her knowledge of good local tradespeople etc.

Visiting my family

My sister and I like to visit once per month so Klaus and I decided this time to head to Southend. We arranged with Anke’s Tea Room in Chalkwell that she would save some proper German cheesecake for us and indeed she did.

In fact she also had some Streusel and Klaus had a slice of that after the cheesecake.

We had a good time chatting with Anna and then my old schoolfriend Lindsay came round to visit bringing her dog Reggie and we had a walk in the park and a great catch-up.

In the evening it was another great curry at the Mumtaz Mahal in Benfleet where I had this meal called a Thalli which is lots of different small portions of curry. Really tasty!

The Majesty of Handel

The Bury Bach Choir performed The Majesty of Handel (Coronation Anthems and other pieces) at the Apex on a Saturday evening. It was a great concert and we had some really positive feedback about how the choir is continually improving. I have to say that singing Zadok the Priest in such a great acoustic was spine-tingling.

Klaus helped out by selling programmes again and then afterwards several of us went for a meal at Francela.

Wondrous Cross

I was asked by Lion Walk Church to sing in their Palm Sunday service as we would be doing Wondrous Cross by Alan Bullard (a church member). I had sung the alto part for this back in 2011 but had not sung it since, although the church choir had done it several times whilst I was in Germany.

I had to learn the tenor part and would have only one practice with the choir so I worked hard at it and the service went off very well. It was lovely to sing with Alan (he was the other person singing tenor) and to catch up with friends from Lion Walk but the two hour round trip for the practice and then the service means I am less sure I will do too any more of these.

Weekend in the South West

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Klaus and I decided to make the most of him still being off work to have a visit to the south west. I had visited Lyme Regis as a child (I remember I caught chicken pox the day we went) but remembered nothing about it, so I decided it would be our first overnight.

We drove there in the E Class which is very comfortable but very large so I wondered what it would be like on some of the narrow lanes down there. It turned out not to be a problem – it wasn’t very busy with tourists as it was March.

Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis was a beautiful place and we were staying in a nice B&B with friendly owners who gave us recommendations of things to do during our holiday.

We wanted to walk along the Cobb so I could be like Louisa Musgrove and jump down the steps into Klaus’s arms but the Cobb was actually closed. Apparently someone had fallen to their death there a few days before. So we just walked around the harbour and then wandered back into town for some cake.

I had this apple cake, very tasty.

Klaus went for the Guinness Cake. The white stuff on the top is butter icing and the whole cake was very large and VERY filling.

Suffice it to say that after Klaus ate this he started feeling very dodgy as he was completely over-caked.

That evening we went to the excellent local fish restaurant and I had a wonderful fish pie; Klaus just went for the fish soup and even that was too much for him.

I managed a treacle tart dessert.

Klaus proceeded to have a bad night’s sleep as he tried to digest the cake.

St Ives, Cornwall

The next morning I enjoyed a full English breakfast and Klaus just looked at me and told me I wasn’t allowed to talk about food. He had zero desire to eat anything.

Our plan was to go to Land’s End and then overnight in St Ives but I had spotted St Michael’s Mount on the way which I wanted to visit and the Guest House Owner suggested we should go to the Minack Theatre too.

So we set off and headed to St Michael’s Mount which turns out to be National Trust.

We walked across the causeway and then up to the castle.

There were lovely views of the coast from the roof.

We had a good look around but the tide was coming in so we stopped for lunch Cream Tea (well, I did, Klaus could still not talk about food or consider eating any), and then walked back along the causeway..

It was a rather dry and crumbly scone so not quite the quality I was expecting.

We now drove on to the Minack Theatre which was down some fairly narrow roads but Carl the Mercedes handled it all very well.

This is a theatre which has been built into the rocks by the lady who lived there over many decades. It was a very impressive sight.

The view was amazing too – as you can see, we had cracking weather.

We left here and drove to Land’s End, just two miles away, but didn’t stop due to extortionate car parking charges and no actual need to be there.

We then drove to St Ives where we found our very posh castle/guest house Tregenna Resort Hotel which had served as the venue for the G7 Summit in 2021.

The view out of our window down to St Ives was lovely.

I went for a bit of a walk around, Klaus was rather pooped as he was coldy. He was at last managing to consider possibly eating an evening meal as the Guinness Cake was finally being digested.

We had a nice evening meal and he was able to eat a good meal, so that was a relief.

The next morning we walked down to the beach at St Ives which was really lovely.

We then set off back towards home and had booked a night in Wells on the way. Wells is apparently like Bury St Edmunds so we thought we would give it a go.

Wells

On the way we passed Stonehenge again and then stopped at the Haynes Motor Museum, set up by the guy who did the Haynes Manuals. It was a really good museum.

Klaus was delighted by this info board about Carl Benz and a map of where his wife drove the car – lots of places in Klaus’s old stomping ground.

There was a room full of cool red cars!

We spent a couple of hours there, including me having a slice of cake (and Klaus not!) and then we carried on to Wells.

Parking at the hotel was a huge challenge but somehow we shoehorned Carl the E Class into a space right against a wall at the back.

Our room was old but fine but I was a bit shocked by this grocer’s apostrophe!

We chilled out for a bit whilst the bells were ringing in Wells Cathedral which was just across the road. Klaus seemed to find the bells annoying but I liked them.

In due course we went out for a wander around – including of course the cathedral.

Friend Tim has been recommending the film Hot Fuzz and the earlier film in the series and he told us Hot Fuzz was all about Wells, so it was good to visit it and get an idea what he was talking about.

We walked around seeing the very posh Bishop’s Palace.

We had our evening meal in an Italian Restaurant which was good.

The next morning we checked out (no breakfast in our rate) and headed towards home. I had decided we should stop at Stourhead National Trust on our way home which we did – it was well worth the visit.

We started in the Tea Room as I wanted some breakfast. Which was a scone. Klaus didn’t have anything (he is still afraid of English cakes).

We had arrived over an hour before the house was open so we took the opportunity to walk around the gardens which were absolutely wonderful.

We then visited the house itself and had a good look around – all very interesting.

We had very much enjoyed our visit and headed home having had a very worthwhile few days away.

As I said above, Klaus is starting work again in April. He suddenly started to feel a lot better about work in March, probably related to the counselling he was having as well as the medication finally starting to work after an initial bedding in period. He also had a couple of meetings (one via teams, one in person) to discuss his return and the company have amended his job a little to better suit his skills. He will begin but working two days per week and hopes to be able to build this up again very soon. He is starting to feel excited again about the work opportunities and sharing his knowledge about industrial automation – hopefully all will go smoothly again.

Taking up cycling again?

I cycled 9 miles in 2025 and Klaus cycled 0 miles.

I decided I really ought to try to use my bikes again so we had a session of pumping up tyres and checking the bikes worked by cycling around our driveway. They did.

So we planned to do a ride together in early April – you’ll have to read next month’s blog to see if we managed it!

Ta ra to you all and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this month.