Tytherington does Dallas

Having spent recent weeks, since arriving back in the UK, at The Ranch, Tytherington, Dallas, Texas…. we have finally moved on. It’s been great fun again watching the ranch hands, Lyn and Lily and yard sweep Mel, working tirelessly with supervisor Liz who finds energy from goodness knows where. We’ve joyfully observed the budding romance between Pamela and Bobby (aka Liz and Nige) smooching in the stables while we work odd jobs to fund our escape to Knots Landing. All the time, the head of the family, Miss Ellie, (aka the wonderful Julia) keeps a close eye on proceedings.

Seriously, we cannot thank Julia and Liz enough for their incredible hospitality, kindness and friendship.

Jigsaw, the ‘pretty but dim’ one (was Marilyn Monroe in Dallas?) had a great time. A mouse and a vole to her name (toy’s only, she’s no killer cat!) she proudly strutted her stuff across the ménage daily, on the odd occasion breaking into an extended trot (she’s been watching the horses too much!) She was actually more at home in the hay bails too… 🙂 She had 5 mins of sadness when she found out that Harry (her Irish catfriend) had cheated on her in Croatia but she said she’s over it now, she considers herself a free spirit anyway….

What else have we been up you ask?! Well after 10 days self isolating and chats with government folks every day, we could finally leave the driveway so hot footed it for jab number 1, then to our Redditch home to get the car. A few days catching up with Terry and Wendy and numerous uses of the washing machine, we then headed back down to Somerset to get ourselves and the car serviced and for me to get my little skin matter sorted. Once we were able to, we met up with friends in various places, went out for some walks, moved up a few Duolingo levels, mastered the art of throwing a ball for the dogs, sorted a few bits at Manor Barn and generally lazed about. Nick spent a couple of days in the van garage, not sure what he did but it looks the same as before other than for a big lithium battery for off grid bike charging. 🙂 We’ve whiled away many hours watching Liz teaching and even numpty’s like us can actually see the change in riders and horses movements after here amazing tuition.

So what are we up to next, Newark on Trent at the dealer for some warranty bits then up to Scotland via Tony and Pauline’s driveway for a sneak peak at the swanky new kitchen! We are heading to Arran first, then Mull then who knows! All we do know is we’ve jab 2 on June 17th and we can leave the country again into the Schengen on June 20th. The current ‘plan’ is Norway but hey, all we can do is think and research options until nearer the time. All well and good that we can travel again from 17th but not all countries will have us! Those pesky English mutants eh….