Virginia Again

We arrive in Portsmouth on Friday 30^th October. Everywhere is full of Halloween stuff; houses with pumpkins, skeletons and witches on the porches and in the windows; ghost tours around Portsmouth Old Town; trick or treaters roaming the streets. It’s much more of a celebration here than in the UK, but then we have Guy Fawkes Night.

By coincidence, Ralph and Kelly are moving house this weekend, so we can be truly useful. The old flat is too small with a new baby, so they’ve gone for a three bedroom semi less than a mile away. Here’s the new home, the right hand half with the U-Haul self-removal van in front. 

 It’s a really nice house dating from 1900 with solid wood floors and plenty of space. This is me and Ralph moving in a bed/settee that appears to be specifically designed to trap your fingers.

This wouldn’t be complete without a moving family photo! Ginny was as good as gold during the move, so most of the time we were all able to attack the packing.

Monday 2^nd November we head for Claire’s. The weather’s turned warm again, an unseasonal high 70’s even for Virginia, and it’s very pleasant. We go for some lovely walks and the State Park nearby was showing its autumn colours, as can be seen from the following two photos. First one is Claire and Jane, second is Claire and me.

The park even has a narrow sandy beach where there was a landing stage in use up to the time of the Civil War. It’s where the Potomac River starts to widen out before reaching the sea at Chesapeake Bay. On the far shore is the neighbouring State of Maryland.

Many residential areas are located in the enormous amount of mixed woodland still remaining in most States. Of course, it’s a mixed blessing with all those leaves to clear up at this time of the year. Claire’s street- her house is first on the right- is a typical example of these rural neighbourhoods.

Our return flight leaves Washington at 8.30pm on Thursday 5th November and arrives at Heathrow at 9.55am on Friday 6th. It's been a lovely trip.