We've just spent the inside of the week staying with my 98-year-old mother, as my sister is in South Africa for a month, and looks to be having a wonderful time! They have been on safari with friends - the son of an ex-boyfriend of my mother, and his wife - and will soon move on to Cape Town and stay with some cousins before flying home on the 6th. We are all slightly envious!
Anyway, we had a lovely time in a very different way! The woods are at their most glorious at this time of year, and as for the birdsong.... okay, it's mostly the usual suspects (robins, blackbirds, wrens, etc), but they are very loud and very cheerful. It might be all about sex and turf wars, but it's still lovely.
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(There was not enough room on the screen to show all the birds I heard in one photo!)
On Monday we arrived mid-morning, and the Swan Whisperer took the motorhome down to a place in Goring that does motorhome repairs, as previously arranged - it needed a couple of minor things seen to (it had had its service and MOT the previous week, in Goring). On the way home, he discovered that there was an art exhibition in Highdown Gardens, so in the afternoon we took my mother there, and enjoyed both the exhibition and a short walk round the accessible part of the gardens.
On Tuesday, Mum's carer said they were going kite-surfing that afternoon, and told us where, so after a visit to Tesco's we drove down to look at the sea, but there the kite-surfers weren't! Carer said next morning that the wind was too far offshore to be safe - they had thought it would be more to the east than it actually was. But, apart from the wind, it was simply lovely!
On Wednesday the Swan Whisperer went on one of his very long walks, down to Goring Station, then train to Ford, walked up the Arun past Arundel, and then along the South Downs Way. I took myself on a very much shorter, but equally enjoyable, walk in the woods, loving the spring flowers and birds (see above for the list I heard). 
Then in the afternoon we took the car south of the road, around the land there, and up to a viewpoint that I don't think I'd been to since my father died!
On Thursday, the motorhome was ready so in the morning the SW went down to get it, and in the afternoon we drove round Clapham Woods again, up to the Oaks' Bottom (where my parents' ashes will probably eventually be scattered), although I didn't take any photos as we were in the car, and I didn't want to showcase how grubby the car windows are! 
Then in the afternoon we took the car south of the road, around the land there, and up to a viewpoint that I don't think I'd been to since my father died!
On Friday we had to return to London in the afternoon, so the morning was spent doing the laundry and similarly necessary chores - packing everything (we had left various bits down there as we have been up and down since Easter). It was the only day that there was a minor hiccup, as the carer who had been coming all week had had a night shift, and her replacement - who is, I gather, the other one's daughter-in-law - thought she was to come at 08:30, but she should have been there at 08:00 or just before. This would not have mattered, but the hairdresser was due to come then - and did! Fortunately Mum had realised what was happening, or not happening, and had got herself up, but it was a tad fraught.... Anyway, I got her breakfast ready and served it to her while she was under the dryer!
As it was our last day we went down to the village café, "The Junction" for lunch; the SW and I walking and Mum racing ahead on her scooter! And very good it was, too. We left about 16:30, but didn't get home until gone 19:00 as the traffic was horrible once we got to Mitcham! My niece and nephew are staying with Mum over the weekend, and I have no idea what time they would have got there from Town, either!
A thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing week!
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