DAY 25
It was what can only be described as a slow start for me on Thursday morning. During lockdown I have become unused to late nights – my midnight finish made getting out of bed something of a struggle. Robert departed for a day’s fishing and I read the paper before mustering a short-lived bout of enthusiasm in my role as Laundry Fairy. By the time the afternoon rolled round, I had tired of domestic chores and retreated to bed with my new book. The weather was wet so I managed to silence any feelings of guilt and settled down for an indulgent afternoon. I looked up at one point to see a woodpecker feeding it’s baby on our wooden sculpture in the courtyard.
Alex brought me a cup of tea and then popped out to get food for his picnic with Amy on Saturday. He was slightly astonished to find me in pretty much exactly the same position (horizontal not vertical) on his return. I did eventually rise (I was worried bed sores might be forming) as in Robert’s absence I was in charge of catering. Fortunately there was leftover pasta bake from earlier in the week, so the effort required was minimal, though it transpired on his return, that Robert had his eye on that for his supper – oops! He made do with a bacon sandwich.
DAY 26
The patchy weather continued and so I decided to avoid the bike and go for a walk while it was dry, so I marched into Henley, having begged Alex to come and retrieve me after the Waitrose shop. It wasn’t terribly sunny, but it was warm and so I was soon looking forward to an iced coffee. Sadly so was everyone else, and I could not be bothered to join the surprisingly long queue for coffee.
I was all excited about the prospect of Friday Field , but the weather scuppered our plans and despite holding out for as long as we could, the rain continued to fall and so we had to cancel and drink at home separately instead.
DAY 27
Alex is off early again today armed with the biggest birthday picnic for two people I have ever seen – it’s Amy’s birthday tomorrow and so they are meeting in Weymouth to celebrate together. We have darts at the Ashworths without any children – all the boys are back at their Universities collecting the rest of their kit. We are worried it may be something of a marathon match and so decide a 3pm kick off is in order. Unfortunately the extra time is not devoted to practising, but is spent drinking and chatting. By the time we step up to the oche, I have had 3 glasses of champagne and my ability to focus is somewhat diminished, fortunately I am not alone! The irony is that Ralf is by far the best darts player, despite not being able to see the board properly and the Hoares race off to a 6 point lead – sadly he is not ably assisted by his good lady wife, who like me was down half a bottle of fizz. So the rest of us caught them and then overtook them. The medal went to the Ashworths and we just avoided the Ring of Shame, with a fabulous final dart from yours truly.
DAY 28
I kicked off Sunday with a walk with my next door neighbour, Diane, through the woods and back into the village, where we grabbed a coffee and sat in the sun at either end of the village bench. We strolled home and decided we had earned a glass of Pimms. She departed to deal with her list of chores and because it was quite a nice day, we decided to take the boat out for a spin – so nice to get back on the river.
DAY 29
I have decided that today I will head out on an adventure, a road trip to a venue I have never visited before – Kew Gardens. I had to book an arrival slot, but it was a really easy run to Kew and there was plenty of parking at 11am. I took a packed lunch as I wasn’t sure what would be open but there were plenty of options. The indoor spaces were all closed but this didn’t spoil the day. The upside is that it wasn’t at all crowded and the air traffic noise was much reduced. Kew Gardens is right under the flight path for Heathrow and in normal times there would be a plane overhead every 90 seconds, but in lockdown the flights are much reduced. The flowers were lovely however it’s the trees that I love the most.
After a few enjoyable hours at Kew, I moved on to Kingston to have a socially distanced coffee with a friend Paulene, who I worked with nearly 30 years ago! We sat in her lovely garden drinking coffee and frantically catching up. It was such fun and, but for the arrival of a torrential downpour, we might still have been sitting there when it went dark.