Half a Sunday. This morning was another lie-in – although to be fair, John was up and about at a reasonable time. I think he was watching TV – anxiously watching the state of the Ashes, which are now lost, of course, but the match was drawn this time, so a little bit of relief. There’ll be some soul-searching among the team though, about how they can improve for the last Test. I suspect we might all be hoping for rain…… and for Ben Stokes to recover from his injury.
When I finally emerged from the bedroom, I bustled about a bit – tidying here, tidying there and planning to go for a brisk walk. “I’ve done a Co-op shopping order, John,” I said, “and it’ll arrive about 2 o’clock. Before it comes, I thought I might go for a walk.” Lovely idea….”I’ll come with you,” John replied. Ah…. that’ll be nice, but maybe we ought to wait in for the shopping to arrive first?
We had a fabulous walk – the sun was shining, and we took it steady, with pit stops along the way. An unexpected pit-stop was just outside the shops where we encountered a friend of Gail’s – Maureen. It is such a long time since we had seen her and, for a moment, I am not sure she knew who I was, she was concentrating so hard on her walk. We stayed and chatted for a little while before we went on our way – but it had been good to see her.
However, my favourite pit-stop was at the bird-feeder in Katharine’s Wood, where we stood a while watching the birds flitting to and fro. I was very excited to see a pair of nuthatches as well as long-tailed tits, a great tit, sparrows and dunnocks – plus the predictably fat pigeons waddling about underneath, waiting for the scraps to drop. I have never seen a nuthatch before, so I was delighted. Should have got the camera out, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to scare them off.
When we got back, I thought we deserved a hot chocolate and a bun. We weren’t cold, but we were after a treat. Must be the winter blues that need chasing away.
Not long after we’d got back the front doorbell rang and we were delighted to see Margaret and Chris standing on the doorstep. “We’re not coming in,” said Margaret, “but we thought we’d call and see how you are. You sounded a bit fed up in your blog.” Well, thank the Lord for perceptive friends. We stood on the doorstep for quite a while, chatting and laughing and teasing and planning and hoping and just being us. It was lovely – and we felt wonderfully better for it. They are such good company.
The rest of the day was another rest day. More TV for me – I watched the latest version of The Secret Garden and thought it very well done. John, meanwhile, was faffing about on the computer. I had no idea what he was doing until later this evening when he wafted a newspaper page in front of me. He’d printed it off from the Coventry Evening Telegraph from February 1967 – and the day that he thought we’d been on our first date. Fascinating. 55 years ago this February……… I think we deserve a medal.
I had a nice chat to Michael this evening – I had been wondering how they were settling into their new home and so it was nice to hear that things were going OK. They are temporarily without a dishwasher and fridge/freezer however, and that is making for a different life. Ha! That used to be us, didn’t it, many years ago? How times have changed.
All in all, it’s been a better day and I, for one, am feeling grateful for the luxuries in life – hot chocolate and a bun, now that’s what I call ‘a state of great comfort’.
141,472 people have tested positive for the virus today; 97 people died with the virus and 2,434 people were admitted to hospital with it. It’s not over – and whatever anyone is saying just now, the scientists are agreeing that Omicron is not mild. It still causes nasty illness and death.
Take care everyone. Hope you have a hot chocolate and bun moment this week. You’re worth it……God bless.
Glad you were both able to get out for a walk – it was a lovely day.
Sounds as if they do get a wonderful variety of birds at the feeder – nut hatches and long tailed tits – what a treat😊 xx