Apologies for the lack of pictures in yesterday’s blog. I shall upload them when I have better internet. It is a sign of the times that one of our basic necessities on the boat appears to be signal strength! To that end I ended up doing a 12 mile walk this afternoon but more of that later.
The day started at a leisurely pace. After last night’s frustrations with finding signal we abandoned Monday morning Zoom prayers and I even managed to get out of bed first to make R some breakfast although it turned out to be a rather strange porridge with a lot of small broken up Brazil nuts. R ate the entire bowlful imagining part of his tooth had broken off! When he had his facial trauma with his bike accident miraculously his teeth survived but I think they were weakened and he is having payback now as problems emerge, such as bits of his teeth chipping. It doesn’t help when I feed him al dente vegetables and nuts.
Baby Breathe mid morning was delightful but frustrating because even though I sat outside, the internet came and went so it must have been rather annoying for the others on Zoom. I got my fix of seeing some cute babies and then in the early afternoon my day was made when our friends N and T arrived on the towpath with their 3 children under 3, the baby being just 9 days old. She was so tiny and beautiful and it was a joy to be with a young family after so long on our own. The two toddlers were adorable and so good. Always a slight worry having the young so near to water but they kept away from the edge of the canal and there were no near mishaps! We all walked with R to the station platform, which took all of three minutes and waved him off. Three changes of train to get home but when he rang me later he said it went like clockwork.
Meanwhile after our friends left I set off along the towpath to find our next mooring which will hopefully have better signal as I would like to join the Zoom services for Holy week on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Ideally Thrupp would be my next destination but it was a bit too far to walk. As it was, my round trip started at 4pm and I staggered back to the boat at 8pm, just as darkness was falling. I realised I had to put on an extra burst of speed if I was to arrive home before dark so the walk did feel like a workout! I had taken an external phone battery charger with me so I was able to talk at length to a couple of friends and my eldest daughter and then, to help speed me home, I put on my Spotify playlist of fast walking songs. In the first lockdown when I didn’t leave the house at all, instead of outside exercise I found an exercise video that was based on walking four miles an hour. The beat and speed of the music ensured you kept to time and I loved it for its simplicity. Interspersed with the walking steps were extra moves to keep the body moving in different directions. Once I had mastered the moves I found my own favourite music and was able to do my own thing. The music came in handy today to keep me motivated. It was the most beautiful walk as the sun was shining and the reflections on the water at times were stunning. I only met a couple of other walkers on the entire walk, probably another reason I wanted to be back by dark. It did feel rather isolated in parts with no boats moored and obviously, due to the excess murder mysteries R and I have partaken off over the last few months, my imagination was working overtime!
R had rung me en route to say he had arrived home. I still at that point had another hour’s walk ahead of me but I was keen to know if all the parcels had safely arrived with things I have been busy ordering recently, mainly from bargain sites, such as Approved Foods and Brandalley. I also had ordered a treat for R. He is rather partial to the hot fresh fruit infusions that my nephew has developed in preference to dried teas, such as lemon and honey or mixed berry. Known as Tea Rex, the infusions are made using fresh ingredients such as lemon, turmeric and black pepper. They taste amazing and we had run out of a supply on the boat so I reordered last week in order for R to enjoy them now he’s home. He has got a couple of errands to do for me, one being the collection of my mother’s ashes and a memory stick with her service on, from the undertakers. I just hope they haven’t thought we have forgotten all about her as her funeral was 6 months ago!
I tried an interesting take on a pancake a la Joe Wicks. An egg, a banana and a spoon of peanut butter all mixed up and then fried as a batter. They were OK, a bit too eggy for my taste but a great use of overripe bananas. Off to bed early as the boat cooled. R has laid up a fire for me to light but I’m just as happy snuggling under the duvet and leaving the stove for another day.
NarrowboatTLC 