Staying Home: Day 41

Again, I really appreciated the luxury of a weekend where neither M nor I were working. It was a beautiful sunny day - the last for a while as the weather is forecast to turn rainy next week - so we decided to go for our walk in the late morning before it got too warm. We took a completely different route, walking down to a waterside park for a change of scenery. The lake was originally a disused sand pit (sand extraction has always been an important industry here) but is now both a local leisure amenity and a nature reserve.

On the way down we spotted a stall outside a local pub where they were selling groceries, including flour. Result! We bought plain, self-raising and bread flour, which we left with them and collected on our way back. When the lockdown started they began by sourcing and delivering groceries for people unable to go out shopping; then they added extra and started selling from the stall on Thursdays and Sundays. They are also doing take-away roast dinners on Sundays, and take-away fish and chips on Thursdays. Like the fish and chips we had yesterday, the meals have to be pre-ordered and collected. I love finding small businesses which are managing to both fill local needs and keep at least some income coming in while they can't operate their core business.

It really was a lovely walk, the longest we have done yet at nearly 4 miles, and a perfect spring day for it. There were geese, ducks and a moorhen on the lake, and a dog having a swim. We decided against doing a circuit round the lake, and instead walked through the avenue of poplar trees below to a bridge over the canal.

The photo below was taken from the bridge. The Grand Union Canal was built before the coming of the railways to take goods between London and the Midlands. It was still taking local sand to London in the earlier part of the 20th century, but now the canal is just used for leisure and living - there are quite a number of moored canal boats used as permanent residences. I couldn't help wondering as we walked past some what life on a boat would be like during lockdown.

On the opposite side of the canal, where the path from the bridge loops back to join the canal towpath, is an open area with a few picnic tables. It was cleared a number of years ago and given this sign declaring it Peace Meadow, marking it as the site where in 906 the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Elder agreed a peace treaty with the Danes. I wrote a bit about it on my history blog a few years ago.

The two girls and I spent most of the afternoon in the garden enjoying the sun. I read, H did some uni work, and TG listened to music before going inside and doing some English homework. It was creative writing which she hates - her logical maths and science brain really does not like being presented with a blank page and no facts! Afternoon tea turned into afternoon Pimms with some of TG's lemon and poppy seed cake. We then watched Pocahontas with occasional breaks as H and I cooked a roast chicken dinner; M stayed upstairs in the study and had a Zoom chat with some friends from his synagogue. He as now learned the lesson that when on Zoom you need to be aware of what is behind you. A drying rack full of underwear is not the ideal backdrop!  

Back to work-at-home tomorrow, feeling nicely refreshed by the weekend.