Staying Home: Day 96

Today has been a particularly enjoyable day. I started with the last class of the first week of my six week Fiit exercise programme, a nice full body yoga stretch. Then H made a mountain of pancakes for a late breakfast, and we all sat round the dining table eating pancakes and chatting. H opened her hair dressing salon and cut both mine and M's hair. I like short hair - my hair is very fine but extremely thick and it had got long enough to be feeling too hot on my neck. H did a good job on it. She takes quite a while over it, snipping away a little at a time very carefully, but taking it slowly pays off. This time she was a bit braver about layers and thinning out the bottom and sides.

R texted yesterday to suggest meeting for a walk this afternoon. H's boyfriend had gone for a kick around with friends in the park, so H and TG both came with us. Doing something with all five of us, and just the five of us, doesn't happen that often - either there is someone missing, or we have one or both of the boyfriends with us (which is lovely, I'm not complaining about that!). We met halfway and went for a walk through the Duke of Bedford's deer park at Woburn. The house - Woburn Abbey (built on the site of a medieval abbey, but never one itself except in name) - was a bit distant. Next time we go we will take the footpath that leads past it and I'll get some better photos. Same with the
deer, which I just managed to picture in the distance, behind the bronze statue of a horse.

We circled round back into the village where we had parked and went in search of coffee - the girls had spotted someone in the car park with a takeaway cup, so guessed something must be open. We tracked the source of the coffee down to a cafe which was selling not just drinks, but also ice creams. Four out of five us decided that ice cream was the most appealing option! We all decided the afternoon had a real holiday feel to it, with the nice scenic walk followed by ice cream. The cafe also kindly supplied a large cup of water for R's dog, who was rather thirsty after all his walking and attempts to roll in "nice" smells (he had managed a successful roll in fresh fox poo yesterday, much to R's disgust, and she was determined to avoid a repeat performance!) 

H went off to collect her BF from the park and they then went to his parents' house for a BBQ - it makes such a difference when the weather is better and we can eat and socialise outdoors. I am hoping it won't be too long before the rules change and we can socialise indoors as well, but for now it is outside only. The remaining three of us had a lazy evening mostly watching TV, though I did put in an online order for groceries for the week after next - there are delivery slots but they still need booking well ahead - and sorted out a few financial bits and pieces.