Thursday: Dodging the Rain

I decided to exercise first thing before starting work this morning. I can feel I am getting fitter - there is still a lot of huffing and puffing, but I am making it through a workout without having to stop for a rest in the middle. Work was frustrating today, as the online web editor I use was being annoyingly glitchy and kept logging me out without saving what I had done. In the end I managed to get what I was trying to do finished, but it took me far longer than it should have done and I ended up finishing and eating lunch very late.  

Our National Trust booking for this week was for Ascott House, which is only a few minutes drive away. Owned by the Rothschild family, it was originally a farm house, much extended to be used as a base for hunting. A lot of work has been done on the grounds in the last few years, extending the area open to the public and adding new features. It is much smaller scale than the other NT grounds we have been visiting, but as it is so close we don't need to spend long there for it to be worth the trip. After we arrived we stopped at the takeaway cafe for M to have tea and some shortbread. By the time he finished it was looking ominously dark, so I suggested we go back to the car and wait it out for a while in case it rained - good call, as it rained heavily for about 20 minutes. By the time we started our walk round the grounds it was brightening up nicely and we even got a bit of sun. This week really hasn't been great weather wise. Fortunately the forecast for next week looks much nicer. 

I am still doing research on my ex-neighbour's family history. I find genealogy very addictive and once I start it is hard to stop. This evening I got bogged down somewhere on the Norfolk coast, and ended up coming to the conclusion that there was a census error which had transposed the names Mary and Sarah, making me think there were two separate families whereas I now think there was only one. 

More small steps towards "normal" are happening. This afternoon H went into the cafe where she works for a meeting about how things will be working when they open up at the weekend, and tomorrow TG will be going in to school for the first time since March. It is just for the morning, but the school wants to have some actual contact with the kids before they go back properly in September. She will be in a group of 12, and is quite happy because she has found that one of her friends is in the same group. On the other hand, she is not happy about having to get up early in the morning!