Tuesday: Medieval Churches and Garden Failures

Life has just been chugging on in its normal routine this week. Archive work in the mornings, with a break both days to do a Fiit class, then a walk in the afternoon. Some TV and family time in the early evening, and bits of time reading and genealogising (can I make that a verb?). Yesterday's exercise class was cardio and nearly broke me, so today I stuck to a reasonably challenging yoga class. 

The biggest piece of news is that H had official confirmation of her degree result yesterday - 1st Class  Honours BA in Italian and Linguistics. She was very blasé as she already knew from her module marks that was what she would get. What pleased her most was that she managed to keep her marks up despite having to study remotely once Covid closed the university in March, and didn't have to rely on the safety net put in place to make sure nobody's final grades suffered due to coronavirus. 

I am adding more photos from our walk on Sunday. Both of the North Buckinghamshire villages we walked through have some lovely old houses as well as medieval churches. The church at the top is in  Mursley and dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. Parts of the church in Swanbourne (below) are from the early 13th century, although the tower was later rebuilt. The church still has medieval wall paintings, so next time we go that way I'll see if it is possible to look inside. The cottages above are also in Swanbourne, where my ancestors lived in the 18th century. I have no idea where - it could even have been in one of these for all I know!

After a couple of brighter days the weather has gone downhill again and there is rain forecast for the next couple of days. I do miss being able to spend time in the garden! H and I have talked about possibly venturing out to a garden centre and trying to grow things. As I have a long track record of killing any plant with which I come into contact, this will almost certainly be doomed to failure. Our garden is simply grass, hedges, a few wild flowers, and a few persistent daffodil bulbs by the drive which come up every years of their own accord. I haven't braved trying to grow any flowers for about ten years because it is always a disaster. I can't remember to water plants, and on the rare occasions I do keep something alive, slugs eat it and I get discouraged.