I felt up to a longer walk today and wanted countryside instead of pavements, so we did one of our usual three mile routes from last year, hoping it would not be too muddy. We were wrong. It wasn't glorious mud either; it was nasty, gloopy mud with puddles. These were our boots after we slithered down the last of the awful bit, through a gate and onto only slightly squelchy grass. Ugh.
Despite the mud there were more signs of spring, and it was lovely and bright. Despite a slightly crisp wind I was able to wear just a fleece as a top layer, rather than a thick coat. It is really noticeable now that it is staying light much later in the afternoon, not getting dark until between 5.30 and 6. The effort of balancing and keeping upright during the slippy bits of the walk and having to zig-zag around the worst of the puddles didn't agree with my back, and I have been stiff and achy for the rest of the day. I have managed the day without any painkillers though, so that is progress.
I spent a chunk of the morning going through newspaper reports about lawsuits one of the women I am researching brought in 1907 against a former friend - they had shared a house until the friend fell in love with and married the landlady's son, after which things turned nasty. They sent in the bailiff to claim unpaid rent - my lady paid up but then sued both the landlady and the bailiff for damages, and brought a slander case against her ex-friend, which she won. However, when she took goods from the friend and her husband to cover unpaid damages, the landlady managed to prove they all belonged to her and they had to be given back again. It was all an extraordinary mess! This afternoon I watched the first Harry Potter movie with TG at her request, with a break in the middle for our walk. I cooked butter chicken curry for dinner - M fended for himself as he doesn't like curry, whereas the rest of us love it. We discovered a small family company that sells curry sauces at the BBC Good Food Show a couple of years ago, and have been ordering them online ever since. They are *so* good!
4 comments:
Sympathy for your back - walking is generally a very good thing for mine, perhaps the only really good thing that I do, but sliding around or sinking in (whether in mud, sand, snow, shingle beach) is definitely NOT.
We’ve been up to our knees in mud here ,too. Having read this earlier, I thought of you last night (or it may even have been Wednesday evening) when I was preparing supper and listening to PM on Radio4.They had a slot interviewing a lady from the National Trust , asking her if there was more mud than usual this year. I think the conclusion was yes, as we’ve had so much rain, and so many more people are going for walks, but I didn’t concentrate at that point!! They ended the programme by playing “Mud, mud glorious mud “ which made me inordinately happy!
Oh my, that is mucky mud, indeed!
No mud here. Snow upon snow.
Penelope P - I think that is exactly right. Lots of rain, with the mud made very much worse by so many more people walking more often. I am finding it hard to imagine it every drying up!
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