Up and down dale

Mrs Sun has, at last, thought it appropriate to come and say hello. And what a fabulous welcome it has been. We have spent the last week looking after and enjoying the company of Bex, Steven and Henry. It is so easy here. Henry, bless him, is into ‘diggers’ – his vocab is limited to yes, no, there, mama … and digger. Trains are, for some reason, ‘fras’, and he calls planes something similar. Oh, and he makes plenty of animal noises … constantly. It was a fab, if exhausting, four days. The house soaked us all up and C, bless her also, slaved in the kitchen whilst I did my best to get Henry to bounce on the landlord’s industrial-sized trampoline (they have been brilliant, btw. Their place is our place, give or take, although we do our best not to step over any lines). Anyhow, the senior Ladley girl and her family are now back in KSA, and we’ve been left to our own devices. We will see them again in eight weeks time.

Slimbridge with the lad

In between all of that we have cycled, walked and admined. I changed the chains on both bikes. C’s was a seamless switch. Mine has been a dog’s breakfast and I’m not sure what the problem is. We dropped into Dursley car boot on Saturday and afterwards I popped into a bike shop. A much more competent man than me had a look and said that he’d need a couple of days to sort it, as it wasn’t an obvious fix. He did, however, tell me how the Shimano Nexus hub gears can be tuned. There’s a window on the rear wheel hub which shows two yellow lines. You twiddle something until the yellow lines are coincident, and hey presto. It took me 15 minutes to find and clean the window and then, sure as eggs, the gears were sorted. It’s only taken me 10 years to work that out. Anyhow, I’ve still not got my chain sorted. 

love the walking

The walking has been absolutely fab. We did close to 5 miles yesterday, up and down dale. Four miles today. Within 100 metres of our place we have cows, calves, sheep, lambs, geese, two ducks, a labrador and two cats. We have nine (yes nine) goldfinches on our feeder and a couple of great tits. We have buzzards and kites. Two roosters up the road and pigs down the dale. We have every tree known to man, fields of dandelions and daisies and four deer. There are flowers in every hedgerow and the woods are currently blanketed in wild garlic and bluebells. The air is as fresh and clear as newly washed wool. It is fabulous, made more so because, rather than being on top of the Cotswolds where the countryside is lovely, but just undulating, here we’re on the edge, and the valleys are sharp enough to be classified as ravines. Sure, it’s hilly and you can’t go anywhere without going up (or down) and then back again. But we’re getting used to that. All-in-all it’s a plum place. We are very fortunate.

did Doris

However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we are leaving soon for four weeks in Scotland. I did a Doris check yesterday and everything is as it should be. We head off to Mary’s on Wednesday, back on Saturday and then after a short period of looking after Cassie, we push off the following weekend. I think it’s fair to say we can’t wait. Hurrah!

And stuff continues to sell, which is great. C doesn’t know it, but I am going to take a box of gear with us to Scotland to continue the motion. They have post offices up there, afterall.

drunk tea

In the meantime, you all remain safe. Remember to pledge your allegiance next weekend to a man who, if it weren’t for the order of birth, might have been Prince Andrew. Come on, that’s got you thinking, hasn’t it? I’m not sure I’ll be joining in. I’m neither monarchist nor republican, but I am for the common man/woman. And the more we can do to help those less fortunate than ourselves, the better. I’m not sure how the coronation moves that bar in a cost of living crisis. But I am blinded by my own brand of socialism. I’m off my horse now.      

Keep smiling.