More canal pics

You couldn't do much better than this for photos to advertise England, so eat your heart out, expats!

There was interesting work from time to time with locks and drawbridges.

And time just to sit too.

And now it's time to get on with the next village mag. Here's hoping that enough articles arrive by Thursday to make it interesting for readers. Sometimes it feels like trying to get homework from reluctant students. On the garden front, two bearded irises brought from the previous abode have at last decided to flower. They must have heard me threaten to pull them up if they didn't stop wasting space. HoF has decided not to let me throw away a pair of old boots in the garden ("but they're REAL leather") and has today bought begonias to plant in them.

Canal holiday

We have had some lovely holiday times over the past month. First up was a treat chosen by Big Sis for her trip over from Canada. The weather was the absolute best one could ever hope for on a canal holiday and the Brecon and Monmouth must be one of the best of canals. Beautiful scenery, easily seen from on board, meant that there was little chance of reading but cameras almost constanly in use.

We usually managed a walk during the day, on the tow path or to a nearby village.

There were many bridges and we each acquired the art of steering through them. Well, nearly always. Before we set off the hull had been touched up with black paint, 'iceberg paint', the man called it.

By the Thames

Real people masquerading as statues

London weekend

A weekend in London at the beginning of April after a call at Miss P's for odd jobs and gardening. Miss P will not be there much longer, so we'll be looking out for new inhabitants.
We spent the weekend with special old friends and had our first trip on the London Eye with its splendid view.

Followed by a walkabout through London streets to Trafalgar Square via Charing Cross, a look in the National Gallery and tea in St James Park.

Catch-up time

For some weird Picasa reason my photos wouldn't upload so I haven't blogged for a while. This is a photo of the daffodils we went to see in my last post, genuine wild ones growing near my childhood home.

Homeland

Spring arrived, quite suddenly and we went on a Pilgrimage to the countryside I loved best. This is where I explored as a child and it was nice to be Big now so that I could walk further. Most important was getting to see wild daffodils, just as lovely as I remember. I seem to be spending much too much time on the computer these days, almost as much as HoF. I am researching a family tree for a friend, enjoying the detective work. And not enjoying the books I've read lately. Here are my recommendations of what NOT to read.
The Coral Strand by Ravinder Randhawa
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (except for the titbits of info about the horrors of the Ghadaffi regime)
Their Eyes were Watching God by Zara Hurston
Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
I don't know what it is about modern books; they start off so well and then disappoint. Last year I read 77 books but the rate I'm going this year I won't be doing that again. Still I've ordered three Christian books from Amazon and am hoping for something better for the holidays to come.

March

We had a treat one day last week and took ourselves off in the sunshine to the Welsh lakes, with a pub lunch, and some short walks. I was cosy wrapped up in my duvet coat but HoF found the sunshine rather short on warmth. Much as we like our home it was good to get away for the day. I had a walk this week too, on a Monday morning, when I said 'hang housework' and reminded myself that retirement is not supposed to be non-stop chores. I left straight after breakfast, not even stopping to make the bed, scandalous, and walked about three and a half miles before ending up at the local pub to join Ladies Who Coffee. I saw a reed warbler too.

Our revamped village hall was opened this month and is being well used in spite of grumbles about the money spent on it. Last Sunday was the Parish Lunch, yet another fund-raiser (they sometimes seem to be end-to-end) at which I was asked to help. Not possessing any white or black clothes as befitted a waitress I was relegated to the kitchen and after dishing carrots on to plates, stood at the sink and washed a hundred dinner plates. HoF and I felt definitely short of stamina as we collapsed at the end of the day.

We are back there tomorrow night for a dinner and quiz evening. Once I was good at general knowledge but somehow don't think I've kept pace with the times. Oh, well.