Out and about

What a difference 10 days can make with the weather in the UK.  Mid April I went on the 50+ Adventure Club Spring Walk and lunch and I can say that MUD featured very heavily.  We had been advised to dress appropriately, so I had my 'wet weather gear' on - waterproof trousers, heavy walking boots and gaiters and of course my Nordic walking poles and did I need all of them!!  We set off across the fields through this avenue of Poplars - why had they been planted like this - no-one knew.

 

Across a field of lambs and ewes - aaargh!!

The going had got stickier and stickier until we came on this towards the end

Notice the man on the left against the hedge - well that was the path that I took, except my right foot slid down the little bank and I found myself on my knees in the mud!!  I couldn't get up, partly because I was stuck and partly because I (and some of my companions) was laughing so much.  Eventually I was hauled to my feet but thank goodness for my weatherproof clothing.

We carried on walking and were told that we were on top of the tunnel at Blisworth.  We came down to the entrance

 

and were lucky enough to find an HPP (handy passing person) to take a group photo.  This amazing tunnel is wide enough to take two narrow boats and when it was originally built the horses towing the boats were taken over the top while the boatmen lay on their backs and using their feet on the roof of the tunnel, pushed the boat through!!

 

... and so to Sunday lunch

Note that in these previous photos hardly a leaf on the trees.  However within a few days the temperature soared, I was in a short sleeved t-shirt, my garden beckoned and I was applying the sun cream!!  Then just as quickly the sun disappeared, but it did leave the hedges sprouting and blossom appearing.

A friend, L, moved to Spalding in Lincolnshire 18 months ago (was it that long ago?!) and invited me to lunch.  It was a showery day but the sun was shining as I drove out to the Fens and it still leaves me amazed at how flat it is.  This has a down side because there is nothing to stop the wind that comes from the East, namely the Steppes of Russia, or so my mother always said if we went for holidays on the East coast!!

However L took me off to see Ayscoughfee Hall and my mouth dropped open when I saw these .....

 

 ...just the most amazing yew hedges, that have grown together, into what reminded me of a cloud formation.  All the trees are interlinked and take the gardener about two weeks to trim at the end of the summer plus this hedge  ...

We decided they are sea serpents all in a row!!



 We walked though the hedge

to the front of the Hall

and had a quick look round the house.

The Spalding Gentleman's Society

I must go back another time and spend more time in the gardens.  We just got back to L's house before the heavens opened.

With regard to sewing/crochet/smocking /embroidery etc, well I do have projects on the go but nothing worth reporting at the moment, so will show them at a later date.

I have been out regularly on my electric bike and have even gone to Higham Piecemakers group meetings on it.  However I was already 'dressed' to go out Sunday morning when I discovered I had a puncture in the front tyre, the electric one!  I found a cycle kit, complete with tyre leavers and a puncture repair kit, looked at it and put it away again!!  I had no idea what to do!!  Son number 1 phoned me "What would happen if you got a puncture while you were out cycling?  Call the AA?"  (Note to overseas readers this is not Alcoholics Anonymous but the Automobile Association or roadside assistance).  I said "Of course not, I would ring for a taxi to take me and the bike home!!"  I DO NOT MEND PUNCTURES AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!!  Why not - well I have no rubber gloves so my hands would get dirty!!  Truthfully the bike is too heavy for me to lift; so I would take it to the bike shop which is what I did the next day, on my new bike carrier.  This was easy to put on the car and I got the bike up with some difficulty because of the puncture, however the clamp that locks the bike tight did not seem to work, but I managed to drive to the shop where a nice young man went to lift it down.  When I told him the clamp was not working he asked "Have you unlocked it"? I hadn't, so there was another lesson learned. Never too late in life to learn something new every day and boy, am I learning!