T Stands For......taking a walk...

Hi everyone! The weather changed last week from being very hot to very cold and eventually damp wet!! 
This was the opportunity we had been waiting for....we hadn't had a walk for ages, in fact the last time we walked any distance was way back at the end of March!

We had been past the path to the river once or twice on a short round the block walk and it always looked very busy by the river - we guessed (correctly) that most folk would be staying at home last Wednesday so we got our coats on and set off.

Not a soul around until we met one of our neighbours being pushed in her wheelchair by her son and after a quick - socially distanced - chat we were on the path!

The playground was closed - gates were chained (although on our second walk of the week on Friday someone had found a side gate and pushed it open and was there with his two children- while he was on his mobile phone!!) It is very overgrown and I hope it will be able to open properly soon!

 The island in the middle of the river seemed larger than we have seen it, but then we realised that a lot of the greenery has disappeared - probably down the river when we had the bad storms!

The heron found a sheltered spot though!

We walked back through the village. Not many folk around at all but it was very cold!

On Friday a slightly warmer day, we followed the same route but we took a walk through the housing estate - I would have liked to take a walk along the woodland path but hubby wasn't happy about the prospect of meeting someone on the narrow path so we walked to the other end for a look in the opposite direction just as some one disappeared from view!!

We haven't been out since, but are planning something special on Thursday!!

Yesterday as I pulled up our hallway blinds there was a horror story - a bird - we think a sparrow hawk had flown into our window.

I rushed out and looked over the rails but couldn't see anything, so I think the bird that did this...

...must have a had a headache for a while!

You can only see one wing clearly here and the breast features and feet but we could see both wings and a fanned out tail!

I am  trying to finish a travel journal that for one reason or another didn't get our last destination of Prague photos in it!

You may remember we visited Budapest, Vienna and Prague back in September 2018.

I had prepared some backgrounds in the A5 notebook but I had a little bag of scraps and glue etc .

 I added pages as necessary 

I only discovered that this was incomplete when I decided to have  reminisce and look through my old travel journals!!

In order to join Bleubeard and Elizabeth at the Altered Book Lover for T stands for Tuesday I have a photo of a treat we had last week!

While we have been in lockdown we have been sent a weekly menu of the food being cooked by our chef John! He has cooked some lovely meals over the years and we have often gone to the dining room to meet friends and have lunch! Since the dining room had to be shut, meals have been delivered to our door as long as we order in advance.

Over the years too there are special evening meals that are either cooked by John or a guest cook! 

We decided that to support the budget we would order at least one meal a week - it's often Fish and Chips as he makes the second best we have ever tasted!(The other being the Midland Hotel in Morecambe)

Last week we found that one of the guest cooks was repeating one of the meals that we missed while away once! Lots of people had told us how good it was, so when we saw that Kasia - one of the Duty managers was cooking her Polish Schnitzel we leapt at the chance to try it.

It was indeed delicious,and served with carrots and peas in a special sauce, marinated cucumber and potatoes with dill. We drank water with it.

The only downside to having the meals delivered is that for hygiene reasons at the moment they arrive on polystyrene plates!

I hope everyone is well and coping well in what is still quite a dangerous time - as my son keeps telling me  - if we go out in public we must wash our hands thoroughly!

We would without him telling us but it's good to be reminded by him!

Take care, thanks for looking, Chris