Out for a walk

Hello and Happy Sunday to you all. Have you had a nice weekend? Been out to the pub on “Super Saturday” in the UK? Got your hair cut yet? For me, I’ve decided to take it slowly. I don’t feel like rushing back to pubs, restaurants or shops. I will probably get my hair cut next month when it’s all calmed down a bit. Next Saturday we have provisionally booked a table outside at our local pub restaurant for dinner, weather depending, virus situation depending, we will see….

I’ve always enjoyed walking, but that is pretty much the only activity outside work and staying home I am interested in doing at the moment. Even walking in Windsor Great Park comes with rules though..

Today we did a little walk around Holyport. We hadn’t walked around there since before lockdown as some of the paths we thought were too narrow to risk meeting others. We did meet quite a lot of people there today, although only on the wider paths so we were able to distance. Both the pubs looked very busy inside and out. The staff at one pub at least did not seem to be wearing masks, nor any of the customers. Anyway we ignored the lure of our first pub drink since lockdown and did our little walk. This is what we saw..

And then came home for watering of the garden, harvesting more potatoes for dinner, tea and cup cakes (Emma’s cakes via Ocado with chocolate flakes on the top) on the sofa with a catch up of the news on TV.

It has been a relief to get out and about for walks theses days beyond our local housing estate. I was considering a day trip to the seaside until I saw the pictures on the news of Bournemouth beach so I went right off that idea. We have bought tickets instead to visit Winkworth arboretum near Godalming later this week. It is a National Trust garden/parkland that we visited a long time ago and should take us about an hour to drive there. I seem to remember it was very beautiful, and of course being an arboretum it should have lots of interesting trees for me to photograph (and hug!). You have to visit now in timed arrival slots prebooked in advance at a cost of £10. each. I am quite excited to be going on a planned day out. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Last week we had a walk around Taplow riverside near Maidenhead. This is a posh new riverside housing development with some artificial parkland. The parkland was quite interesting albeit a little too artificial for my taste. There is also a Roux brasserie restaurant there called “Roux at Skindles”. David remembers many years ago when Skindles was a nightclub. The restaurant has great river frontage and it would be nice to eat there again. We have eaten inside a couple of times before Coronavirus and been to the cocktail bar upstairs. Here are the pictures of the area we visited on our walk.

David liked this old tree.

I’d like to know the history of this old converted mill.

This is the Ada Lewis trough, 1908. I had to look her up….Ada Lewis was a Victorian philanthropist. She was a very wealthy lady concerned about the lack of decent housing for single low-waged working women. She designed and built numerous housing units for women in the early 1900s. She seems to have also donated money for a lifeboat at Newbiggin and for a Jewish maternity hospital in London. This memorial fountain/trough has been moved to different locations around Maidenhead twice I believe.. in the 1970s and 2010.

Right, I think that’s enough chit chat and photos of our wanderings for one day. The roast chicken is in the oven (yum) and we’re having potatoes freshly dug from the garden, cauliflower and gravy. I was going to make some chocolate mousses that you cook in the slow cooker, sounds interesting, but that’s on hold for another time. For pudding instead there will be homemade rhubarb and crumble ice cream or Walls Viennetta. Have a good week my Waffle friends, back Tuesday xxx