Wightwick Manor

We also spent the day at Wighwick in the gardens. I love the house there but it was shut so we wondered around the gardens and had a picnic. Picnics seem to be the key to this summer.

The kitchen garden is great there. I would love to be able to grow veg like that. And they had seem lovely photos. I got some good bug and flower shots. (Dad got me flash gun and is going to teach me macro-photography. So I am practicing.)

Bee butt. 

Dudmaston

One of the days we went to Dudmaston Hall and had a walk around the grounds. (I'll have to go back another time to see the house.)

The woods are amazing and worth a visit. The trees are huge.

We walked the long way round and stopped and had a picnic at the side of the river furthest from the house. It was beautifully quiet and we sat and watched the ducks and dragon flies. 

Picnic! 

Seeing friends

I have also managed to do a social distance visit to some friends and my adorable little nieces. Well, Livvy didn't really social distance but she is so damn cute. (Ava just looked at my suspiciously the whole time.)

We took a nice walk around Himley with Livvy taking some very artistic shots on her camera and getting together a really collection of leaves and sticks. 

Canoeing the Severn

I haven't updated this for a while as my computer had to be sent back to apple to be prepared. So this is from a while back (And apologises for the formatting - blogspot has changed and is being a pain.)

A few weeks after leaving London dad and I went to Bridgnorth and spent the day canoeing down to Arley. It was one of these 31 degree days so nice to be chilling on the river but the few bits I did leave exposed did burn despite lots of sunscreen.

We paddled/drifted for a few hours - more drifting than paddling to be honest - before we stopped for lunch, which was further away than we expected. Dad was more than ready for a break.

Eventually we found the waving man who indicated a good place to spot. Normally there is a pub to stop at for lunch but this was pre-pub reopening so we had a packed lunch. But so we didn't feel like we were missing out we took some G&Ts. Mom had packed the lunch and had popped them in the freezer. And they were still frozen. 

Luckily they dethawed pretty feel in the sun after 10 mins.

 The only issue we had was we had booked a taxi from Arley at 3 thinking that was plenty of time. But we did more drifting than paddling. So when we got a call from the taxi driver, we were still quite a way the end point so had to paddle rather more vigorously than we had been so far. I hurt for a few days after that.

Back home

Lockdown has made this year so far very long and very boring. I haven't done a lot at all except stare at my 4 walls of my apartment. Thankfully lockdown eased just in time and I could leave London. At the beginning of lockdown I got a new job which I start mid-July in Edinburgh. So I have packed up and left London. I was hoping to go on holiday but I am instead spending a few weeks chilling at home. 

One of the first thing s I had to do when I got back was to help my sister put her dreadlocks back in. I think I did a pretty good job considering this is not exactly my area of expertise. 

Mainly I have been enjoying the weather, sitting outside (amazing after being pretty much stuck inside for 3+ months) and taking walks. We went to feed the ducks down Buckpool and found some babies. 

Hopefully I can start updating this a little more often as I am hoping to have some more interesting things to do than stare at a wall!