Drifts

I knew I had a reason to get up today: I was booked for a walk with a friend, my first in over a week, as the weather had been so variable. Tried the new coffee grinder first, CleanSteve had to help me to open the part where the ground coffee ends up! (Why is nothing obvious?) It makes a good fine grind. Now to fix the dripping De Longhi, and calculate the precise amount of beans needed to grind the coffee for the perfect espresso.

Friend arrived before I'd even got dressed, but fortunately the cabin makes a good waiting room these days! We walked up the Horns Valley to the end, where the stepped path upwards was so muddy that we had to hang on to the rail for dear life and haul ourselves up, hand over hand. More like free climbing or mud surfing than going up a staircase. 

When we got to the top, we found these snowdrops in a private garden. I liked the way they drifted down the bank, but I couldn't get very close, unfortunately. Friend was telling me about a friend of hers, who has just had a stroke. She is only 60. Help! Seems she's in a bad way. I knew her as a successful businesswoman. What is happening to us all?

After the knackering uphill slog, we opted for a walk along country roads (this friend is the one who really doesn't like mud!). So we turned left instead of right, walked along to a crossroads, down the main road for a while, towards Stroud from Bisley, and when we got to the former workhouse at the top of Bisley road, I took her on a bit of a tour, because she hasn't been round that way before. She was amazed at how large it was. I know the site because my friend lived in a flat there in the 1990s. Of course, it's made into apartments now, with some very chi-chi courtyards, but, for me at least, that doesn't disguise its inglorious past. I bet it's haunted.

Talking of which, we then went on to the graveyard for a scenic ramble downhill towards my home. It's also a nature reserve, as well as the town cemetery dating back over 100 years. On arrival at the house, we had some socially distanced lunch in the garden (probably against the law) and then she biked off into the distance. 

I went up to the pub, now a corner shop, for bread and some food for tomorrow night. Remembered that I hadn't watched 'It's a Sin' last Friday, so caught up with that. What a heartbreaking series that is. I remember those times so well, the 1980s and early 90s when usually a friend of a friend was dying of Aids.  My aunt, who worked in theatre admin in Toronto, said she lost count of the number of deathbed scenes she attended in one year. 

Also on the small screen: is anyone else watching Firefly Lane on Netflix? Im enjoying it, mainly because it's about two women in media. First we meet them in the 1970s, when they are teenagers, then in the 80s in their first proper jobs, then in 2003, at the start of Gulf War II. I think there's a later part, but that's somewhat unclear at the moment. It's my kind of timeline: the women must be just a couple of years older than me. 

I feel incredibly pleased that I actually stirred my stumps and got out of the house today! Of course, having warmer weather helps.