Another week in croneland

So my Easter is not quite the way it used to be when the boys were little. Those were the days of Easter egg hunts and roast turkey with visiting family. And although I have no religious belief, it is always wonderful to have family sharing time.

This year my eldest son is in a yacht sailing across the English channel between Ipswich and Bruge with 8 other people. Just because it's the busiest shipping lane in the world almost, course I'm not worried. (She said lying through her teeth!)I'm just looking forward to the text on Monday saying he's back.

As for my youngest well last weekend I was graciously given 17 and a half minutes of his time, that he could spare me. So in a phone call today I suggested that as it's Easter Sunday maybe he could spend a little more time with his aged mother, and what do you know, he thinks he'll be able to do a whole 18 minutes!!!

The house is a complete disgrace. I do not like housework and imparticular I dislike vacuuming. Well the wretched dog is having a moult, which means there is enough fur to knit a whole new dog lying on the carpet. In fact I used to have reasonable height rooms, floor to ceiling. And now it feels like being Alice after she has taken the growing medicine as the space between floor and ceiling is about 6 inches deep cause of the dog fur.

Today I met up with my mate Trousers and we walked 10 miles in three hours forty minutes plus extra time for breaks. We parked up at the end of the Roaches, went up them stopped for coffee under a brilliant blue sky and warm breeze and back round on the road. That was the first five miles. The weather forecast was rain. But apart from two drops Trousers got on his face, there was none.

But because there has been so much rain recently when we did the second part of the walk, after we'd had our picnic lunch under the shelter of a dry stone wall, down to Lud's Church the path and surrounding area looked like the battlefield of the Somme there was so much mud. And as for trying to get out of Lud's Church we met up with a group of Chinese tourists/students all unsuitably dressed in trainers trying to decide whether or not that they could brave the swamp that we had to traverse to get out.

Lud's Church is one of my most favourite places, but there were so many people walking it that it almost felt like Oxford St in the rush hour. So I may have to be a bit more selective as to when I walk there, as I don't want to see lots of people. And I particularly don't want to hear their noise when I'm standing in the complete silence that is in the crevice itself.

I did have a lovely time with Trousers even if he did have to put up with my continued grumpy old woman persona, as I ranted about people having stupid stickers in the back of their cars when I took him back to the station. That being my final rant of the day, the others are too numerous to mention that he had to endure on the actual walk!

So I think my excuse for continuing not to do any cleaning will be the amount of miles I walked, cause on top of that walk I also did two walks with the hairy hound.

I must be mad!

But anyway that's Easter sorted and now it's Birthday eve,eve,eve,eve,eve,eve! And the countdown is on to my Birthday activities.... Going out for supper with youngest on Tuesday, coffee with friends Wednesday, lunch with a mate Thursday, lunch with my sister Friday followed by my oldest friends arriving for the weekend. And then they will take me out on my actual birthday. But my celebrations won't end till the after the following weekend as I get to go to London and stay with my eldest and go for a big walk in Kew gardens weather permitting.

I really don't think one day birthdays are enough. I work hard enough caring for others, that indulging myself in lots of fun times does make the whole birthday thing a valuable process.

So there you have it, just another old week in crone land.