Sunday filler

Nothing too much to see here. Something of a filler post. Not that I didn’t enjoy a nice walk on Easter Sunday. Good news all round, actually. Other stuff: I regained hearing in my right ear temporarily for a couple of hours in the evening so a great encouragement for my olive oil in trying to, er, ‘pop ear’ for a few more days yet. While I wouldn’t want to wax lyrical yet about my improved sensory being, I did have to turn the volume down on the tv.

I am also winning another battle against that large blister on my inside right heel. Compeed is doing its thing and still hanging on grimly and stickily, and doing exactly what it says on the tin small green plastic packet. I’ll leave it to come off in its own time.

As ever, it is always nice to have a walk with Pammy. While that means that anything near 20 miles is normally out of the question, a shorter walk together usually means that we’ll find somewhere away from busy roads and interesting. It is a long time since I visited Manor Farm and we parked in Botley, walking south along the apparent country lane. We didn’t enter the farm itself (we both felt a tenner each was a bit much for our frugal pockets) and passed by onto a recently constructed path that was serving as a COVID memorial. Scores of saplings serenading us along a stony path before we ventured further.

There seemed to be many more paths than on previous pre-pandemic visits and we wandered in a generally southern direction until we almost reached Bursledon by the River Hamble. We considered walking to our house – another mile and a half – and driving back to Botley to pick up the other car. Instead we turned back, taking a different and more direct route back. We felt that we weren’t going to need any more refreshments than we already we had with us, especially as tea and coffee looked expensive given the sizes of paper cup that we observed. We could – and did – have a nice cup of tea when we got home.

It is a really nice place for a walk but the facilities are a little pricy for what they are. Thankfully, we had not parked at Manor Farm (£5 for two hours – for that price, does that include a valet?) but had an extra mile back to our car. A lovely time together, for a little over two hours and a gentle but still steady 6.77 miles. Sometimes the company is more important than anything else.