Running in the rain. Wasting time putting the world to rights on the telephone.

This morning early I listened to the rain on the attic skylights ... again! I had to give myself a stern talking to to make myself stop snoozing the alarm and eventually get out of bed. Serious thoughts about just staying put went through my head. Then I considered doing a bit of yoga and spending some time on the rowing machine. However, by the time I emerged from my duvet nest, the rain had abated and I decided that running round the village was in order after all.

Following my normal route past the cricket club and round the back roads, I spotted my favourite tree getting its autumn coat on and looking fine.

It had some competition from a couple of smaller bushes a little further along the road.

 

 

My plan was to follow my usual paths past the mill ponds, hoping that the pathway repairs had held up and that I would be able to do the normal circuit. And then I came upon this:-

The repaired path had flooded even more completely. Now I don’t mind getting damp feet but this was impassable without getting water up to my ankles. So, reluctantly, I retraced my steps. It’s become a sort of family thing that “An Adams Never Turns Back”. The number of times we have taken long detours around the streets of foreign cities because we have taken a wrong turning and Phil has refused to turn back but has consulted the map in the guide book to find another route to our chosen destination would amaze many people. And all the family does it now. 

But I wasn’t planning to paddle and so I retraced my steps to the point where I could take the top path, looking down on the offending puddle. 

The top path itself was so muddy and slippery that my run turned into a walk at that point. And my feet got wetter and wetter anyway. But I did get a nice view of the mill pond from the top of the path.

 

And on the final stage of my run round the village, where a back road overlooks the village itself, I came upon this tree.

Yesterday I thought it looked so bright because of the sunshine but even in the rain it still looked good.

Had I not had to retrace my steps and take a detour, I might have got back home before the rain came back but it was not to be and by the time I arrived home I was nicely soaked. After I had showered, however, I looked out and saw the sun shining in a mostly blue sky. This is the odd weather we are having at the moment. And the blue sky and sunshine did not last long. By midday the clouds and intermittent rain were back. 

I seem to have spent a good deal of the morning on the telephone. First my son phoned. His work team have come up with a scheme where they take it in turns to have Friday free. His wife was concerned initially that as team leader he might have to be on call in case of emergency when it was his turn but that is not the case and so he has a long weekend every three weeks or so. So we had a long chat and set the world to rights, as far as we were able in view of the chaotic nature of the world at present. We are very pessimistic about Christmas, which looks like being a socially distanced affair. Maybe we’ll have to organise a family zoom Christmas dinner. Is it worth my getting a Christmas tree if the small people of the family cannot help me decorate it? So many odd things this year!

After chatting to my son, I went on to phone an old friend. She has withdrawn herself from Facebook as she was spending too much time on it and wanted to be sure she would not lose touch with friends. She sent a text message to that effect and for almost a week I have been planning to phone her rather than just replying with another text. And so we caught up on news of our respective families and finally agreed to check the weather forecast for next week and possibly meet at a midpoint between our houses so that we can go for a socially distanced walk. Maybe we need to do so before further restrictions come into place.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!