One of the biggest disadvantages for me during lockdown is not being able to chat with friends and enjoy a few beers in a pub.
We solved the beer problem by converting our social club into an off-licence serving draught local real ales – it does seem strange drinking beer out of milk bottles, but needs must!
The chat side has largely been solved with technology; not perfect, but better than nothing:
Well, spring must be finally here if it’s warm enough to enjoy a proper beer outside!
I was just about to plant some seeds in the electric propagator for next year’s chilli plants, and it was suggested that it would be better to divide the tray up.
So after a bit of measurement and design later, I set the 3D printer going. It took a while, but used surprisingly little plastic:
Hopefully, this will help stop the roots getting entangled.
Now just need to print two more for the other trays!
A cold, but dry morning, with misty fields at Hawkwood:
Rocco loves these woods – an hour of chasing sticks and getting wet!
We had a nice steak and chips in the Pilot last night – timed it just right so that we walked there in the dry, it rained while we were in the pub, then walked back in the dry…
The forecast today wasn’t too inspiring, with rain scheduled for lunchtime, so we walked along the canal to Gloucester.
On the way, we crossed the Severn to Alney Island, but many of the paths were flooded and muddy from the recent rain, so we headed back into Gloucester.
First stop was The Fountain, a lovely ‘Country Pub’ in the middle of the town. Then to the Turk’s Head, a recently opened Micro Pub. Then finally back to the Gloucester Brewery pub in the docks.
The dogs were quite bored by this time, but still well behaved (especially with a treat in the offering)
Then back along the canal to home.
It was a nice day today and I thought it was time to get Rocco used to trains again, so we went to Chessington. This involved two trains (changing at Waterloo) but no underground (we’ll save that for later).
The train was quite crowded on the way up to London, but Rocco seemed to impress (almost) everyone – I can’t recall a time when I’ve talked to so many different people on a commuter train!
We shared the lift at Waterloo with grandparents and a child in a pushchair. Luckily, they liked dogs so Rocco got even more attention.
The train to Chessington South was very quiet and eventful.
We only had to walk about 100 yards from the station until we were on footpaths:
And soon, we were in countryside:
We had to struggle to get through some fields with horses a bit further on – unfortunately Rocco started barking at them which didn’t help:
Finally, we reached Horton Country Park – not the most interesting in the world, but covered a large area.
All too soon, it was time to take another footpath back to the station:
and the trains home:
A nice day out, and we’re both exhausted!
One of the ‘adventure’ activities along the Grindelwald-First cable car route were some ‘mountain carts’ that you could ride down the hill to one of the intermediate cable stations. We’d seen these on the side of some cable cars coming up, and were impressed with an automated robot that was hanging the carts on the cars:
We assume that there was a similar robot at the top that detached them…
I went (on my own this time) to explore of bits of North London that I’d missed in my previous walks in the area. It was also an opportunity to travel on some rail lines that I’d not used before…
First off was a train from Moorgate to Crews Hill. This was on one of the new Class 717 trains that are being introduced on Great Northern suburban services, and are very similar to the Thameslink trains:
This took me to Crews Hill station, which was so uninteresting that I caught the next train back to Alexandra Palace:
This station is adjacent to Alexandra Palace Park, so it was time for an explore on foot:
The palace is famous for the first useful television service:
Then it was back to Alexandra Palace Station for a train to Hadley Wood:
From Hadley Wood Station, I walked to High Barnet through Monken Hadley Common:
and past a very strange carving:
It was quite a climb to High Barnet (as the name suggests), and from there, the tube and train home. Though on the way, I did make a short diversion on the branch line to Mill Hill East.
I had a little time at London Bridge, and explored some of the area – this is getting quite smart now:
An nice day out. Not sure Rocco would have enjoyed much of it!
We walked along the canal into Gloucester today, and passed some of the tall ships moored along the canal:
A bit later on, they then came past us into the docks:
We found a beer in the shade and watched them get moored, helped by a couple of RIB’s (which didn’t help much) and a tug (which did).
The dogs were a bit bored by this time, so we went via the cathedral to another pub:
Nice beer in this pub, but no food, so on to a third:
An excellent beer and some ham and chips filled a hole, so back to the docks for a final beer before the walk home:
We enjoyed the bluebells in Suffolk recently, and it’s nice to know that Kent also has some reasonable displays!
Willett Woods:
and Shoreham Woods:
