We arrived back from Kuala Lumpur in mid
February just as the world was becoming aware of the seriousness of
Covid-19. As we had colds, Hazel was
tested at Stoke Mandeville, and the result was negative.
We managed to drive out to the nearby hills for some winter walks
before lockdown started.
Walks in the Chilterns
We managed to get to two folk music singarounds
Singaround at the Cock Inn at Wing
Our tenants moved out of our Aylesbury
apartment, and we planned to move our furniture in from storage in Farnborough.
We had the place decorated, and a removal van booked for Wednesday 13th
March.
In early March, all community events stopped.
No more Folk Clubs. No more church as we know it. No more eating out. Then on
11th March, Boris said “You must stay at home”. So we cancelled our
removal van, and the apartment remained empty.
James rewrote the words of Summer Holiday,
and recorded it. Unfortunately it was in mirror image due to poor technology
skills. The words are the right way round though! Here is the link: https://youtu.be/WmjpSRpFp8Y
We discovered Zoom for weekly Canal
Ministries meetings, and weekly church life groups. Our church had virtual
services on Facebook, broadcast live from leaders’ homes. Boaters Christian
Fellowship had a Zoom quiz, which we won. The prize was the privilege of
compiling the next one.
We started going for walks from the canal
basin, and discovered paths we didn’t know existed, and we watched the
countryside come to life with a glorious spring. There were butterflies
everywhere, and amazing blossom.
A path we discovered
Sedge warbler
Lambs
Orange Tip butterfly
Cormorant
Reed Bunting
Kingfisher
Baby pike
Wild rose
One of the boats in the basin had ducks nesting
on the roof, and there were eleven eggs, of which ten hatched. It has been
fascinating to see the chicks grow in size, but sadly diminish in number as the
weeks go by. The mother was mostly white, and we call her Jemima. There is another brood of ducklings that come
into the basin, and we call her Mrs Brown. She started with thirteen, but is
now down to four. Jemima has seven left out of ten.
Day one for the ducklings
Jemima and her brood
Mrs Brown protecting her ducklings
Mrs Brown plus four
One of Mrs Brown’s boys
We finally moved our van load of belongings
into our apartment on Monday, and we need to obtain some more storage furniture
to accommodate all the boxes full of everything in life.
We are now gearing up to going boating! We move
out of the basin next week, heading up the fourteen locks to Marsworth, and
then towards Milton Keynes and beyond.
Aylesbury sunset
Next: Final preparations, and the first bit of
boating for a while.
