Recovery after the late night and my heavy cold to start clearing the riverside plots of overgrown and dead trees before a rest and recovery and then off on a sunny afternoon to Woburn Abbey, where the family play on the amusements and I fail to find any interesting silver in their antiques cabinets. This as the postal strike ends tomorrow but 200 schools to be affected by a teachers’ strike!
Awake groggy from last night’s alcohol and late retirement and a welcome cup of morning tea as the first of a number of drinks to try to increase my body liquids to compensate. Up to write my journal and then a fried breakfast, that I still enjoy, before the bathroom for a wash and shave. The paper arrives at last and I relax in the lounge and read it briefly until it is time to tend the birds. The doves feed well and Debbie and I sit on the garden furniture to watch them for a while. As all four come down, I get the ladder and inspect the nest. Both of the two eggs are warm and intact and I am hopeful of two chicks in a week or so. To the ducks and find that I did not put them away last night and so I leave out the food tray for them to feed at will. I then take morning coffee before getting the bow-saw and trimming some of the trees on Bill’s plot. They are growing apace and concealing my view of the river and I thin them to grow upwards instead. Also to enter the Poynter plot and remove some old fallen tree trunks adjoining the boundary, which Pete will saw up for me as next winter’s fire wood. I also remove a couple of recent saplings, before they get a hold. I am pleased at this ‘gardening’ of the riverside views and am convinced that the best effects require this intervention to avoid a wilderness that obscures the view from the house altogether. In, somewhat shattered, in time for lunch of salad rolls and then collapsed in an armchair for a while to recover. The combination of exertion and a heavy cold after a late night is quite weakening, but the weather has warmed a bit and I build up a fair sweat doing the work. Eventually, Debbie comes in for a ‘tickling match’ and I stir to call everyone for an afternoon outing. We set off in the car on a sunny afternoon for Woburn Abbey and first drive through the wild animal kingdom looking at the lions, tigers, monkeys, elephants, hippos, giraffes etc. before parking at the rest area.
The family stay for a couple of hours to play on the amusements, Ghost Train, Helter-skelter and big Rainbow Machine; as I walk off to find the Abbey and antique centre. It is a fair trip, taking at least a mile and a half to clear the wild-life park and another mile to get to the Abbey from the entrance. All others are entering by car and paying at the kiosk on entry. I get to the antiques, which are in 40 lock-up shop displays. They are small, unattended and house few and expensive items in the main. It is a weird showcase of antiques and I cannot think they sell much in the way of volume. You can ring a bell for attendance by a common attendant (called an ‘Administrator’) but I only spotted two Georgian fiddle items that may have interested me – a plain tea caddy overpriced at £36 by Antelope Antiques and an 1822 table spoon for £30 elsewhere that was in suspiciously good condition for its age. I didn’t start ringing bells and so left rather disappointed with the centre and my exertions. Back across the deer park to the Abbey entrance and waited there for more than half an hour in the failing light and increasing cold for Diana and the family. Eventually, after 6.00pm, I started walking, convinced they had found another entrance to the Abbey, but they soon rolled up. As Diana used a 12-volt, car-driven, bottle warmer to aid feeding the baby, I drove back through Ampthill and Shefford. The old house is being worked on with new window frames and the conifer on the verge that I planted, still grows well. The Little Chef at Sandy being too crowded, we stop at the Happy Eater, hungry and tired. The children were not as good as yesterday, but we managed. Home and to put the ducks away and we fall to bed for an early night and to catch up on sleep. It seems the postal strike is ending tomorrow, but 200 schools will now be affected by teachers’ strikes!