A Sunday in Derby

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Sunday 23 August, Derby

As Rob had only been to see Mim once yesterday she decided not to go to church in the morning and to visit Mim then. Cathy (friend) was coming for lunch and they had decided to have a traditional Sunday roast - Ann and I shoed Rob away and told her we'd do it. It is so nice to be able to do things for her - it's not a lot, dishes, some meals, hanging out the washing, helping with the pets - Rob works sooo hard.

Ann & I went over our photos and we got some on facebook for Ann. Cathy arrived and is just a warm lovely person, so nurturing for them all including Kirsten. Ann & I finished up sitting and chatting with her after lunch, Rob went off and mowed the lawn & Jerry was upstairs I think.

Ann & Pip and I joined R& J for the trip to Telford, can't believe that R has been doing that twice daily for months. We got to see where Mim is - the hospital is in a lovely old stately home that used to belong to the Wedgewoods. Jerry said that no photos were allowed there out of respect for the girls' privacy so we just have our memories. They had organised for Ann and I to do an early evening stroll along a tow path by a canal, while they visited. We were dropped at Breed (pronounced Brood) and wandered along the path by the canal back to Wheaton-Astley. There were loads of gorgeous barges some tied up along the way and some cruising along. People very friendly. Almost noone on the tow path itself. The path took us over an old iron bridge where THE CANAL WENT ON A BRIDGE OVER THE ROAD! It was amazing - should find out exactly how old that is. We were told that was about our halfway mark. The final marker was the lock - I was fascinated by it, just past that we could see the "Harrington Arms" where we were to wait for R, J & P. I should say Meg went with us on the walk. We had to keep her on the lead as Robin said it was not safe for her to swim in the canal - too many nasty chemicals dumped in there over the years. Maybe that explained why none of the fishermen we passed had caught any fish! Meg was great - she never complained. If I stopped to take photos she would insist that Ann stop and wait for me tho'!

The canal boats were lovely - some of them beautifully decorated, little watering cans & pot plants all painted with folk art, all boats proudly named one clearly looked like someone's home with a vege garden, clothes line and little windmill on the bank! The walk was probably about 3 miles and we really enjoyed it.

We sat outside at a table with Meg at the pub. lovely little hanging baskets of flowers everywhere. We got our own drinks and Ann found some water for Meg, Meg didn't seem that interested so Ann sloshed some water into her hand & Meg licked a little from that, to the amusement of some of the nearby punters, one quipped "I've always dreamed of being hand fed", "dream on" says Ann (definitely a little flirty thing happening there!) After the others arrived we got chatting to this group of guys & one had been to NZ, to the mount and watched Beach volleyball champs there - we decided he must have seen Emma play!

Then on we were heading home, I was quite tired (Ann had woken me early coz of the snoring and I had been unable to get back to sleep). Flopped into bed and probably had the best sleep of the holiday so far. Woke at about 5.30 and just felt too hot to get back to sleep but very rested and Ann still sleeping so left her to it to do my blog.

Now to get more of it online.

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