On the common

GG rang in the morning. She had an awful-sounding cough, so we couldn't go walking. I arranged for Steve to give me a lift, via town, to her garden, and hastily packed an emergency food parcel with a few remedies thrown in, then bought the other things she'd asked for. Met her on her lawn, observing social distancing, had a quick handover, then I set out on the long walk home. My choice to walk: it was such a glorious day. I could have walked down a very steep hill and caught a bus back to Stroud, but instead I walked up to the common, then along the lanes to Amberley, continuing to Rodborough and Winstone's  ce-cream factory, est.1925, https://www.winstonesicecream.co.uk/ stopping for a Christmas pudding flavoured ice. Then down the bank steeply, steeply, arriving eventually at the railway line. No trains coming, so crossing over, before plunging down towards the canal.

No swans visible, but heavy plant crossing'. Work continues on restoration. Over the London road, and back up the final hill to home. This has taken almost two hours, including queueing for ice cream, so I'm disappointed to find that I've only covered 8,000 steps.

Steve had just returned from a walk of his own on the common, and we had bacon sandwiches and read the Sunday papers. Then I did some chores, made some almond cookies because I could, and ate a few. Noticed I've become so used to hearing about the cost of living crisis that I felt guilty about using butter to cook with (all 43g of it) and using the oven to bake in. This is not good.

I phoned my mother. She seemed to be reliving the CoVid restrictions and talked a lot about having to wear a mask in shops, and wanting to get a job. I've done a dementia training course recently,
but sometimes I don't remember what to say until after the occasion. I wish I'd told her that she could choose whether to wear a mask now, because she had managed to walk to the village shop on her own, which is an achievement. She described the shop and asked me if I knew it. I replied that I'd been shopping there on and off since my early childhood, but I don't think she knew that I was her daughter. I'm a person that phones, not often enough. Mea culpa.

Later I started a jigsaw. Steve wanted to watch a documentary on Apple TV about the Velvet Underground, so we all watched that, including Indie, and now it's almost time for bed and all tomorrow's parties. https://youtu.be/M88Ca91hTWs

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