Sunday, April 27, 2008

Now That's What I Call A Weekend


day at the park
Originally uploaded by girl_of_bats
Finally, after a Great British Springtime of snow, rain, hail, blustery showers and occasional teasingly sunny afternoons followed by yet more rain as soon as I'm not at work any more, we had a proper nice day. Warm but not hot, sunny but not glaring, gentle breezes and no rain. Fantastic.

We started with a lie-in, as many other non-childified adults do on a Saturday. I was pretty shattered, but it really was just too nice a day to spend indoors so I insisted at Steve that he must wake up because we had to go out. We decided to go to Jephson Gardens. I love it there. It's gorgeous, well-maintained, and is one of the most accessible places I've ever been, which is handy when you're being pushed in a wheelchair. We spent maybe two hours there. I did a little bit of sock-knitting (not too much as I've injured my shoulder, that's also why we're on blogging-lite) and Steve took lots of photos of the Ninja Squirrels. It goes like this:

- People scatter nuts for the squirrels.
- Squirrels run and hide from passing dogs (although they're totally not bothered by humans).
- Pigeons descend to eat the nuts.
- Squirrels dash out from their hiding places and attempt to jump on and headbutt the pigeons. Discworld readers: think Nac Mac Feegle, that's what these squirrels are like.

It was really nice to just be spending time outside. The daily wobble from the front door to the taxi doesn't really count, you know?

Back home for bacon sandwiches, and then I went to bed. It was meant to be a twenty-minute nap but instead turned into something in excess of two hours. Normally that would be a very bad thing, but on this occasion, it was exactly right, because while I was enjoying a waking-up cup of tea, Steve got a call from a friend inviting us over for a barbecue that evening. I like barbecues. I like them a LOT.

Last year, the words "fancy a barbecue?" would have been enough to guarantee rain within the next two hours. But yesterday was charmed - we went, we ate, we sat outside and chatted until it was properly dark. More of this sort of thing. Plus, with it having been a Saturday, I now have all of Sunday to rest and recover. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

5 comments:

Carie @ Space for the Butterflies said...

Given the thunderstorm currently hammering overhead I think you defeinitely had the best day for a barbeque yesterday! Sounds like you had lots of fun

Mandy said...

Glad to hear you got out and about on the best day of the year so far. If you fancy a change of venue at any point, Abbey Fields is on the flat if you park in the main car park and there are ducks and swans etc to feed. Crackley woods has wheelchair access, although I'd wait for their paths to dry out a little before attempting that one., the blue bells are devine there. St Nicholas park in Warwick is quite flat and you can sit by the river and watch the rowers.

Hope your shoulder feels better very soon

Mary said...

Yes, today on the other hand is definitely the best day for being indoors.

I keep meaning to get hold of The Rough Guide To Accessible Britain but for some reason I haven't done it yet - every time I think of it, I'm feeling far too ditzy to do online shopping, I'd probably put my credit card details into an email subject line or order it 100 times or something.

The Goldfish said...

Glad you had a good weekend too. :-)

And thanks for reminding me of the Rough Guide - I just went and ordered it myself.

Mary said...

The lovely thing about Jephson Gardens is that it's accessible in so many different ways.

There's the very obvious stuff (wide, smooth, flat paths; no steps without a visible gentle slope making an alternate route to the same place), the less obvious stuff (RADAR accessible loo, plenty of benches, simple maps) and the really not obvious at all stuff (like the sensory garden, where it's as much about touch and smell as it is colour).