Ups and Downs

So much has happened without my having time to record it that I've probably forgotten it all by now. Sigh. It's been a week of hectic activity, encouraged, nay engendered by the visit of a daughter. First a big shop at Waitrose seconds after she got off the train, for goodies and treats and yummy things. We did get a bit regressive in our joy at hot weather, exciting plans and freedom. After lunch we took off for a blind walk, heading out through Joan and John's garden and thence over the hills and far away. We invented new footpaths, skirted some farm cottage gardens, and ducked into the local big house grounds to escape the Beware of the Bull signs. Every few minutes we had to stop and admire the view, repeating the endless mantras of how lovely Suffolk is, how unexpectedly hilly, how amazingly fortunate that I ended up in such an idyllic place. Back up through the garden footpath, hot and tired but happy, we found Joan working on a bed. "Oh," she gasped, looking at me with a beaming smile. "You're alright. We've been worried about you all this time as we haven't seen you. In the end John was so concerned that we asked your neighbour. He'll be so happy when I tell him Denise is well." She's such a darling, an octogenarian like her husband though she claims she can't be bothered to work out exactly how old they are.

Next day we took the well-used track to Marlesford Antiques where we each found something we had to have. My treasure was a shuttered mirror for the garden, a device intended to trick the eye into thinking it's a mysterious opening but which the shutters subvert. Olivia's was a beautiful Hawthornden jug asking to be filled with  flowers. On to Aldeburgh then where a cashmere sweater with her name on had to be acquired, thanks to a recent payment of royalties. It was a satisfying morning's shopping. We basked in the garden's sunshine all afternoon, ending the day with nutmeg and lemon roast chicken with a sherry gravy. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm just doesn't do it justice.

On Wednesday we'd arranged to take a Canadian canoe out on the River Alde. We imagined pootling about, pithering in and out of creeks while the sky stretched clear and blue over us, but no! it was much more ordered than that. There is a very narrow channel along its winding, curling length, and though high tide showed water everywhere like a small inland ocean, we had to stick to the marked route for fear of ending up on a sandbank. And so we paddled steadily, nervously trying to work out which post followed the last as we wove our way to Snape. Olivia steered our journey by twisting her paddle one way or the other, an arduous enough job without my shouted instructions of "Left! LEFT! LEEEEFFTT!!!" when we seemed to be drifting off route. But we made it there and looked forward to drifting back on the tide, our reward for effort. But it wasn't to be. A breeze got up, pushing against us, so the return journey was harder than the outgoing one. Back on dry land the car keys were nowhere to be found. Suddenly I remembered my earlier comfort break in the bushes, and as Olivia ran ahead to see if I'd left them in the car, I crawled through the grass to find them where I'd put them down two hours earlier. Why? How? Don't ask. I have no answers.

Rain brought very low temperatures on Thursday, and so began the worst of days. The Rayburn has broken down again, and I found the note I left telling the engineer I was just down the road and would be back in minutes if he rang me was in my handbag. How? Why? Yeah. So I missed him, and he may or may not return tomorrow. But that was one crisis of many, and I hope the sun shines tomorrow and we can begin again. Goodnight.