Tuesday 15th September 2020 Day 175
7.00 I meant to get up earlier but have only just woken, so I go straight into the bathroom to see if the heron is there and he is, walking elegantly around the edge of the pond as if he is stepping amongst glass. He is not actually fishing at the moment so I get my phone to take a picture of him but he is edgy this morning and flies off before I have focused.
8.00 I discover another stabbed fish in the pond.
9.00 Yesterday was unseasonably hot and today will be much the same so we are setting off early for our walk. At the bottom of the field near the woods, a border collie appears out of the trees, then another and another until there are five of them and Audrey looks
perplexed. One is a bit growly but the owner says they are fine. Audrey decides that discretion is the better part of valour and comes back to me until they have moved off in a different direction.
10.00 Slimming group zoom session, we continue to yo yo slightly, the odd pound on, the odd pound off. Today we talk about quark as an alternative to cream. What is quark anyway? It sounds like something from Alice in Wonderland.
11.00 Sarah has kindly offered to collect one of my kayaks from Lewes Rowing Club in her trusty van. I have one that will fit in my car but the one at the club is too long. I have booked my slot at the club, although to be honest I rarely see anyone there when I go kayaking anyway.
We pull the kayak off the rack and it fits in the van, just. I am going to leave the club as I don’t really make enough use of it and this year I have found other stretches of water for kayaking, the Adur being one of my favourites, apart from the mud.
The day is perfect and I am almost in two minds about leaving, the tidal river Ouse is at just the right height for a paddle and the sun is shining. When we get back, I have a sudden idea that Sarah might like to have a go in one of the kayaks, we have talked about this before but not got around to it. She agrees, so we get all the bits and pieces and paddles together and head off for the Cuckmere Valley car park. The water there is easy paddling and not deep. The car park is absolutely packed but we just manage to find two spaces after unloading the boats.
It’s lovely on the water, there are a few other kayakers and several paddle boarders but it is pretty quiet. I try out my new phone harness for taking video hands free
on the water and manage to take some footage of the inside of my boat because it is not pointing forward enough but eventually manage to video the historical moment of Sarah doing her first paddle.
It was a great way to spend an unexpected heatwave, we spend longer there than we intended and get home late but feel invigorated.