Ready for the off in Big Ted

Big Ted packed and ready to go

We're about to head off in Big Ted, our motorhome, not for a major tour, but a month away in East and North England, with a short trip back in the middle for Brian's second Covid-19 jab and to attend Rob and Alex's wedding. We've got Big Ted ready and, tomorrow morning we head East to Norfolk and the Norfolk Broads, before heading up the coast to Yorkshire, but more on that as we go.

Since our last entry (other than the Covid-19 lockdown review we did) we've embraced the first easing of lockdown and met up with a number of different groups of people and started to socialise again, what a novelty! We've also moved out of our very comfy flat in Redditch

Last day at Support Redditch volunteering

and back to Pauline's (Jackie's mum's) while we prepare for our mini trip away. That's meant we've had to say goodbye to the people at Support Redditch, the charity we've been volunteering for to deliver food parcels to people in need in the Redditch area, which was sad for us as we've really enjoyed it. They always knew our services were temporary while the lockdown restrictions were in force, so it came as no surprise but, still, it's a pity. We'll also miss Carole in the flat below who we'd got to know very well, making us feel like locals. We passed on the bird seed we'd bought and donated to her the bird feeder we'd positioned in the back garden so we could both see it, us from upstairs, her from downstairs. We hope we'll find the time to pop round and see her again sometime in the future, as she said she'd quite like to see us again, as we her.

Our deliveries for the day, 10 shipments - the car was very full!

First trip out at Hanbury Hall with Denise and Paul

Our first easing of lockdown in England occurred on 29th March, with groups of six or two families of any size able to meet up outdoors, so we took the opportunity straight away and met up with Brian's sister, Denise and Paul for a 6 mile walk from Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire, through local countryside with a break at a nearby church on a hill with views of the Malvern Hills in the distance. The weather behaved, it was warm and sunny and, with the spring, little lambs were jumping about in the fields, new leaves were appearing on trees and, near the end of the walk, we came across a field of alpacas with two newly born, one only the previous day. The slightly older one wanted to play and was harrassing the day old one who didn't really know what was going on and just didn't understand this play thing.

Lots of spring lambs on the Hanbury walk

Look at those two baby alpacas!

The next day we saw Abi and Sooty cat in Hall Green. We first met Abi when we housesat for Sooty a number of years ago, have looked after Sooty cat on many other occasions and now see Abi socially when we're in the Birmingham area. Tuesday happened to be the hottest day of the year so far, so we went for a walk along the local river, ate fish and chips in the park in the warm sunshine and generally enjoyed the unseasonably warm spring weather.

A pleasant riverside walk with Abi. Who'd have though we were in the middle of a city?

Braving it outside with Ian and Helen

That warm weather didn't last however, to be replaced by a cold northerly wind by Friday, which was a bit unfortunate as we'd arranged to see Ian and Helen on Saturday. It was still relatively sunny but much colder, but we went out with them to take Monty dog for a long walk through Cannon Hill and Highbury Parks amongst others passing still closed pubs (they didn't open for outdooor consumption only until April 12th) and finished with an Indian takeaway meal and drinks in their back garden. Early April in England isn't really conducive to outdoor dining after dark and particulaly with the cold north wind, but the log burning chimenea provided some welcome heat (it was our's but we both had forgotten we'd given it to them when we gave up work and started travelling 9 years ago), but we still had to wear extra layers of clothing and duvet jackets. We did make 10:00pm though, so we did pretty well considering the cold north wind that was blowing. Great to see them of course, as always and really good to catch up face to face rather than those video calls!

The chimenea helped, but it was still quite cold. Monty dog liked the bucket of logs you can see behind, going to it quite frequently to select another stick to wander off with

Pauline and Jackie outside Norgrove Court

Sunday was a bit sunnier and warmer, Pauline came round to the flat, we had roast lamb lunch and then went for a walk over the fields by Norgrove Court, paddled through a ford, climbed stiles, balanced over planks over a stream and generally put her through her paces. I think she enjoyed it, we certainly put her through her paces! 

We've become such social butterflies now: Monday, which was Easter Monday, we met up with people from Solihull Mountaineering Club as Andrew had arranged a circuit through Birmingham's canals, from the city centre out to the bit that runs under Spaghetti Junction (or the Gravelly Hill Interchange as it's officially known) carrying the main M6

Yes Pauline, you have to paddle across that ford!

motorway on it's way from London to Scotland. We're not actually members of the club anymore, but we're still on their email list so decided to join in, in the hope of catching up with old familiar faces. Granted, Birmingham's canals are not really mountaineering, but it was their first meeting in over a year. We did indeed meet up with old, and new friends and it has to be said that talking took precedence to noting the views and historical buildings we passed, but it was great to catch up with so many old friends and, what's more, it didn't rain on us!

We put a few obstacles in her way!

The rest of the week was taken up with various medical appointments for Pauline, volunteering for the last time and then, on Saturday the move out of the flat, depositing all our stuff in Pauline's spare room (again!). Fortunately, she wasn't going to be there for long as, on Sunday we drove down to Jackie's brother Jon and Lucy and her nephew and niece Charles (now unbelievably 18) and Caroline (16). Still outdoor meeting only, but fortunately, while the sun was out it was warm enough to sit in the back garden with them all and have a good catch up. We left late afternoon as it started to cool down, leaving Pauline there for a few days.

Birmingham canal walk with Solihull Mountaineering Club

We came back, got Big Ted out of storage the following day and have been on the go ever since. We drove halfway back down yesterday to pick Pauline up, took her for her second Covid-19 jab today, did the last few things to prepare Big Ted and now we're ready to set off tomorrow. First stop Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk to catch up with Jackies aunt and uncle, Margaret and Ron and a couple of days there in a campsite and then the Norfolk Broads. 

To be continued...

I forgot to mention the snow showers we had a few days after the hottest day of eating fish and chips in the park. Fickle English weather!

Jackie and I went for another Birmingham walk while we waited for Pauline's medical appointment nearby. This is Victoria Square and the Town Hall

Here I walked on water, or so it seemed. It's a very shallow water feature in Centenary Square in the city centre that acts as an ice rink in winter

More of Birmingham's canals, this one by Gas Street Basin

Forgot to mention that we saw Rob and Alex earlier this week. Fabulous to catch up with them. Sunny, quite warm weather, again supplemented with a chimenea. Having trouble lighting it I suggested using a blow torch. Here Rob is showing off his flame throwing weed killer. You will notice that, because hairdressers have been closed during lockdown, hair styles have been suffering. We decided Rob looked a bit like The Doc in the Back to the Future films - Great Scot!

One last photo. This is a  walk Jackie and I went on locally to Alvechurch. This trig point is at the top of Hob Hill and is at 184m above sea level. Not very impressive, except that it's 16m higher than the highest point in Lincolnshire that we are going to visit during our trip (I can't wait!). At 168m that point is not only the highest point in Lincolnshire, but the highest point in Eastern England between Lincolnshire and Kent. We know how to live!