Coronavirus - Sunday 31st May

Another glorious day and a bank holiday. M went for a run and I went out on the mountain bike. I finally managed to get through from Southcote Lock to Cottage Lane. The field had dried out and I followed a path that I thought would take me to the fishing lakes. It did but it was a long way round and eventually I came across a couple of blokes who said it was private property and there was no way through. It looked like they were fishing but they said they were just camping out to stop people swimming and stray cyclists. I back tracked and found myself by the river (as opposed to the canal), got back to the lock and retraced my tyre tracks. This time I managed to find a hole in the hedge through to Cottage Lane. It looked like someone had recently cut through it. Good for them. Headed for the swing bridge at Theale and back along the canal. There were a lot of people out though so stuck to the road once I got to it. Made a focaccia when I got back using Dave O'Neill's recipe.

Spent most of the rest of the day watching The Folk On Feet online festival.

Tuesday was another glorious day. Did the southern half of my round Reading 50 miler. Spotted what I thought was free beer outside The Wheelwright's but it was just water for dogs.

Put up the house number when I got back and sent out invites to the fantasy festival.

Had a zoom with Brendan, Lynda and Kelvin in the evening. She is having to start teaching next week. It doesn't seem very well organised. Just a class of 6 to start with.

On Wednesday the St Bernardus beer arrive that we been ordered after tasting the West Vleteren.

Had a call with Kelvin and Andy in the evening and sampled the St Bernardus. Not as good as the West Vleteren but pretty good.

We went for a walk on Thursday. Drove to Prospect Park to the bottle bank then wondered down to Southcote lock and did a loop along the river to the wier pool then back down the canal. Very peaceful, lots of damsel flies, saw a chap trying to photograph them. Had a call with Penno, Kevin and Adrienne in the evening.

Went for an early ride on Friday, along the Kennet to Theale then round via Hardwick Stud and Mapledurham. Incorporated the newly discovered footbridge instead of the old one which is a better route. Got held up by a herd of cows at Mapledurham for about 10 minutes.

They were all numbered.

Kelvin had been to the West Berks Brewery and dropped off a case of Maharaja. On Thursday when we went for our walk we met a guy trying to take pictures of damsel flies. We'd seen quite a few by the Holybrook in Coley Park so went down there with my camera. I was sitting down and quite a few were settling near me but they were a bit too far away and I couldn't get the camera to focus on them. Then amazingly one settled on my knee and I took this.

Made pizzas for tea. Had a bit of a lazy day on Saturday as I have admit to being slightly hungover. On Sunday we drove over to the university campus and had a socially distanced walk and a beer with Bobby and Fiona. I find it a bit difficult and awkward being socially distanced. Fiona is furloughed but thinks her job is safe long term. Bobby is working and had even been to the office. He's involved in getting the town centre out of lockdown. They have Tara and Charlie at home with them. Took of photo of Gil's chimney stack. We've always like the red brick against the blue sky. The moon was out as well.