Fresh air and exercise....well, a little...

We've gardened a bit in the past week, so rewarded ourselves on Wednesday with a trip to Standen which, although we hadn't visited for 14 years, is one of our favourite National Trust properties.  It is beautifully situated on a south-facing West Sussex hillside in fine grounds, and with lovely gardens round the house itself.  We were a week or so too late to see its trademark tulips at their best, but the display was still pretty good.  The house itself is rather peculiar-looking from outside, but is laid out on a human scale.  OK, the drawing room and dining room are each three times the size of ours, but it nevertheless feels like a home to live in, unlike so many of the NT piles.

On Friday I had a couple of errands to run: one was to get another batch of Royal Mail stamps cancelled for Phil the philatelist in Costa Rica, and the other was to attend the opening ceremony of the new local Citizens' Advice office in town (I'm on its advisory committee).  Expecting queues at the Post Office, I left in good time to catch the bus to town.  Well, there was no queue, so I was finished there with an hour to spare before my date in town.  I decided to leg it, since I'm seriously conscious of my lack of muscle tone after the 18 months of limited mobility following my knee injury.  Well, I made it into town with time to spare to go and buy a pair of sensible shoes, and indeed at the third shop visited.

The opening was a pleasant experience, with good and commendably concise speeches from our chairman and from the local MP.  Though they had laid on a superb spread of canapés, sandwiches and cakes, I didn't hang around too long before catching the bus home, and met a neighbour on the bus for a nice chat.

Talking of neighbours, I became aware of one lot schlepping wooden pallets out to the footpath.  Shortly after that, an articulated lorry towed a shipping container up the street, turned laboriously round, and parked after much trial and error just below the end of said neighbours' shared drive.  Driver then got down, bluetooth thingy in ear, and conversed loudly and at length in a slavic language.  Cars full of helpers arrived one by one, and gradually transferred vast amounts of newly painted furniture, cartons, plastic bags, three or so bicycles, two swimming pool ladders, a two-door fridge-freezer and an ironing board, to name but a few.  I may bestir myself to find out the story, but creative writers among you may in the meantime care to spin a yarn round that lot.