Riverwood on the Thames

Pip, pip, cheerio and a jolly good morning to you all. We have been here a little under a week now and even though my body has been curled up on the couch at Riverwood, my mind has been running around the streets of London in search of a serial killer. Plumb wears me out it does. Yes, I was right there with Inspector Lynley and Sargeant Havers of New Scotland Yard as they did their detecting in the pouring rain, or cold night air along the Thames! They consumed many cups of tea as they did their sleuthing, and so did I. I even nibbled a biscuit or two too. Yum!

AC and I do a love a good British mystery, and Elizabeth George delivers some of the best. We always bring a bag of books along with us to the farm cottage, and a couple of the latest murder mysteries are usually tucked in alongside the computer and poetry books. This old farmhouse is the perfect spot for long evenings curled up with a good book and a steaming cup of tea, while Mother Nature busies herself outside dusting fresh snow around to get things ready for our snowshoe walk the next day. Oh the joys of being here at Riverwood with no TV and a phone that hardly ever rings.

During this past week, when I wasn't busy solving murders in London, I worked away at my painting project or went trekking in the woods: an absolutely perfect combination of work, fun and exercise.

We have been blessed with fresh snow almost every day, so the trails are soft and powdery making for a fairly quiet walk, and the trees all along the paths are dressed in thick coats of snow, also muffling the sound of our footsteps. This produces an almost magical feeling in the air as we wind our way through the thick forest. I feel like I have just stepped through the wardrobe and am entering Narnia when I am on certain parts of the path.

Legs are getting stronger now, and we have a full moon in the sky, so the other night we set off for a moonlight walk across Elisarben Meadow and over Fourpaw Pasture. There were lots of clouds in the sky, but it was still light enough for us to find our way perfectly across the snowy fields. Neat!

Yesterday was a day for errands, so a lot of time was consumed preparing for and making a trip to town but we managed a trek along Riverside Ramble Trail late in the day. I was dragging by the time we emerged out of the woods after than one though. One walk was more than enough for that day, so no second moonlight walk last night.

We discovered yesterday that both dumps in the area are closed and they now pick up garbage once a week. Oh dear, that meant we had to get up at 6:30 this morning in order to get the garbage out to the road before 7am. Yikes! We can't put it out the night before because animals would get into it. We have no alarm clock here at the farm, so we had Butterfly call us at 6:30 this morning to make sure we got up in time. It seemed like the middle of the night when the phone rang! AC got bundled up to make the long trek down Welcome Lane to the road with the three bags of garbage while I stayed inside to brew a pot of coffee and slice fresh multi-grain bread for a hot buttery piece of toast.

It is now mid-morning and time to dust off the old laptop and check mail. Dialing in and posting blogs and pictures is very SLOW up here, so most mornings I just ask AC for the news and don't even bother trying to check blogs or post something myself. I will catch up when I get back home. AC is persevering and posting pictures each day though, so be sure to check out his blog.

The sky is heavy with snow clouds which hold the promise of a delicious snowfall to be delivered later today. We hope to go out and blaze a new trail from the North Boundary Line over to Riverside Ramble Path, reaching it without going along the Old Logging Road. That will take us through some pretty dense forest, but it should be fun. We will start by going to the end of the Old Logging Road to pick up the North Boundary Trail then head East over to the river and track back south through the woods to see if we can find the Riverside Ramble Path. That will almost double the time out on the trails though, so we will see how our legs feel once we get out there.

Time now to go work on my painting project for a while and then make lunch before we set off on our adventure.

Hope you are enjoying this fine February day and you find something to warm your heart and make you smile as you blaze new trails of your own today.