A walk to Skidby Mill

Up at half past six and make a full English with breakfast tea and eat in the kitchen. I have to collect Louis at eight thirty and it's seven fifteen so I thaw out a couple of chicken fillets and fry them up with some onion and peppers, add chilly, garlic, ginger and hot curry powder and then stick it in the slow cooker for dinner tonight. Shower and dress and drive to North Bar to collect Louis, Sarah left at six thirty and so no one has taken Norman out. I solve the problem by taking him with me and Louis as we walk to school, and afterwards drive home with him in the back of the car. When we get home I peg out a line of coloured washing and then sit Norman on my knee and strip his coat and trim his nails. Norman is a fifteen year old black and tan wire haired dachshund that I bought for Alice when she was a baby. He was looking really scruffy, so after I groomed him I put him in the bath and shampoo him with baby soap. The makeover takes years off him and he runs round the garden like a puppy. The weather is warm but overcast so around eleven decide to go for a walk, first leaving a bowl of water for Normy. I drive to All Hallows Church in Walkington, where I park up and change into my walking boots before setting off to walk across the fields to Skidby Windmill. The sky is clearing and it's turning into a lovely summer's day, this is one of my old cross country running routes and it's about eight miles there and back. The fields have wheat and barley, beans and rape seed as I make my way towards the windmill, I make good time initially but hit a couple of stretches of thick,high grass, and so it's one o'clock when I reach my destination. I order beef sandwiches and tea, taking it outside to eat and then reading the Yorkshire Post before setting off back. The return leg follows a different route and there is no problem with long grass but I encountered a different problem when I stop to retie my bootlaces and rest my foot on a fence, my hip is sore and painful. I haven't been moving freely and realise that this arthritis must have been the problem. I get back to the car for three and drive to the supermarket to buy lager and chapattis to accompany my curry and a tin of dog food for Normy's dinner. When I get in I let him out in the garden, bring in my shirts and put out a line of whites before giving Norman his dinner and making myself tea. I take a lanzoprazole tablet to protect my stomach and then a slow release diclofenac, anti inflammatory tablet. It will probably take a couple of days to shift the inflammation. Drink tea and read Ian Rankin until it's time to get Louis and then load the dog in the car and head for Hector's House, Louis' after school club. After they are delivered safely to Sarah's I return to Tickton and warm the chapattis in a dry frying pan, pour myself a beer and eat dinner. After dinner I read until bedtime.