Dreaming of Lakes and Mountains.

The fine weather continues and seems to give me extra energy, this morning we are out of bed for six and breakfast on porridge and Bakers again. I am showered and dressed by seven, drinking my second cup of dark roast Italian coffee in the garden and decide to carry on with the spring cleaning, today I clear shoes and boots out of the wardrobes and go through the triage routine again, but with the added twist of cleaning those shoes that seem to have been put away dirty. The sandals for Sam's dad are put to one side and a pair of strong walking boots and walking trainers set aside for my upcoming holiday in Austria. We are going to the Wolgangsee, a lake in upper Austria about half an hour from Salzburg. My cousins like to walk, as do I, as long as my dicky hip doesn't play up too much. By nine the winter boots and shoes are all put away and sandals and summer shoes cleaned and put in the wardrobe, along with half a dozen pairs of Oxford's that are too good to part with and which I have justvcleaned and polished. We collect the terriers for half past nine and walk our usual loop, I am becoming reacclimatised to shorts and sandals, but it is unlikely that this fine weather will last more than a few days this early in the spring. When we arrive back in Cherry Burton, I mow the lawns and the start the big job of the day, which is weeding the large flower bed adjacent to the south facing hedge. The terriers dash about the garden playing with a ball and Normy sleeps in the sun on the freshly mowed lawn, occasionally raising his head to check on my whereabouts. I finish the work at half past one and put the tools away, noticing that a fluorescent tube has gone in the garage, when I remove it, it is the same size as a spare one that I have at home, so I tell Pip that I will replace it tomorrow. En route home, I call at Sam's and leave the sandals for her dad, who is going on holiday shortly, she isn't in, so I leave them in a plastic bag hanging from the door knob. Back home I have just time to feed Norman and make myself another cheese and tomato sandwich, before driving to the pool to take advantage of the golden hour, between a quarter to three and four o'clock. I repeat the two thousand metre swim of yesterday, but put in a sprint session on medleys and knock out four fast repeats, before warming down. In the adjacent lane is a woman called Jenny, who asked me for coaching advice on freestyle last year, her stroke has improved considerably, but she is still swimming with her brain, rather than feeling the water. She asks me what I think, and I tell her the stroke is much better, but she still needs to feel it more and think it less. Jenny is in her late thirties, married with children and swimming is her recreation. So I tell her that it is only perfectionist nerds like me that tend to bother with the finer details, she laughs but says she still wants to get it right. The problem lies in being in too much of a hurry, anyone can master perfect swimming technique, it just takes, patience, perseverance and faith in the body's ability to find the easiest way through the water. In short a zen approach, based on the gradual mastery of a sequence of drills. Think of Mr. Miyagi in the film "The Karate Kid", and you will get the general idea. The curse of the age is an obsession with speed and quantity, rather than calmness and quality, but that's an old Catholic/Buddhist talking. I arrive back in Tickton at five, starving hungry, and proceed to reprise the lamb burger pitta breads and salad that I made for Louis on Monday, but with the addition of a slice of fried Haloumi cheese. I synchronise Norman's tin with my dinner, which we both eat in the garden, enjoying the last rays of the evening sun. The pittas taste even better with the addition of the Haloumi, so I shall buy more cheese tomorrow when I shop for the weekend. After dinner we weed the paths around the house and then I take Normy round the village before bedtime. In bed, I check out the weather in Austria, it is currently 25 degrees in Wolfgangsee, the pictures on the web show a lake nestled beneath mountains on all sides, with a meadow running along its shores, absolutely idyllic. I fall asleep daydreaming about summer in the lakes and mountains.