walking

I guess we are getting Anglicized. When we can't think of anything to do, instead of heading to the BX, or driving hours in search of a castle ruin, we go for a walk.

Friday Bob was home and fed by 6, and it was still warm(ish) and sunny. So we drove out to Moulton and took a walk. We parked by the "river" and walked along it til we got to the bridge without steps, admiring the duck families along the way. There were at least three family groups, with varying sizes of ducklings (but all pre-feather).
Then we crossed the bridge and went across the horse field (it's a public footpath) and across the sheep pasture. The horses were on the other side and didn't look twice at us. The sheep were all over, and didn't mind too much until we came between a group of mothers and a group of lambs. Then there was a chorus of bleating and baaing as the mothers got nervous and the lambs starting running.
We did our best to climb over the style (including lifting the double stroller over) without getting the sheep dung from our shoes to our clothes or hands. Crossed the street to the sidewalk, walked past the shop (now closed) and crossed the street again to enter the village green. They had a playground where we let the children play awhile before circling back to the creek and over to the car.

Saturday we tried to go see a minibus (what they call full-size vans), but after calling all 4 on Ebay that we were interested in, and no one at home, we gave up and decided to go to Cambridge. As we were about to leave, one van owner called back (seeing our number on his caller ID) but the phone cut off before Bob was able to pull any information out of him, and when we called again he didn't answer.
So first we went to Mildenhall to look for a rim for Bob's car (he has a cracked one) at the salvage yard. No luck there. Then we had lunch at the BXtra on base, walked through the toy and sports department so Naysha could tell us what she wants for her birthday. We met a lady form the chapel and visited a few minutes. I invited her to my Pampered Chef party after Bob reminded me.
THEN we got gas, and THEN we headed toward Cambridge. We aren't used to getting there from this direction, so we ended up in a part of town we hadn't seen before. We knew where a Staples was, as we'd been before, but we couldn't get there. However, there was another Staples on the street we happened to be on, and it had roof-top parking. So after circling the block we pulled in there and took a look around. We got a package of things - don't know what to call them - page protectors? The box of 200 was the same price as the pack of 25. We will use these to make a portfolio of Bob's pictures.
Done in Staples, it was back on the road to find a parking spot. We actually got one on the first pass; street side meter parking. This street ran parallel to the River Cam. We got out and walked down to the pedestrian bridge, over the river and onto the Jesus Green. The big ones looked at the water while I changed the little ones' diapers. The William started walking, so I followed him, and slowly the rest fell in line. I think he would have gone clear across the green! But we corralled and headed back to the nastiest public toilets I've seen in this country.
Bob took the lead after that, and we headed toward the market area. First we went to the craft market, then looked at a couple of colleges, and then through the regular market. We didn't make it all the way through the market before we started worrying about the time left on our parking ticket (we'd bought the max of two hours), so we called it good enough to have bought me a new headscarf and left the wondrous smelling fruit stalls for someone else.
What with all the walking, and the market smells, we were quite hungry when we got back to the car at 4:25. So it was pay again and walk back, or drive somewhere. We decided to drive. At first we tried to head toward home, but that didn't work out so well, so we decided to go back into Cambridge and look for a chicken place Bob had heard about. We followed parking signs for the Grafton (mini shopping mall), parked in the "parent and child" space and went through the mall and out the other side. Not seeing a chicken place, we went to Chili's. The food was good, except the corn on the cob was a little dry, and I drank 4 glasses of water.
By the time we finished eating the shops were closed so we headed home.
William and I were showing a little sun, but I think we are non the worse for wear. Hopefully I will continue being less sick, and we'll continue getting out.