The Runday Hike

This morning it was a Runday but we changed that to a hike day. The reason was that I have been rationing out my Quinine tablets that the doctor prescribed for my some years ago after a series of dreadful night cramps in my legs. Sometimes the cramp was so bad that it caused damage to the muscles leaving bruising and swelling and what looked like bleeding inside the muscles, that slowly sank down to my foot. Right now I am getting a little bit short of the Quinine and so I have not been taking it every night to eek the supply out a bit. I usually have my prescription sent from the surgery to Lloyds Pharmacy in Sainsburys having ordered the inhalers for my Asthma and the Quinine from the surgery. I have been staying indoors since the beginning of March and so I have not been in to Sainsburys to pick up my prescription. In fact I have not been into any shop, anywhere at all since the end of February. The only reason I have left the house is, to go running at 5am every other morning. Rain or shine.

Last night I had an attack of cramp in my right calf that was bad enough for me get up in the night to find a cold floor to stand on, that helps a bit. I drank some water a slathered the calf with muscle relief gel and after I while it unlocked. This morning the calf felt bruised though, not dreadful, but a bit tight and as I said, it felt as any muscle does when bruised. Steve was concerns about it and asked if I wanted to forget the run after seeing me looking a little stiff walking. Firmly I said that it was not by any standards anything to be over concerned about and I told him that it felt better for having walked around a while at home.

So we left the house at the usual time having smoothed more of the muscle relief gel on to the calf even though it was not painful as such, just slightly tight at most. Steve said it was stupid to take chances and so we opted for a very nice walk, staying on woodland trails and the calf improved gradually as we walked along and the slight discomfort disappeared altogether quite soon. I have always been a strong walker, something I was trained to be by my mother as a young child. She was a very fast walker and I had to keep up or else.

We had a delightful walk, and all on trails that we don’t use as a rule, in fact only the first and last section was on the same old tramping ground as ever. It was so still and quiet in the woods and Steve and I never stop saying how lucky we are to have such a wonderland close to our home; a couple of miles as the crow flies.

After taking a little drive around Arundel just for the heck of it, we went home for our second coffee of the day and sat to catch the news. It seems that not only Leicester is having a new spike of the Covid virus but Bradford is also having a big rise in cases again. I do not think it is time for me to break my Covid routine and Steve is not taking any chances either after taking care so long to shield me. He will be seventy in just over a week which is a month before I am eighty one. I am so fortunate to have just a caring husband.

The read out of our outing on the ever present Garmin Forerunner this morning has the route measuring 8 km just over five miles. Five glorious miles by the way, with birds singing their little hearts out everywhere. The deer count was low. Only three of the tiny darling things on the whole walk.

We had a delivery from Ocado that arrived a little earlier than the booking and at such times the driver always rings to check that an early delivery is convenient. We are getting a delivery slot almost once a week now and so we are able to have more of the fresh food. That has been the main thing that has been a problem to a pair of people who are a bit obsessive about the importance of fresh food and vegetables. Steve uses lemons by the ton in his cooking and we are both crazy about fresh salad.

Our most common meal (every weekday), is confirmed here as either fresh salmon fillets or chicken breast with just lambs leaf salad. Lambs leaf has so many names doesn’t it? Feld salad, Nüssli, Rapunzel and no doubt many more names since it is so popular everywhere in Europe. The poor selection of fresh fruit and the infrequency of deliveries has changed our dessert eating habits that were always fresh fruit and ice cream. Now we have a home made rice pudding, or blancmange or jelly while the stay at home time continues. We also keep frozen berries in the freezer now and both enjoy hot berries over vanilla ice cream more than any other dessert. It reminds us of holidays in St Moritz around Christmas time where it is on the dessert menu at the Hotel Hauser.