Lower Street, Stroud

Lower Street is quite a tightly packed street. The roofs have high pitched because weavers worked from home in their cottages, and there must be good clearance for a loom's shafts. In some of the cottages you step down when you enter the house, usually straight into the living room. The cottages are charming but I think I had enough of whacking my head on door lintels and beams, and falling down the servants' staircase, when I lived in an older property.

This morning, I ran my socially distanced card stall in the street for a couple of hours (great chats and a few sales) and then went to town to hand over an order to a customer, and deliver various items: gluten free flour and a recipe for parkin to G; spare bubble wrap to the Made in Stroud shop for their mail order parcels; an old fashioned corded phone for J because hers is on the blink. Walking back home from the Slad Road, in the valley bottom, seemed to take hours. I stopped several times. In Castle Street, just before this tree shot, I saw the former mayor, John M, holding a placard and talking to someone. I realise he must have been attending the Stroud Anti-Covid rally, which went ahead, despite our being in lockdown. Apparently Piers Corbyn was there. I felt glad to have missed it. One for the conspiracy theorists.

Back home, I rested, then went to the Corner Shop to drop off some things I'd forgotten to take there yesterday. While I was queueing (one person in the shop at one time) a notification flashed up on my phone. I had to pinch myself and double check the story before asking if anyone else had heard about the US election results. They had not. We all had a friendly, distanced chat, everyone hapoy, then I went home to wake up Steve from his little snooze. He was deeply asleep, and seemed to think that Trump had won. I offered to make him a celebratory cup of tea...

Then I phoned J. She is using the phone I left for her, but had not changed the lead. It's still crackly and unreliable! She had not heard the news either. Then I texted Dave.

Eventually I made chicken satay for supper and we settled down for an evening of TV. I must find a way to bring the big jigsaw board downstairs; the 2000 piece one in the spare room' s not getting done because I feel trapped between the wall and the board.