Welcome Home

Nice though it was to get down to Chester after four months away, nothing beats the feeling of relief when I return home to Kendal. It just generally feels safer and friendlier. And the garden in full spring colours is definitely a welcome sight as you turn onto the drive.
Not been a bad day though. Found the “short wash/dry” programme on the new washer dryer. Only a few clothes needed washing and it was ideal for that - washed and dried in under an hour. Much better than our first experiment with a standard wash and dry - five hours to do a few pillowcases and a sheet is excessive by any standards!
M6 was pretty quiet on the way home, until we approached the Blackpool turnoff, where it was stop/start queues for half an hour. Aftermath of a multi vehicle accident combined with people heading for the seaside, it would seem.
Stopped off in Lancaster on the way. I’d ordered a couple of CDs from HMV just before Xmas and this was the first chance I’d had to see if they had arrived. 50% success rate - one in, one still awaited. It seems there is a big backlog at their distribution centre, but the manager was hopeful it would only be a couple of weeks before they caught up.
Lancaster itself was incredibly busy. Because it’s a University city there are a lot of young people around and there didn’t seem to be much adherence to social distancing or mask wearing. The other thing I noted was that nearly everyone was carrying a Primark bag. I’m guessing that’s what happens when there is four months of pent up demand to satisfy! We really felt most uncomfortable and unsafe especially when we saw the crowds trying to get in to the pubs with outside seating areas. Very glad to get away from there as it looked like there could be a lot of trouble later on, once the effects of alcohol start to show.
We were travelling whilst the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral was taking place, so did not see any of the event, other than a few pictures on social media. There is a review of the day on BBC2 later so we will try and watch that.
Very pleasant just sitting here in the evening sunshine. No desire whatsoever to go out - that’s something for later in the year. It’s just good to be back home.