Hubby and I walked the dog up to the market this morning. What would normally have taken us about twenty minutes took three quarters of an hour.
This is a friendly town and our faces seem to be well known. I put it all down to Maggie as she is such a people magnet and loves fuss, people got to know her first, then realised we all came together as a package deal.
Hubby and I both like the town. We feel we belong and have made friends here, so naturally we will miss it and them when we move on.
Picture taken at the plantation where we used to walk Maggie every day in Lincolnshire.
We had just started our walk when we spied someone walking towards us who we usually see on The Avenue. Maggie was off lead and recognised her too, so gently bounded off to greet her. It made her day as she no longer has pets but has always had a soft spot for Maggie since we first met almost three years ago.
We stood and chatted for a while then carried on up to the market.
On the way, we met up with another friend who always gives Maggie a biscuit. She knew this of course, made a beeline for the biscuit pocket and looked appealingly ‘starved’.
She was rewarded, we chatted and moved on.
I managed to buy a pair of cloggies for a fiver (they are blue so I could wear them with my posh frock I suppose!) and in contrast three punnets of juicy raspberries for two pounds.
Standing around too much isn’t good for Hubby, so we decided to go for coffee and people watch so that he could rest up.
Sitting on the bench, we nodded at several people we knew across the road, and when walking up to the bank met up with a couple from The Avenue who used to have a boat but gave it up some years ago. They thought my quip a year or so ago about having a monochrome dog because we couldn’t afford a colour licence was hilarious (note: the 7/6d or 37½p dog licence was scrapped years ago).
Walking back home, we saw another couple with their rescue dog, a black labrador, who is a totally different animal from last year. She has lost all of the excess weight, walks beautifully on the lead, and is loving and sociable. She and Maggie lay down on the grass together side by side as if they’d been friends for years.
They still have their boat but it’s not in the marina anymore as it was not cost effective, especially as it needed some work done on it and they couldn’t take it out anyway.
It has been interesting talking to everyone today as they have all commented on how the marina has changed over the past few months. I’ve already said in previous posts that the community spirit has died, and when I take Maggie down for her final wee in the evenings, it is practically dead. I rarely see anyone now, and if the car park is occupied, it is mostly with cars I no longer recognise.
Apparently several other residents have moved on, one wide beam owner has concluded a private sale this week and left, and the marina manager has sold his own narrowboat, saying his wife wants one with a steering wheel rather than a tiller (I have my own ideas about that but will keep them to myself).
We’d been told there was a waiting list of people wishing to come to the marina, but so far a lot of the new berths remain empty, and despite those on brokerage being moved across to the basin we had been in, that is looking a little vacant too.
pensitivity101 