Overdrive

More wonderful, glorious sunshine.

Mark spent the day in the garden, digging the foundations for the conservatory. The most startling effect of this has been that there is now a large trench stretching across the garden path. It is necessary to navigate over the top of this whilst balancing on a plank, just to add yet more excitement to our midnight journeys home across the ever more challenging back yard wasteland. 

I did not help with this project. My contribution to the day was to shoulder some of Mark’s other responsibilities in order that he could get on with conservatory creation with an uncluttered mind. 

I took on the Teaching Lucy To Drive Challenge.

We were all a bit concerned about this, because I am not one of nature’s gentle souls, offering mild and benevolent advice out of the kindness of a warm and giving spirit. 

Even in my very best moments I can be unexpectedly shouty.

Mark laughed quite a bit and said that he would make sure he had his phone switched on in case of emergencies, and got on with his digging. 

I promised myself that I would become beatific in my inner soul and exude Zen tranquillity.

Dearie me, this was hard work. 

I have crossed ‘driving instructor’ off my list of potential career diversions. It is right up there with the rest of the things that I very obviously can’t do, along with ‘prison officer’ and ‘undertaker’.

We started off by trundling down the hill into Bowness, because. thought that it might be good for her to practise avoiding Japanese tourists and suicidal ducks. We tootled around all the roadworks and the illegally parked locals and I marvelled, as usual, at how busy the world becomes during the day. I warned her about the lethal speed bump just before the nightclub, but it turns out that you barely notice it at all when you are travelling at the speed limit.

After that we turned our faces to the north, and left the tourists behind. We set off towards Patterdale, along the Kirkstone Pass.

This is an exciting road for a beginner, because of being full of sharp bends and steep slopes and unexpected sheep. We navigated our way past them all, and gradually made our way down the long, winding road into Patterdale.

It is the most splendid drive, and on a day like today, drenched in sunshine and daffodils, it could not have been nicer.

We stopped in Glenridding, and once we had cautiously eased ourselves into a parking space, we got out and went for a stroll along the shores of the lake.

This was ace, and made me long to rush home and pack up the camper van. We could have parked beside the lake and had a little campfire and been as thoroughly on holiday as you could ever wish for, except it did not seem fair without Oliver, and also I want to get the conservatory built. We will not achieve this if we are lolling about gazing at scenery and drinking smoky red wine under starlit skies.

Instead we climbed back into the car and drove out towards Keswick and back into Ambleside. Lucy explained that the hills were a bit troubling, because of course they don’t have them at her school in York, which was where she started learning to drive.

I thought that some practice might be a good idea, so we came home over a terrifying road called The Struggle, which looks like the sort of thing that you see on upsetting YouTube videos about trying to cross mountain ranges in China.

She is very brave.

The Struggle is the sort of uphill where you have got to sit up in order to see over your bonnet. It is scary even if nobody is coming down the other way, and was the site of a particularly awful crash a few years ago.

Lucy managed it, if not exactly with aplomb, at least without bursting into tears. I was jolly pleased with her and promised that we would try again in the dark one night, just for the sake of becoming braver.

We went home after that, worn out with the excitement of being motorists, and discovered that the washing had dried in the garden. That is the first time this year.

We are going to have another go tomorrow.