Hot off the press

On a very sunny Saturday morning I was desperate not to be late (unusually) for leading my first community mission. I managed to arrive early enough for a breakfast almond croissant whilst awaiting Leanne. Despite an alarm fail and a longer-than-expected run in, she still made it bang on time, proving again why she is the goodest of the good.

We planned our route and loaded up with the newsletters, either leapfrogging or taking sides of the road as appropriate. Leanne was unlucky enough to get both a grumpy dog and a very grumpy man within the first street, but fortunately after that almost everyone was lovely.

There are some long roads in Fulford and every house had a driveway to navigate, usually with a pesky slightly awkward gate, so it was slow but steady progress. Until a couple of weeks ago I never thought I'd have a strong opinion on letter boxes, but I've come to recognise the extra-difficult ones that are increasingly common with the more modern front door. (You know the one - sleek, close-fitting, brush AND a second inner flap that squishes your leaflet yet refuses to open. Clearly great at keeping out draughts, with letting post in a mere minor secondary concern. There was also a bonus Fulford special-edition to add to my letterbox spotters collection - the traditional vertical arrangement just below the door handle. Looks lovely, fails to admit a newsletter even when folded down to A6 size.)

We were expecting the lovely Maddy fresh from Knaresborough parkrun, and were unsure if we'd be done before she arrived. However we still had a good 160 to go when she made it so for a brief overlap we speed-delivered one street, then bade Leanne farewell to her long-overdue breakfast (although sadly missing the team selfie).

Maddy and I continued on round the increasingly pleasant houses, with some extra long driveways, and enjoyed the chance to view up close all the lovely properties we'd been past so many times before. We finished up by dropping off all the spare newsletters through the door that Egg suggested, so hopefully it's the right one as otherwise they'll have a lot of unwanted reading material. (We had tried the doorbell, but the extremely long and musical arrangement brought noone running alas.)

Nearly 2h and over 5k, but a glorious morning and an excellent to stop off at the ice cream boat, again, on the way home.