Easter Monday in Shrewsbury - Lots of walking, some editing, catching up with a friend - The Big Shrewsbury Editing Trip - Part 3

Day 3 - Monday 6th April 2026

A lengthy walk

I began the day with a long walk. My choice of podcast - Josh Widdecombe’s Museum of Pop Culture - I bought myself a subscription and am working my way through the subscriber only content. I love the nostalgia and humour in this podcast, so I’m really enjoying it.

For this walk, I headed towards The Quarry. I walked around part of the park, along the River Severn, until I found The Dingle, which is a beautiful formal garden, which is packed with colourful flowers year round. I have marvelled at The Dingle every time I have visited and have previously sat and worked on my writing in amongst the flowerbeds.

I discovered a part of the park which was full of memorial plaques and memorial benches to a huge number of people that are here no more. It struck me as a really quite lovely way to remember lost loved ones.

A gorgeous garden seems somehow nicer to sit in and reminisce, compared with a graveyard. I’ve seen memorial benches before, but this was on an epic scale.

As I headed from The Quarry back into town, I found a beautiful old Georgian crescent of terraced houses, which I'd never seen before. I love the history in Shrewsbury. There's so much of it, and the architecture is really lovely.

Breakfast Muffin

By 8:30am I was ready for my breakfast. Having decided that the Floro Lounge would be my eatery of choice, I had half an hour to kill before they opened. I popped into Pret à Manger and had a nice cup of tea, while reading a bit more of ‘She Rises’. The guy behind the counter was really quite friendly and happy to pass the time of day, which I find puts me at my ease.

One of the things I’m enjoying about the book is its setting. I quite enjoy reading books that are set in places I know, and with this book being set in Essex - mainly Harwich, it’s very close to home for me as a Colchestrian.

After the tea, I took myself across the road to the Floro Lounge and ordered myself a breakfast muffin, which consisted of streaky bacon, a fried egg, and a couple of slices of American plastic cheese. It was perfectly good and I wolfed it down with some peppermint tea, while continuing my reading. What I really enjoyed in both

Back to Charlotte

I returned to my lodgings once I had eaten and took a couple of hours to work on ‘Charlotte - The Lady In White’. I was working on a section which had been a little perplexing for me, involving a partial description of an event (no spoilers!), which is revisited later in the novel. I needed to resolve how to retain both sections, but remove the sense of confusion and repetition which was definitely there. I feel like although I only actually worked on one page of the novel, I added in a few new pages, which resolve one of the key issues that needed to be looked at. There’s a bit more to write, but I have my head around it now, which is a relief. It feels more like puzzle solving than writing in some ways, but it’s definitely interesting.

Joining the gym

I popped off across town at 12:15 for a gym induction. With exercise being a key component of how I’m keeping my perimenopause symptoms at bay, I’m not desperate to lose any ground on that, so my routine, while not very exciting, is really important to my general wellbeing at the moment.

I walked across town and was delighted to find out that I can pay for a day pass each time I want to go in, and they’ll let me use the gym as I need for the duration of my stay. I’ll head in tomorrow for a workout, but I’m feeling good about knowing that it’s there for me to use.

Catching up with old friends.

I had a lovely lunch with an old friend, who I hadn’t seen in about seven years. I really enjoyed seeing her and to catching up, sharing how life has been for both of us, since we last met.

We had a really nice meal - eggs florentine with roasted seeds and sourdough - at The Cat’s Pyjamas and then had a walk in The Quarry.

Dinner

By the time my friend and I had finished catching up, it was time to eat again and I was really hungry. I was lured into Ask Italian by their Chicken Milanese, which was delicious, and full of herbs, garlic, and delicious flavours.

I headed back to my lodgings and rested up, feeling nicely tired after a really fulfilling day.