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Bulbs and boosters

(extra Pic of the week 30/10/22)

Just a quick extra post for reference.

I’ve spent a bit of time this half term planting up bulbs. Before we went to Dubrovnik, I planted all of last year’s bulbs that I had saved in the lawn (was surprisingly hard work, lifting squares of turf to get them planted. The lawn currently looks pretty rubbish!)  And on Friday (28/10/22) I planted a load of daffodil, tulip and grape hyacinth bulbs in the front planter. I have left the geraniums in as they still look healthy and provide a bit of colour. It is currently unseasonably warm, will they make it through the winter. I also planted up some allium bulbs in pots.

In other news, today I had my Covid booster – my 4th covid jab – this time it was Pfizer.  So far, no ill effects … Have my flu jab booked for Saturday.

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Dubrovnik

Pic of the week 30/10/22

Becky & I have just enjoyed a wonderful week in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We flew out on Wednesday 19 Oct, returning a week later on the 26th. We did a lot whilst we were away!

We stayed in the Old Town – a great central location to strike out from, but perhaps my only disappointment of the week: I thought the old town was too well preserved, almost Disneyfied, and lacked any of the gritty imperfections of Palma, Corfu or Naples old towns. But it was very picturesque – and boy, there were a lot of steps! On our last full day we walked the city walls and this was great – seeing the city now we knew its geography rather than using the wall walk as a means to discover.

On our first full day we went up Mount Srd, ascending using the cable car and descending using a long, rocky, zig zag path.  I really enjoyed this day, particularly when we walked along the ridgeway for 10 mins to find a spot to enjoy our lunch and the tranquillity of solitude gazing down over the town and the sea beyond.

The next day we went on a (pre-booked) tour to Mostar – a long day, but a great day: the history was fascinating and I now have a much better understanding of the politics of the Balkans, Mostar was beautiful, as was the Kravice waterfalls, but the water was blummin’ freezing!

Trips to Lokrum island, Lapad (effectively “new town Dubrovnik) and the town of Cavtat were all great days. Exploring Lokrum was fun, a Cavtat was a lovely seaside resort – I’d happily holiday there in the furure.

I swam every day, and some of the swimming spots were certainly up there with the best of them: crystal clear, deep water with islands and coves in the eyeline – just the way I like it!

A great holiday that has kept winter at bay a little bit longer – the sun shone every day and it was shorts and T-shirt weather every day.

 

 

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Preparation

Pic of the week 16/10/22

We had a fleeting visit from Sam last night – he’d been in Bristol for Smithy’s birthday on Friday, and came home yesterday evening for a roast dinner, shower and sleep in his own bed.  Today he got the bus back to Bristol and then train to Cardiff.  It was nice to see him, he’s looking well and seeming to be enjoying and engaging with his new course of History and Economics.

For me, the half term holidays have begun.  I must admit, the first half of term whizzed by and I still can’t quite believe its mid-October and on Wednesday we are off to Dubrovnik.

Today was sunny and warm (although it is now wet and dark) and I took the opportunity to plant all the bulbs I saved from the planter into the lawn. It was hard work digging up sections of turf, and then I pretty much just dropped the bulbs in and popped the turf back on top.  The lawn does now look a bit off a mess with soil everywhere, but hopefully come next spring the bulbs will all pop up and flower and it will have been a job well done.  Tomorrow (weather permitting) I’ll remove the sunflowers from the front planter – one or two are still gamely flowering, but most are now looking past it (dead!) and they need to come out to make space for the next load of bulbs.

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Getting old

Pic of the week

I’m getting old.

Somehow, on Monday I managed to pull a muscle whilst sat on a sofa.  I was sat done and just moved slightly and felt a real twinge in my left rib cage and it has hurt all week – particularly on the couple of occassions that I have sneezed.  Hurting yourself whilst exercising is one thing, but hurting yourself whilst sitting down is another, a depressing sign of my ageing body I fear.

And today, I enjoyed a long snooze of about an hour this afternoon, another sign of getting old.

This post is partly tongue in cheek – I’m not as young as I was, but I was able to keep up with the 18 year olds I refereed yesterday, and today I ran 10K in sub 50 minutes, so I’m not doing too bad.

The pic above is the tree outside my window, its turned a beautiful colour.  The trees are all turning now – I need to enjoy them whilst I can as they will soon be leafless and skeletal as autumn rolls on and into winter.  One week of term to go, looking forward to the deserved break, but this half term does seem to have passed quickly.

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Pumpkin

Pic of the week 2/10/22

I think that it is fair to say that summer is over, and autumn is upon us.  After a long, hot, dry summer, we have had quite a bit of rain of late, including on Wednesday afternoon when I got soaked whilst refereeing out at Kingweston.  I’d had forgotten that it was possible to be so cold.  We haven’t really had a gradual decay from summer to autumn, the weather has remained quite warm and dry, until this last week when it has suddenly changed (although today was supposed to be really wet, a real wash out, and when I got up in the morning it was raining, the drops were big and heavy, but not too many of them, actually quite nice running conditions. And then, as the day wore on, the clouds vanished, leaving us with a warm, sunny October day.)

This summer I have cultivated two pumpkins, the monster above weighing in at 4.5 Kg and measuring 80cm in circumference, and a much smaller one, 2 Kg and 47 cm in circumference.  The smaller one grew first, I think the latter one did so well as it fruited when we were home from Greece, enjoyed the heat wave and (as a result of the heat wave) got regular, nightly watering. I am proud of them both, but particularly the one above, it is a classic shape and colour, and a fair old heft.