Author: Jeff

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OMD (and omg its hot!)

What an eventful week it’s been!

On Friday, Becky & I went to Bristol, met Sam, and the three of us went to see OMD at the Harbourside. It was, no surprise, excellent as they belted out hit after hit, after hit long into the night, ending at 11am. Just for the record, they were ably supported by the Undertones

Sam seemed in good form, it was good to hear about his job, what he actually does, and that he seems to be enjoying it, and living in Bristol.

A trip to see OMD is more exciting than what a do in a normal week, but this has been no normal week. It has been hot, hot, hot, hitting in excess of 36 degrees on Thursday, and we have been living under a red heat alert on Wednesday and Thursday. It has been uncomfortably hot; fortunately it was the last week of term with Y9 out on camp, Y11 and U6th departed after exams, leaving only Y10 and L6 in school, who were allowed to leave early if they wished due to the heat so work was easier than it might normally have been. We were allowed to wear sports/PE kit, meaning days in shorts which helped, but as the week wore on, and despite best efforts of closed curtains, blinds and windows during the day, the temperature inside both at home and school crept inexorably upwards.

Although Wednesday and Thursday were the most blisteringly hot, Monday was hot but come the evening, circa 5.30 pm, we were hit by the most intense storm, the like of which I have not seen before. It went dark – so dark the street lights came on – and then the rain began to fall in buckets, lightening lit the sky, thunder roared and the wind whipped trees and plants in a frenzy.

Even after the storm had passed, the sky continued to rumble in angry torment – not the odd rumble of thunder, but just continual noise from the sky. It really did feel like the end of days.

Friday came, and it was the end of the school year – hooray! This has been a better year than last, of course not easy, but much more tolerable than last year, in a large part due to a better year group. This time last year I was questioning why I did it, and I knew this year could be pivotal, but after a much better year, next year (which is still a blessed 10 weeks away!) holds no fears and my current thinking is to then do another 10/11 cycle after that. Very different from how I felt this time last year. Anyway, term finished, the temperature started to drop a little and I found a cooler spot to sit outside and read.

Sophie came home on Saturday, as we are off to see Scouting for Girls at the Cheese and Grain in Frome this evening – as I said, a very eventful week – and last night the three of us took advantage of the lower temperatures to go for a walk at Ham Wall

And then tomorrow I need to start packing for our next adventure, 5 weeks in Greece.

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Father’s day

Today is father’s day – we are seeing both bambinos at the end of the week, Sam is joining us to see OMD in Bristol on Friday, and Sophie is coming home on Saturday to come with us to see Scouting for Girls at Frome Cheese & Grain (all nicely dovetailing with the end of term which finishes on Friday) We did have a video call this morning

and then I opened my presents of Coke, chocolate, snacks and book, all making me a happy dad!

At the tail end of this week the temperature have begun to climb, meaning the first meal outside on Thursday since half term,

Today the temperature has continued to climb, and the sun has shone, giving as a hot, hot, hot day, circa 28 degrees, and set to get hotter next week, with the mid thirties forecast. Scorchio!

On Friday Becky and I walked down the hill to Strode cinema to watch “My mothers wedding”, an Ok film that I enjoyed but wouldn’t rave about, and on our way home, just before we got home, we spotted a slow worm struggling on the slip road outside our house.

it was clearly struggling to move on the hot tarmac and would soon be squashed by any passing car. Attempts to encourage it onto the grass verge were fruitless, eventually after many woosy attempts by me, and with the help of a disgarded paper towel, I was able to pick it up and take it to the relative safety of the the grass verge.

I hope its doing OK!

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Cleaning

I’ve been on a bit of a cleaning campaign of late. It begun with me purchasing some citric acid to give the washing machine a good clean, and get rid of the flakes that used to settle on the washing when the cycle had finished (it worked a charm, the inside of the machine is now gleaming and washing is coming out flake free) I then begun descaling the kettle and my iron, and have moved on to using citric acid wherever I think it may help – which is a surprisingly lot of places!

Yesterday I had a crack at cleaning the render on our bedroom window, and the side of the house. This time not using citric acid, but Sodium Hypochlorite. Around our window it did look particularly bad:

So I mixed up a batch – probably about 7 to 1 ratio – and using my Karcher whilst up the ladder I was able to apply the cleaner. Not perfect, but much, much better than it was. And I’ve learnt a lot in the process. I mixed up far to much mixture, and I probably didn’t include enough suficant (washing up liquid) to keep it fixed on the render. I’ll probably give it another go when we return from Greece, but for that, as I’ll be working on a much smaller area, I’ll probably get a pump sprayer which will be easier to manage and to direct on to those few areas that need doing.

In other news, the Monstera is currently sitting proud in the sitting room.

The weather’s not been too good. On Monday Becky and I got out for an after tea walk, but then for much of the middle of the week the weather was poor – cold and wet – before improving steadily since Friday evening and today has been a lovely sunny day*

Yesterday Sophie and Becky went to see Harry Styles at Wembley.

*I think the good weather today has led to a plague of flies (not house flies or fungus gnats, something in between size, perhaps 3 mm long). We think they have flown in as we’ve had the back door open. They then flock to the glass windows and doors; the best way to deal with them is to hoover them up. We first had them 3 weeks ago, a worrying new trend?

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Disaster (again!)

Its happened again!

Sam’s Monstera plant has come crashing down off the drawers in his bedroom. So I’ve brought downstairs and re-potted it into a bigger pot. It’s now currently in the siting room, tied to a book shelf so it won’t fall over again, but this won’t be it’s permanent home (not sure where that will be)

In other news, the weather’s not been wonderful – a little chilly and interspersed with some heavy downpours …

My wildflower lawn is looking good …

… and my seedlings, both sunflower and pumpkins, seem to have “”taken” and look healthy …

I do love the summer term, but I don’t normally get as much exercise as in the other two terms. Not this week, though. On Wednesday afternoon I went for a run – albeit not quite 5K, to the B & Q roundabout and back, yesterday I refereed at the Ashcott FC charity football tournament – three hours solid of officiating, half of it in the middle and half on the line, and today I went for a swim, getting in 30 lengths – a kilometre – before breakfast. With a little over three weeks ’till we head to Greece I need to get my self beach ready!!!!

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A busy, brilliant, half-term week

A hot (very hot) half term week draws to a close and it has been a busy and brilliant eight days, the highlight of which must have been seeing Take That in Southampton on Friday evening.

It was an incredible show, excellent music, but more than that, a real visual feast of drama and circus. It was wonderful

It has been incredibly hot this week – record breakingly so, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees on the first few days of the week. We took advantage of the long hot evenings and took ourselves of for a walk after tea each day, with Combe Hill woods being a particular favourite on a couple of occasions.

We even persuaded Sophie to come with one evening, although that was a shorter “round the block” walk

I’d collected Sophie from Bristol airport on Wednesday on her return from her holiday in Majorca, which ended in upset when her suitcase didn’t make it back from Palma airport. Anyway, much stress, a few tears, a form and a couple of phone calls later, the suitcase was returned to us on mid-morning on Thursday, having been found the previous evening still in Majorca.

Another mini-disaster was when I went upstairs and found the cheese plant on the floor of Sam’s room. With all the hot weather we’ve been having windows wide open (when not in the sun) to create a through flow of air. This must have been enough to blow it off the chest of drawers onto the floor …

It was also a week of practical matters – on Tuesday the Ka passed it’s MOT, I had my hygienist appointment, and an eyes test; my eyesight has improved a little over the last two years! I ran once, less than I planned, in part as my back hurt on my return, and swam once which was good – felt like I was stretching out my bad back and also engaging a few other unused muscles. Sam started his job and is enjoying it, which is great news.

I planted up the rest of my geraniums, and planted out the sunflower and pumpkin seedlings. The “lawn” is looking magnificent with the love in a mist in full flower …

(and because I’m a vain bugger, he is a pick of me reading out “my” names at last week’s Summer Celebration)

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And relax …

Half term has arrived. The term has passed quite swiftly – only 5 weeks and the summer term always has a different (easier!) vibe to it: Volleyball not Football buys me a lot of time, plus a couple of exam classes mean preparing lessons and marking is reduced, and with the better weather everyone’s mood is improved. But I still enjoyed a little afternoon snooze outside on Saturday once it was all over (Summer Celebration in the morning ’til 1pm ish)

The week’s weather has been extreme. It started perishingly cold (and wet, but annoying not volleyball cancelling wet) on Monday and Tuesday, but by the end of the school week it was warming up, and Sunday was scorchio!. (I’m writing this in the garden on Monday morning as I didn’t have time (!) yesterday)

Sam and Sophie both came home on Thursday, Sophie to get ready to go on holiday with Lucy to Majorca on Saturday, Sam to collect the last of his stuff for his new flat. (He starts his new job tomorrow, Tuesday)

But by Saturday afternoon we were home alone again. We have decided to make the most of the weather and go for a walk after tea each evening. On Saturday we parked in the YHA and walked to the windmill and back, beautiful vistas across the levels in the evening sunshine.

and last night we walked to the weir and then followed the water to the road and the river Brue. It was still very warm, and very, very picturesque.

We’d spent the morning having a good cut back and tidy up in the garden – with our many absences due to travel, only one day weekends, and some wet weather of late, the garden has been a bit neglected and there is still much cutting back to do, but it looks neater, and provides a pretty background to enjoy reading, eating (and occasionally snoozing) in the glorious sunshine.

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And he’s off …

Sam has moved out, into his new flat in Bristol. On Friday he headed off with a packed Micra to collect the keys and begin settling in.

Today (Sunday) we went up to help him build his IKEA furniture that arrived yesterday

The flat is on Gloucester Road, above a coffee shop. It’s quite a spacious 1 bedroom flat, a little bit shabby round the edges, but has a bit of character, is light, and will hopefully prove to be a good base for his new job that starts soon.

The view from the sitting room window!

Having built his bed, shelves, mirror; helped it tidy and organise himself, we headed home with a car full of cardboard and other packaging to take to the tip!

And in entirely unrelated news, my Christmas cactus is in full bloom …

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Geraniums, seeds, and my Christmas cactus

Its been a dry Spring, and at times, quite sunny and warm (although today has been disappointingly cold and windy) and today I planted up the front trugg with geraniums. As we are going away for such a long time (5 weeks) in the summer, we’ve decided not to plant sunflowers out front as we won’t be around for the necessary maintenance, instead just plumping for drought tolerant geraniums that will hopefully thrive and look good with little care.

Today I have also planted up some seeds – 6 pumpkins and 24 sunflowers. If these germinate, they are destined for the back garden, near the rear deck, the deck on which we ate tea last night as it turned into a wonderful warm evening. (See what I did there to segue from my geranium pic into this pic?!)

The alliums that have come are looking good, but given how many I planted, they are a little disappointing – not the massed forest of purple headed stems I’ve had in the past.

Indoors, I’m delighted that my Christmas Cactus is flowering – not sure if its seven months early or five months late, but I won’t worry about that, I’m just happy to see some pretty red tips to the leaves (not sure if they are supposed to open like actual flowers)

And I continue to enjoy seeing what I can capture on my outdoor camera. We’ve had quite a bit of sparrow activity in the garden, here’s a pic of one happy little chap hoping about.

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Phone repairs

Yesterday, I repaired my phone by replacing the camera lens that had become unclear – it wasn’t scratched, it just looked dirty, but wasn’t. Delaminating perhaps? Anyway, it was a fairly simple task, took about twenty minutes to remove the old lens, and then just popped the new one (about £3 for two from Ali-express – I couldn’t source them in the UK – and the job was done, and my pictures are now fog free again! (example below)

Sam has got himself organised and rented a flat, he moves in in two weeks time, so that feels like a significant milestone, and I refereed my last match of the season today, another milestone.

I do feel a bit behind with the garden, but today I did get a little ahead of the game by digging up all the bulbs from the front trugg. A little earlier than previous years, but we’ve had a run of dry weather, that is set to end next week, and experience has taught me it is much easier to dig them up from dry soil, rather than wet. Plus I have all the geraniums waiting to go in, and I’m keen to get them planted in.

And the garden continues to be a haven for wildlife. Becky snapped this baby blackbird in our Apple tree, and on Friday Sam spotted a slow worm by the back gate …

(and Becky reports seeing a tiny, tiny baby slow worm in the shade of the fig tree, but no photographic evidence)

And a couple of shots of a hedgehog by the side passage captured on the trail cam

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Disaster!

This morning I was officiating (lino) at a Bridgwater & District League cup final, being played at Bridgwater Town FC. On my arrival, I was a little confused as to where to park and went into what I thought was an overflow car park, decided not to park in there, so turned round to head out and I must have caught the side of my trusty Micra on a big metal gate. It made a horrible noise and, having parked up, heart in mouth I tentatively stepped out to survey the damage.

I had scraped the passenger side of the car, leaving some nasty scratches, scuff marks, and a dent, Its not a car killer, and a rub with a rag once I got home and it already looks better; have some touch up paint on order, but I can’t help but feel annoyed with myself.

We’ve been back at school a week already, and the weather has been kind – blue skies and sunny, although the start of the week was chilly, it has warmed up wonderfully for the latter part of the week. Have bought about 72 geraniums from Lidl – £4.99 for a pack of six – and have begun planting them up.

Perhaps its because we were away for so long in the Easter holidays, I don’t think we are as far through the season as we actually are, I think I may be a little bit behind schedule in the garden.

I gathered together all the geraniums I have successfully managed to over-winter:

… not all made it!

The picture at the top of the post is my room one evening, bathed in the glow of Spring sunshine, these long evenings and blue skies make such a difference.