Category: Garden

Posted on

Swimming, mice and flower beds

Pic of the week 9/5/21

On Monday I swam, for the first time since August. Given the extra long term, we were given Monday off as a “duvet day” and I took the opportunity to book myself in for a swim up at school.

I ended up doing 40 lengths – 2Km – in 47 minutes and 57 seconds. I actually felt quite fit in the pool, I was able to do that distance without too much difficulty, but I was then knackered for the rest of the day. Amazing how much it took out of me. However, come the holidays (both half-term and summer) I really ought to make swimming more of a regular thing.

Mice: we’ve been plagued by mice, fortunately only in the garden, who have enjoyed foraging on the bird food we put out. The fear is is that they start to stray inside, so this week traps have been laid.  We’ve snared three so far, with cheese being the bait of choice.

Today I planted out my sunflower seedlings into the new bed, along with geranium and lobelia plants. Hope they take to life outdoors and grow into big strong plants.

And this week we bought a rowing machine for the whole family to use. I don’t think anyone’s done a full session on it yet (to be fair, I only put it together yesterday).  I just hope it gets used, and gets us all trim and fighting fit.

Posted on

New Bed

Pic of the week 4/4/21

This week I have built a new flower bed at the front of the house.

It’s not been easy – the fact that the ground slopes away quite significantly from right to left presented a challenge, but a challenge that I rose to! My big take away from the project was a reminder of having the right tools for the job. I begun with my old jigsaw and rusty old saw, neither of which was up to the magnitude of the task. Although I got a lot done with them, it wasn’t easy. So a trip to Screwfix and a new jigsaw and saw and suddenly it was doable again.

Still have to line it, and fill it with soil, and then plant it up. But it does look good.

And the pictures also give a hint of some of the lovely weather we have had this week. Mid-week, we had a couple of glorious days, during which I sat out back and read. It has stayed dry and sunny, but the temperature has fallen over the last few days, and tomorrow is set to be v cold.

In other news, football restarted this week and both yesterday and today I refereed games – good to be back in black.

Posted on

Birds

Pic of the week 17/1/21

(I was going to call this post “Nice Tits” but figured that might get me into trouble)

So lockdown continues, remote teaching continues, and one needs to seek out alternative hobbies and interests in these alternate times. Becky has taken to feeding birds in the back garden, with her feeding stations set up to provide good photo opportunities.  I must admit, I too enjoy looking at the birds and have put a couple of feeders outside my window in the hope of attracting some feathered friends to watch whilst I teach.

One of my “new” hobbies is tinkering with the cars – well, more than just tinkering, fault finding and rectifying. The Micra has begun to make the most dreadful noise – a rattling shriek. Anyway, after some fault diagnosis today, my suspicions were confirmed and the problem is the alternator bearings. I think it will need a new alternator ( I don’t think it will be possible to replace the bearings). Not a difficult job in terms of complexity, but access will make it blummin’ difficult. More research needed.

Hummed and hah-ed about running today, but glad I did. Still slow – I can only manage 7K, and average about 5mins a K, but did feel so, so much better for it afterwards. And my back feels a lot better, to. I think that maybe now the aches and pains I am still getting in my back are from sitting at my computer for most of the day.

Posted on

The Gathering Gloom

Pic of the week 1/11/20

A rather apt photo of me striding confidently into the gathering gloom.

The pic was taken on Wednesday as we (Becky & I) headed home after a walk in Combe Hill woods, but the it is, perhaps, symbolic of the darker days to come of the next phase of lockdown which was announced yesterday, to begin on Thursday (5th Nov) for four weeks. Schools are not closing, so I suspect that the new lockdown will actually make little difference to me.

Half term ends today, despite the weather (its been wet!) and despite not being able to go to Barcelona its been a good two weeks that I feel I have filled productively.  Looking back, I’ve enjoyed a number of good walks, met up with friends (Steve & Nicky), potted and tinkered with the cars, read, tidied the garden and planted some bulbs, sorted our new re-cycling centre, practised my Spanish … I’ve really enjoyed the two weeks, it seems like a long time since I was at school and I’m ready to go back for the next half-term, whatever it may hold.

Bottom right shows the pumpkin I bought and carved, the other three pics show those that I have grown. I don’t know why, but I always feel a great sense of pride about those pumpkins that I grow myself.

I’ve also run quite a lot over the last two weeks, and October in particular. 85.75 Km in fact, and I am now only one run (4 Km) away from completing 1,000 Km in the year. Maybe next week …

 

Posted on

‘Shrooming

Pic of the week 18/10/20

Saturday saw the start of half-term and Becky and I headed up to Stockhill Woods, Priddy, to do some “‘shrooming”. There was quite an impressive array of colours and shapes to discover and it was a really pleasant way to spend the morning, ferreting around in the woods. We did also emerge from the trees to head over to Priddy Pool – I must admit I like being out in the open – but the pool itself, and surrounding landscape, did seem somewhat devoid of life, making it a little bleak. But I did like the first opportunity to try my technical trousers and walking boots. Given that C-19 has forced us all to change how we use our leisure time (we should have been jetting off to Barcelona on Tuesday) I’m glad I’ve bought this specialist clothing – now just got to get outside and use it.

Harvested my five pumpkins this weekend. I don’t know why, but I do take pride in growing these. They are not that big, the two biggest being self-seeders from my compost heap, the other three were all from plants that we bought from the garden centre on the roundabout during lock down.

Today, I changed the oil in the Micra, although I couldn’t remove the old filter (seized in) so that’s a job still to be done.  Did enjoy doing though.

 

Posted on

Poorly

Pic of the week 11/10/20

I’ve been a little bit poorly this week.

Not Covid – I have checked the symptons carefully, I had a sore throat that then became a bit “sinusy”, leaving me feeling tired and with the occasional headache. My temperature has remained normal, I’ve only coughed on occasion (certainly not a new or persistent cough) and my sense of taste and smell has remained undimmed. Just a seasonal bug, probably due to tiredness (and dehydration? Ran on Sunday, spun on Monday, sore throat began on Monday night)

Feel a lot better now, although I did curtail this morning’s run at 7Km, my legs ached, it was hard work (despite lovely weather), I was slow, and I wasn’t really enjoying it.

Have then spent much of the rest of the day pottering in the garden – mowing the lawn, removing the runner beans and their support and planting some daffodils in their place, and general tidying. The sun has shone, and it has been a pleasant temperature – I fell I’ve had a really peaceful day today, which is probably just what I needed.

And the pic of the week?

Well that’s Farrington Gurney Church were we got married nearly 25 years ago. Becky met her sister at the farm shop there (FG) yesterday for coffee and took this pic.

 

 

Posted on

Full time?

Pic of the week 27/9/20

So Covid’s making a comeback and, consequently, I’ve made a big decision.

I’ve blown full-time on my refereeing, at least for the time being.

I don’t fear contracting the virus whilst taking charge of a fixture – its quite easy to keep oneself socially distanced and being outdoors I feel pretty safe, but what concerns me is getting a subsequent call from track and trace to say that someone at a game I have refereed has tested positive and that therefore I need to self-isolate for 14 days.

I don’t want to have to do that as it would drive me mad, plus I would feel I was letting down everyone at school. So I fulfilled my commitment to referee today, but other than school games, that’s it for the time being. I’m limiting my exposure to the world to work and home.  I think that is now how things will be until Spring.

On a more cheery note, the pic above shows my pumpkins nicely turning orange. The leaves are  (have!) turning into crisps, it’ll soon be time to harvest them. I have enjoyed watching them grow. With the leaves now a shadow of their former magnificence, the chard plants are once again beginning to thrive, it will be interesting to see how long they last through winter.

Posted on

Pumpkins and plans

Pic of the week 26/7/20

Not a lot has happened this week – but unlike the groundhog weeks of earlier, its been quite nice to have had a reasonably chilled week.

Possibly the most exciting thing to happen is the emergence of a couple of baby pumpkins, one each on self seeded plants. Its always a nervous few days to see if the pumpkin has actually been fertilised and grows on to be a big daddy – I’ve had too many disappointments in the past when the swelling “seed” has clearly not been fertilised and then drops off after a few days. But a quick inspection leaves me encouraged, and a least one of them appears to be almost visibly growing.

In other news, Sam went away to Poole for a few days with some pals. He had a nice time.

I had a scare on Thursday.

7 Km into my morning run, I felt tweak at the base of my left hamstring. Kept going, 10 metres later I felt it again. I turned round and jogged gingerly home (0.5 k) I rested for the next two days, this morning embarking on my standard Sunday 10Km which was all good.

Posted on

June/July

Pic of the week (I) 5/7/20

(My) hols have begun, but the weather has not been brilliant – quite showery – but on Friday I decided to tackle the box bush out front. It does a look neater, and therefore much better, and I had a bit of a tidy up of one of the adjacent shrubs. Today, I begun moving some of the gravel from the front (although you might be hard pushed to notice) with the view to gravelling the whole area with decorative gravel.

Pic of the week (II)

Many of the plants are now in full flower and looking good, and the veg plants planted are putting on quite a spurt. All is looking green and healthy in the garden (even the lawn looks quite lush right now. Probably indicative of all the rain we have had.)

Pic of the week (III)

Ran my 600th Km this week, on 3rd July.  Ran 125 Km’s total in June.

Posted on

Nettles!

Pic of the week 26/4/20

One of the (few) bonuses of lock down has been Boris walks – we are permited to exercise daily – may be a run, a cycle of a walk – and I have begun to join Becky and Sam on their evening perambulations (Sophie rarely leaves the house).

We’ve become more adventurous, ranging further and further from the house and yesterday evening we broke new ground.  We headed down to Pomparles bridge, but crossed the road and followed the Brue to the north.  We’d not been going long before we realised the error of our ways – the path was flanked – swamped – by nettles and I was wearing shorts and, although Becky had leggings on, they didn’t cover her ankles.

We were getting stung. Mercilessly.

Fortunately Sam had had the sense to wear long trousers and so we commanded him to take the lead, and like a land based ice breaker, stomp down all the nettles in our path, to cut a narrow furrow for us to pass through.

We still got stung lots, but we made it through. It turned out to be a beautiful walk, we saw swans and herons and, as we headed home, the sun was setting, a most magnificent ball of red in the sky.  A view worth the pain of a few nettle stings.

During the day on Saturday and Sunday, I spent much time in the garden, swapping the spring bulbs for summer bedding. Much earlier than I normally would – a combination of beautiful weather and a lock-down regime of no Saturday school, and no distractions from beyond our for walls.

The garden is looking much neater, and ready for its summer show. The only downside is that, in lock down, our “green” is not being collected and the tip is shut, so I have an ever increasing pile of clippings and weeds mounting in a corner by the shed.

And two running milestones were met today:

  1. A passed 300 Km for the year
  2. My first sun 48 min 10K – didn’t just creep under, but smashed it. Missed out 47 mins altogether and posted a time of 46 min 48 secs.