Category: Garden

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Half-term – a retrospective

And so half term draws to a close. On the one hand, I don’t feel I have done a lot, but when I look back, it has been an important week. I do feel rested – although still a little snuffly: mid-week I developed a bit of a cold, and I am still not 100% – but I do think it has taken most of the week for me to recuperate after a long, wet, cold, dark six week half term. This week has still been wet, but it has been interspersed with pockets of brightness – like now: I awoke to rain, but by mid morning it had stopped and now we have a mix of sun and clouds with a stiff breeze. I do get the sense that the awful, depressing locked in weather we have endured since the start of 2026 has now moved on, and that the weather (whilst still not perfect) has changed. And this, is evidenced in part by the flowering of some spring bulbs. Above are the snowdrops I planted in March ’21 – they are looking good, perhaps I ought to plant some more? And the daffodils in the lawn, and some bulbs salvaged from last year are in bloom, there yellow heads dancing in the breeze and lifting my spirits.

Also this week in the garden, I used a window of weather to remove a couple of the Miscanthus from the bed by the fig tree, and potted them into three pots. I hope they survive and thrive. (For the record, cut down the Miscanthus staying in the bed to ground level, but left those in the pots uncut.)

I also tidied up the porch – ditching some junk, gave the walls and floors a good clean, put up a shelf and built a couple of shoe racks from Argos. It looks a lot better: cleaner and more spacious.

Before …

During …

… and after

On a different note …

Yesterday I had my PSA test at an event run by Somerset Prostate Support Association. I went to Wells for my booked appointment, the test itself took less than 5 minutes – they took a small blood sample from m y arm – and now I await the results, which I should hopefully receive in the next day or so,

Whilst talking of my health – I went for a run on Tuesday, but at around the 5K mark my calf went ping again, so I hobbled home, and have done no exercise since!

Back to school tomorrow for a five and a half week term, hopefully the weather continues to improve, and at the end of which we head of to Italy for nine days, which I am starting to look forward to.

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More rain, and some wildlife

Yesterday was beautiful – blue sky and after an initial frost, some warmth to the sun. It was wonderful. But today the rain has returned with a vengeance – I didn’t run this morning: I just didn’t fancy getting soaked once again, and the picture above is me looking forlornly out onto the street this afternoon as, once again, the heavens opened. Tuesday was a particularly tough day – it was House football: we kicked of in the pouring rain at 1.45, and I finished two and a half hours later, cold, and very, very wet. I wasn’t best pleased!

Worried by a lot of soil activity around my compost heap – at times there seems to be as much outside the bin as in – I have invested in a “trail camera” and for £35 I am pleased with the results. You set it up and leave it, and it will take both video and still pictures. My first attempts didn’t capture anything untoward, just a wren:

(unfortunately, I can’t upload the videos directly to my blog, so will have to do so via Youtube)

I moved the camera so it was on the ground, and one night I got a bit of rat action.

The videos show it/them much more clearly.

Its a good little gizmo – I haven’t caught anything else on camera since Thursday night, but will keep trying. At some point I’ll move it to different parts of the garden,

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Snowdrops, Traitors, and more rain

Three times a week, for the last three (four?) weeks, we have had a “don’t miss” appointment with The Traitors. Becky has been a fan since the first series, and she convinced – no insisted – that I watch this series with her, and I am glad she did. Its been like the old days – a TV event you had to watch at the time, not just streaming it on catch-up at your convenience. It ended on Friday with the two traitors, Rachel and Stephen winning, below are the the final six, posted to help remind me who they were when I look back in the future.

Whilst today has been dry – other than five minutes of drizzle here and there – it has been a very wet week, with rivers overflowing and football pitches either being unplayable or soon turning into mud. And there is little respite forecast, with rain expected every day next week.

But in the “dry” (ie rain wasn’t falling from the sky, but everything was very, very wet, I spotted the first snowdrops flowering in the garden.

And there is even one, lonely, somewhat forlorn, daffodil bravely flowering despite the wind and rain in the flower bed on the back deck, by the fig tree. (And for the sake of recording it, today I took the netting off the front trugg as bulbs are just beginning to push through, although it does still feel like it will be some time before we see them in full flower)

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Birthday Girl Part 2

After Sophie’s birthday at the start of last week, this week ended (on Friday) with Becky’s birthday. The weather, though, was terrible, with biblical rainfall (which led to bad flooding in Monmouthshire.) On Saturday she went to Bristol to meet Sophie and see Mamma Mia, before rendezvousing with Sam and all of them coming home on Saturday evening.

The weather has been unseasonable pretty much all year, and that has continued with a very warm week, certainly it hasn’t felt like mid-November. Plenty of my plants are in still in full bloom, although next week the weather is set to turn, with the cold arriving and the possibility of overnight frost – and snow if you believe the hype. So today I took some time to move my geraniums from the front to behind the gate in the hope that I can over-winter them.

On Wednesday evening, Sam was sat outside and had company:

and the ‘hog returned again on Friday night:

I didn’t run today as I have a “tight calf” (left leg). I first noticed it whilst refereeing last weekend, and it was quite sore on Wednesday evening (having ref-ed that afternoon) Yesterday it wasn’t too bad until about 20 mins into the second half when my right leg slipped and I felt a stabbing pain in the back of my left calf. I probably could have run today but wisely chose not to (and went for a haircut instead!)

My war on the fungus gnats has definitely swung in my favour – too early to claim total victory, but certainly far fewer of the little buggers.

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ABC!

On Friday we headed up to see ABC at Cardiff Arena. I’m not really sure if Becky enjoyed it, but I did.

We travelled up to Cardiff that day, dodging (well, not really) the showers, crossing the bridge, and meeting up with Sophie, who very kindly was hosting us for the evening.

We had a nice meal at Honest Burger, before she left us to head to the show, and was waiting for us in her nice warm flat afterwards – was good to be “home” before 11pm having been out to a concert!

On Saturday, after breakfast of Lidl’s pastries (delicious!) all three of us headed back over the bridge to Bristol, Becky & Sophie going to the theatre to see the Book of Mormon (coming out after the show, they both said how good it was) and I was left to do some shopping on a Saturday afternoon in Bristol. The first couple of hours were fine – purchasing from Primark, and the perusing a few other stores, but then my enthusiasm began to wane and I wandered aimlessly before rewarding myself with coffee and cake, and then just sitting on a cold stone bench in Cabot’s Circus waiting for the show to end. It wasn’t tooo bad, but I don’t think I shall be rushing back to a shopping mall any time soon!

I didn’t blog last week as we have been away in Lisbon, from Wednesday through to Monday. You can catch up with our adventures on our travel blog: https://hap-pea-travels.co.uk/portugal/loving-lisbon-day-1/

Before we went to Lisbon I dug up the front bed, so that on our return from Lisbon I was able to plant up all my spring bulbs, now we just need to batten down the hatches, endure the dark, cold winter to come, and await their colourful arrival next year.

Inside, I’ve been waging war against a legion of fungus gnats that have been plaguing the house – bought in, I think, when I re-potted all my Monstera plants. Although harmless, they are a bloomin’ nuisance, buzzing around your head. I’ve employed a three pronged plan to eradicate them: I have bought a load of yellow sticky traps -it is quite amazing (not sure that is the right word) to see how many of the little flies get stuck to these, I’ve applied a physical barrier of gravel on the tops of each worst affected plant, in an attempt to stop the adults reaching the soil and laying their eggs, and, most recently, I have tried biological control by watering Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis onto the plants in an attempt to kill the lava in the soil. I think I’m winning with the plants in my room, the verdict is still out on the infestation in Sam’s room.

On our trip to Cardiff, we had hoped to dovetail in a visit to the house she is buying, but we couldn’t be accommodated on that day. However, the day before, she had had her info back from the solicitor, and it stated that the garden was at significant risk of flooding, so after much heart ache and discussion, she is pulling out of the purchase. That does leave us with a big box of loo paper that she had purchased and delivered to our house – I do like the picture above of Sam taking delivering!

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The last of the sunflowers

Half term has finally arrived, and I took the opportunity of a dry day yesterday to begin clearing the front bed ready for my spring bulbs to be planted. I cut down the sunflowers – one was still flowering so I cut off the flowers to bring indoors (pic above) and have also hung up a couple of big heavy seed heads out the back, and also out the front and I was encouraged that today a couple of Great Tits seem to have found the ones in the back to start feeding from.

Bumped into Sam delivering team – teas at Kingweston on Wednesday. He’s on a term-time only contract so is also enjoying half-term, yesterday he went up to Bristol. In true start of holiday style, after a prolonged period of dry weather, today has been wet, with heavy mizzle pretty much all day, which has now turned to proper rain. Tomorrow and Tuesday don’t promise to be much better so my trugg clearance and bulb planting will be on hold until after we return from Lisbon.

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10K!

(but I should have worn my gloves!)

Today I ran 10K for the first time in over a year – 17 months to be precise. Checking my logs, I last ran 10K on 12 May 2024, and today is 12 October 2025.

As I wrote last week, my running has picked up of late and whilst I have been thinking that running a 10K is no too far off, I didn’t intend to do so today, however I had a bit of a Forest Gump moment and it just seemed right to keep running. After about 5 or 6 K I was thinking I might add in the extra K on top of my seven to make an 8K run – a stepping stone to future distance – but as I ran up the hill, past our house to the traffic lights it just seemed right to keep going straight ahead for the 10 rather than turn right to make it 8.

It had promised to be another nice day – yesterday afternoon was sunny and warm and today’s forecast was for similar so I set off running in two t-shirt layers which was fine, apart from my hands which were cold for most of the time, only warming up for the final three kms. The promised burn through of the sun hasn’t happened, and I would say its been cold today, with a stiff, chill breeze. Becky also got up early to go for a walk along the river, hoping to see the mist lift. It was just damp! But she did get the above photos of a sign that has appeared on the bypass roundabout.

The garden, particularly out the back, continues to bloom and flourish, my Bizzie Lizzies flowering fully, and the geraniums still looking strong and colourful. The sunflowers at the front are still bravely blooming, but they are beginning to look a little threadbare. There days are numbered – soon I will be taking them up to get my spring bulbs planeted.

The trees are defiantly all turning, time to soak in the sight of their colourful display as, before too long, they will be bare and barren – summer is over, autumn is upon us and winter is coming! The pic above is of the tree on the road outside the house – taken today 12/10/25, full of berries!.

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Running

Today, I went for a run – 7K, not especially quick, but for the first time in a long time (say about a year or more) I felt strong and fit, and that I had something left in the tank at the end of the run. None of my splits were sub 5 mins – those days seem an age ago – but most were sub 5m 10 sec. I’ve also felt quite fit whilst refereeing of late, still able to put in a sprint in the last 10 mins or so of a match. I’ve also been doing some weights – that probably sounds more than what I am doing, but after my run today, and a few evenings (when I have remembered!) I’ve spent 5 -10 mins with x 2 3Kg weights, and also have done a few sit ups as well. Looking back through my exercise logs, I think things really began to drop of throughout 2024, which was then compounded at the start of this year when I seemed to be pulling muscles for fun in the first few months of the year. I do feel fitter than I have for a long time, and that feels good.

Sophie’s also been exercising, her is a picture of her following her first Korf ball fixture of the season.

Weather wise, its been a typical end of September and start of October. Monday morning we woke up to cobwebs festooned across the garden …

and then the day ended in still, calm sunshine …

Note how the Tor has returned to green from the summer brown …

and we’ve been treated to some beautiful fiery orange, or perfect pink, sunsets.

… and then the next day dawned with the Tor emerging from the mist

Then, on Friday and Saturday, the first storm of the season struck. Friday was very wet, Saturday was very windy, and today has been, on and off, pleasantly sunny with a stiff breeze.

And Becky was delighted today to discover a second, if small (circa 3 or 4!) crop of figs

And the sunflowers keep on flowering (along with the geraniums and Bizzie Lizzes) – the pic at the top of the page was from today, the garden still looks lovely in full bloom.

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Starter for Ten

Its exeat weekend, and Becky and I took the opportunity to go to Bristol to watch Starter for Ten an the Old Vic.

It was excellent – a great show, I really, really enjoyed it. Its a long time since I read the book but I could pretty much remember the block of the story as it unfolded. I didn’t really know what to expect before we went, but it was musical theatre, in a wonderful small venue; I do think it is the best bit of theatre I can recall seeing in a long time.

And to conclude the day, we went to The Stables to eat after the show (we had been to the matinee) I had beef nachos, Becky had a pizza, but it was so big I had several slices of that, too.

Today, I refereed on the Bridgwater & District Sunday league – they were short of a ref, I was asked and agreed to do it – enjoyed the game. I ran yesterday morning and I do think that my level of fitness is returning to a level I haven’t enjoyed for maybe a year or so. My running times are inching down, and when refereeing I am finding I can, once again, turn on that little burst of pace when needed.

This afternoon I spent a happy couple of hours in the garden, mainly tidying up the “raspberry patch” and then planting last year’s bulbs, in the hope of some Spring colour.

Medical: my right arm, and neck/shoulder area hurts, I think RSI from using a computer and mouse without giving myself the necessary support. Will monitor and report back.

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Blow out on the M4

and other stuff

Late on Monday night/early Tuesday morning, Becky and Sophie returned from Corfu, and then, during the day on Tuesday, Sophie headed home to Cardiff. Whilst travelling along the M4 near Newport, she heard a rumbling, followed very swiftly by feeling something very amiss, and seeing her rear right car tyre disintegrate.

She made it to the hard shoulder and called the AA. Fortunately they came within the hour, put a spare (of their own) on her car and drove with her to a nearby tyre shop. She got a new tyre for £65, and was on her way. A drama that fortunately didn’t become a crisis.

The weather continues to be predominantly wet, the temperature has fallen and it does feel definitively autumnal. After a few chilly nights in bed, the lightweight summer duvet has been taken off, replaced with the heavier winter one, and I shall be turning the heating back on this evening.

The garden, however, has enjoyed the almost continual rain. My sole surviving pumpkin* – a small self seeder in the front trug – is shaping and colouring up nicely.

(* I have, today, spotted another fruit, from the plants I planted in the front, where the box tree was, that does seem to be swelling. But this has been a season of false dawns as far as pumpkins are concerned, plus its late in the season. Will watch with interest and hope, but I don’t think that hope will amount to much)

Sunflowers – both in the front and back – are continuing to flower

which, along with my geraniums, lobelia and Bizzie Lizzies (bought late in the season) continue to provide interest and colour against the drab grey skies.

And it seems to be a good year for cyclamen, with swathes of pretty pink flowers carpeting the borders, particularly in the front. Knowing that late autumn and winter are not too far away, I’m keen to extend the colour in the garden as long as possible, and so far my plan seems to be working …