Category: Pic of the week

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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.

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Cardiff

Pic of the week 25/9/22

Its been exeat weekend, so yesterday Becky & I headed up to Cardiff to see the bambinos. (Its handy having them both in the same city)

First stop was Sophie’s flat which was clean, tidy, neat and compact: a lovely place to live. Then we hoped on a train (you can see the line from her balcony) for a short train ride, and then we walked to Sam’s house.  A different vibe to the streets as we approached his new home: litter strewn streets and front “gardens” full of burst open bin bags. And then we arrived at his new home – certainly not clean, tidy, neat and compact! A different way of living, but its a right of passage to live in a student hovel house. He will, I’m sure, survive …

We went out for lunch together at Zi Zis, then Sam headed home (to return to bed, apparently he had only got in at 6am, which made him somewhat tired and grumpy), we wandered the streets of Cardiff for a while, before getting the train back to Sophie’s and driving home.

A good day out!

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It’s all gone quiet …

Pic of the week 18/9/22

All of a sudden the house is quiet and feels empty.

On Tuesday Sophie moved up to Cardiff, and on Thursday Sam returned to Cardiff to (re) start his first year at uni.  Their return does see to really mark the end of summer – whilst we still have dry days (although Tuesday, when Sophie moved pretty much rained all day, although fortunately not until she had got all packed up) and brightness and sunshine, it is now noticeably colder, almost surprisingly so. After such a long hot summer it doesn’t feel right to be cold!

Anyway, both Bambinos seem happy to be in Cardiff, embarking on the next stages of their life.  I think they were enjoying the comforts of living in “Hotel Home”, but now they are both moved in I think they are looking forward to the coming months.

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The Queen is dead

Pic of the week 11/9/22

On Thursday, the Queen died.

It all happened quite swiftly.  During the day, news kept breaking that various royals were travelling to Balmoral, so it was pretty evident that we were in her final days, but then, at circa 6.30 pm, her passing was officially announced.

I was a little surprised at how sombre I felt.  I suppose it was because it was a moment in history, a constant has gone. And, as with any high profile death, it makes you think of those close to you that you have lost.

We are in a slightly strange state of affairs, but I get the sense that most of the country want to remain respectful, but now get on with our lives. The muted TV and radio broadcasts are beginning to bore a little. She was a good women, and history will look back kindly upon her life and reign, but life goes on.

On Friday, Sophie collected the keys to her new flat.  She hasn’t moved in yet, that will happen on Tuesday, but it is a significant moment in her life.

 

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Farewell to summer

Pic of the week 4/9/22

By pretty much any metric, summer is over.

The most important metric is that I return to school tomorrow, but this weekend has also seen a notable shift in the weather – its still been warm, but the glorious blue sky and wall to wall sunshine is no longer here. After brilliant, beautiful light for months, it did seem remarkably dark under the leaden grey skies yesterday morning.  There has been a little rain – enough to annoy my washing! – but not the significant deluge we need.

It has been a great summer. The holidays, to me at least, have seemed really long. I think that’s been because of the wonderful weather – no day has been wasted, sat inside watching the rain and wondering what to do.

Kefalonia was wonderful and the sun has shined ever since we jetted off. We’ve also been to Sophie’s graduation (hot, hot, hot!), Coldplay, Bristol … the only thing we didn’t achieve was our balloon flight – cancelled three times, twice because of weather, once for a technical hitch.  I’ve refereed a lot (and found myself enjoying it again) and spent many a happy hour tinkering on cars – its a shame I didn’t get the 205 through an MOT, but I’ve enjoyed working on it, and I’m also pleased to have cured the knocking noise on the Corsa (replaced a drop link) and also (finally) got the oil change plug out.

The sunflowers – both front and back – have been the success of the garden.  Initially it was a little disappointing that we didn’t seem to have a mass of high sunflowers, but over the course of the summer, we’ve always had several in flower and it has been fun watching them blossom.  Two pumpkins have grown – must tray and grow a few more next year – one is smallish and already fully orange, the other quite big and only just starting to change hue.

And on Monday I saw a grass snake!

I was driving along a country lane near Castle Cary (returning from Jago’s house) and saw it in the road. It was long: a good metre to 1.5 m long. an impressive site!

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Bristol

Pic of the week 28/8/22

On Wednesday, Becky and I went to Bristol, in the main to see the Grayson’s Art Club exhibition – which we did – but to also have a general mooch around the city. For lunch, I had the most delicious cheese toasty from the Dareshack cafe.  The bread (from Abergavenny, apparently) was superb.  The exhibition was good and then we explored a little on our way back down from the museum, stumbling upon, and the ascending, Cabot’s tower for some great views across the city.

It was a good day out, that I enjoyed.

On the same day, Sophie signed the contact on her first flat in Cardiff (she starts work in mid-September) so that has been exciting, giving her a purpose and incentive to get organised ready for the next phase of her life.

On Thursday, Sam headed up to the Reading festival – he has just messaged to say he aims to get the 8.30pm train back to Castle Cary this evening – I think he wants his bed tonight!