Category: Pic of the week

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Half Term

Pic(s) of the week 17/2/19

Its half term – at last.

Its been a long six week stint since the Christmas holidays, always a difficult time of the school year, and a week longer this year than normal (although the corollary of that is that now I have nothing longer than five weeks in a row before a break.)

Sophie cam home from uni on Friday evening, lovely to see her again and have the whole family back under one roof for a week.

For some reason, only fathomable to 16 year old boys, Sam is going to have a boxing match v one of his pals in the Easter holidays. Not a good idea, but at least it is giving him some motivation to get a bit fitter. Yesterday he & I “sparred”  on the deck: he has bought some boxing gloves, I get to hold the pads we he then hits. Madness (& surprisingly hard work.)

The weather has definitely perked up, last Thursday & Friday were beautiful. Typically, its not been so good since half term began, but its dry, bright at times and still light at 5.30 which is remarkably uplifting.

I’m sure I’ll blink and it will be over, but right now its wonderful to think that the next week is mine!

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Committed

Pic of the week 10/2/19

(A hint of Spring to come today – a mix of blue skies and showers. The above are all flowering somewhere on the garden. Particularly pleased with the Hyacinth, bottom left, as this will be one that I planted after Christmas last year.)

Committed.

Today I paid my deposit and signed up to go on the referee promotion programme 2019/20. The big struggle will be getting the 20 qualifying games in (14 OA) – I’ll do more games than that, but not necessarily at the right age group. I need to explore officiating on the Uxella Bridgwater Sunday League, if I do so, along with the odd Saturday on Yeovil & District and the handy fact that for this promotion season only runs from March 1st ’19 to May 31st ’20 – giving me an extra couple of months to get the games in.

Looking forward to the challenge, and new experiences it will bring.

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Snowmaggedon

Pic of the week 3/2/19

So it wasn’t quite the snowmaggedon brought by the Beast from the East last year, but Thursday night into Friday morning saw a fairly hefty dumping of snow.

We had a bout a cm or two, was worse in Wells – the Blue School shut for the day – and was even worse towards Bath & Bristol. The road outside the house remained clear and it was work as normal for me.

By Saturday, all the low lying snow had gone, but all our fixtures had been cancelled so I went up the Tor with Sam on Saturday afternoon. Always a pleasure, particularly with the clear blue skies contrasting against what snow did stay lying on the ground.

After cold nights, Friday and Saturday, the temperature is set to rise to a balmy, but damp, 10 degrees for the week a head.

This morning, the boiler didn’t fire up, but a quick check showed the water pressure was low, so a quick 30 second job to refill the system and bring it up to pressure and the wonderful white box fired into life. Phew!

Other news – purchased two tickets to see New Order at the Bristol Harbourside in July. Looking forward to it already.

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A bit blowy

Pic of the week 27/1/19

And so January rumbles on, with little to commend it, except that it will soon be over.

Its been cold, but not crisp, clear, cold, nor exceptional snowy cold, just cold, often damp, and often windy – like today, very windy. And, although the evenings are getting noticeably lighter, its still dark in the mornings and, three weeks into term, with another three still to go, the days don’t seem to get any easier.

Ran 8K this morning, and enjoyed that and pottered for the rest of the day, listening to plenty of music – I think one of my favourite things.

Did some Six Nations stats and plotted them on my maths blog – I do rather enjoy dabbling with data sets and glad I taught myself the rudiments of “R”, meaning I can now quickly turn a spreadsheet of data into any many of colourful charts.

And here’s a bonus pic, of our lovely, bright airy kitchen – even in the bleakest months our house is a wonderful place to be.

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The Ten Year Challenge

Pic of the week

A lovely long sleep, a long (8K) run at a quickish pace, and then a day mucking about with some stats and “R”, producing the above*

A great way to spend a Sunday in January.

* Full details can be found on my maths blog:

The Ten Year Challenge

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A new normal

Pic of the week 13/1/19

The new normal.

Sophie has returned to uni, Sam is at work (& when he’s not, he’s out with his pals or hidden away in his room.)

As a family, we have transitioned into a new normal, a new phase of all of our lives.

Not necessarily good, not necessarily bad, just different – one has the definite sense that a milestone, a marker, has been passed.

Perhaps symbolic of this new phase, I spent 20 mins outside today, tidying away the geraniums that have finally succumbed to the frosts of late, and getting the daff pots from the bottom of the garden and back into prominence ready for the Spring that is, hopefully, not now too far away.

Green shoots – the knowledge that warmer, brighter times are ahead, both in the garden and metaphorically.

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Legends v Ashcott 6/1/19

Pic of the week 6/1/19

Every Day’s A School Day

A new year, a new term and two new faces gracing the pitch and achieving Legend status.

A new year, a new term but the same old perennial question of would we have eleven, come 11 am?

McEwan had mis-read the memo – a vague recollection about committing to the vets on Sunday saw him in Wellington getting treatment for his dog Charlie rather than lining up alongside his brothers in arms on the 4G pitch at Strode. No problem, the last minute arrival of new signing Tom Churchill saw us kick off with eleven men.

Playing on a 4G pitch is wonderful. The ball runs true, the bounce is always even, the weather no barrier to play. They are the future of football. Unfortunately, we are the (pre) History of football and lacking the leveler of an un-level pitch we were soon found out by an opposition who play week in, week out, knew where each other was, knew how to string passes together and knew the route to our goal.

Débutante Dave was magnificent in goal, frustrating the opposition on many an occasion but even he could not keep out a thunderous volley and hammered header. We found ourselves four nil down at half time, having been comprehensive schooled in the art of football.

The second half began in a more positive tone, as we began to find and exploit space; ironically, our defence became more fluid, making it more solid, and for some time neither side could break the deadlock. But, inevitably, our fluid solid defence ultimately led to confusion and Ashcott netted a couple more, without reply. When Peabody saw his blistering, dipping, swirling 30 yard free kick tipped athletically over the bar by the keeper at full stretch it looked as if we were destined not to trouble the scorer.

But that would be to dismiss our new signing. Following a magnificent goal saving block from Mo, the ball fell to Paul W deep in our half. He looked up, and pinged an inch perfect 40 yard pass to the waiting feet of Tom Churchill, who gathered calmly, ghosted past a defender, swept into the box and finished with aplomb, drilling the ball low and hard into the bottom corner.

The opposition managed another goal, before the final whistle blew. Every day’s a school day – we had learned our lesson from a well skilled, well drilled opposition. We lost the first half 4-0, the second 3-1: definite, measurable progress has been made.

Ashcott 7 Millfield 1

*The pic is a shot I took in November(?) at Abbey More Stadium, Glastonbury, not Strode Astro, where we played today.

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2018 in pictures

Pic of the year 2018

On the whole 2018 has been a good year.

So, I had an abscess on my tooth that hurt like hell, I knackered my knee and began to doubt I would ever walk properly again, and the boiler gave up the ghost, necessitating an expensive replacement, but other than that its been a pretty good year, and, as ever, Becky has captured many moments on camera.

We endured the Beast from the East, and then basked in the best summer since ’76.

We saw the Imagine Dragons, Scouting for Girls, The Rifles, Squeeze and the excellent Deacon Blue.

Sophie & Sam both did well in their summer exams (A levels & GCSEs) and Sophie is now thriving reading Economics at Reading University.

A fantastic week in Majorca was, perhaps, the highlight of the year.

We suffered jellyfish stings, World Cup fever and the sad demise of our baby robins.

And every morning I throw open the shutters and am met by a magnificent view of the Tor, in all its hues and variations.

2018 – thank you.

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The Gathering

Pic of the week 23/12/18

Last night we all went to Jane’s for “The Gathering”.

A wonderful evening, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

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Mumuration

Pic of the week 16/12/18

On Friday (14/12/18) Becky & I went starling spotting at Ham Wall RSPB reserve. For a while, as we stood in the bitter cold and failing light, I did wonder if we would even spot a single starling, but then they came, not in tens, hundreds or thousands, but, I suspect, in their millions.

At times it was like watching black fireworks as they bust into balls and spheres, accompanied by “oohs” and “ahhs” from the watching crowd. At other times it was like a scene from a Harry Potter film as a cloud of malign and malevolent blackness passed in a constant stream before us.

The scale was biblical. Wherever you looked, there were starlings, a never ending stream of whirling, swooshing and swooping birds. But it was not until they all landed to roost that the enormity of their magnitude became apparent. As we walked the not inconsiderable distance back to the car, we passed reed beds that were awash with blackness and alive with the screeching of the multitude.

It wasn’t as beautiful and mesmeric as I had expected, but I was awestruck by the sheer staggering scale.  I still can’t really comprehend the magnitude of the flock.

It was a cold, cold afternoon and evening, we arrived early – about 3pm – the birds didn’t start showing up until 3.45pm. If I were to go again, and I would like to do so, I’d go a little later.