Category: Pic of the week

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Meet Dave

Pic(s) of the week 1/10/17

I like to think that I am a man of many talents. I can turn my hand to most things and I balk at little. But, I must admit, dealing for animals is not one of my strong points. I still recall the time I went out to shoo a squirrel off our bird feeder. I strode purposefully out into the garden, all big, brave and bad, ready to scare the squirrel and watch it flee into the canopy.

But the damned rodent had different ideas.  As I got close, he merely ceased his feast, tilted his head and looked up at met. Stared at me. Menacingly. I fled back into the safety of the house. Two days later I took the bird feeder down.

And so it was with some surprise that, on entering the staff changing room at Kingweston, I spotted Dave (pictured above) dangling from the ceiling.

Yes – finding a bat in there was a surprise, but the bigger surprise was that I didn’t flee in fear of my life.

In fact, I took rather a shine to the little fella, with his cute little feet firmly attached to a beam in the ceiling.  I watched him with interest for a while, and took a couple photos (that’s another of my non-talents: photography – I can’t take a good picture)  I wasn’t even bothered when he began flying around.

No-one knew what to do. So I grabbed a bib, wrapped him up in it, took him outside and released him.

But why Dave?

David Batty, of course. An appropriate name for a bat found at the football fields of KW.

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Shutting the doors

Pic of the week 24/9/17

Marathon runners talk of hitting the wall. As a teacher, I think I “hit the wall” this week – week 3.

Its always a tough time. The holidays suddenly seem a long time ago and the adrenaline fueled excitement of the first couple of weeks has past, leaving only tiredness, dampness and darkening evenings.

Wednesday I woke up whacked, it was a tough day – my wall. But you plough on through, and that evening I had my epiphany on a yoga mat and since then everything’s been good. In fact, I’d say better than good.

We now begin to enjoy the rhythm of routine as life settles down for the long march until half-term. There is certainly something comforting from order and repetition as the days shorten, a sense of starting to hunker down for the dark, cold months to come. I came home from spinning on friday to find the sliding door firmly slid shut, surely an important landmark in the changing of the seasons.

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The Battle Lost

Pic of the week 17/9/17

The battle is lost. It was inevitable, the only question was how long I would hold out before capitulation. And capitulation came today. I turned the heating on.

Weather wise, its not been a good summer, and any hint of an Indian summer  was swiftly washed away by one of the many, many rain showers we’ve endured since the start of September. The evenings have begun to become a little chilly, so this afternoon the heating was clicked to “on.” Next summer’s warmth seems a long way away.

(Still wearing my shorts, though!)

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The sun shines at last

Pick of the week 27/8/17

And so, just as the hols draw to a close, the sun begins to shine. Today (Sunday) has been a glorious, sunny, hot day, and tomorrow promises the same.  At last.  Weather wise, its been a pretty poor summer holiday.

Pictured above are some shots of the bounty of the garden.  Finally starting to get a good crop of runner beans (I don’t think we had enough insect pollinators in the early days) and only two courgettes.  We’ve had plenty of diddy courgettes, but there have been very few male flowers, meaning the fruits have been fertilised and swollen into proper courgettes.

In other news, was GCSE results on Thursday. My two classes did well.

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Up the Poldens!

Pic of the week 20/8/17

For some time I’ve fancied going up the Poldens – the ridgeway that runs to the south of Street, seperating us from Somerton and the South. I first became aware of the area when travelling on the coach to Kingweston (take a different route when going by car).  So I researched a little and it seems the Poldens, and a public right of way, runs from Walton along the ridgeway, ending near Kingweston.

So on Monday, with the weather set fair, Becky, Sam and I headed for the hills (Sophie was at work.) We had a really pleasant afternoon, ambling along the pathway, stopping to examine Admiral Hood’s monument, pick a few blackberries and explore the woods.  If we’d kept going a bit further we’d have have emerged at Gilling Down – the big stone outcrop I’ve often noticed when driving back from Somerton way. A shame we didn’t quite make it that far as it would have opened up a quite spectacular vista across the levels.  Anyway, must go back there in half term – if not before – to see it in its autumnal splendour.

In other news, Thursday was a bit of stressful day. Awoken unnecessarily early at 6 am for Sophie’s AS level results, they finally pinged through at circa 7am – BBCC.  She was a little disappointed – got a C in Geog but was only one mark of a B and Maths.  My classes had done alright in their AS & A Level results.  Took the car (Mini) in for its MOT – fortunately it came through, with a bill, including service of sub £200. And just to add to the stress, we took same shopping for his school shoes.  Glad we won’t have to do that again (as long as he gets away with what we have bought, which look suspiciously like black trainers to me …)

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Birthday Boy!

Pic of the week 13/8/17

Sam turned 15 on Monday!

Growing up too fast, he’s definitely now a teenager – he has the height, the voice and the desire to sleep late into the morning.

A great day, he got a OnePlus 3 phone (with the added bonus that I now have his old iPhone 5C, finally consigning my Nokia brick into history …)

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Graveling the Garden II

Pic of the week 6/8/17

On Monday morning I took delivery of (another) bulk bag of gravel from Bradfords (circa £65 inc. delivery) and began laying it in the garden where the “dividing bed” used to be.

Looks good, here’s a before and after shot:

I also gave the front hedge a (significant) hair cut – quite surprising how much growth there was, and how it looks a whole load better now its been trimmed back.

Weather continues to be rubbish.

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Hols 17

Pic of the week 30/7/17

A picture tells a thousand words, so I’ll let the pictures above do (most of) the talking.

At the start of the week we went to Cornwall, the four of us squeezing into our trusty Micra and heading for the sun (ha!) on Sunday evening.

Monday was the summer. A day of sunshine, sea and sand, spent at St Ives, Sam and I taking to the water twice. It wasn’t warm, but we had two good sessions in the sea, the second time having fun in the surf as the waves broke.

An (early!) evening meal in The Hub before chilling on the harbour wall at St Ives.

Tuesday – and rain threatened. Once again, off to St Ives, but this time we walked from the car park to Carbis Bay, via the Knill monument, followed by another chilled afternoon at the St Ives harbour.

Wednesday, and the rain came, so we headed for home.

After a lot of early season promise, this summer is turning into a bit of a damp squib – rain again today and not much change forecast for the foreseeable future.  Boo!

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Wet and windy

Pic of the week 23/7/17

Bit of a nothing week, really, in large part due to the disappointing weather.

The latter part of the week, in particular, has been characterised by wind and rain. Had massive, torrential downpours on Wed into Thursday night.

Did manage to munch a few peas that have podded, and our first raspberry has ripened (and been eaten) as has our sole courgette.

Off to Cornwall for a few days this evening – on the promise of a couple of dry days! Britain in the summer!

 

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Garden Stuff

Pic of the week 16/7/16

… and the garden grows.

The first peas have been podded and the beans have bloomed bright red and the first mini beans can be seen emerging from the plants. Annoyingly, the courgette has produced many fruits, but they haven’t been fertilised so, despite a plant getting ever larger, no courgettes have (yet) been harvested.

We had a lot of rain on Thursday and the daisy’s took a hammering, ending up flattened.  Fortunately, a bit of string the next day and they are once again upright and proud.

I’ve cleared much of the “middle” bed with the aim of graveling it over to make a new path to connect the two halves of the garden together. Maybe this time next week I’ll be posting a picture of the finished job …