Category: Pic of the week

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Trees and leaves

Pic of the week 19/11/17

Perhaps it is a sign of getting old that you begin to appreciate such things.  Or perhaps its just that its taken me 48 years to realise that winter can be quite a long time and a few months of a bleak, barren landscape have nothing to commend them. Or perhaps this is just a “good year” for leaves.

Whatever the reason, I’ve been making a mental note to look at and enjoy the trees in all their splendour as their leaves turn a classic golden hue.  We’re now well into mid-November, and the trees at school are gamely hanging on to their foliage and producing a quite spectacular show. They’ll soon be devoid of leaves for a long time, so I’m making the most of them while I can.

I think I am getting old!

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18!

Pic of the week 5/11/17

It is hard to believe, but Sophie turned 18 yesterday.

Where did the years go?

For eighteen years she has brought us joy, happiness, pride, occasional worry(!), more joy and love.  I knew the day she was born that life would never be the same. I wasn’t wrong. The world was enriched on the 4th November 1999 when our little bundle of love arrived.

I can’t find the words to do her justice.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

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Half Term Adventures

Pic of the week 29/10/17

Friday saw us all up early, on our adventures.

Becky & Sophie hopped on the train and went up to London for the day and had a wonderful time in the capital. A far better account – and more pics – can be found at Becky’s blog here.

Sam & I also got up early (too early for a holiday?) and went up the Poldens before sunrise. It was a beautiful day – my photography skills do not do it justice – the leaves turning into their beautiful autumn colours.

Home for breakfast, I then spent a pleasant morning sat out in the garden in wonderful October sunshine, reading, before nodding of for delightful 30 minute snooze basking in what may be the last sun for some months.

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Half Term – at last!

Pic of the week 22/10/17

And so half term has finally arrived.

September starts on a surge of adrenaline, but after a couple of weeks that wears of and the tiredness starts to kick in.  With working Saturdays, making it a six day week, I don’t think that you ever get the chance to fully recuperate in term time and the trick is to manage the decline from the end of one holiday until next.  This first half a term is always one of the longest, one of the hardest.

So half term began for me on Wednesday afternoon, but not until Friday for the children, so Becky & I grabbed the chance to go out for lunch together at GBK and it was, of course, lovely – the company in particular, but the food wasn’t too bad either.

No major plans for the half term, Sam’s nose is being put to the grindstone as he has mocks in the week he returns, Becky’s working much of next week and Sophie & Becky are going to London on Friday.

Me, I hope to do plenty of exercise (swam Wednesday & Thursday, spinning on Friday, refereed yesterday, played for Legends today – swim, run and spin, I hope, in the week to come), rest and catch up with stuff. Potter in the garden, wash the windows, maybe go up the Poldens …

I’ve already made a start at tidying up the garden – cutting back one clump of daises, and still mowing the lawn which is growing well in the warm, wet conditions. However, the weather does seem to have turned and we’re now into Autumn. Hence, rather sadly, I washed, ironed and put away my summer shorts for another year. A sad moment!

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Boyhood Dreams

Pic of the week 15/10/17

Boyhood dreams.

As a boy (all those many, many years ago) my dream was to play for Bristol City.

Alas, I fear that dream has long been consigned to history, but today came the closest that I’m likely to get as I found myself on the same pitch as The Robins, refereeing Bristol City U16s v Millfield 1st XI.

A fast paced game played between two quality sides, on a quality pitch it was a challenging, but enjoyable, game to take charge off.

City bossed the first ten minutes and it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Millfield side, but they retained their shape and discipline at the back and began to exert some authority on home turf.

Collecting the ball well into his own half, the Millfield right back exploded with pace, hugging the touch line and playing an overlapping one two to see him arrive at the byline and whip in a powerful cross which was bundled in by the Millfield centre forward, who bagged another brace before half time to see the home side lead 3-0 at the break.

City pulled one back early in the second half as space began to open up as legs (not only mine!) began to tire. However the visitors conceded a soft goal direct from a corner to leave the final score line 4-1 to Millfield, who were deserved winners, but that result probably flatters them a little.

Me: I loved it. Absolutely knackered at the end of it; 90 minutes chasing athletes 30 years my junior is hard work, but probably the highest standard of football I have ever been involved in.

(Now just awaiting to get my hands on the video of the game – my half term homework will be to watch the game and anlayse my performance)

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A Walton Brace Bags the Booty

Pic of the week 8/10/17

First half strikes from Bradshaw and Whatling secure a two goal victory that sees the Legends begin their campaign with a win.

A beautiful, clear, warm October morning saw the season kick off with an away fixture at Wells City. Glistening with morning dew, the pitch was a green oasis, although was the pile of feathers  littering our half of the pitch somehow a metaphor for our playing skills – a once beautiful, free flying creature, now, sadly, consigned to history?

The game began with both sides probing, but neither establishing a telling dominance. Midway through the first half Bradshaw latched on to a perfect through pass. Collecting the ball well outside the area, he still had much to do but, shrugging off the attentions of a Wells defender, he opened his legs and glided into the box, deftly placing the ball beyond the reach of the oncoming keeper and into the back of the net. One – nil.

Wounded, Wells responded swiftly, seeking an equaliser. The pacy Wells no. 11 was a constant threat, but a mobile, organised and disciplined back four nullified his threat and continued to frustrate the home team’s attacks all morning. On the few occasions the opposition did threaten the Millfield goal Shane Potts was big, brave and unbeatable between the sticks.

A corner, swung in from the left, and the wily, wiry, Whatling leapt higher than those around him to glance the ball into the net. Two – nil.

As legs tired in the second half, so space began to open up, allowing new boy Andrew Cassin-Davies – the oldest man on the pitch – to show the daintiest of footwork as he began to dance and dazzle his way around the middle of the park. Fellow debutant Phil Betts confirmed his Legend status, collecting the ball wide on the right and driving hard into the opposition half, ghosting through the Wells defence he found himself one on one v the keeper. He unleashed a powerful low drive, beyond the flailing arm of the Wells number one, only to see – or more accurately hear – the ball cannon into the upright with a thud loud enough to waken any resident of Wells still abed on this Sunday morning.

Neither side troubled the scorers in the second half and the ref blew the whistle on an historic, and well deserved victory: Wells City 0 Millfield Legends 2, three points in the bag.

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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.