On Monday, Becky and I went to Bristol to see Tony Ann, a young pianist and it was a wonderful evening of culture, a rare outing on a school night!
Having parked up, we ambled across College Green in the warm evening sun, before sitting for a drink, al-fresco, at an Italian on Park Street. It did feel a million miles away from home, and was a lovely evening.
It helped that the glorious weather continuous. We’ve been treated to blue skies, sunshine and (almost) uninterrupted dry weather all week, culminating in another lovely Sunday, spent outside, pottering, reading and snoozing.
I say “almost” because on Tuesday evening the sky darkened, thunder rumbled and then the sky was rent asunder with lightening.
For about 30 minutes, it was quite some storm
but the water was welcome. I suspect we may end up in a drought this summer – a price I’d happily pay for the wonderful weather to continue. Its only mid-May, so everything still looks fresh and green, and my sunflower seeds sown a couple of weeks ago show great promise.
And we’ve been blessed with a visit from Sam. He came home on Friday afternoon, and returns to Cardiff tomorrow evening, but its been lovely to have him home for a short while. He has completed all his assignments, he just has one exam to do on the 6th June, and then that’s his university days done. I think he is looking forward to finishing, there are times when it looked like he’d never be a university graduate. but now that’s a racing certainty. He’s not sure what the next steps of his life will be, but I’m sure he’ll work it out.
After a dry, but not necessarily warm, week, the temperature rose for the weekend, giving us a couple of days of pleasant temperature, blue skies and sunshine. Certainly “usable” weather, and we’ve spent much of Saturday afternoon and Sunday outside. The alliums are currently the “pic of the crop” providing crowns of colour against the green backdrop. They look particularly good in the lawn, and in the trugs by the lawn. I will admit to being disappointed with my alliums in pots – they dried out whilst we were in Crete and now are only producing a few feeble flowers to offset brown, curled leaves.
The difference a few days can make – above are the alliums yesterday (Saturday), below was them on Wednesday.
Have provided us with plenty of blossom flowers, the apple tree is now laden with young fruit:
The hostas are looked full and green, and new to us this year, some dahlias are providing a splash of colour.
Across Saturday and Sunday, I dug up all the bulbs from the front trug – a job that seemed easier this year than I remember from previous years. I suspect it was because the soil was so dry and friable – March, April and now May have been very dry months.
All this work can be tiring, so I took the opportunity to take a quick nap ….
(and just for info, today I planted 5 pumpkin seeds (why five? that’s all I had!) and most of the sunflower seeds planted last week have sprouted.)
We’ve been enjoying a wonderful week of weather, a mini-heatwave that begun last Sunday and has continued all week, bathing us in blue skies, and warm weather, nice and warm, but not unbearably hot (although it has got a little warm at night.)
Sadly, though, its all change today – still bright, light and sunny, but the temperature has dropped significantly, and a chill wind whips through you when you step outside. However, it forecast to remain dry this week and beyond, after a dry March and April, it looks like May is following in the same way. The ground is getting hard and, whilst everything remains a lush green at the moment, I don’t think it will be too long before pots and plants begin to dry out. The alliums I planted in pots way back in Autumn have already suffered from the hot dry spell, when we were in Crete – the leaves are wilted and brown at the edges and there is not multitude of strong flower heads that I had hoped for. All is not lost, though, the alliums in the lawn are now in flower, and the ones planted in the small wooden trugs are set to open soon.
Today I sowed some sunflower seeds – 12 “High Hopes”, 24 “Start-a-Garden” and 24 “Earth Walker”, all in the front porch. The bulbs in the front wooden trug have all gone over, I’ll look to lift them in the next couple of weeks ready for these sunflower seedlings, and geraniums that are on order from Thompson and Morgan, due to arrive late May.
We had a little bit of drama on our street this morning – as I returned from my run there were two police cars parked up and four police, ringing the doorbell of a few doors down. Becky kept watch as I warmed down, after a lot of waiting around, the eventually spoke to our neighbour for a few minutes, before driving off.
Today the weather has been glorious, resulting in our first lunch in the sun of the year. I’ve taken advantage of the blue skies to paint the gate. Late yesterday afternoon I got it into my head to do it. so I wire brushed it and washed it ready for this morning. I’ve applied two coats of Cuprinol grey paint (found in the shed from when we painted the shed. Nearly a full tin and, once stirred, as good as new) I’m pleased with the result, it was beginning to look a little weathered and tired (perhaps the look I too often sport!), now looks a little smarter and more cared for.
Returned to school on Wednesday, but before that on Tuesday it was time for a bit of tree surgery, lopping off some branches from the tree in the corner above our compost bin. Does look better, although if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t think we’d taken anything off.
The garden is looking good, the lawn in particular, with drifts of forget-me-nots, swathes of daisies, a few tulips to provide a splash of colour and the first of the alliums about to flower. It has been lovely to spend much of today outside, soaking up the sun, reading, and also finding time for a small little snooze!
(and just for info, to give a point of reference in time to my blog, this week, on Monday the Pope, Pope Francis, died.)
I’m writing this a day late as we had a little car drama yesterday. I’ll get to that in a moment …
I have had an enjoyable week at home, on holiday, largely just pottering about outside, getting a few jobs done. The weather has not been stela, but on the whole it has been dry, so I’ve been able to be outside much of the time. Fearful that it might fall down, I tackled the exterior of the porch, replacing some rotten fascia timber, replacing much of the window putty with silicone sealant, painting the woodwork and replacing the guttering and downpipe with clean, new white plastic guttering. It does look so much better now, although I still think its long term days are numbered.
I also refereed on the YDL league on Tuesday evening and Saturday afternoon – good to keep my hand in at refereeing adult men’s football. Ran on Sunday, a 5K run, good to get the legs moving again.
On Tuesday I replaced the oil pressure switch on Sophie’s car, and the yellow warning triangle has gone away – hurrah! But possibly the only thing that did go smoothly with respect to her car …
We’d booked it in to have the timing belt done on Monday, which happened, but as we were collecting the car, the spotted the oil leak, did a little investigation and determined it was the crankshaft/main engine seal (I thought it might be) so it went back in on Wednesday to have this done. They also found a leak at the corner of the oil sump, so fixed that, plus the clutch plate had got contaminated by oil, so that was replaced, too. By Thursday evening we had the car back, all done …
We then enjoyed a pleasant Good Friday, Easter Saturday and after lunch on Easter Sunday – having spent the morning soaking up some sun in the back garden – Sophie headed back to Cardiff.
About 40 mins after leaving, my phone rang. It was a distraught Sophie: on the middle lane of the M5 the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, and the car went into limp mode. She made it to the next junction, and pulled up in a layby before calling me. The car was throwing engine misfire codes, but could be reset with the OBD device. Becky & I drove to meet her, Sophie got in the Ka with Becky, I got in the Fiat with the intention of continuing to Cardiff. However 5 mins on the M5, as I got above 70 mph, the same thing happened to me. We swung round, and all came home; Sophie then went back to Cardiff in the Ka, giving me some time to ponder and fix the problem.
First thought was spark plugs and or coil pack (again – I’d changed these last summer) but further research on the internet suggested this was a fairly common problem on the Fiat 500 after a timing belt change, and all that was needed was for the ECU to re-learn the position of the various sensors using a “Phonic Wheel Relearn”, using MultiECUscan (which I procured last year) The more I read, the more convinced that this was the problem, so today I carried out the procedure and then drove the car to Cardiff, swapping it for the Ka which I brought home. This being Bank Holiday Monday, the traffic on the way up was heavy and, before the M49, I only managed to get up to 70 once or twice (my aim was to go on the motorway and get to 80+mph to see if the fault came back), once on the M49 I was able to open her up and travelled at 80 mph for some while. Again, after the bridge, and then again after the “Newport 50 stretch” I was able to get up to 75- 80 mph, with no problem at all, so I am confident the problem is fixed …
So, I’ve been to Cardiff and back today, a bit of a slog in the traffic, but I’m glad its all done and the status quo is returned to normal.
We’ve spent the last week in Crete – flew out on Saturday 5th April, and returned yesterday on Saturday 12th April. The weather wasn’t wonderful – had a couple of days of chilly rain, whilst the UK enjoyed unseasonal warmth – and the bits of Crete (Rethmyno and Heraklion) are not the prettiest parts of Greece, I still had a lovely time, a week away to forget about the trials and tribulations of work. I blogged on Hap-pea-travels, you can read it here: https://hap-pea-travels.co.uk/greece/a-cretan-recharge-day-1/
This picture ^^^ was taken as we flew back. that is Milos and Kimilos, two of our favourite islands from our summer trip across the Cyclades.
Sophie, Sam and Poppy all came “home” on Friday, Sam & Poppy were here when we got back on Saturday evening, but have today headed back to London. Sophie was at a friends in Andover on Saturday, but is now back for the week, and will work from (our) home this coming week, until she stops for Easter.
On Wednesday, Becky and I went to Bristol to see Deacon Blue at the Bristol Beacon. It was great – perhaps not as “high energy” as the other times we’ve seen them – although they did still belt out the old ’45s – but given that this was the last night of term, and hence I was a little lacking in energy myself, it was a perfect night out. Really enjoyed the evening: great music, in a great venue, with wonderful company (and the added bonus of knowing that by lunchtime the next day I would be done with work for the term.)
Am posting a little early this week – its Friday evening – as tomorrow morning we jet off to Crete for a week. Although the weather has been gorgeous here today, and promises to be good for the foreseeable future, I’m really looking forward to getting away to Greece, a change of scene and a change of pace. Kalispera!
Friday was my birthday – 56! – I was at work for the day, and home alone when I first got home as Becky and Sophie have been away in Italy (Florence and environs) since Monday morning. But they flew back for my birthday (!!!) and joined me about 7pm
And knowing how to party, the next night I spent with 200 teenagers! It was the Year 11 Formal Dinner – not the perfect timing given my birthday, and tiredness at the end of another busy week, which had been compounded by a bit of a cold.
Any 50 (not quite 56!) helium balloons blown up, and the dining room was transformed. It was a good evening – my main criteria being no dramas or poor behaviour, but I would say it exceeded that and was a lovely evening for the students, if if it did mean a 10pm finish – with very aching feet – for a very tired Jeffery! (I rewarded myself with a snooze of in excess of an hour this afternoon.)
The weather has remained largely dry, with mild temperatures, ending with a sunny day today (and a week that is set to get warmer)necessitating me dead-heading a number of daffodils, but they are replaced with blooming, red tulips.
Had a minor panic today as all my websites had stopped working, but a quick “chat” call got them back up and running – it was the php version causing the problem (it was obsolete), and then the Jetpack plugin causing further problems on my About Stuff page.
Also on Friday, perhaps somewhat aptly, the RAF retired its Pumas after 54 years surface. Over 30 years ago, my first RAF posting was to RAF Laarbruch as OC PCMF – Puma and Chinook Maintenance Flight and ever since I have had a soft spot for this flying Landrover. Whenever I heard a helicopter over head on Thursday and Friday I gazed skywards, hoping I would catch a final glimpse of one of these “cabs”, but it seems we were not on the farewell flypast route, and all I saw was navy helicopters flying out of Yeovilton. I found this pic on Twitter, as a pair of Pumas flew over Duxford on their final flight, with, appropriately, a VC10 (albeit a civvy version, not a K tanker) sat majestically in the background.
The first tulips are beginning to bloom, bringing a splash of red to compliment the magnificent yellow of all the daffodils that are in flower. Wednesday, and particularly Thursday, we had a burst of warmth and it was wonderful to see the sun shine and feel its warmth permeate through winter cold bones. The temperature has dropped back to more seasonable norms, but pottering around outside today it did feel like we have moved into a new phase, and with lengthening days and a more tolerable temperature it does feel like one can venture from indoors, and start to contemplate all those spring and summer projects.
The tiredness reported last week has embedded itself further this week – I have just woken from a delicious 40 minute nap, a real Sunday treat. I go to bed at a reasonable hour, and sleep well, and don’t necessarily feel tired but I’m conscious that I’m just a little slower in mind and body. I ran today, I enjoyed it, 7K, but each k felt slow (and was slow!) on my heavy legs. Anyway, last full week of the term to come – grind it out, and from this time next week its downhill all the way to Greece!
After the blue skies and warmth of last week, this week we have still had the blue skies, but not the warmth – in fact its been positively cold. Its stayed dry all week, but the wind has whipped up and the temperature has plummeted making it much less pleasant to be outdoors.
Although I did, this morning, take to the outdoors, running my first 7K of the year! It was clear, cold and still at 8am when I set off optimistically this morning, having decided to run 7K. It all started well, I was feeling fit , if not fast, and enjoyed bounding along the pavement. After about 4 and a half Ks I was tiring, and beginning to rue my decision to run 7, not 5k, thinking that if I had done the latter I would now be on the final stretch. But I wasn’t, so I kept on plodding, lost myself in my thought and those final 2 and half k passed before too long. It wasn’t quick – I ran in just of 35 mins so averaging about 5 mins per K, but on getting home I was pleased that I’d done the extra distance, had pulled nor tweaked anything and I just need to start getting some miles in.
The pic above is from Friday, when we had a beautiful moon shinning over us. A “dark” pic of the week is perhaps appropriate – I’ve felt tired this week, classic three weeks into (a half) term tired. However, I can now glimpse Crete on the distant horizon, I’m very much looking forward to that.
