Category: Pic of the week

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A new hope

At last the weather has changed and blue skies and sunshine have arrived with the start of meteorological Spring on Saturday (1st March). The start of the week was wet, wet, wet, but by Thursday, for what seems like the first time in ages, we have enjoyed a period of settled sunshine, and it promises to continue into next week.

The daffodils are beginning to bloom and they make such difference to one’s mood. I did think to myself in the week that the £100 or so that I spent on bulbs in late summer/autumn is the best money I spend every year. The flowers, the light, the blue sky and sunshine give sense of hope. The winter has seemed long, grey and boring – not exciting storms, or extremes of cold, just a deep, penetrating cold dampness that persisted all the way through to half term and beyond, but now we have stepped through the door into brighter and better days to come.

Today I spent a while enjoying the sunshine and pottering in the garden, continuing to cut things back. I took more off the top of the buddleia, took a lot of ivy off the “post” at the bottom deck, and cut the Miscanthus (the swishy swashy grass) back, ready to grow again for the new season. I suspect that we are on the cusp of a green explosion – everything still seems dormant, but I am sure growth will be rapid over the next few weeks.

On both Wednesday and Saturday I refereed 80 minute games without trouble from my calf. I did “feel it” after 50 minutes on Wednesday, but yesterday was fine throughout – although I was aware of a tightness last night and this morning – it was good to get some exercise again, still not running, maybe next week.

On Friday Dad went into Taunton Musgrove hospital to have a polyp removed. I don’t think it went as smoothly as had been hoped, but now he seems on the road to recovery. They have kept him in over the weekend for observation, I suspect he will return home in the next day or two.

And today we booked our ferries for our summer trip to Greece – looking forward to it!

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Half term – painting, Cardiff, eye injury and more!

Half term comes to a close and its been varied and full.

On Thursday we went up to Cardiff to look round a few houses with Sophie (whilst it proved valuable in helping her understand what she actually wants, she didn’t end up putting in an offer on any of them) but first we met up at Llanishen resevior for brunch, meeting with Sam as well. The pic above was taken with my new phone – with which I am pleased, and also I woke up on Tuesday morning to find that Lebara had resolved my problem and internet was restored to me.

All week Becky has been painting the stairs and it is finally coming together. Looks good and will be even better in a little over a week when the carpet gets laid.

Thursday was wet – we spent much of the journey up to Cardiff, and quite a bit of it back home, in the rain, but it did mark a change in the weather, and it has warmed up a bit and, on both Friday and Saturday, we did see some sunshine. It is grey and v windy today (and rain is forecast, but not yet arrived) but it does feel like we are entering a new, more hopeful, phase. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the garden, and have been quite vigorous in (some of) my cutting back, particularly the ivy on the back wall, but also on the raspberry/blackberry bed by the side door, much to Becky’s chagrin who thinks I’ve been too vigorous and ruined any potential blackberry crop to come. The bulbs in the lawn are looking good, and those in the pots and front wooden trug are showing great promise. Hopefully over the coming weeks they will burst into bloom, giving a much needed lift was we march through March on the way to Spring and greater greenery. I also found some bulbs in a box in my shed – these would have been from the wooden trug from last year that I hadn’t planted out – that were sprouting, so I planted them out in various places – nothing ventured, nothing gained ….

One negative by product of my gardening yesterday, as we were finishing lunch I felt something in my eye, probably a bit of leaf or twig from my mornings labours. I tried washing it out, but couldn’t seem to get rid of it. I got increasingly irritated by it, stripped to the waist I went outside and poured bottles of water over my eye to no avail. Had a shower and basically forced/held my eye open in the water stream, but I could still feel something in my eye. I found if I sat still it helped, so read for a bit, then had a snooze. Awoke to it feeling a little better, but still not good. Becky & Sophie had been to the cinema in Wells to watch Bridget Jones (they both said it was very good) – Sophie then kindly took me to Glastonbury Minor Injuries Unit. I was seen in about 10 minutes, my eye was examined, nothing in it, but their had been and my cornea was scratched. I was given some cream to apply four times a day, for five days, and by the evening was feeling much better. I’m still “conscious” of my eye, but it no longer hurts and is well on the way to being fully recovered.

Whilst on my “health” (and as I age, it seems that more and more I am reporting weekly on minor ailments and the weather – is this my future?!) I’ve done little (no) exercise this week in an attempt to give my calf plenty of time to recover. This morning, when I got up, I spent 10 minutes doing stretching exercises – I still wouldn’t want to push my calf too hard, but I could stretch it without pain when I couldn’t last Sunday, so that is encouraging.

And just a little follow on note from last week – the repair of my car tyre went well, easy to do and (I’ve just checked!) the tyre is maintaining its pressure of 30psi.

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Carpets, phones and and a blow to the head

At last, half term has arrived, but not before I was the victim of an industrial accident! On Thursday, I was in the staff room, chatting away, when I felt a heavy blow to the back of y head. Someone had accidently knocked over one of the vertical speakers, which swung down and hit me. It was a surprise, and it hurt! I wasn’t sure if I was concussed – I didn’t think I was, but wasn’t sure. Anyway, I had myself checked out and certainly by the next day I didn’t feel any the worse for wear, just waiting for the half term to finally end…

Yesterday I pulled up the carpet on the hall staircase. 90% of the job was easy, but its always that 10% …Where the carpet was furled up under the top and bottom step it was an absolute pain removing all the little hooks that had been used to secure it. But I’ve done it.

(Annoyingly, on returning from B&Q to buy some paint, I spotted a screw in the rear left tyre of my Micra. Have bought a £10 kit of Amazon to repair it – I’ll give that a go tomorrow.)

On Friday I ordered a new phone – a Motorola G34 – which arrived on Saturday evening. Unfortunately, on Saturday afternoon my Lebara sim stopped giving me data which was annoying and that, coupled with not having time today due to having to take up more carpet, meant the excitement and fun of getting and setting up a new phone has been lost, becoming more of a chore to fit in around everything else. Anyway, other than not being able to get mobile data, the new phone looks nice and appears to be a definite upgrade on my old phone, but I haven’t really had the chance to explore it properly yet.

This morning I went for a run – was only ever planning a slow 4 or 5k-er – but about 1K in I felt my calf “go” again (not as bad as before, but a definite moment) so I looped round and came home, which is a shame as I was enjoying pounding the streets again.

The weather has not been good so far this half term – yesterday was wet and miserable, today has been cold, v cold with a biting wind, not what I’d hoped for for this week.

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Pottering

Although the weather remains cold and claggy, I had a happy couple of hours today pottering around outside. Seeing the sun and some blue sky, I was tempted out to the front garden to clean my football boots – all togged up in my warm “outdoor jobs” tops, and enjoying the sun I continued with some tasks in the back. First, I chopped back a bit more of the buddleia – I would have done more, but my garden waste bin if full! – then I had a little tinker looking at, and lifting, a couple planks on the deck path by the side of the house that need replacing, some prep. work ready for half-term in a week’s time when I will replace them.

I also cut the planks ready to re-surface the workbench, and removed the old planks from that table. Removing the wood was fairly easy, the rusted, stubborn coach bolts less so. But I enjoyed being outside, and am in a position to fairly quickly complete this project next week.

Whilst most are still some way of blooming, the first one or two daffodils have flowered. The pic above was taken at school today – the crocuses are giving a bit of colour, but still we await the grand symphony of spring flowers to come.

My calf: yesterday I ran the line for the 1st XI. The first half was problem free, but soon into the second half I “felt it” again. Not as bad as last week, but still not 100% either.

Half-term beckons at the end of the week to come – looking forward to it!

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Calf muscles, the apple tree and the great migration begins

So the week begun with biblical weather: dark, dark skies, strong winds and heavy, heavy rain, but by the end of the week – on Thursday in particular – change had come and we enjoyed blue skies, a bit of warmth in the sun, and a sense of promise and hope that Spring will, one day come.

The back road to Glastonbury has been closed for much of the week due to flooding, although by yesterday it was open again and I had planned to go for a run this morning and see, at first hand, the results of the flooding we have endured of late. But my plans were thwarted yesterday when 20 mins into refereeing a game (on pitch 1)I felt a spot on my right calf go “pop”. I knew instantly it wasn’t good. I tried running, but couldn’t. I seriously thought I’d have to come off, but I gave it a few minutes, walking in the area of the centre circle. By half time, it wasn’t so bad – I could run slowly, and so kept going for the rest of the game, gratefully hobbling off after 90 minutes. It stiffened up on Saturday evening as I sat with my leg up, and an ice pack strapped to my calf. Today I can certainly still “feel it”, but its not as bad as I feared. I think I will put myself “off-games” for Wednesday, but I’m hopeful that I might be able to give it a gentle run out on Saturday.

With the weather dry – and even a bit of sun at times – I took the opportunity to do a bit of work in the garden today for the first time in a long while, cutting the apple tree down a little, and thinning it out, and also taking a few branches of the buddleia down. I hope that half term – in two weeks time – offers similar weather so that I can get out and get the garden ready for spring. This is a good time for chopping things back, just before they burst into like again. Lots of my bulbs – in wooden trugg, pots and lawn, are proudly pushing through the cold soil, some snowdrops are providing flashes of white, and a couple of daffodils are threatening to flower.

I’ve begun the big migration from BT – have bought myself a new mobile sim with Lebara, £5 a month for 5GB, monthly rolling, no contract. Its working fine so far – on Tuesday it should take over my old BT number. Then I need to move Sophie & Sam off their mobile sims with BT and then change broadband.

On Friday & Saturday Becky went to Cardiff to take Sam the stuff he’d left here after Christmas, and also go house hunting with Sophie. They looked at one house, but didn’t like it; she has another to look at on Wednesday, and this one seems more promising …

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Not much to report …

With the first half of January seeming to whizz by, time seems to have slowed of late and grey January rolls on with little to report on. The weather has changed from clagged in cold and grey to big, blustery grey, with strong winds on Friday, some welcome sunshine yesterday, and more strong winds and a lot of rain today. This afternoon got very dark, the darkness only punctuated by a couple of flashes of lightening, accompanied by the booming roar of thunder. With the murk gone, it is nice to be able to see the tour again.

I’ve not done a lot this week other than work, sleep, eat and read. Had my haircut on Thursday, didn’t run today as yesterday, in the last 5 mins of a 90 min match, I tweaked my left hamstring (can still feel it now.) Its good that’s its now still light at 5pm, the bulbs are showing promise, but they are still a while away from flowering (although at school I have seen the first few snowdrops and crocus, at home I don’t think my snowdrops are far from flowering.)

Not too much to report, don’t have the January blues, but not too much to shout about either. Beginning to ponder a few projects for February half-term, hopefully it will be dry (and warm-ish) so can I do some jobs outside that I am lining up.

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Mid-Jan

The cold of last week has given way to mid-January grey murk. Its been damp, overcast and at times foggy; the middle of the week it got quite warm (these things are relative – “quite warm” means not freezing in this context) but as the week ended the temperature has dropped again, to a cold, damp 3 degrees.

No beautiful blue skies this week!

But the bulbs are beginning to show in strength, the robins are returning, the evenings are beginning to get lighter – its not dark until 5pm – and on Thursday, as I walked home (in daylight!) I could hear a blackbird singing.

Work has been busy, and tiring, I enjoyed a long snooze this afternoon. This morning I went for a run – I did my “new” 4K circuit and added on an extra km to make 5K, and the Christmas weight is slowly started to be shed, although at 12 stone 7 I’m still about half a stone off my target. All my aches, pains, and niggles seem to have gone away, most notably my bad neck/arm/finger – I was a bit worried that the return to work and regular use of a mouse would cause it to go bad again, but no, the other evening whilst sat watching TV I realised I was pain free. Life ticks on, with everyone looking to the future: Sophie has begun house hunting, Sam has returned to Cardiff (from London) today, he can see the end in sight of his degree, and Becky and I have booked a week in Nice, in late July, after Sam’s graduation. So not wishing our lives away, but January offers little other than the hope of what’s to come, and its exciting times for us all.

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Cold!

Back to school, and its been a cold week! The temperature really started to plummet on Tuesday, and its been cold ever since, with sub-zero temperatures most nights, and not much warmer during the day. I’ve used a fleece blanket over some geraniums that have still been flowering (on the shelf by the back gate) – looking at them today, they are still hanging on in there, whilst any that were unprotracted have been turned to a blackened mush.

I didn’t get to see it (sadly) but on Wednesday we had a Greater Spotted Woodpecker in the garden (well, next doors), a visitor we’ve not had before, and its not been seen since, but feels a little more “exotic and exciting” than the normal robins and blackbirds.

Car woes …

Wednesday was cold, but initially dry as I began refereeing at Kingweston, but then the snow started to fall and everything got damp, and much colder, and by the end of the game my hands were freezing, despite my gloves. Anyway, I put my bags in the boot of the Micra ready to head home, turned the key, and nothing, nada, zilch. Bugger. I grabbed a lift home, and then had Becky drive me back to KW, connected up the jump leads and old faithful burst into life. I don’t think the battery had drained – I think this is the problem Sophie had back in April. I’m annoyed that I didn’t think to just disconnect the negative terminal and reconnect it – it would have helped the fault diagnosis – but I didn’t. I was also annoyed I didn’t have my jump leads or booster battery in the car in the car, I do now. Used it again without incident on Saturday …

Today I’ve enjoyed pottering, both inside and out. Having lost my jeff and info @dotsandspots emails (due to my server migration – I hadn’t considered this), today I resolved the problem by buying email hosting from Ecohost – £20+VAT for the year. Took a little head scratching to get it all set up, but not too tricky, a good job well done. And I also trimmed down a “bush” in the front to bring its height down level with the others. At the moment its just dead/dormant brown sticks and twigs, but before too long it will, I’m sure burst back into bloom; much easier to manage in its dormant state.

I was “aware” of my tweaked hamstring when I refereed on Wednesday , back was fine, and by Saturday’s game my leg was fine, too. But, with about 20 mins to go, I felt a similar niggle on the other leg, so decided not to run today.

The temperature is due to creep up a little this week, I hope so, I’m not a fan of the cold.

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Happy New Year!

2025 has arrived!

Sam was up in Carlisle, Becky, Sophie and I spent an unremarkable night in to see in the new year, before rising fresh headed at a sensible hour and waving Sophie off on her journey back to Cardiff before 9am. It has been a great Christmas/New Year period – relaxed, comfortable and calm. It has seemed a long holiday – Madeira seems a long time ago – and I return to school tomorrow refreshed and recharged ready for the term to come. I have put on a few (too many) pounds, have read a lot, pottered and enjoyed a slow pace of life for a few weeks. I have run a bit, including a couple of shorter 4K runs – perhaps this is the future: less time and less draining, but still getting some exercise – but annoyingly yesterday, 5k into a 6k run I tweaked my left hamstring and had to walk the last k. Also my back had begun to hurt, and got worse after I got home. Now is pretty much better, and my arm/shoulder/neck problem that plagued my last few weeks does seem to have diminished to the point of being over.

After a week or so of sitting under a grey blanket of miasma, on Thursday the weather changed and it was clear and cold for the first time in a long time. Becky and I headed of to Shapwick for a pleasant morning walk.

And on Friday – I was in school on Inset – it got really cold, a hard frost everywhere …

… that persisted into Saturday. I still had some geraniums flowering on Christmas day, so I fashioned a fleece curtain for them, hoping I can keep them going into the summer. But in the garden the seed heads looked specular coated in frost and and a number of bulbs are poking proudly up, something to provide hope and interest over the coming weeks and months.

And last night it snowed! It had been forecast, so no surprise, and at about 7pm it started to snow for a couple of hours – at first very wet, but then settling on cars and then the road.

But before we went to bed, it had turned to rain and this morning was just another grey, wet Sunday in Somerset. In fact, the temperature has climbed today and felt mild when I popped out to potter, but is due to turn cold again mid-week.

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Christmas!

Wednesday was Christmas day, and it was a lovely day. the four of us enjoying each others company, presents and a fantastic lunch. The day seemed to pass by quite swiftly (in a good way) – no arguments, no drama, and the day finished off with a couple of TV Christmas crackers – first Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance most fowl; and then the final ever episode of Gavin and Stacey to round off a great day.

Two days before (on Monday) we had been to Lifton in Devon to meet up for lunch with Becky’s family:

And Christmas eve was spent at home, en famille, getting everything ready for the next day:

On Boxing Day we enjoyed another chilled day (I did go for a run, but the weather for the last week has been constant grey mizzle and damp – not the sort of weather to entice you out for a brisk cleansing walk) and we all built some Lego.

One of the Christmas bag rounds was Lego – each of us drawing someone from the hat and tasked with buying them a Lego kit. Sophie drew me, and bought me this Lego Vespa that I enjoyed building. (Becky also bought everyone another small Lego kit. The Lego mini-figures we had bought of a street market in Nerja)

We also played a few games of cards – Sophie was “MC”, we played “Granny” – sort of real time solitaire with four players, Uno, and my favourite, Exploding Kittens.

Yesterday, I took Sam to Bristol Temple Meads for an epic train journey to Carlisle to spend New Year with Poppy. It was a long journey made longer by his connection from Manchester to Carlise being cancelled, and then the subsequent later train suffering techincal problems before departure; but he got there safe and sound.

Today the Christmas tree, decorations and outside lights came down. Other than the mountain of snack food and treats still scattered around the house (and the unforgiving reminder on the scales every morning) it does seem like Christmas is over for another year.

But its been great.