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School’s out!

Pic of the week 2/7/23

School’s out for summer!

The term, for me, sort of fizzled out (not that I am complaining) – with most year 11s finishing their two weeks before the end of term, and all the week before, I’ve been on easy street as term drew to a close, but it was still great when it finally, officially, ended. To have the long summer hols stretching out in front of me is something to look forward.  I’ve kept myself busy and active so far: spinning on Thursday, swimming on Friday, Park Run yesterday and an 8K run today, with the intention of swimming tomorrow and spinning on Tuesday before I “let it all go” on holiday!  I’ve also spent some time pottering and tidying up in the garden.  The first sunflower has burst into bloom, which is nice to see, but now want them to slow down for a couple of weeks whilst we are away!

On the rat front, they have been consuming quite a bit of poison and I restocked all the blocks on Friday, but nothing more has been nibbled – beginning to hope that, perhaps, they’ve done their job …?

Had a doctors appointment on Tuesday to discuss my cholesterol – not really sure it was helpful or useful, he didn’t really know why I was their and needed me to him my results.  We then chatted about cholesterol for a bit, he suggested what I was doing was the right thing and wants to do a full blood test in September/October to see if the changes to my diet have had a positive effect.

Off to Majorca on Wednesday, so no post next week …

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Glastonbury 2023

Pic of the week 25/6/23

On Sunday I went to Glastonbury.

(It was me on my own this year as Becky had a 30 year uni reunion)

It was a hot day, the ground was baked dry (in fact, when I got home I realised that my t-shirt looked a hue of grubby yellow  – the white having become discoloured my the dust storms that whipped up as you walked along the pathways) Perfect conditions.

This year, I had a plan. I was on site by about 9.15 having caught my bus at Street, so early the litter pickers had not yet begun to clean the detritus from the night before. I headed straight up the hill to the “letters” and enjoyed the sweeping vista across the sprawling site.

After enjoy the sunshine and sights, I ambled down, taking in Glastonbury-on-Sea, pausing to have my photo taken:

I had wanted to see CarHenge, and I wasn’t disappointed:

before scooting over to the Pyramid stage to see the opening act of the day: The Bristol Windrush Choir and Reggae Orchestra

They were great. Really enjoyed them, and afterward I was interviewed by a journo and the piece was picked up by the Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/glastonbury-windrush-bristol-caribbean-essex-b2363827.html

I stayed in the “pig-pen” (the section right at the front of the Pyramid Stage) for Sophie Ellis-Bextor who was brilliant, the highlight being when she covered Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”. Her show was, possibly, my musical highlight of the day.

I then wandered some more before returning to the Pyramid for Cat Stevens who was good, but perhaps a little laid back, although I did miss the end of his set as I headed over to the acoustic stage to watch Toyah and Robert Fripp – they finished with a cover of Bowie’s “Heroes”, another musical highlight of the day.

Then I hot-footed it back to Blondie on the Pyramid. The crowd by now was immense, It was good, but too much filler and not enough Parallel Lines.

Now tired yet happy, I decided to head for home, getting the 7.30pm bus back to Glastonbury Town Hall, and then walking home, to watch Elton on the TV. A good decision I think – I would have been so far back in the crowd, and exiting the site afterwards would have taken some time.

So a great day at Glastonbury. Musically perhaps not the best (it didn’t top Diana Ross from last year) but I really, really enjoyed myself.

 

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Sub 13

Pic of the week 18/6/23

For the first time in a year I am under 13 stone! My official weight on Thursday was 12 stone 13 and one quarter, the last time I was under 13 stone was 23rd June ’22 – one of only four weeks in 2022 that I was sub 13.

I know that over the last 18 months I have allowed y weight to creep up and establish at about 13 and a half stone, so I am pleased with my weight loss following my new regime after my health MOT and discovery that my cholesterol is too high. I am being very disciplined with my no dairy diet and also not eating other than my three meals a day. It seems to be working!

Although it hasn’t helped my running – ran 7K today, whilst my splits were not reliable, I am still much slower, averaging about 5mins per K.  I thought my weight loss and regular spinning would see me improve, but it has yet to manifest itself on the road.  I think I just need to get more miles in (unlikely over the next month or so, with Glastonbury, Majorca & Cavtat to come)

The sunflowers out the front are growing rapidly, with a number already over a metre tall. The continued wall to wall sunshine has probably helped.  The ones in the back are a long way off this growth, but seem to be healthy – looking forward to a forest of sunflowers this year.

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Rata, and other wildlife!

Pic of the week 11/6/23

The long hot spell has continued and Wednesday afternoon found me home alone (Becky had gone to Cardiff to see Coldplay and Disney 100), sat outside, reading my book.  I heard a strange noise, looked up, and saw something darting from the top deck to the bottom of the garden.  I hoped, for a moment, that it was a squirrel, but, whilst its tail was long, it was not bushy – it was a rat.  I then saw another , a little more timid, poking its head out from the top deck – confirmation: we have rats.  On Friday, Becky saw one emerge from the same place, so a quick trip to Amazon and bait and a bait box was bought, arrived and installed on Saturday.  Looking this morning, I think the edge of one of the bait blocks has been nibbled so hopefully our infestation will be short lived.

Today, Sunday, was Becky’s first as not an employee of Sainsbury’s so instead of her working and me running, we went for a walk around Shapwick nature reserve. It was lovely.  Saw many, many dragonflies:

Damson flies mating:

Swans with their cygnets:

and a very impressive Marsh Harrier. It was a lovely way to spend the morning, before coming home to potter in the garden.

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Dancing queens, butter, and bikes

Pic of the week 4/6/23

Yesterday, Becky and I travelled to London to see Abba Voyage. It was brilliant! I’m not really sure how they do it – its as if the four members of the band were there performing live for us, but they weren’t, but it was so realistic. Anyway, the music was brilliant and the dancing fun as they belted out all their classics. It really was a fantastic show.

We had originally planned to travel to London by train, but a train strike put paid to that plan, so we drove up instead, parking in the (pre-booked) NCP Richmond car park (circa £25) A really easy and direct route, although we were then slightly stymied when I discovered the district line between Richmond and Earls Court was closed that day for engineering works. So we got an overland train to Waterloo and then entered the tube system from there.  On our way back, we travelled directly from Strafford (the site of the London Olympics) all the way to Richmond on the London over ground.

In addition to the show, we also spent an hour or two exploring Camden which was fun.

Half-term is often a time for self care and I had both a dental hygienist appointment (my check up was cancelled as they no longer have any NHS dentists)  and also my over 50s medical check up at the doctors surgery. All was going well until the final results from my blood test came in and told me that my cholesterol is too high.  My total cholesterol level is 6.74 mmol/L – needs to be below 5 – my serum HDL cholesterol level (good cholesterol) is 0.98 mmol/L – needs to be above 1.0 – and my ratio TC/HDL is 6.9 and needs to be less than 4.5. So I have an appointment to discuss this with the doctor in 4 weeks time, but in the meantime I’ve started cutting out stuff high in polyunsaturated, so that means no butter, milk, cheese, chocolate, red meat … Looking on the positive side, I am seeing it as an opportunity to try new foods and expand my palette, rather than thinking of what I can’t have.

On Tuesday and Thursday I went spinning at Strode leisure centre, and really enjoyed it, so have signed up again, with the view that I cancel at the end of the summer holidays. Having tweaked a calf muscle whilst running today, it may be that I need to move my exercise away from high impact running to lower impact spinning and swimming. We’ll see ….

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Half-term

Pic of the week

Half-term has arrived and, somewhat surprisingly, the sun is shinning, and promises to do so all week.

I’ve made little use of the day today, other than to run, rest and snooze – I have a bit of a summer cold (sore throat came on in the night on Friday) and now I have a bit of a cough and feel a little lethargic. I ran this morning, but was a little slow, and had looong snooze this afternoon – other than read and snooze, I’ve done little, but I probably needed today to recharge my batteries.

Plan to get busy in the garden for much of the week, some bushes need pruning back, geraniums need planting out and my latest batch of sunflower seeds – and six pumpkins – will need planting out before the week is done. Anyway, its nice to know I have some time ahead of me to potter and prune in the garden, snooze and read, and maybe also get in a little exercise.

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Sun and sunflowers

Pic of the week 21/5/23

So this week we have been blessed with sun and blue skies – and what a difference it makes.  I spent yesterday afternoon running around in the sun, refereeing at the Ashcott charity football tournament (did two lines and two middles for a total of 120 mins.  Legs were aching last night, went for swim this morning – first few lengths were tough but then my body loosened up, I glided through 40 lengths and have felt much better for it all day.) and today I have spent quite a bit of time outside – this morning, circa 11am, enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the garden along with the sunshine, and this afternoon reading and then snoozing, Good weather makes such a difference.

On Wednesday I planted out the sunflower seeds I had sown a few weeks ago, putting them in the front trough. They seem to have taken well and are growing nicely. Today I planted some more seeds in trays in the porch, along with some pumpkin seeds – this time of year is busy, busy, busy in the garden, literally sowing the seeds to reap the rewards later in the summer.

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Bulbs

Pic of the week 14/5/23

Well, we’ve had some quite biblical rain this week (flooding in Bruton, Queen Camel and other places) but yesterday afternoon the sun shone and the garden is looking lovely – the alliums in particular.

Today, I lifted the bulbs from the front “trough” and planted them in a corner of the lawn (top right in the pic above) and hopefully they will burst through to give added colour next year.

It was bloomin’ hard work digging the lawn up and I fear I may not have planted them to the optimum depth but, worst case scenario, we just end up with a patch of mossy lawn again.

I must confess, I ache now. I ran this morning, and then spent a couple of hours of heavy toil in the garden but hopefully, come next March, it will have been worth it (I’m clearly playing the long game here!)

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Exercise!

Pic of the week 7/5/23

Having planted them last Sunday, I am pleased that nearly all my sunflower seeds have burst forth. Dead-headed the tulips in the front bed yesterday – it can only be a week or two before I need to dig them up and start planting out my sunflowers.  The back garden is looking vibrant – the alliums are just beginning to flower, purple exclamation marks offsetting the swathe of blue forget-me-nots, the apple tree blossom is magnificent – probably in for a bumper crop this year – and everything that should be green is,  a vibrant range of greens.

I could do my deadheading yesterday as we had the day of for the King’s coronation.  Not really my thing, I don’t like the overt wealth and inequality and having someone “reign over us” really does go against the very core of what I believe (that we are all equal) but some people like the pomp and ceremony so, if that’s their thing, so be it. As Becky & Sophie (Sophie has come home the Bank Holiday weekend) sat down to watch it, I represented the oppressed masses and went and did the ironing.

And then I went for a swim. I have been a busy boy on the exercise front this week: ran last Sunday, went spinning at school on Monday, Tuesday I refereed an U14 game, Wednesday not too much – stood around chatting at volleyball, Thursday: nada, Friday ran the line at Street FC for a testimonial game, Saturday swum, ran another 7K today and will spin tomorrow, although that will then be “it” until next weekend.  Legs are aching a little today, but, more importantly, my foot has withstood all of that.

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Streets and seeds

Pic of the week 30/4/23

So its been back to school this week, the summer term, but not summer weather. Its been grey, damp (very wet at times) and chilly. The winter and spring of 2023 have not been good. The garden, though, is looking lovely – the pic above is tulips and bluebells along the “washing line path”  I’m pleased with the way the lawn is looking, still have tulips flowering in it alongside daisies, and the alliums (both in the lawn and in points) are close to flowering.  As I put out some washing this morning under a grey sky, I was struck by how peaceful the space was, it certainly was a calm oasis although I’ll be happy for it to turn into a scorching fiesta of flowers!

And to help create this, today I planted my first sunflower seeds of the season – two trays (20 seeds worth) of “Titan”, the same of “Giant Single” and 18 seeds of “Autumn Beauty”

This morning I ran 7K – my foot has been feeling fine so I thought I’d risk running again and I’m glad I did.  I was “aware” of my foot as I ran, and since returning, but I wouldn’t say its hurting, so that is a huge step (pun intended!) forward.  There were times when I thought I might never run again.  I was, inevitably, slow, but I was pleased that I was able to complete the 7K. Onwards and upwards from here!

I also think it worth recording that yoga isn’t taking place this term, so perhaps my days on the mat are done for good (did still do some stretching when I got back from my run) Perhaps I’ll do it again if it re-starts in September, but you never know, once something stops it can be quite hard to start again.