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We rumble on

Pic of the week 22/11/20

We’re now firmly into mid-November, its dark early, its damp, chilly (although mild for the time of year) and we’re still in Lockdown 2 – so not a lot to write about. Its the time of year for getting your head down and getting on with life, so not a lot to report this week.

The pic above is from when Becky & Sophie went to Ham Wall RSBP reserve on Saturday – at first glance it looks to me like Sophie is fishing!

On Saturday morning, Sophie’s car wouldn’t start, but I managed to jump start it easily that afternoon. I suspect the problem lies with the stereo being accidentally left on, so we’ve decided to remove it. Haven’t managed to (yet) take it out of the car (have ordered a special tool from eBay for a couple of quid) , but have discovered you can remove the front face plate, so I’ve done that so hopefully it means the stereo can’t be accidentally knocked and turned on.

I did get my voltmeter and took the following readings of the battery:

11.83V before starting

9.1 V on starting

14.56 V when engine running

so I think the battery is probably OK, and the stereo was the cause of the problem.

Not much other news. Ran this morning, Becky now back at work after 11 days on off, three weeks of term to go …

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Happy Birthday!

Pick of the week 15/11/20

So yesterday was Becky’s big birthday – she turned 50!

We should have celebrated in Plymouth (!) watching Deacon Blue – we booked the tickets and made plans a long time ago – that fell victim to virus, along with pretty much all other plans (eg a day at the seaside today) when we entered into lockdown two a couple of weeks ago.

So it was a family affair, a lazy day.

The children (well, Sam, to make amends for being sick on his duvet in the night – el perro de booze strikes again) treated her to McDonald’s for lunch (I was working) and then, on my return, after opening her presents, we had a Chinese meal together, which was nice.

And it was all finished off with her wonderful cake baked by Sophie.

So not fireworks and fiesta for her birthday, but I hope (I think) she had a nice time as we celebrated another birthday under the constraints of Covid.

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21!

Pic of the week 8/11/20

It is still hard to believe, but on Wednesday it was Sophie’s 21st birthday. Where have all those years gone? The muse deserts me – I don’t have the words to describe the joy, happiness pride and love she has bought me over the last 21 years.

Despite lockdown I think (I hope) she had a nice day – lunch in Ask with Becky and Sam and then all of us at home for tea, a lovely family time.

We were also hoping, on Wednesday, to hear the results of the American Presidential election, but it proved to not be clear cut, so we have had an agonising wait for a few days until it was announced yesterday that Joe Biden won the race to the White House, or more importantly, Donald Trump lost. In this strangest of strange, most difficult year, at last some good news, a new hope.

Although it developed into a beautiful, sunny, clear autumn day, Wednesday dawned cold, with the cars frozen over and the temperature at zero. The perfect, and first, opportunity for me to see if changing the glo-plugs in the Micra had solved the cold start problems it had developed in late March. I turned the key part way, saw the glo-plug symbol illuminate and then go out, turned the key completely and it fired straight in to life. So it seems my diagnosis and subsequent repairs have done the job. Chuffed.

Today I ran my 1,000th Kilometre of 2020, another reason to be chuffed. It was Lockdown 1 what did it, running nearly every day in April.  I have, this year, run a total of 1006 Km in 80 hours, 36 mins (or 3 days, 8  1/2 hours). I have now run a million metres

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The Gathering Gloom

Pic of the week 1/11/20

A rather apt photo of me striding confidently into the gathering gloom.

The pic was taken on Wednesday as we (Becky & I) headed home after a walk in Combe Hill woods, but the it is, perhaps, symbolic of the darker days to come of the next phase of lockdown which was announced yesterday, to begin on Thursday (5th Nov) for four weeks. Schools are not closing, so I suspect that the new lockdown will actually make little difference to me.

Half term ends today, despite the weather (its been wet!) and despite not being able to go to Barcelona its been a good two weeks that I feel I have filled productively.  Looking back, I’ve enjoyed a number of good walks, met up with friends (Steve & Nicky), potted and tinkered with the cars, read, tidied the garden and planted some bulbs, sorted our new re-cycling centre, practised my Spanish … I’ve really enjoyed the two weeks, it seems like a long time since I was at school and I’m ready to go back for the next half-term, whatever it may hold.

Bottom right shows the pumpkin I bought and carved, the other three pics show those that I have grown. I don’t know why, but I always feel a great sense of pride about those pumpkins that I grow myself.

I’ve also run quite a lot over the last two weeks, and October in particular. 85.75 Km in fact, and I am now only one run (4 Km) away from completing 1,000 Km in the year. Maybe next week …

 

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Gorge-ous

Pic of the week 25/10/20

Its not been Barcelona, but ….

This week we should have been in Barcelona but, of course, due to Covid-19 that hasn’t happened. (Flights got cancelled at the start of September, got the money back this week.)

So, dodging between the dodgy weather, we’ve hit the hills, and its been great fun. Today we went to Ebbor Gorge (pic above and below) and I really enjoyed it, particularly the scramble up through the middle of the gorge, it certainly wasn’t just a Sunday stroll in the park. And it was lovely to have lunch in the solitude and sunshine at the top of the gorge, with the Tor in distance.

On Thursday, we went to Cheddar Gorge. Another quite demanding – but rewarding – walk. Becky particularly enjoyed the first section as she found, and photographed, many fungi. It was quite an ascent, followed by a difficult descent and then another ascent, before a more gentle walk across the top and steady decline back into town.

And on Friday we donned the walking boots again, this time as we met up with Steve and Nicky and reminisced and chatted as we walked to the weir and along the canal.

So not the warmth, bustle and culture of Barcelona, we will make it there one day, but in the meantime Covid-19 has expanded our local horizons and life is the better for that.

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‘Shrooming

Pic of the week 18/10/20

Saturday saw the start of half-term and Becky and I headed up to Stockhill Woods, Priddy, to do some “‘shrooming”. There was quite an impressive array of colours and shapes to discover and it was a really pleasant way to spend the morning, ferreting around in the woods. We did also emerge from the trees to head over to Priddy Pool – I must admit I like being out in the open – but the pool itself, and surrounding landscape, did seem somewhat devoid of life, making it a little bleak. But I did like the first opportunity to try my technical trousers and walking boots. Given that C-19 has forced us all to change how we use our leisure time (we should have been jetting off to Barcelona on Tuesday) I’m glad I’ve bought this specialist clothing – now just got to get outside and use it.

Harvested my five pumpkins this weekend. I don’t know why, but I do take pride in growing these. They are not that big, the two biggest being self-seeders from my compost heap, the other three were all from plants that we bought from the garden centre on the roundabout during lock down.

Today, I changed the oil in the Micra, although I couldn’t remove the old filter (seized in) so that’s a job still to be done.  Did enjoy doing though.

 

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Poorly

Pic of the week 11/10/20

I’ve been a little bit poorly this week.

Not Covid – I have checked the symptons carefully, I had a sore throat that then became a bit “sinusy”, leaving me feeling tired and with the occasional headache. My temperature has remained normal, I’ve only coughed on occasion (certainly not a new or persistent cough) and my sense of taste and smell has remained undimmed. Just a seasonal bug, probably due to tiredness (and dehydration? Ran on Sunday, spun on Monday, sore throat began on Monday night)

Feel a lot better now, although I did curtail this morning’s run at 7Km, my legs ached, it was hard work (despite lovely weather), I was slow, and I wasn’t really enjoying it.

Have then spent much of the rest of the day pottering in the garden – mowing the lawn, removing the runner beans and their support and planting some daffodils in their place, and general tidying. The sun has shone, and it has been a pleasant temperature – I fell I’ve had a really peaceful day today, which is probably just what I needed.

And the pic of the week?

Well that’s Farrington Gurney Church were we got married nearly 25 years ago. Becky met her sister at the farm shop there (FG) yesterday for coffee and took this pic.

 

 

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Wet, wet, wet

Pic of the week 4/10/20

It feels like it hasn’t stopped raining since Wednesday.

Wednesday afternoon I refereed at school (1st XI v Filton College, good game) and I got soaked, Saturday I ref-ed another school game (3rd XI v Taunton, a bit agricultural) and got soaked, this morning I ran, and got soaked …

The rain has been relentless, with some localised flooding, but does, at least for now, seem to have stopped.

The picture above was a (double) rainbow on Wednesday evening, shortly before my Spanish lesson, and gave me the opportunity to find out from Daniel that a rainbow is “un acroiris” and I took the chance to practice my colours:
roja, naranja, amarillo, verde,  azul, violeta.

He was less sure about indigo – can’t find it in my dictionary and google translate merely offers “indigo” as a translation, perhaps its not really a spanish word? Maybe azul profundo  (deep blue) might be  a better translation?

El cielo estaba gris oscuro, pero el arcoiris estaba muy bonito, muy linda.

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Full time?

Pic of the week 27/9/20

So Covid’s making a comeback and, consequently, I’ve made a big decision.

I’ve blown full-time on my refereeing, at least for the time being.

I don’t fear contracting the virus whilst taking charge of a fixture – its quite easy to keep oneself socially distanced and being outdoors I feel pretty safe, but what concerns me is getting a subsequent call from track and trace to say that someone at a game I have refereed has tested positive and that therefore I need to self-isolate for 14 days.

I don’t want to have to do that as it would drive me mad, plus I would feel I was letting down everyone at school. So I fulfilled my commitment to referee today, but other than school games, that’s it for the time being. I’m limiting my exposure to the world to work and home.  I think that is now how things will be until Spring.

On a more cheery note, the pic above shows my pumpkins nicely turning orange. The leaves are  (have!) turning into crisps, it’ll soon be time to harvest them. I have enjoyed watching them grow. With the leaves now a shadow of their former magnificence, the chard plants are once again beginning to thrive, it will be interesting to see how long they last through winter.

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Life rolls on …

Pic of the week 20/9/20

Nothing major to report this week, but nevertheless an important week, a week in which work (sort of) got back to normal.

By the end of the teaching week I think I had come to grips with the “new normal” way of teaching. I’d got my classes all set up on One Note and we (both students and I) were beginning to become familiar with how we will work from now on.  Normally, by the end of week one in September some semblance of normality has returned, this year it took an extra week, but I’d go as far as to say that I am now enjoying work again.  I’m even beginning to “see” more people (colleagues) at work and enjoying a chat with them. This does remain a challenge – one of the great things about working at Millfield is the huge range of people I work with, and now we are all bubbled (I think, for staff, silo-ed might be a better word) those daily random encounters just aren’t happening. To help overcome this, at break time and lunch time, when I can, I’m leaving my room and just going for a wander around campus to see who I bump into.

On Wednesday evening, after my Spanish lesson, Becky, Sam & I raced up to Windmill Hill to try and grab a glimpse of the setting sun. It was lovely to go back up there – but did make us question how we found the time for our Boris walks during lock down.