where art collides

Thought 4 the day seems to be coming on earlier. Bores the tits off me. It’s usually someone who is reading out their script and not very well at that. Bit annoying that I’m now getting up 5 minutes earlier because of it.

Playing classic fm on the chromecast in the shed. Felt fresh and raring to go so got in early this morning. Unfortunately the MacOS update that was set to run overnight didn’t as I’d forgotten to save a spreadsheet. Doh. The upshot was the usual wait whilst the mac did it’s thing so stuck the radio on and nipped out to the jardin to check out the onion action and other such spring like activity.

Must say it is a lovely fresh spring day. It’s been raining and that is good. It’s not a blazing sunshine job. Just nice.

This gives rise to a thought we had this morning after listening to the weather forecast. Well I didn’t really listen to it as nothing I have planned today is contingent on the weather. The thought entailed starting a weather channel. You could do it all using your phone in selfie mode and for convenience record it the day before. Obvs you’d want it to go out early but that would involve the faff of getting up and recording it at the crack of dawn, probs. So pre recording it is good. 

If you were off for a weekend away or even on a longer holiday you could record every day in advance. Clearly it would be possible to do the recording from your holiday location but that wouldn’t be much help for viewers tuning in specifically to hear the forecast for where you live. Unless you were holidaying at home but then this conversational  thread would be irrelevant.

It has been argued that the longer in advance you do the recording the less accurate it will be. This totally misses the value of such a programme. Knowing the high intelligence of the average reader I will not elaborate.

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It was mentioned this morning on Facebook that 2020 might as well be wiped from the calendar is it never really existed. For many of us this is true but a large minority will remember it as having affected their lives for ever. For most though it would make a lot of sense if you could purge the dates from your calendars. Maybe we all feel like that.

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Do carrots taste Orange is an important question of the day. The beauty of this question is that it can be posed any day. I have chosen today to put it on the table. Once you have digested the question let me have your thoughts.

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Celebrity gossip column written by someone who wouldn’t recognise one if they fell over them in the street. I once looked to see the twitter top ten – the ten people with the most followers. I had only heard of five of them!

Ciao.

PS the weather ended up crap.

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Sat up late for a change. Need to check reward flight availability after midnight. Don’t need to book yet but for planning purposes could do with seeing which destinations actually offer seats up front. Just over an hour to go.

It is windy out. I quite like the sound of the wind. When I was a kid I always lived near the sea and it was always windy. A good storm is one to be admired, from a safe perspective obvs. The waves crashing against the sea wall, soaking swathes of the promenade.

The hour is a long wait but I need to stay awake for it. If I set the alarm it would wake Anne up which would not be fair. She doesn’t need to be on the organising committee. Her lot is to approve the plans and be ready and waiting at the time the car comes to pick us up.

During my teens I lived in the Isle of Man. Still feels very much like part of me is still there. A great place to enter adulthood. It was mostly windy on the island and I recall one day when at uni in Bangor in North Wales a fellow student from London remarked to me how wet and windy the area was. I said I hadn’t really noticed as it was just like the Isle of Man 🙂

We have had two big BA reward flights in recent years. The first was where we flew first class to Hong Kong and the second in the same comfort to San Francisco. The latter was just before the pandemic exploded but more checks were already being made upon arrival to the USA. More checks for regular travellers that is. If you had Global Entry it was a breeze. Unfortunately Anne doesn’t have Global Entry. An executive decision was made and I went on ahead to pick up the luggage! No point us both standing for two hours in a slow moving queue. Ahem.

We would love to go back to the Isle of Man this year but we can’t plan it yet. Three trips have been cancelled inc 2 TT Weeks.

Dawn appears to be 6am. I know this because I was up at it.  Wow. The seasons are moving on apace. Soon dawn will no longer be at 6am then it will again. They keep messing around with the clocks.

As I was walking downstairs an unusual thought occurred to me. Have you even given consideration to the ignominious fate of the fish finger. Actually I don’t mean the fish finger itself which is destined either to be consumed by some grubby kid together with oven chips slathered in tomato ketchup or as the filling of a sandwich by a discerning adult with more sophosticated culinary tastes. I mean the fish within the finger. Seems a strange way to end your life. Chopped into rectangular bits, coated in breadcrumbs, stuck in a cardboard box and consigned to a freezer. Oo the shame of it. No difference I guess to being shoved in a rectangular wooden box and stuck in the ground.

I suppose if I was a fish once I’d been caught and my very last living piscine breath squeezed out of me I wouldn’t care. I am unlikely to leave a mourning shoal behind me staring poignantly as the trawler disappeared into the distance lamenting my untimely fate. Most of them would be with me in the hold of the trawler anyway I guess.

Funny what springs to mind as you head downstairs to make the tea innit. I had a fish finger sandwich for dinner last night

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A meteorite hit my car last night. No it didn’t really but that would certainly have grabbed your attention. A bit of clickbait innit. What prompted the remark was the news item this morning about a guy who had found a rare bit of meteorite on his driveway. The fireball the night before had been well publicised and he knew to call The UK Fireball Network – @FireballsUK on twitter.

My point is to imagine the scenario where the meteorite had not landed safely on the drive, in presumably a smoking crater, but had hit his car. With hindsight he should have put the car in the garage but who can fit a car in their garage these days? As it happens on this occasion that bit of hindsight is irrelevant because it didn’t hit his car. The point is, and I am still coming to it, could you imagine the telephone conversation with the insurance company? “Your car was hit by what?”. It’s a bit like the car insurance ad where someone telephones to say they’ve crashed into a petshop and their car is surrounded by escaped animals. An amusing enough ad but not that good because I can’t remember the name of the insurance company.

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Sbeen a good news filled day and has therefore flown by. We need em. Sue is going to be allowed to visit dad in his “assisted care facility” in Cardiff so that is a big step forward. It feels almost as if that single piece of news heralds the start of life beginning again. It is springtime after all. Making progress on all fronts.

This afternoon Tom the tree man and his “henchmen” came to work on the garden. I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea about Tom’s henchmen. The word perhaps suggests nefarious side-kicks but in actual fact Tom’s assistants are very nice blokes and competent to boot. Outcome of Tom’s visit is a nicely trimmed hedge with all the offcuts removed for disposal in a suitable environmentally friendly manner. If I had to do it myself it would take days and the job would not have been as good.

I’ve now downed tools and am playing some loud tunes. Fish pie for dinner but the gong has not yet sounded.

Ciao amigos.

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I want to break free but it is only Tuesday. Breaking free can only really happen from Thursdays onwards although Wednesdays have been permissible during lockdown.

Just a quick note to say you’re looking fabulous. I like the way you do your hair and you look great in that top. 

Cometh the hour cometh the striking of the cathedral bells. The bishop needs no watch. Herding sheep is not a game it’s a calling. Does he milk ewes? Someone must although I’ve never seen it in a supermarket. Must be online ordering.

The cathedral bells are striking but only when the wind is from the West. Otherwise they follow the rule of refrigeration which states that the lights are never on when the front transcept doors are closed, unless you happen to be looking up at the stained glass windows.

One does wonder whether the Bishop has the occasional quiet go at bell ringing, if such a thing is possible. The quiet campanologist! He must need to practise. The goal is change-ringing perfection but this is totally unattainable in the way that a carpet must always show a flaw. That’s why the bish needs to stay involved. The decision of when to introduce a flaw is his call. The burden of executive responsibility. We’ve all been there. 

The crashing of the earthenware jug on the floor of stone. The metaphor of the jug. Deuteronomy 28:17. Only kidding. No idea really. Just made that bit up. It’s not all imaginary. Maybs. I’ll leave you to decide.

I was stimulated to get out of bed this morning by the start of the Sunday Service. I never listen to this programme but I do occasionally leave it on for it’s soporific qualities. Unfortunately this morning, I was informed, was a happy clappy edition. Enthusiastic singing of modern hymns that will almost certainly not stand the test of time is not in my mind a recipe for easing gently into the day so I arose.

The coffee is on the go and Anne is making banana pancakes. Outside there is bright sunshine and I’m told that the robin is stuffing himself on mealworms from the sunflower feeder. All is good. 

The scene in the kitchen is one of domestic bliss. The byword is harmony. I have had to switch the wireless over to Classic FM because the discussion on Radio 4 had turned to the troubles of the Royal Family. This is of no interest. Classic FM offers the relaxing background music necessary for a day of rest.

Having said that the first meeting of the day is at 10am. Festival board meeting. All good. Beforehand I will have time to apply the third coat of woodworm treatment to the hanging down tennis racket n stuff holder I mentioned yesterday.

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A glorious spring day out. One of those joy to be alive jobs. As I was applying the last drop of wood treatment I heard the cathedral bells chime. Thinking I was going to be late I quickly washed the paintbrush and plastic receptacle and went into the kitchen to stick the kettle on. No problemo. Turns out I had another ten minutes. What I was hearing was not the top of the hour time check but the call to the regular collection plate faithful for donations to the dean’s holiday fund. (Only joking deano).

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Anne and I did our now customary Sunday afternoon walk.  Down past Bunkers Hill to the bypass and around the new bit to the next junction and back home along Greetwell Road past the prison and hospital. Annoyingly my fitbit ran out of juice so stopped recording the route which I like to do. Normally I can resort to my google maps timeline when this happens but that didn’t work either. I suspect because the bypass is too new to have been properly recorded in Google’s system. Anyway we did 4 miles. Wanting to build this up now so that when we head to Keld in May I’ll have at least a basic level of walking fitness to enjoy the countryside. Covid Lockdowns have played havoc with this.

After Keld we are hoping to spend the Bank Holiday weekend in Caernarfon but that is contingent on the availability of accommodation. The Black Boy isn’t open yet and the Welsh government has not published their outline plan for easing lockdown.

Also booked a whole family short break in September. Took me a few goes not to get anywhere on the Hilton website so I called them. Turned out there was only one room left on the deal that was on offer and I needed four. Bit annoying because the site just kept saying “this package no longer available” or similar. Didn’t tell me it was only available for two rooms. Ended up getting two rooms with “the deal” including one “accessible”  job and two at a slightly higher rate. Be nice to have a family reunion with partners. Also having one in London in July but the more the merrier.

The sparrows are farting. Probably not but the avian chorale is in full voice outside. Rehearsals. Suspect none of them are sparrows. It is 5.45am, Saturday, stardate 6th March, 2021 CE. Not much traffic. Twirly.

It is the weekend. Clearly. No rugby today but there is a jobs list. I haven’t looked at it lately but suspect the tasks are building. Will look later 🙂

Went for a walk around Whisby nature reserve yesterday. Set the exercise recording going on the fitbit and only realised that I’d forgotten to click “finish” when I had been in the car a couple of minutes headed home. Doh. Quite funny really to see the squiggly bits of walk and then a long straight line in the car on the bypass.

Continue to monitor the reward flight sitch. Some business class availability to Miami this morning. Miami is the least preferred option as it’s still a long flight from Trinidad and Tobago. 1st pref is 1st class to Barbados. We are roughly two weeks away from crunch time.

In other news we have tentatively decided to spend September 2023 following the rugby world cup in France. The beauty of possessing a campervan. Will be a crowd of us going. I’m actually not that bothered whether I get any tickets especially as the rest of them will be mostly interested in watching England. I’d be happy enough to just be around for the atmosphere and watch the games in local bars. The games are scheduled mostly towards the end of the week and the weekend so we would still have time to do touristy bits. Otherwise rugby tours are all consuming and highly alcoholic in nature.

September 2023 is a long way away but these things need planning.

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I observed this morning that a letter has arrived addressed to “the householder” from the Office of National Statistics. The 2021 census is upon us. We are having to fill it in online which makes a lorra sense to me although I note there is a freephone number to call if you want a paper copy. 

Historically it has taken a good six months for any census data to become available. Not totes sure about this as I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it but my point is that if we are all filling it in online than you would think that the results would be almost immediately available. 

The census was really useful when I was researching my family tree. Being a Davies with roots in Carmarthenshire you would think that this would not be the easiest thing to do. Where we come from 25% of people have this surname. Fortunately we were very religious and my male antecedents were Baptist Ministers. All I had to do was keep an eye open for “minister of religion” or simlar in the census entries.

The census only goes back to 1831 so going back further requires access to church records which are often incomplete. In Wales they didn’t use surnames and people often called David son of David (Dafydd ap Dafydd), a popular name after the Welsh patron saint. My research stalled mid eighteenth century and I’ve parked the activity until such time as I have more of it.

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I was out in the garden painting woodwork treatment on some bed slats, as you do. They are being repurposed as a useful storage device for hanging things up in the garage. I was getting it sorted when I noticed that one of the slats had a lot of woodworm holes. Not good innit. So the slats are draped across a tarpaulin on the patio. You know, the one covering up the garden furniture.

Anyway there I was dabbing Cuprinol on the wood when I noticed a blackbird pecking around. Hmmm I thought. I wonder if he is after the dried mealworms in the imitation sunflower garden bird feeder. The feeder was empty so I nipped to the greenhouse and got the bag of feed. The minute I’d replenished the sunflower a robin appeared and nicked a mealworm. Result.

Made me feel good. Interesting how what interests you changes. I had said to myself I’d get some work done this afternoon. I have a quote to get out and a video and a presentation to have ready for Monday. That’s the keyword there. Monday. Tomorrow is Sunday innit. Why do something well in advance when you can leave it till the last minute 🙂 So now I’m watching a bit of footy having completed all the jobs I plan to do today.

Tbh I’m not that interested in most football matches. I should stick the Imps on but I will have missed most of the first half and don’t fancy forking out a tenner to watch 45 mins. Normally it is something Anne and I like to do together anyway and she is repainting the kitchen. Again 🙂

There were two Knights of the Realm on the Today Programme on radio 4 this morning. I don’t remember the name of the first one because I was only really prompted to think about it when the second, Sir Roger, came on about an hour later.

The question of the day is this. Is the presence of two knights on totally separate bits of the programme a pure coincidence or is this a concerted effort on the part of the BBC to gentrify the station? 

One might even consider whether there are now so many knights being dubbed, if I can put it like that and no pun intended in respect of any BBC sound recording practice, that statistically speaking, the presence of two of them on air within an hour of each other is unsurprising.

There is more. Sir Roger is in my mind a common enough name for a knight. I’d like to bet there were a couple of them onboard ship when William the Conqueror came over in 1066. It’s a knightly sort of name. Perhaps Rog is a direct descendant of one of them. It’s probably quite common amongst knights to pass on their first name as well as their, presumably, manorial handle. Can you have hereditary knights? From my peasant perspective I don’t know enough about it.

I can’t believe the other guy, sorry Sir I didn’t catch your name, comes from a long line of knights. I’m sure were he called Lancelot or similar, another Roger even, it would have stuck in my mind. He must be one of these modern knights created for services to industry/slipping the Conservative Party not insubstantial funds for various “election campaigns” over the years. I’ll call him Dave. His name is not relevant anyway as I’m not going to refer to him again. Well I might but at this stage have no plans to do it so probably not.

I’d rather be a lord than a knight anyway. As far as Waitrose are concerned I am one. Also a Captain as I have two Waitrose accounts. The Captain Tref account was created for when we need a delivery to the Beyond The Woods festival site. They won’t let you specify deliveries to more than one location from the same account.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club of which I am a new member as I needed to book a site next year that would only accept members from said institution thinks I am a Count. It was a drop down option for titles when creating an account. Bit strange I thought but maybe the Club has a high Count membership 🙂 

It does feel as if it will be difficult to go backwards from here. The idea of signing up for anything new as a Mr would be a comedown. Totally inappropriate. Needs a bit of thought… 🙂

I walked to the shed this morning through fine drizzle carrying my usual cup of tea. This is quite satisfying. It was  definitely downward precipitation but not so heavy that I got at all wet or felt there would be any detriment to the tea. Even found time to pause at the raised bed to look for more onions poking through. Spotted one yesterday. No more yet although the leek seeds in the conservatory are germinating.

The momentum towards spring is growing (no pun intended). Not a headlong charge but it is certainly picking up the pace.

In the shed I received a text message from EE. If I stay within my current plan they will automatically double my data allowance. I just renewed my contract with a data allowance of 160GB. Now it is 320GB. I actually use maybe 5GB. They know what they are doing – that’s a totally free to them uplift 😉

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Nipped to Fosters butchers before lunch and purchaysed a gammon joint, some Lincolnshire dry cured beacon (pronounced in the dialect), pork belly for Sunday’s dinner and a rack of lamb. The lamb turned out to have more chops than I expected as I hadn’t realised that a full rack included both sets of ribs. We now have 12 lamb chops for Saturday night. Somewhat excessive for two of us. Not as if they were those small ones. These are chunky. French trimmed.

Back in the shed I can hear some banging going on in the allotments. The temptation is to pop out to see what’s going on but I am for now refraining.

Sat in the shed last night watching the Imps lose to Fleetwood and caught a glimpse of something moving in the garden. Rewound the CCTV and saw it was a cat. These animals are too small to get picked up by the motion detectors which is a shame as it would be quite interesting to see what wildlife we get in the garden. Seen a fox a couple of times but that is primarily because someone has seen it looking from the house and I knew when to look on the recording. Not a biggie 🙂

Noticed a couple of onions planted at the weekend already poking through. This bodes well. Still have a few left hanging in the garage from last year’s crop. We didn’t grow enough to last the winter so I treat myself to using one or two on special occasions 🙂 The smaller ones were pickled and those have long since gone.

Breakfast this morning was cooked on the griddle. Two rashers of smoked bacon, three small banana pancakes and a fried egg with chopped chillies. Can’t see myself going back to using a frying pan for cooked breakfasts although I have been eyeing up a De Buyer carbone pan which I will probably buy anyway because they seem to be the dogs. Had difficulty sourcing the right one online.

I have a day of relative tedium ahead of me. Three quotes and prep for an online trade show which has a deadline of today for submissions. Sigh. In my mind I have a plan to sort all this out. 

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Fruitful enough morning session although only got one of the quotes done. Popped in for a cheese sandwich with ma gurl and now back at it. This PM I have to write an advert and make a video. I won’t have time really but see how it goes innit.

Finally booked a 4 nighter in Keld. Last week in May. Only a twin room but hey… 🙂 Has views looking out over the valley and a side window for looking at the fields next to the hotel. Sawonderful spot. Figured might as well carry on to North Wales after as we are swinging by the Peul on the way home but can’t book any hotels yet so that will have to wait.

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Sat in the shed, sat in the shed, baby it’s cold out, sat in the shed.

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Didn’t get the ad done or the vid but at least I know what I’m going to do with the ad and I’ll come up with something for the vid. innit.

It’s another of those coldish pre-spring days. Not sure really where the line is drawn. There is an official start to spring but this is an artificial construct. Snowdrops know better. We just have to accept that not everything changes at the flick of a switch. That would not only make it boring but also risky. What happens if there is a power cut when the switch is due to be flicked.

Made it to the shed by 08.30 this morning. This is getting to be a habit. It is partly due to the fact that the mornings are growing lighter. I am not particularly motivated to do any real work at this time. Reality is that I’ve already checked the mail etc. 

I am also in the habit of checking reward flight availability for next year as the first job of the day. This is somewhat a futile endeavour because the good spots are pinched shortly after midnight each day. We want to fly to da Caribbean around 12th March next year for Shannon and Michael’s wedding. It’s easy enough to get economy seats but that does break Davies corporate rules. So in a couple of weeks I will have to train myself to stay up until after midnight for a few days. We have flexibility both in dates and destination. I remain optimistic. 

The return leg out of Boston is less of an issue. Plenty of reward flights available. It has to be a reward flight. These flights can be £4,500 – £7,500 per person per leg if you were stupidly rich enough to want to pay for them so reward flights are the way.

On the days I’m up after midnight I doubt I’ll be in the shed for 8.30.

Since beginning this post the working day has started but I am on mute on a conference call. It is a very multicultural group. Milan, Brussels, Utrecht, Dubai, Lincoln, everybody talk about, pop musik. I moved on to a discussion with someone in Amsterdam whilst emailing someone from Bournemouth. I think I’m feeling a little dizzy. 

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Found myself singing “hey now ho now nonny nonny now” whilst making a lunchtime sandwich. Who on earth came up with nonny nonny now? Presumably an ancient lyric conjured up at a time before Shakespeare had shaken the vocabulary tree and made the invention of new words acceptable, trendy even. Gadzooks.

I find it perfectly acceptable to invent new words if it makes sense. I wouldn’t see the point of creating a new alternative to already popular words such as “and” and “lobotomy” but occasionally one does come across a situation where a new world might be deemed appropriate.

For example years ago there was a chap called Michael Dukakis who was a US presidential candidate, or something like that. Because Dukakis rhymes with car  keys Anne and I started  to call our car keys Michaels. It’s shorter, or at least it is only one where previously there were two. Nobody would have had a clue had we mentioned Michaels in public 🙂 We knew what we meant. Nowadays nobody ever hears of Michael Dukakis himself.

The facial hair went at lunchtime. An interesting experiment and I liked the idea of the hippy look but it really wasn’t me. I particularly didn’t like the tash getting in the way of food and drink and it felt strange when I washed my face. This is not an indictment of anyone else who wants a beard. Just not for me.

None of the family liked it. I guess I have been clean shaven all their lives. Sgone.

The longish hair is still with me. I’m not yet prepared to give up on that notwithstanding the fact that there is nowhere open to get a haircut anyway. The alternative is to buy a shaver and go for a number two or three. A pretty drastic change from the current state of affairs. We are not there yet.

Looking at the Downing Street briefing and captivated by the sign language person. She looks a real character. If it was me I’m sure I’d forget to carry on when a new sentence comes along. She naturally waits until the sentence is well under way to get the context right That said Matt Hancock is a real bullshitter. Lots of politico speak. I have to say sign language is not necessarily intuitive. Can’t say I’d understand her without the accompanying soundtrack.

Today has shot by. I lay awake in bed last night thinking about jobs I needed to get on with, as you do. I’ve breezed through them. I even got an email back from a customer telling me I’d already done the quote back in September! I amaze myself 🙂 Still loads to do but at five thirty I’ve mostly given up for the day.

Sleep filled bleariness, strangely wide awake, brain not yet fully in gear, birds up and at it. What do they have to talk about at this time of day? Worms, weather, spring, the change to British Summer Time when the living is easy.

Do birds have that kind of memory? Do they recall the long hot summer of 2019 or a cold late spring. The great unforecast hurricane of 1987 or whenever it was. You knowworramean. Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Nawlins, sprawlins.

I’m up and will shortly make a pot of tea even though it isn’t my turn. That’s how I roll. Sometimes I make two pots. One is usually not quite enough and two almost certainly too much as even with the benefit of a tea cosy it will either have gone cold or totally stewed by the time we get to the bottom of it.

It is still too early. Not too early if we have a tide to catch or a fishing spot along the river to lay claim to. Too early even if we were headed to Cardiff for the match. Too earl to head to the airport for that stupid o’clock flight. We live a long way from most useful airports. If it departs that early we would stay at an airport hotel anyway. I quite like the Sofitel at T5. A handy short walk from the terminal. T5 is my preferred departure point. Not Gatwick. Depends on the class of travel.

I see someone famous’s dogs, stolen at gunpoint, have been found. My dad had a dog called Chum when he was a kid. I only found this out recently. Took 59 years of planetary living to be told that. Dad remembers taking him to Tabor, the local chapel and Chum running along the low wall of the balcony on the first floor. The fondness of dad’s memory made me smile.

Just heard an owl out the front by the way. The time for hunting must be nearly over although I did once see one stood in broad daylight on the corner post of the trellis at the bottom of the garden. Looking for Winnie the Pooh, probs, or Piglet.

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Looks great out there. Beautiful sunny day. This morning I will get my onion sets down. 

The horses have rounded the final bend and the home straight lies ahead. The finishing line is still distant but the grandstand is in sight. This is nothing to do it with being a Friday. This Friday the weekend is still a distant blur, a heat haze on the horizon. I have to burn some brain cell energy before the haze sharpens its definition and a cool refreshing glass of beer is revealed on the table in front.

Stone the crows

Last night there were a few noisy crows flying around the trees above the garden. This morning I note that one was sitting quietly in the tree above the shed. This is a concern. Crows would be worse than wood pigeons. We shall see what happens.

On a similar note the Red Arrows are busy practising this morning. This is annoying, not because I don’t want to hear them practising. Annoying because by the time I hear them coming it is too late to dash out and take a pic.

In the meantime Joe messaged me to ask if I’d seen the cricket score which I hadn’t. I switched on and knock me down with a 30lb sledge hammer but England have nearly bowled India out. This is after a v puer perf from England yesterday so they needed to pull something out of the bag.

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England lost by 10 wickets. A thrashing.

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Tonight is more or less a full moon. Outside the werewolves are howling. Stay safe indoors you lot. I will have to traverse the garden back to the house later so hoping I will be ok. Fortification will be required.

One of the great side benefits of lockdown is being able to enjoy spring at home. You do need a garden to fully benefit from this. There really is no place like the UK for spring. Ok I’m sure there are other places equally nice but the UK is very much at its best at this time of year. As I write the sun is shining and a light breeze carries birdsong through the open shed doors.

This is in marked contrast to the tedium of the work on the screen in front of me. Frame agreements, Statements of Work, invoice chasing and other technobusiness conversations. 

The planting season has begun. The front runners of spring are plants that have overwintered in the soil. A hardy bunch indeed. Now is the time to add seeds to the mix.

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Had a fairly productive day. Broke the back of the Frame Agreement, chased customer for money (no response), picked up a trunk with Anne – purchaysed from someone in town and written an article that will feature in a newsletter at the end of the week. Also got a booking for Anne’s Vans – they keep on rolling in yay.

The wind is on the rise. It is an ill wind that blows no good. No idea whether this one is ill or not although I know for a fact that the covid virus is airborne. If I were a fisherman or a sailor out of Newlyn and Polperro I’d be looking out at the storm tops or the scudding clouds and thinking I was glad to be shorebound while my ship the Eugenia or the Saucy Sue was being careened in dry dock.

Although technology suggests that it is 14 degrees Celsius, the coat hugging bent heads holding onto hats as they walk by reveal the cold. In the sanctuary of the shed I see and hear the wind but I am insulated from its effects. Leaves litter the lawn like autumn, dug from their dreamy compostable snugs in the base of a hedgerow to dance a final dance.

Tonight the Imps step out to battle Plymouth, once more. We are the top dogs and never the underdog. The target. We will be there, online

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The darkness

No bread, no milk, no gas, no electricity, no telephones. This isn’t a planned test. They never are but I happen to have turned on the tv with a Lucy Worsley programme about London during the blitz. Meanwhile it is dark outside. All I can see is the reflection in the doors of the neon beer sign and the tv.

I raise my head.

Silence…

.

A gentle start to the day. The birds are quietly getting on with their daily routine. Looking across to the raised beds the garlic continues to thrive. An occasional car drives past the front of the house. The garden is still and I have the shed doors open to the deck.

The deck is likely to be the first place we will host visitors once lockdown eases. Anne is more likely to have a pal on the patio in front of the greenhouse. Me, drinking gin on the deck. Both are outdoor locations. The shed itself could even be considered outdoors if I open both sliding doors to their full extent.

I was early to the shed this morning. Eight thirty is early. I feel ready for the day. Gently ready. My third cup of tea is pretty much finished and it might be that I will consider that a fourth is required before the day proper begins.

Over the weekend we booked a three night stay in Keld in Swaledale in May. It is one of our fave spots. The Keld Lodge Hotel is in the middle of nowhere. You walk outside the front and it is just fields. I sense it is touch and go as to whether they will be allowed to open by then. 

We booked it as much as anything as a symbol of hope, of freedom. Booking the hotel allows your imagination to take hold. Long walks amongst the sheep up in the hills above the Swale. The fresh sweet smell of the countryside blown by the light spring breeze on to your face warming in the sun. Sitting down on rocks for a cup of tea from your flask and munching a biscuit whilst around you the birds swoop feeding on airborne insects and gathering nest building materials. The stopping for lunch in the Kings Head in Gunnerside. Baguette and chips washed down with a pint of beer, or two.

Tom and I stayed at the Keld Lodge when doing the coast to oast walk a few years ago and we had lunch at the KingsHead, half way ish between Keld and our next stop Reeth. We have fond memories of that day as being probably the most picturesque on the walk. Swaledale is truly beautiful. Don’t go there. It will spoon it for those of us in the know 🙂

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24 hours after I had the jab I felt a bit achy but the next day I was fine. Today I read that a study in Scotland has suggested if you have had the AZ vaccine you are 95% less likely to end up in hospital with covid 19.  It would be quite interesting to follow what was going on inside my body. I like the sound of the statistic and am curious to see the progress of the vaccine working away inside me.

Right now I have the 1812 Overture playing in the shed. This was the first piece of classical music I heard as a child. Mum and dad had an LP with on one side this together with the Light Cavalry Overture by Von Suppe, as I recall, on the other. I think it might have been the only classical record in their collection. Killing a bit of time before my 14.15 meeting.

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Looking at some of my bookcases an occasional gap may be observed with the result that not all books are fully upright. It makes me wonder which books I’ve moved and where I’ve put them. Cleared a load out a year or two ago. Must have been more than a year as we’ve been locked down for that long. So freed up a lot of shelf space which now seems largely to be used up. I have bought books in the meantime but not enough to fill all the space. Maybe I’m just not using the space efficiently, hence the sloping books. No biggie eh? 🙂

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Will need to rebook Keld. Hotels now don’t open up until 17th May.