where art collides philosoperontap

The birds started their chorale at twenty to four this morning. May have been even earlier but I wasn’t awake. Nodded off again, lulled to sleep by sweet blackbirds singing in the dead of night.

Off on a bit of a jaunt today. Site visit to a conference location in Sorrento. You have to put your best people onto jobs like this so after much deliberation I chose myself. It will be quite warm in Sorrento so I’ve packed a few Tommy Bahama silk shirts and a pair of swimming trunks. Good job I have the shirts innit.

It’s warm enough in Lincoln. Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother arranging a trip like this at this time of year but it has to be done so I’m going. I’ll be back in time for dinner in London on Wednesday evening and golf in Lincoln on Thursday.

I’m currently en route to Newark where I change trains.  Don’t often get a train that involves a change these days but the direct ones weren’t at the right times for me. Want to be in Gatwick by about one thirty. The train is not particularly full. In fact Lincoln seemed quite empty on the way down to the station. Not much traffic. Maybe everyone has gone on holiday. Or Skegness for the day.

As we approach Swinderby we pass a massive field full of potato plants. I wonder how many portions of chips you get to the acre. Standard sized portion. Not large. Usually large portions are so large they do for two or three people. Trying to think when I last had a chippy tea. After golf sometime I think, poss when TGH was away.

Most fields are still very green but the wheatfields look quite ripe and ready to harvest and one hayfield had been cut leaving the hay to dry on the floor. Was recently reading about eighteenth century farming methods and specifically the art of building haystacks. It isn’t just a question of stacking the hay in a big pile. The centre of a  haystack can get very hot to the point that fires can self ignite. Obvs this is not good so the technique is to get enough airflow through the stack to keep the centre cool enough. Makes sense innit.

Didn’t bring a book with me on this trip which with hindsight was a mistake. No matter. It is extremely doubtful that there will be anything I want to buy at the airport bookshop. These places usually only stock best sellers. Gawd knows who reads that stuff. Ditto magazines.

Early up to the sound of birds in our hedge. Outside the conservatory the runner beans are shooting up the canes. Roses abound. We are entering peak summertime. Grass needs cutting.

The week ahead looks to be hot hot hot. I am off to Sorrento for a couple of nights to check out a conference venue for a shindig I’m organising next spring. Couple of nights, Monday and Tuesday, back in London for dinner on Wednesday and then back to Lincoln for golf on Thursday. Sorrento will be hotter than the UK. The hotel, it is noted, has six outdoor pools. At least there will be somewhere to cool down from time to time. Aaarrghhh.

Lovely time at OIeOle last night. Amador knows how to run a restaurant. He and his family are lovely folk. We had a swift un in the Vic before dinner. Took longer to queue to buy the beer than it did to drink it. Gig on at the castle so the place was rammed with punters loading up before going in. I’m off there meself with the lads on the 24th to see Sting. Saw him last summer at Forest Pines. He was seriously good, fair play. Music from my teens. Ditto ELO’s last ever gig in Hyde Park in July.

It’s my turn to make the tea. However am sat very comfortably in the conservatory right now so will need to force myself up to stick the kettle on.

Thought for the day this morning is the rev Roy Jenkins. Didn’t switch off immediately as his delivery tone was most acceptable. Must be the Welsh accent. Used to know someone called Roy. Supervisor at Downwards pop factory in Douglas, IoM where I worked one Easter Holiday. We called him Roy the Boy.

Prepared avocado on toast with a poached egg for breakfast but only ate some of it. There was something a bit iffy about the avo. In the end I just had a slice of toast and marmalade with a cup of tea.

Now enjoying the morning in the shed, doors wide open as is possible at this time of year. The blackbirds sound a little agitated this morning. Might be something near their nest they don’t like. Last year I saw one being attacked by a magpie. Not nice birds. Bullies. They are still around but seem to spend more time in someone else’s garden.

Early to the shed. Doors wide open a beautiful morning. Something not quite right though. One of my screens seems a bit skeewiff but I can’t quite nail why. Don’t have the spirit evel with me which would be the solution. Usually I line the top of the screen with the top of the tv which I know is dead level as someone else did the mounting 🙂 but today it feels a little askew. It’s probs just me.

Golf last night can not be deemed a success. I played terribly, my one redemption being winning the nearest the pin on the last hole which funded all the owings to the others for their successes. We got to the woodcocks afterwards to discover a 1hr wait for food. After slaking our thirst we departed, the others for Pizza Express at the bottom of Steep Hill and I for home and a small ham salad. Had a busy day including a swim in Woodhall Spa so didn’t feel up to heading to the downtown melee. The ham was deelish. Bought some from the deli in Woodhall Spa.

A pot of tea brews on the barrel next to the desk and I am all set to explore the relationship between the Jones family of Maesnoni and the Prices of Abergwenlais.

Dull monotone thought for the day (as usual) on the wireless. Time to get up! I’d suggest to the BBC that they ditched this slot and replaced it with something more interesting like the shipping forecast but it does serve as my alarm clock.

Why people go on holiday abroad at this time of year beats me. Shed doors are wide open. I do have to keep an eye open though as the other day I shooed a black cat away that was thinking of coming in for a peek. I’m not a cat person. I don’t mind other people having them but they ain’t for me. I quite like dogs but they are far too much hassle. Not to mention the vets bills (I just did but I think I got away with it).

Yes I realise the British weather is extremely unreliable and when it is cold and pissing it down then the sound of waves lapping gently on the beach a few feet away from the bar could be quite an attractive proposition. The thing to do is to leave it until the last minute and decide whether to book a holiday in the sun or not based on the weather forecast.

Now the sensible amongst you will tell me that doing it that way means all the best places have gone and you are probably mostly right. I’m already planning a French trip for August 2026. I wanted to make sure we had the pick of the villas, reserve good cabins on the boat etc. Also we are taking kids and partners so they have to get the dates in their diaries far enough ahead to make sure everyone is available.

It may be that the summer holidays become the time we can all get together. As they start to get married and have inlaws with whom to spend every other Christmas, the big family Christmas lunch could well become a thing of the past. Unless we arrange it so that they are all away every other year, in which case THG and I would need to figure out which posh hotel to go and spend ours in. I can see it happening.

This morning I had one slice of bacon, grilled and one slice of sourdough, toasted in the new Dualit long slot toaster. On this occasion I didn’t really make use of the capacity of the toaster as it was only a small loaf but the toast came out fine. Add a splodge of HP sauce and I am now set up for the day. Not the full English of old but the new regime proscribes that. Will set off for Total Fitness at 10am for a swim, maybe swinging by Antonios for a haircut en route.

Had a bit of a breakthrough on the family tree yesterday. Having trawled through zillions of wills I found one where my 7g grandfather’s farm Maesnonni, was given to him in 1707 in the will of his mother’s brother who was a Hughes. It will explain why I haven’t been able to find a Jones of Maesnonni going back any later than 1731. Doesn’t particularly help as I now have to find Hugheses and Joneses. Also Davieses and Evanses and, in another scoop yesterday evening, Prices who apparently were descended from Brychan Brycheiniog. My sister Sue looked him up and reported that BB reputedly had 63 offspring (worralad) which means that most of the people in Wales are probably descendants of his. Elinor Price married my 6g grandfather David Jones.

So in total we are paret Davies, Evans, Jones, Hughes and Price. Just need to find a Williams and a Griffiths now to make up the whole set. The biggest problem from now on, not even taking into consideration the lack of written records is that I am now back to 1680 where people were using patronymic naming, so no surnames. I am reliant on farm names to identify people. It is even quite interesting to see how these names change. I’ve seen Maesnoni written as Maes Noni, Maesnonni (which is what is on the farm gate today), Maesnoney, Maesnony and last night old R Huges had it down as Maes Ty Nonni which is the oldest version and quite revealing as it means the field of the house of the nuns.

It is believed that the farm stands on the site of a now defunct nunnery but there is not much evidence of this that is anything other than circumstantial. There’s the name and there is a field called Maes Capel, – chapel field where in the early 10th Century an engraved gravestone was found notionally dating back to the ninth century. There was almost certainly a building on the site because when I invited the farmer, Hefin, took me to the field which sloped but clearly had a flattened section in the middle which would probably be where the nunnery or chapel stood. Needs an archaeological dig to find out more.

Anyway gorra go. Total Fitness beckons. Ciao amigos.

Had a shave this morning. Uhuh Tref do I hear you say? Well it is important to stay smart innit. That isn’t really why I had the shave though (ok well not the whole reason). Firstly when I go swimming I tend not to have a shave. I guess there is nothing to stop me from taking my gear but I don’t typically and I’ve been swimming a fair bit of late. Then last weekend we were off gallivanting to Yorkshire for the weekend. Who shaves when they are in Yorkshire? Nobody, right?

Anyway today I had a shave, in the sink, in front of the mirror. This is significant. I normally shave by feel when showering, without the use of a mirror. A mirror wouldn’t be much use in the shower anyway. When shaving by feel one tends to miss bits. So today, stood in front of the mirror, I had a good shave.

Now in the shed, feeling refreshed and sorting out my tax return. My accountant actually does the return but I have to provide them with the info which is quite time consuming. I suppose I could do it as I go along in the year, and I do to some extent, but I usually leave a pile of stuff to do in one go. I scan in the invoices/receipts and store them in a folder where said accountant can get hold of them.

There may come a time when I won’t need an accountant but we aren’t there yet.

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Dropped by Antonio’s Barbershop after my swim. However there was a queue and only one barber working, the slow guy who is Antonio’s son in law. Retreated to return another day and as I was getting in to the car I noticed three somewhat large blokes leaving the Tesco car park with some shopping. They were also stealing two trolleys. I wasn’t going to do the citizen arrest thing but as my car passed the traffic lights I noticed an unmarked police car, blue lights flashing like mad, making its way towards the aforementioned thieves. With a bit of luck it will have stopped and sorted them out although I doubt that was why it had the blue lights on.

Raining again. Wasn’t so long ago we were complaining there hadn’t been any rain for ages. I’m not complaining now. Saves having to water the plants innit. I like the sound of the rain on the conservatory roof.

Need to get a wiggle on though. Got a bit of packing to do.

Rainy day blues. Not really. Just sounded right. It has been raining again of which I make no complaint. Being fairweather golfers we don’t play golf in the rain but the consensus was we weren’t going to play today anyway and head straight for the Strugglers for 5pm.

Doesn’t seem too windy right now although the forecast is for gusts up to 24mph. Souwesterly hence the rain I guess. Is that how it works? I quite like a gentle summer’s rain. 

I’ll be off for a swim again at around 11am. Getting my money’s worth out of Total Fitness. Being an off peak member I can go anytime between 10am and 4pm. It is observed that almost everyone in the pool at that time is no longer in the first flush of youth. It is what it is. I should even manage a swim tomorrow morning before we head north to Atwick. See how it goze.

Moved operations to the conservatory with a cup of tea in tow. Noticed I left my towel and swimming trunks on the line. They had dried but are now wet again. Don’t worry I have spares.

The conservatory is full of “junk”. It’s all the stuff that was stored in the “play room”. This month we are having some work done to the play room. It was the old garage. Single brick so was always a little damp but we have a specialist coming in to sort that. Already had the roof sorted. 

The debate that has yet to happen is what we use that room for. Yes storage but I also quite like the idea of putting a workbench in at the end. I already have one in the garage but there is no natural light in there. The main issue is whether I’d ever get round to using it. In theory the shed is a multipurpose building that could, if I so choose, accommodate a workbench. However it is currently set up as an office and a place of relaxation and repose and I can see no near term driver to change this. THG also wants to put the rowing machine in that room which does make sense. Time will tell. Fugit.

We had a power glitch last time we were away. Usually we know this because the clock on the cooker needs resetting to the right time. It’s an old cooker. Didn’t really think anything of it. This morning I checked to see whether my photos had backed up to NAS and whaddaya know there were over a thousand that had not. I set the back up in motion but “host not found”. The NAS did not reboot when the power came back on.

Snorrabiggie. I can sort it out. The index finger is king. Did surprise me though. There might be a setting as my other, older NAS did boot up. I’m not going to the extreme of putting in a UPS though the idea has occasionally crossed my mind. The NAS is one of the three photo backup storage platforms I use fwiw.

Outside a blackbird sings. It is not the dead of night. I’ve never heard a blackbird sing in the dead of night. I did see one being attacked by a magpie in our garden last year. The magpies are still around but I don’t see them as much so maybe they have shifted nests. We have a lot of blackbirds and robins plus a few others. Wren, dunnock, blue tits. The usual suspects.

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Sorted the NAS btw. Was a tickbox.

It raineth. Surely a good thing in the empire of THG. No watering required today except perhaps for the parts of the greenhouse not covered by the irrigation system. The late to the party pots that were not there when I set up the drippers. Mind you, being solar powered, I doubt there will be much irrigation action inside the greenhouse today.

THG is off out running and upon her return I shall head to the pool to splash off a few lengths. The running starts in the Waitrose car park and the pool is five miles away in North Hykeham, around the back of where I used to work at Marconi Electronic Devices/GEC Plessey Semiconductor/Mitel Semiconductor. Pick a brand. I started my working life in the chip business. There is in theory a scenario whereby I could go with THG and nip in to Waitrose to do some shopping followed by grabbing a cawfee in the caffee. However THG will be longer on her run than I will need in the store so I doubt it would work.

It is quite comforting looking out at the rain. Also a bit blustery out there. Typical British spring/summer weather really. The squashes (I think) planted outside the kitchen window by THG that were looking a bit forlorn have picked up and seem to be establishing themselves quite well. They might be cucumbers. I could ask.

THG has headed out for the day. Weight training, bit of shopping then off somewhere for lunch with the girls. I have just finished some gran o’la with yo’g and home grown strawberries and will shortly be getting to grips with some admin. Gotta get stuff over to the accountant n other quite tedious number crunching related things.

Forecast says might rain this pm. Sokay I got the lawn mowed yesterday. Phew eh? It isn’t much of a lawn right now tbh. Needs a lot of tlc. Aerating, scarifying, moss removal, reseeding, the works really. Water, though we have been getting some rain.

Made some progress with the family history. V slow but headed in the right direction. It is totally absorbing. Detective work. Good job I have the time. I’m now generally trawling through wills looking for farm names. Found one the other day under the name of David James whose will I might previously have ignored.  Closer inspection revealed it was actually a David Jones which is right on the button. I won’t bore you with any more detail.

The other thing to report is that I have now used my Meater meat thermometer three times with spectacular results each time. Yesterday’s chicken came out perfect. It’s made even better by the fact that I can sit doing stuff in the shed whilst the bbq cooks the joint. It’s going to get a lot more use before the summer is out.

The walk to the shed is very pleasant at this time of year. The blackbirds and robins are in full voice and when I get there the shed doors remain wide open. Was sat at my desk yesterday when a cat thought it might be a good idea to come in.  It didn’t. A clap sent it running. Cats are clearly comfortable with going into buildings. No idea where it came from. We do get a fairly regular early morning visit from a ginger cat and also from a fox. Not at the same time.

This pm I’m off to try out the Total Fitness gym. It has a pool. Ours, Yarborough, closed just as I started using it again. They are planning to reopen sometime in July but I suspect that TF will be emptier and although it is further to drive than Yarborough might well stick. I did enquire at David Lloyd but they were twice the price of TF and all I really want to do, mostly, is use the pool. I’m not bothered about paying extra just because of the brand.

Good morning fellow citizens. Earthlings. Is it not a beeeoootiful day out there? THG has gone out for a run and, believe it or not I’ve already done three jobs to get the day going and prepared for a fourth. The latter simply involved plugging in the lawn mower batteries to charge up. That fourth job, of mowing the lawn, will happen this afternoon. I have also assembled some dry rub ingredients in preparation for application of a rub to the chichen before roasting it on the bbq this evening.

There is news from the wildflower meadow. We have our first bloom of the season. Exciting you will of course agree. I also took delivery of my new book, Tir yr Abad which turns out to be an excellent read. I had ordered this from a USA based seller on Amazon for a hefty £30 or so inc postage but the so and so cancelled the order on me. Whilst trawling the bookshops in Hay of Wye last weekend I got chatting to a member of staff in one emporium who found several copies on Abebooks. When I got home I ordered one for £3.15 inc delivery and it arrived whilst we were away in London. Result.

Watering the wildflower meadow. Breakfast has been taken and I am accompanying THG in her tour of the garden. I’m off to London for one night only and figured I’d give the ground a bit of a soaking before heading out. Not leaving the house until eleven anyway and it is not yet eight thirty. Only a little bit of packing to do, it being a one nighter.

I do need to be “smart casual” for this trip which poses small challenges as I normally only wear shorts and t shirt. Not insurmountable and not nearly as challenging as next week’s dress code, of which I daresay you will find out more in due course.

We are planning to meet a customer for dinner tonight but said person has pulled out at the last minute due to having to go on an overseas trip so it is being reorganised. I’m still going to town as I prepaid the hotel room and have a fixed advanced ticket for the train down. I rarely prepay for hotel rooms because of this very eventuality but on this occasion the dinner was set up at short notice and hotel rooms in London were exorbitant so I figured I was on safe ground.

Usually I book a fixed train down and a flexible one coming back which is the case on this occasion. I can decide in the morning whether to catch an earlyish train or take in an art gallery or two before heading back nowf.

Early morning slot in the conservatory for the first time this year. A ginger cat was sitting on the table outside for a while until distracted by something in the garden. It looked at me but showed no fear. Used to people. The birds are chirping away happily. The lawn needs a cut. Need to be up early today anyway as taking THG to the Boultham Park Run and then nipping to B&Q before picking her up again. On the way home we will stop at Fosters to buy a chichen.

In the conservatory window there is a tallish white lantern containing a white candle perhaps three inches in diameter, two and a half maybe. The candle is very much leaning to one side. Where it stands it gets the full glare of the sun so over time it has softened and drooped. It does appear to have been lit in the past though I can’t for the life of me remember us doing that. Must have been stood there for some time.

Slooking like a lovely day ahead. Sun, sun, sun. Swat we like. Not always but today is good. Will need to water the garden which I might go out and do before taking THG a cuppa a bit later. Does need to warm up a little first.