where art collides

Hedged my bets with an incinerator

The weather today has been cold but sunny. I took advantage of the sun to get out in the garden and use the incinerator I bought yesterday. It’s very satisfying for us blokes to set things alight. In the incinerator it was all controlled stuff:)

Having got the fire going and added some of the old MDF flat pack rubbish on the heap behind the trellis I had time to get on and finish off trimming the hedge. Timing wise it worked really well. I’d top up the fuel in the incinerator, trim a bit of hedge, collect the trimmings and put them on the incinerator.

It was a lot easier to do it in stages than to trim the whole hedge and have to rake up all the trimmings in one go.

After four hours on the job I’d more or less finished the hedge and burned most of the crap. It was quite satisfying to note that I’d cracked on with it for four continuous hours. Before I started this exercise regime I wouldn’t have been able to do that.

We did have a couple of small bouts of hailstones whilst I was working. Made me decide not to walk to Hackthorne. It was a North Wind and the hedge had taken a lot longer than anticipated. I’d decided to crack on and get the whole job done. We can do the Hackthorne bluebell walk another year. Although other parts of the country have it we have no snow forecast which is a shame. I like snow.

In other news England walloped Italy in Rome. Some of the boys are out there for the weekend. They chose a good match to go and see if you are an England supporter.

Tonight we are having roast pork. I’ll be making the gravy. There will inevitably be some wine involved. I’ve been a good boy this weekend  and had no booze but my toothache has returned today and the only cure seems to be swilling whisky around the tooth. It means that I’m in the mood for a drop more with the meal:)

PS although it’s Valentine’s Day we don’t do that kind of thing anymore 🙂

More pics here.

Vids below:

images of cake in link

John’s birthday. 16. Had nice family lunch. With the others away it’s as if he is an only child.

Spent the morning doing a bit of stuff in the garden. Tidied up the woodpile at the bottom of the garden which made me realise that we really needed to burn off a lot of the crap. It isn’t worth chopping up to burn in the house fireplace.

Also realised that the bow saw is totally useless. Moreover the bloomin chainsaw has lost the main cog that drives the chain. It will be on the floor of the workshop/garden store somewhere but there is so much crap in there that I couldn’t find it. It will have to wait until the spring where we sort the shed out.

In consequence before lunch popped down to B&Q and bought an incinerator and a new bow saw. Looking forward to using them both.

Also spent some time working on the hedge. It needs trimming but at at least 20m that’s not a small job. There’s a lot of ivy in there too which needs pulling out. Made a bit of progress but it will take quite a few goes at it I think. Last night I ordered a new step ladder from the B&Q website. 10 rungs/3m. It will allow me to properly do the front hedge and also be useful in the autumn for reaching high up apples.

No walking today. It’s a rugby afternoon and I’ll be watching France v Ireland and Wales v Scotland. WIll have to see the second half of the Welsh match on iPlayer as we are off to the flicks with John to see the Dad’s Army movie. On the way home it’s a Dominos Pizza for John and a takeaway curry for me and Anne.
Selected pics here
Couple of train vids :


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Lincoln to Heighington and back

Seems I have just learned to retune a TV at the tender age of 54. I realise that most of you learn this at your mother’s knee, or at least when you bought your first TV. I bought my first TV 11 years ago. I must have tuned it in. It probably had a step by step installation process where it assumed my IQ was 30 and did it for me.

Ditto for our second TV which was a flat screen job that didn’t take up half the room. We didn’t need a new TV but it was cheaper than building another extension to the house.

The TV I just learned to tune was an inheritance. It hurt my brain when all I got from plugging in three different aerials was “NO SIGNAL”. How can a simple TV that is just supposed to show mostly rubbishy content be so difficult? The answer is technology of course. What is designed to add value also adds complexity.

It’s the same with my car. We only have one key. A second is going to cost £96, or £126 if I want the remote unlocking to work. £96 for a key??!! It’s because car keys these days have chips in them with added value security. Fair enough but the whole car is like that. It’s supposed to make things more reliable and safer but basically it just adds expense.

Rant over. The TV now works and is fine with both aerials we bought to try. Anne will have to choose one and take the other back to the shop.

Today’s walk was 10.52 miles home to Phil and Rachel’s at Heighington and back. Long sections of the old railway line, now a cycle path, between Stamp End and Washingborough with nobody to be seen. Feet and back knackered by the end. All good stuff I guess. Progress towards doing 23 miles in a day.

Pics from the walk here

Vids below

Picasso eat yer heart out

Another walk this afternoon. Outer Circle Road, down to Monks Road and along to the West End Tap. Had a chat with landlord Nige and he gave me a lift home. 3.5 miles plus this morning’s swim.

Was later getting to the pool due to having to scrape the ice off the car windscreen – see pic below. On the walk passed three items of interest (at least I think they are interesting).

One was Fosters Butchers, newly reopened after their fire last year. Yay. Second was the Lincoln telephone exchange viewed from Waterside North. And finally in the featured image is a pic my friend Alan Ward in his garret.

Al is the artist who carved the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – see here for posts on the subject. Al is a born again artist. By this I mean he was driving along three weeks ago and had a heart attack at the wheel. He was rushed to hospital where they stuck a couple of stents in him. He seems right as rain-ish now.

Booze? Crisps? Broccoli?

I’m not giving up anything specifically for lent. I did think about saying “religion” which I thought would be suitably ironic but I gave up on that many years ago.

Today I swam for 45 mins and walked 45 mins. I had considered walking to Cherry Willingham but the body was less willingham and I left it a bit late really. Instead I walked to the Carlton Centre Post Office to repost the DVLA application to register dad’s Peugeot in the UK. My original application was rejected because I sent the wrong amount of money!

Also dropped by Wickes to find a clamp to help glue the kitchen chair together. They didn’t have one big enough so I’m going to improvise.

Tonight is a parents evening at school to discuss revision timetables! And so the cycle begins again.

Have another pancake y’all… Greetwell Hollow passed on my walk today.

Will get around to them all in due course

get spare key for the Citroen

clear under the eaves

repair pelmet in kitchen

bash out dents in tin trunk

screw bookcase to wall

fix deckchair

trim front and back hedges

wax jacket

lightbulbs -kitchen, tv room, conservatory, front floods

glue kitchen chairs

go to tip

Pancake day yay plus ten miler and Red Arrows

I love pancakes. Why on earth do we only cook them once a year. That isn’t entirely true as Anne regularly makes banana pancakes for breakfast. However I am talking about the pure indulgence of eating pancakes dripping with butter and lemon juice in sugar.

Around 6 large ones is an appropriate level of consumption and no other food is required. Unfortunately, and I don’t say that with enormous seriousness, we are having a meal before the pancakes get consumed. In a sense that is ok because it means less room for pancakes which are presumably more calorific than the roasted vegetable tart I will be eating before hand.

An entirely vegetarian meal. If I can stick to beans on toast or simlar for lunch I’ll have had a wholly vegetarian day and lived to tell the tale. I realise that lots of vegetarians do this every day but as someone who would ask for an endless supply of bacon sandwiches with brown sauce as my luxury on Desert Island Disks you perhaps understand my perspective.

So this morning I swam for 40 minutes, consumed breakfast and booked Darren the plasterer who is now coming to plaster the attic on 12th April. It will take several days and I think make the room that bit tidier. The attic floor is boarded over and there is plasterboard and insulation on the walls/roof.

At around 11 I set off on my walk for the day. The beautiful sunshine was in great contrast to the rain offloaded yesterday by Storm Imogen. I was planning a 10 miler. 5 miles to the Daisy Made Ice Cream Cafe in Skellingthorpe for lunch and back a different route along Skellingthorpe Road and along Tritton Road into town.

The walk out along the Fossdyke towpath towards the Pyewipe pub is a real pleasure. After the pub I saw very few people until I got to the caff. Did notice a few things though. Firstly I could hear the Red Arrows training. Couldn’t see them. Then I arrived at what seemed to be a memorial for RAF Skellingthorpe. Also saw a lump of concrete in the woods by the side of the path that must have been part of the airfield. Most people wouldn’t know the memorial was there. You have to walk or cycle along the path. You are into serious industrial farming country as soon as you pass the Pyewipe.

Daisy Made was a great opportunity to  sit down and take the weight off my feet. Lunch consisted of beans on toast and a cup of tea. I had to remove a fleece and my waterproof as the warmth of the cafe was too much after the walk. I’m not sure the base layer and fleece are performing the moisture wicking as they are supposed to although it could be that I’m not fit enough yet.

After 30 mins or so I set off for the 5 miles return trip. Easy enough although my feet are still the weakest link. Feels as if my boots are starting to wear in but the feet still aren’t used to the pounding. There’s a definite improvement though and I reckon it will only take a few more walks to get them sorted.

The whole trip took around 4 hours for 10.2 miles. Not bad. My longest so far during this training run up to the Coast to Coast. Steep hill was more of a challenge than if I’d done it at the start but not too bad considering it was after 9 miles of walk.

Had a Radox bath when I got in. Just right.

The roast pepper flan was a hit but I only made enough pancake batter for 6. Doh! 2 each. Never mind. It’s been a good day for net calorie consumption with all the exercise.

This evening I’ve been working on Anne’s Vans. The website is nearly ready to rock and roll. Expect news v soon.

I leave you with some videos and a link to some pics from the day.
Pics here

Vids here:

Imogen struts her stuff – bee-ach

Very relaxing sat here in the office/conservatory. The forecast rain from storm Imogen has just arrived and is falling steadily on the roof. The Dyson fan heater is working away in the background and I’ve just settled in front of the screens having swam 35 mins and had a healthy breakfast. Good eh?

I am in a cocoon. I can see Imogen playing with the branches of the trees outside. It’s not a happy place out there. This afternoon’s planned walk has been postponed until tomorrow and a couple of hours will now be spent in the gym instead. it takes a bit of willpower to do two hours in the gym because it is so boring and you are forced to look at screens containing daytime TV. I have my spotify account to distract me.

A couple of squirrels are hanging around the bird feeders. They can’t get at the contents of one of them but the peanut dispenser is easy for them to feed from. This isn’t what they are for but other than not using the peanut feeder I’m not sure what I can do about it. I’m not about to invest in an air rifle.

Mondays are very quiet in the Davies house.  Anne is out. She goes to a Monday Group from church and also hears kids read at Eastgate School. It’s probably the most boring day of the week when I am in Lincoln. Anne has developed her routine over the last few years.

Today I got Campervan Betty registered with HolidayLettings.co.uk – part of TripAdvisor. So Betty is now registered with Camperbug, Holiday Lettings and Airbnb. Won’t be long now before the site is up too and we will be able to start pushing rentals in earnest.

At around 2pm I shot off to the gym. There was no sign of the forecast rain so I just wore a fleece. After an hour on the treadmill on a variable slope setting I stopped to look out of the window only to see Imogen emptying her load with a vengeance. I only had my fleece with me so got somewhat soaked going out to the car. A cup of tea and a hot shower and I’ll be fine. It’s a good job I didn’t go for that walk. I think my waterproof coat ain’t so waterproof anymore.

On a final, culinary note we are having fajitas for tea tonight which should be nice. I like fajitas. I will then be closeted in the TV room as Anne has the ladies of the craft creations group coming round to discuss Easter!

Rain from Storm Imogen.

After the walk

As I was approaching the prison this morning, only to walk past it you understand, I heard a lot of noise coming from the playing field. Sounded like a rugby match or simlar. Turns out it was an American Football training session. Who new?  Quite timely what with the Superbowl happening tonight – not that I ever watch it.

The photo below is of a photographer on the site of the now closed Coop garage on Outer Circle Road.

Stardate Sunday 7th Feb 9.25am

It’s only 9.25am and I already have so much to tell you. Fell asleep watching boring Scotland v England game on iPlayer when we got home last night . Suspect it was the booze that made me fall asleep and not the rugby but who can tell?

In consequence forgot to update my food intake diary which I did this morning. A diavola pizza has over 1,000 calorie in it!!! WHo’d a thought I’d ever by a calorie counter but this MyFitnessPal app is really good. It gives you control. At least it makes me think I have control. You can see that when you have a few pints you had better get some exercise in to offset the effects.

I’m wearing my boots around the house again this morning. I think they are starting to wear in. Hope so anyway. If I get a chance I’ll take them for a walk later this morning. I need to buy some leather boot spray from GoOutdoors and also a couple of bottles of white plonk from Tesco. We never drink white wine but our lunchtime guests might. If they don’t we can always use it for cooking. The beef stew I slow cooked yesterday is looking pretty good today.

The first real news of the day, that which I rushed to tell you at 9.25am, is that the daffs are out. Not sure if this is early. Probably is. Ah well.

The second bit of news is that whilst setting the fire I came across a “Tiny Computers” brochure from 1997. The first PC what I bought myself was that Tiny Computer. It was a P166MMX and it cost a whopping £1232 inc VAT. Blimmin eck. Worra ripoff.

Those were the days of dial up and just before I got my first ADSL line. I was paying BT£145 (or simlar) a month for a 1Mbps connection. After a year or so I moved to a 2Mbps Plusnet line for £110.

I held off scrunching up the Tiny paperwork I had planned to use to start the fire and used some old C&G mortgage documentation instead.

breakfast and lunch

baked bean bath – boy he must have bean cold

Unusually we are entertaining this weekend. I like this. The MacDougals are up Friday night for a 60th birthday bash and are swinging by for breakfast on Saturday morning. Paige is also coming.

Sunday lunchtime we have some friends coming – Jason and Annabel and kids plus Sue and Carolyn. I am cooking a beef stew on Saturday and leaving it overnight for the flavour to develop.

I expect you will hear more about these meals over the next couple of days but because I know you are interested I offer you the shopping list:

General

• Texas bbq pizza
• Grapes
• Coleslaw
• Flavoured rice
• Spring onions
• Butter
• Pesto
• Capers
• W5 rinse aid
• Medium toothbrushes

breakfast

• bacon
• cumberland sausages or curtis’ spicy lincolnshire sausages
• Eggs
• chestnut mushrooms
• croissants (buy first thing saturday)
• orange juice
• bread
• tinned toms
• anne to sort banana pancakes
• blueberries
• maple syrup

sunday lunch

• beef – 5 lb chuck steak
• bacon
• onions
• celery
• garlic
• beef stock
• 2 beers
• carrots
• turnips
• green beans
• waitrose blanc bread
• blue cheese
• custard
• cream

I got most of the stuff from LIDL, the beef and a few bits from Waitrose and the pizza from Tesco. Note no baked beans on the list. I did think about buying some but wasn’t sure whether we had any in. This is an appropriate lead in to the featured image and the video below.

I like to take a photo every day to accompany these posts. Gives them a bit of colour innit. Videos are also useful and I envisage that on some occasions the video is all you will get. When I’m doing the coast to coast for example where I may well be too knackered to write anything and where there may not be any connectivity to upload stuff even if I did.

So today a perfect photo opportunity presented itself on the way into Tesco. A bloke sat in a bath of baked beans. He was raising money for the British Heart Foundation. Solid bloke.

I once bought a guitar from the British Heart Foundation Shop in Fareham. We were passing one evening coming back from a curry and saw it in the window. The problem was the shop we wouldn’t be around when the shop opened. We were visiting a company called Newnet who we had just acquired. The barman at the hotel agreed to nip round during the day and purchase the instrument. I gave him £25 (actually I think it was Ben White’s cash).

You can imagine the impression we made on the engineers at Newnet when I brought the guitar along to the restaurant for dinner that night and had a singson after the meal. It was a crappy guitar actually but did the job.

The one thing that didn’t occur to me to ask the man in the bath was what sort of baked beans were they? Couldn’t see any branding anywhere but it’s the question of the hour! Yesterday’s featured image was purely a coincidence and not sourced from the bath!

Feb 4th and the birds are singing for me and my gal

Feb the fourth doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as May the fourth. For one thing May 4th is Anne’s birthday but also saying Feb the fourth be with you doesn’t sound as good as May the fourth be with you. If you don’t understand that I’m not going to explain, and it’s not an age thing.

It’s dull day here. A typical British February day. It’s why people who can go and live somewhere warm for a few weeks. The winders here don’t have much going for them. OK you get the occasional beautifully crisp day where a walk in the country park produces beautiful photos of frozen landscapes with a low sun dazzling the camera. This ain’t one of those days.

I have been wearing shorts mind you. That’s because I decided to come home in them after the gym. I was going to have a shower at home but two hours later it won’t surprise you to hear that I’m still in the shorts and still not had a shower. It’s a good job this isn’t 4D smellyvision. I had a good session in the gym. 1 hour cardio – 450 calories. Considering it’s only my third session that’s not too bad. I need to build up the length of time.

I had considered going for an hour’s walk later but I may not have the inclination. Ve shall see.

The attic is coming along. Today I tidied up the wiring and moved the router/NAS box/CCTV box/RIPE Atlas Probe/Fast Ethernet Switch onto one of the shelves. It had been a real tangled mess of wires. The wiring needs more sorting really but That would mean drilling holes and getting some shorter patch cables and just right now I can’t be arsed. Still need to sort out proper access to the NAS box from the windows 10 machine. Microsoft hurts my brain. There is a scenario and I am neither going to rush into this one nor take it lightly, that I might one day buy an Apple machine!!!

We also moved my old amp up there and the chair Anne brought back from her mum and dad’s. Had to dismantle the chair and reassemble in the attic. I had said to myself that I would never buy another item of flatpack/self assembly furniture again. In this case we inherited it so I didn’t have much choice. As usual and despite my complaining Anne was right and the chair does look good up there.

We seem to be in between storms today and I can hear a lot of birdsong. I hope they know it’s still only early February. I saw on Facebook that someone had already cut their lawn! I don’t think the weather has been that good. I might even light the fire tonight though I’ve been saying that for a few days now. Maybe I’ll keep it for Sunday – we have people coming round for Sunday lunch which is avery rare occurrence. I like it when we have people round because it gives me an excuse to open some plonk at lunchtime.

This Sunday I do have a little problem in that Ireland are playing Wales at 3pm. The normally boozy friends that might come to Sunday lunch would never have finished by 3pm. However there will be small kids involved this coming Sunday so you never know… They might even want to watch the game – where there’s life there’s hope 🙂

The featured image is “baked beans” taken from tonight’s tea.

and blister

Only a small blister mind you. I did a longer walk this aft – 1hour 50 mins or so around lincoln – 5.44 miles. I need to step up the distances but this one wasn’t bad. My left foot was giving me gyp and upon reaching my destination, ie home I found a blister on one of the toes.

I did take the insole out to check the fit but it does seem to be the right size boot for the foot, ish so I guess it’s just a question of keeping at it, wearing in the boot and hardening the foot. If I can maintain this rate of exercise it bodes well.

The MyFitnessPal app suggests that at this rate I will shed 10Kg in 5 weeks. It doesn’t realise the 6 nations rugby season is fast looming but there’s a fighting chance I can do this. The point is to grow my fitness levels ready for the Snowdonia week at Easter and thence the coast to coast.

This morning I finished off the Airbnb entry for campervan Betty, for now at least. We will find out in due course if we’ve got it right. Also started the User Guide for Betty – the manual for hirers. Will need to use it myself first before I can properly finish the guide.

The process sorting my books also continues. It’s a job and a half, and very dusty. I’m constantly emitting loud sneezes. I don’t know how on earth we fitted all the books into the bookcases we had before I bought the new biggie. Even with the extra shelf space I’m struggling to fit them all in. Whereas I thought I’d fit A-M in one side of the fiction bookcase in the TV room I’ve now had to shift L and M to the other side. The fiction will be OK. It’s what to do with the ad hoc stuff – quiz books etc. Don’t worry. I’ll get it sorted.

Did a big run to the tip this morning. Mostly miscellaneous old paper plus a load of electrical stuff stored unnecessarily for years in the attic. I’m never going to need those dial up modems again anyway! The clearance of the attic is progressing well. We are at the point where John can move his man cave stuff in. I’m going to give Darren the plasterer a shout. The attic is dry lined but it’s just bare plasterboard. Plastering the space will cut down on the draughts big time. Not that it’s that bad.

Link to another video shot down side of cathedral

view over houses behind St Georges hospital from top of hill

moi

path leading down to the estate behind St Georges Hospital on Long Leys Road

MyFitnessPal and Runkeeper

Terrific Pylons gig last night at The Platform Bar at the Students Union. They were on first although in reality the covers band that came afterwards should have opened. We didn’t stay for the two main acts but went downstairs to find a seat and a somewhat (albeit only just) quieter environment where we could hear each other speak.

Anne cooked a lovely prawn chowder which we had before we went out so we didn’t join Nige and the others for a Thai meal at the Brayford. Joe came home later buzzing. He wasn’t too late as he had a taxi coming at 6.30 am to get him back to Newcastle.

Hurricane Henry is still blowing. Joe’s train home, which was considerably delayed yesterday when he came, is once more delayed. Not physically the same train afaik but just a reflection of the chaos the wind is causing to the overhead lines.

Went for a gym induction session with Luke at Yarborough Leisure Centre. Turns out Luke’s girlfriend is Miss Millard, an English teacher at William Farr fwiw. I think John has been taught by her though I struggle with teacher’s names. I only ended up doing 40 mins today, once “induced”, partly because I set the steps on too difficult a setting and knackered myself.

One tip I did pick up from Luke  was to use the MyFitnessPal app. This allows you enter your goals – weight loss etc. You tap in your food consumption at each meal and add the amount of exercise done. The app tells you whether you are eating too much or not getting enough exercise. Once home and entering data I found this to be quite useful. Information is power. You can scan in what you’ve eaten (eg scan in the ryvita barcode and the app tells you how many calories per slice. Do this for everything and you can quickly build up a picture of how many calories you are taking on board.

It’s quite revealing. For example adding Branston Pickle to your cottage cheese and ryvita isn’t a sensible thing to do. Lots of sugar and calories. Next time I’ll replace it with onion or simlar.

The other handy feature is that  MyFitnessPal integrates with Runkeeper which is  really useful app to keep track of your exercise. I know I’m probably boring the pants of you but hey. I’m interested and I have an objective: the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk in May.

It’s a bright sunny day out but Henry still blows and the toothache remains…