where art collides philosoperontap

Totes freezing out there. Sub zero. The lake will be frozen. Take care not to walk on it folks. That water is deep and the ice may not yet be as thick as it needs to be.

We had a high number of fox visits yesterday from, I do believe, two different foxes. Times were 11:49, 20:39, 22:44, 00:04, 07:46. The new one, which came at 11:49 whilst I was in the shed but didn’t notice at the time, has a white chest and looks to be a bit slimmer than the regular one. I ran a comparison AI analysis and on balance I think they are defo two different animals. I don’t have the same chest pic of both of them but I believe I’m right. The analysis also suggested that the regular fox is a vixen from the way it marks its territory. The area around the lake is rapidly becoming a fox superhighway.

THG has gone running. It’s her 99th park run. She was worried that it might be called off due to sub zero temperatures but no it is still on. I shall be going to watch her 100th next week.

I am currently producing a model of the farming year in our family farm Maesnonni in Llanllwni at the beginning of the 1730s. You might think this is a little unusual but it is what it is. It is an interesting and challenging detective story. Because of this my mind often turns to what they would be doing in Maesnonni at this time of year, especially with the freezing temperatures we are currently experiencing. 

They didn’t have central heating and double glazing I assure you. In fact they would have had a large fireplace in the kitchen with not very good insulation albeit 29 inch thick walls. Actually I’m not sure about the walls as that is the thickness of the “new” farmhouse built in 1804. The older one would not have been as salubrious. It might even have been modeled on the old Welsh longhouse with family accommodation at one end and the livestock at the other. 

With 31 cattle probably not., They would have been housed separately.  We don’t really live in a real world. They would have been tucked under multiple blankets, breath freezing. I wonder how they used to light candles and fires. I can’t imagine they kept something burning all the time. Flints maybe?

Last night was nearly a full moon here. A few stars to be seen but not many really due to the light pollution around us. 1730s Llanllwni would have been pitch black but the light on a starry night would probably have represented good illumination.

We were walking to the Bailgate on New Year’s Eve. This was an achievement in itself but that’s not the focus of this story. On the way we passed a family group with a little girl holding her blind grandfather’s hand. I assumed it was her grandfather. He was slim with white hair, a small pointed white beard and in his free hand carried a white stick. It really grabbed my attention. She can’t have been more than six and it made me think what confidence she must have to walk with him along the pavement like that. A real responsibility. 

I made a note on my phone after they had gone by. I did go through a phase of carrying a small notebook to scribble down such observations but the stylus in my phone is a good enough replacement, albeit ethereal. A notebook is a more permanent record. Our lives are moving into the aether anyway. You can choose to embrace this or not adapt to changes in our world. This does occasionally make me ponder. 

I write a lot of stuff. Nowadays it is mostly online but I do have diaries going back to my childhood. These days the diary is online but that early record of me exists and will be there if ever the kids want to look at it when I am gone. Assuming they can read my handwriting!

Philosopherontap has over two thousand eight hundred published posts, mostly by me although there have been a few guest poets over the years. I did publish a book of poetry from pot years ago (still have some copies if anyone wants one) but once the site is no longer supported/hosted it won’t be available. OK there’s the wayback machine but you can’t guarantee that will last forever. trefor.net had more than three thousand posts but that site is now very much archived as read only.

Does any of this matter? Probably not but I do like to think that I will have left some kind of footprint on the planet even if that will fade and eventually disappear under the sands of time. Printing all the posts might add a bit of longevity but that would be v expensive and constrain the viewing content to whoever held the copy. I doubt the British Library would want it.

I suspect that it does matter a little more than we really think. In conducting my family tree research I occasionally come across (very) old newspaper articles that refer to documents seen by the writer that would be of great interest to me. Church records, diaries, stuff like that. My 2 great grandfather William Davies was a poet who went by the handle of Y Bardd Coch or the Red Bard. I’ve found references in newspapers discussing his stuff but very little of the writing is to be found. It may be there at the bottom of some distant relative’s cupboard but I can’t tell. It would be quite nice to be able to read his poetry. He did write the elegy on his gravestone in Abergorlech churchyard which I have seen and copied and I may have a snippet from elsewhere.

Ah well. Once the earth is demolished to make way for the interplanetary superhighway nothing will matter anyway (I maintain stocks of beer and nuts in anticipation of the day – if you know you know).

This morning’s problem is to see if I can find logs of a suitable size in order to light the fire again. We have lit it most days over the holiday and today we have our last batch of guests coming for lunch. Some of THG’s family who happen to be staying in the area for a few days. I’m going to have to sort through the logs and see what’s lower down in the pile.

THG herself is off out weight lifting this morning. How many people can do one handed pressups with a clap in between? Not THG actually but I thought I’d ask the question anyway – see who salutes etc 🙂 

Unless you are in the retail or hospitality industries most people will not be at work today even though it is a Friday. Doesn’t seem much point in going in for just one day does there? I guess some folk are v keen, or essential workers. I will be doing some actual work work next week meself – shock horror probe. I won’t trouble you with the deets. Don’t worry, I won’t overdo it. Be assured. Britain needs ssureds. Another new word!

Fox: 9:35pm.

…

Talking about things being demolished to make way for a bypass I note that the Mint Leaf Indian restaurant on the A46 near the A1 roundabout at Newark is set to be demolished to make way for road improvements. That roundabout does need something doing to it as it is quite dodgy negotiating the right lanes. However the demolition of the restaurant saddens me a little.

Yonks ago when we started Timico the business was based out of the stable block at Langford Hall, just a few hundred yards down from the Mint Leaf. At the time it was a Little Chef but when they closed down that chain the property was taken over the curry house that we now know as the Mint Leaf opened. Dean Bruce and I decided we would check it out for lunch – see if they had any lunch deals to offer.

The waiter who greeted us outlined a lunch deal. Don’t recall the details. I do remember ordering a meat madras. When another waiter returned, who turned out to be the owner, he asked us if we were happy with what we had ordered. I said yes but if it wasn’t too late could a chicken tikka masala be doable instead of the madras as part of the deal. The owner looked bewildered and said they didn’t have a deal and that it was the waiter’s first day on the job! Hey ho 🙂 Hopefully he didn’t get into too much trouble. 

We didn’t go again. Not because it was bad food. It’s just that I wouldn’t normally have an Indian meal for lunch and living in Lincoln it didn’t make sense to go all the way to Newark in order to get a curry fix.

Traditionally I considered the gap between Christmas and New Year’s Eve to be somewhat boring. Tedious.  Tedious to the point I would sometimes go in to work rather than waste valuable holiday allowance on taking days off. The weather would always be dull and in the past we would be stuck in the house waiting until the coming of the new year kicked life back into gear.

Nowadays I don’t need to worry about how many days holiday I have left and whilst the weather has not changed, although we are entering quite a cold patch which does make it more interesting, the days seem not to be so boring. Maybe this year it is because we have had two Christmases, one at my sister Ann’s and the other here in Lincoln. Two great family get togethers and the main cohort of the Lincoln bunch only just left yesterday so we are only just now getting back to normal. If there is such a thing as normal.

THG has been busy in the kitchen making things that use up foodstuffs that have inevitably been surplus to requirements. Today the last of the beef will go into two beef and mushroom pies that will be called upon on some future date when deemed appropriate. A couple of quiches have used up some bacon lardons, cheese eggs and, cough, broccoli. I even offered to turn the crappy white sliced loaf into breadcrumbs if any of it survives these last few days where the one remaining offspring and her husband are still in residence.

Twenty twenty five was a good year for the Davieses on a number of fronts with Hannah getting married to George and Joe and Lucy becoming engaged. THG and I have a deep sense of joy over this. We are very happy with the new family members and the wedding in particular was one of those truly memorable and joyful occasions. We all like a good wedding and this one was particularly special.

I had two new hips, the first in February and the second in October. As I look at the year in the rear view mirror the first new hip is pretty much perfect and the second well on the way to being so. I shall probably name 2026 as the year of mobility. Shake it baby.

Our Tom cast off the shackles of employment and embarked on a career of business and self employment and John in Berlin continues to make inroads into his musical career. 

Whilst one of my interests in life is history and in particular the history of my own family I try not to dwell on the past but the aforementioned highlights do bring with them a sense of deep satisfaction.

I am particularly excited about 2026. Don’t want to jinx it but yanow, you have to have a positive attitude to these things. I don’t do new year resolutions but I am quietly looking forward to a quiet, dryish January which this year will end a week early when we head to Seville for the half marathon. After this week I am also restarting my membership at Total Fitness which was put on hold for hiphop2. Gotta get back in the pool. 

We have some new bathroom scales which THG had requested for Christmas as the old ones were kaput. Now some of you might think that is the equivalent of buying her an iron, or a hoover, but that is what she asked for. I got her mechanical scales “as used in doctor’s surgeries all around the UK” because I didn’t want fancy battery powered ones and at the docs’ they always give a little lower reading than the old John Lewis number at home so that’s a result. Not tried them yet meself but I want to get this weekend out of the way first. THG is off to the theatre in London with Hannah leaving me to my own devices so I consider that to be the final fling of this year’s midwinter holiday.

We are off out tonight for a bit of early supper. Couple of beers in the Bailgate first. I am not a massive fan of the traditional new years eve. All that Auld Lang Syne stuff feels a little like false bonhomie to me. So we will be home early and leave the revelling to others. We did look at booking a hotel somewhere but everywhere is either throwing a big NYE party which we don’t want or isn’t and we run the risk of not being able to find anywhere to eat and having a boring night in the room.

Might light the fire later. We don’t light the fire that often as it is in the front room whereas our time is mostly spent either in the kitchen or snug. And the shed obvs. I’ll also be using the workshop more in 2026 once it has been cleared of all the boxes that are normally full of Christmas decs and stored on shelves in the garage. As it is it is a struggle to get anywhere near the bench and as for the steel shelving with all my tools, fuggedit. I did battle my way through to drop off the new socket kit that I bought for meself and gave to Santa to wrap.

Anyway gotta go, for the mo. I leave you in the hope that 2026 will bring world peace and universal happiness. If that doesn’t get me a Nobel Prize I don’t know what will 😉 

Oh and keep Saturday 5th September free – not the bank holiday as originally mooted. I need to firm up on the deets but that is my target date for the philosopherontap 18th birthday party. Will be back in touch re that when I firm things up.

…

Deer visited the lake at thirty one minutes past midnight.

Well. Great afternoon of golf yesterday. The golf itself was not of the highest order but the craic was. Got off to a good start with a par on the first at Pebble Beach and I won with the best gross and after Adie’s handicap had been applied. Jezzer took the longest drive being the only person on the fairway. We were an eightball. At two hours it was the longest three holes of golf I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Yes it took two hours to play three holes. We did manage to tee off on the par 3 fourth just to have a nearest the pin competition but ran out of time before we could finish the hole. Several of the lads went off the course and onto the beach.

Beer was £7 a pint. Afterwards we went next door to the Square Sail (Wetherspoons) where beer was £2.35 a pint. Neither were particularly good and in fact I didn’t finish the £2.35 job. For convenience we went for dinner at Zizzi’s. Wouldn’t bother again. The high point was when they brought Simon’s prawn skewer starter whereupon three of us consumed a king prawn each before he had noticed it had arrived. When his eyes did alight on it he complained to the waitress that he only had two prawns which he thought was a measly portion for the nine quid or whatever it was. We gave her a good cash tip.

THG came and picked me ‘n Adie up from the end of Lucy Tower Street whilst the others moved on to Molly O’Briens or whatever the new Irish bar is called that is now installed in place of Patisserie Valerie. At home I watched the Imps beat Barnsley and some of the Luke the Nuke game but as I was falling asleep by then I went off to bed before the end of it.

There ya go. In the middle of all this the golf committee took an unanimous vote to elect Rory McIlroy as our new honorary Life President and I was tasked with writing to him to tell him the good news and to invite him to come and play a round with us next time he is over. I wonder if he has ever played in an eight ball.

Thassit. Need to drop our John off at the stayshun for his return trip to Berlin. He has a gig on New Year’s Eve and needs to get back. We will be seeing him again in Seville next month so no sad tears of farewell as he is waved off from the door.

Fox visited at 02:13.

News idea. No repeats of news items on the wireless in the morning. I predominantly listen to the wireless whilst lying in bed in the mornings. I’ve developed the knack of filtering out a lot of it but it is noticeable that each bulletin mostly repeats everything from earlier ones. I get to the point of thinking to myself “yes I know this, you already told me”. Ok in all fairness to the beeb they very much have to assume that people are tuning in at staggered times. Not everyone gets up at five thirty to go for their morning run.

Perhaps the old broadcast method of distributing news is coming to the end of its natural life and we are all about to move to an app based approach where we can specify exactly what we want to hear. In my case I could say I only want to hear that we didn’t win the cricket once and I don’t want to hear anything that involves politics, religion or bad things generally. Maybe I just have to stop listening full stop.

On the positive front we had another great evening at the Morning Star celebrating the mid winter solstice. The Guinness flowed freely, we sang heartily and Ness the landlady had ritually slaughtered a pig earlier in the day and turned it into sausage rolls which were consumed during the half time break. She also distributed a wonderful concoction of dried fruits wrapped in pastry that are commonly known as mince pies.

Got home to find THG, Tom and John in the shed watching Luke the Nuke steamroller his opponent to cruise into the third round of the world darts championship, or whatever it’s called. Is it possible to cruise in a steamroller? All down to your definition of cruise I guess. I wouldn’t bet against Luke winning the tourney again this year.

Got a few errands to run today including picking THG and Tom up from their downtown shopping spree. Been actually thinking I might nip downtown meself. I haven’t totally made my mind up on this as ordinarily it baffles me as to why anyone would want to go there. However my new found mobility has brought with it a self confidence and a sense of curiosity. Where would the world be without curiosity? More cats obvs. Parking might be an issue. See how it goze.

We normally at this time of year go on our annual expedition to the Cheese Society where we buy far too much cheese and spend a lot more dosh than might considered to be sensible (not by me of course). When I say “we” it is usually me and one of the kids. Joe probs. However Joe ain’t here this year and I’m thinking I might cut down on the amount of cheese I buy. Maybe even get it from Waitrose. We don’t need it until the 28th which is when the Davieses are having our Christmas dinner this year. Every year I lament the non availability of Bel Paese cream cheese on the shelves. A seasonal delight stemming from my childhood. That and tubes of Austrian smoked processed cheese. We used to fight for the round end bits. You can still get these but not the Bel Paese. Huh. Christmas is also the only time of year I buy TUC crackers. Man can live on cheese and TUC alone. And crispy duck and cheese and onion crisp sandwiches etc. 

Anyway, gotta go. A cup of tea and a bit of toast await.

The fox btw came at 04:27.

Yuk. When I say yuk I mean yuk. It’s orrible out there. Foggy. Or is it mist? Not sure I know the difference. The lake cam is misted up, or fogged. We had two sightings overnight: 03:02 and 07:53. Fox. THG would have been in the kitchen at the time. Might even have been looking out the window at the time. Didn’t see owt but there again it’s v misty, as you know.

Today is a v busy day. THG is off park running and when she gets back I have some shopping to do: Gruyere, strong cheddar, steaks, 250g pork, bacon and soresedges. Amazing how quickly the bacon goes down when the kids come home. Steak and chips monday night. What’s not to like?

Then it’s the over thirties disco at Home night club from 3pm. Be there or be square 🙂 Meeting beforehand for “pre’s”. Yanow the score. Get loaded up before hitting the expensive night club scene. Have decided to wear my tropical trefbash shirt. It will be its third outing. Second since the bash itself. Like I said. Busy day. Busy busy busy. No commas needed there just to emphasise the business of the sentence. I’m hoping that the night club will have laid on some extra seating. It is the over thirties afternoon after all.

Blast. Rain is forecast today and I was going to prune the apple trees and grapevine. Blast Blast Blast Blast Blast. Yesterday was too wet. It was forecast to be nice today but now it is not. As I already said, Blast. 

Ah well. I might go swimming instead. That’s an indoor activity unaffected by the weather. Many of this afternoon’s sessions are showing the maximum availability. I’m hopeful that this means there will hardly be anyone else in the pool.

I can hear the rain beating on the bedroom window. I wouldn’t say it was loud enough to drown out Radio 4 on the wireless but it is definitely noticeable. I might need to wear a coat on my journey. Hat as well. When you are a glasses wearer a wide brimmed hat does a good job of keeping rain off your specs. Saves you having to dry them when you reach the shelter of the shed and avoids the risk of knocking in to anything due to blurry vision caused by raindrops on the lenses. Today’s top tip. 

I mentioned the shed but the same rule applies wherever your ultimate destination might be. I try to make these laws of physics as general as possible as it increases the chance of them being accepted by the global academic community. The experts. Those in the know. 

It is dark and dismal out there. Dark and stormy. No sun in sight. I daresay most birds are sheltering in their nests. Shelters. Places of safety. 

The winter solstice is this coming Sunday. Same day as the Morning Star carol session. Something quite apt about that. This feasting (Ness usually lays on some mince pies for the singers) at this time of year dates back millenia. Our singing of the Christmas carols is merely a modern way of celebrating the end of another natural cycle. Another lap of this planet of ours around that blazing (sometimes) ball of fire in the sky. 

Lunch on Sunday is pork. This is quite apt as pigs were, as you probably know, on the menu for these solstice celebrations of old. We won’t be gnawing at bones whilst sat around the blazing fire. Twill be a more refined, modern version. A pork casserole, perhaps flavoured with a splash of calvados and a swirl of mustard and served with a selection of nutritious vegetables. Might light the fire though.

Breakfast is something that the ancients might well have similarly partaken. A mix of grains, seeds and dried berries with a dollop of fermented milk (is yoghurt fermented?) topped with some preserved berries picked by THG and I during this year’s harvest. We are surely in tune with the planet. Raise your hands, palms facing upwards and repeat after me. Ommmmmm. I am now going to consume a hot drink made by infusing boiling water with some dried leaves, picked at dawn from the upper slopes of a hillside in northern India and purchased from a merchant recently returned from a long and hazardous journey to those exotic climes.

Coincidentally, and whilst I remember, I have my annual eye test tomorrow at Clearview opticians. I suspect I will need a slightly changed prescription of lens. I’ll have to sell a pig to pay for it, unless Clearview will accept one directly in exchange for the new lenses. Suspect they don’t work like that otherwise they would have had a picture of a pig in the window next to the VISA and Mastercard signs. I can but ask. Probably easier for me to use my card though especially as I don’t actually have a pig to sell. That was me being creative with words, metaphorically speaking.

Did you know that in 18th century Carmarthenshire only one farm in eight had a boar. Neighbouring farmers would have to take their sows next door to be serviced to ensure the continuity of their bacon supply for the following year. In return for the “service” the owner of the sow would do a day’s work helping with the harvest the following year. I do like a bit of bacon and now know where to go to get some in.

My grandparents used to keep a pig in a sty at the bottom of their garden and our house in Greetwell Gate also had one. The deeds specifically mentioned our right to keep a pig which we used to do but in the fridge or freezer, already slaughtered and then not a whole one. It was only when they passed a law making people take such animals to an abattoir to be slaughtered that people stopped keeping them at home. Abattoirs were either too far away or too expensive. The disappearing customs of old. I’m sure I’ve told you this before. The good old days…

No fox news.

…

Fox news update. I spotted him in the garden at 14:17hrs. Plain daylight. Now I know where he exits and goes into next doors’.

What use is sitting alone in your room? Go for a walk to Tesco. Actually I don’t like going to Tesco. It’s not my thang. Waitrose is currently out of walking range although that state of affairs won’t last long. The issue is likely to me more down to whether I can carry my purchases home. Don’t need to make an expedition of it although I do have a very good rucksack I bought for the coast to coast walk. German job. Can’t remember the make but if it comes back to me I’ll let you know. It’s a red one and was used as my day pack. Deuter, that’s it. Looked it up.

This is a somewhat convoluted way of saying I’m off to Waitrose this morning. I also told meself I’d do some tree and vine pruning but it is looking a bit wet out there and I suspect tomorrow will be drier. Why do something today when… Manãna. I like using that word because I like the ã with the twiddly thing on top of it. Dunno what it’s called though I daresay someone will tell me.

My other job today is to put up a mirror in our bedroom. There are two aspects to this job: the positioning of the mirror and its physical affixing to the wall. The latter is the easy bit. The former involves agreeing to where it goes. More’s to the point its height above ground. THG chooses the perfect position for someone her height. This means when I stand in front of the mirror I see my chest and not my face. 

Ok there is a school of thought that says “how often do you actually use a mirror Tref” and adherents to that perspective are to a large extent right. I certainly don’t need a mirror to brush my hair. The only time I ever really need one is when I put on a bow tie and need to check the angle of the dangle, so to speak. Nevertheless it would be nice if it was at the right height.

I have been reassured that this will be the case when siting the new mirror but I know darn well that said piece of glass is not big enough to cover both our needs. Probably isn’t anyway. These things aren’t chosen for their practicality but for their appearance. Woteva 🙂 

Went to the carol service at THG’s church last night. She was singing in the quire so figured it was the right thing to do. Not been for perhaps twenty five years. Not since the time when half the carols were happy clappy modern rubbish. Bland was an understatement. This one kept to my vision of what a carol service should be like. Robbie the vicar did slip in the occasional religious pitch but that is his prerogative. It’s his ball. I let it go. We all know that carol services have nothing to do with religion really. That’s why I do the Morning Star carol session every year (coming up this Sunday 6.30 for 7 – get there early if you want a seat and wrap up warm as it is in the beer garden to accommodate the crowds). It even got a mention in church last night. This thing is bigger than both of us 🙂 

Fox news: appearances at 01:17 and 03:13. That is all.

btw walked to the church, then on to the Morning Star and then home – one giant leap for Trefkind

First relaxing morning at home for a few days and some lake cam action to catch up on. Reynard appeared each night since my last report and the deer once.

The weather today is sunny which is in marked contrast to yesterday where it chucked it down all day. In fact the whole time we were on the golf course. They shouldn’t really have let us have the buggies because it was too wet. We wouldn’t have played without the buggies. Certainly not me. Home and showered and then off to the Strugs followed by the new Cathedral View curry house in the Bail. We had a nice enough meal after which THG came to pick me up whilst the rest of the fourball went to the Castle Hill Club to finish off the evening.

Today’s main job is to cook a casserole ready for tomorrow’s lunch. Mary Berry’s beef cheeks with horseradish or some such similar concoction.Contains a spoonful of curry powder I note. I just need to nip to Waitrose to source some celery plus I have a voucher for a free jar of Bonne Maman jam. Qu’y a-t-il à ne pas aimer? Might even stop off for a cawfee if anyone is around.

It has to be lunch tomorrow as THG is performing in the church choir and needs to be there for five pm to tune up. I might light the fire, cmon baby. We only usually do Sunday lunch if we have visitors but this week it is just the two of us. I’m thinking this will be my first time at a church service, weddings apart, for maybe twenty years. It must be love.

Tree is up btw.

Lake cam timings:
Wednesday: fox 21:21
Thursday: fox  01:34 
Friday: fox 05:00, deer 16:35 and 04:10

…

Just back from Waitrose. I should have bought a lottery ticket really as I got the scanner right. When I scan my waitrose barcode I like to try and guess which scanner lights up and this time I got it right. Result eh?

Dazzling low sun shining through the kitchen window over breakfast. We are slip sliding headlong towards the shortest day of the year. It’s only when you look at a globe that you understand how far north we are. Lucky we get any light at all at this time of year.

Winter. Autumn eases us gradually out of summer into winter. You only realise we are there when one day you look up, the rain is beating against the window, trees swaying in the gale and you say to yourself, ah this is winter. I have a plentiful supply of kindling and firewood to keep us going through the coldest of the winter months that lie ahead.

Today am off with @Wayne to the smoke for a spot of dinner. Thirteen twenty four direct express. Read in the news that they are rebranding LNER to Great British Railways with Union Jack based graphic design. Not sure it does it for me. I quite liked LNER. A classic brand. GBR instantly makes me think of curled up British Rail sandwiches. The good old days?! I did like the logo. Iconic.

All is quiet in the house. THG has returned from her pool training. Said it was getting quite busy. I am officially back in the pool meself as of yesterday though I haven’t actually been for a swim yet. Got the official goahead from the surgeon to drive, sleep on my side, walk, swim, bike, row etc and that I could ditch the compression stockings. Didn’t tell him I’d done that a week ago. So today will be my first trip to London without a crutch for some time. Wow.

Am staying at the Waldorf so as to be reasonably close to the restaurant – Ivy Market Grill. Got a private room downstairs that I use fairly regularly for these dinners. The point is I am not sure how far I can walk yet. About to find out innit. It’s looking promising.

Re swimming I suspect I’m not going to renew my membership at total fitness until after Christmas. Got so much going on there seems no point. I can always squeeze in the occasional dip at Yarborough Leisure Centre.

Fox news: Single muntjac 12.55 am, fox 1.45 am

A dark and dismal morning in the shire. Not nice out there but warm and cosy in the kitch and there is bacon a sizzling in the pan. Through the now lightening window the branches of trees are buffeted by the winter wind.

The herd came through at four minutes to midnight last night. Stayed lakeside for five mins or so before naturally continuing on their regular migration route. Presumably. Fox came briefly at twelve minutes to five. The twain have hitherto not met.

THG has left for the gym on her bike. Two weights classes this morning. Hardcore.

Advent. First Sunday of. I do have an advent calendar to open but I rarely eat chocolate these days and haven’t yet made my mind up whether to start on it. Still mulling it over. In the meantime the great jar of marmalade hunt has started in the kitchen. We definitely have some as THG used it yesterday but blowed if either of us can find it in the fridge. Fortunately, this being a storecupboard item, we happen to have a backup in said storecupboard. In case of nuclear winter etc. It is not helped by the fact that we have two jars of apricot jam (I don’t know either) and a marmalade jar containing pickled cucumber (yup) in said fridge. You might already have guessed I’m having toast for breakfast. The simple things in life.

Booked a trip to Liverpool whilst lying in bed this morning. £27.25 return. Nine pence a mile. To Liverpool. Not first class for that money but there ain’t a first class option so couldn’t do that anyway. The drive to Liverpool is v tedious and the parking would have cost that much. I’ll be able to do useful things on the train innit. Look at the scenery. It’s almost a four hour journey. Let’s hope that travel isn’t disrupted by snow. Don’t mind being disrupted once we’ve made it to Liverpool and have to stay over a few extra nights.

Fox News: visitations at five to midnight, half past four and twenty five past five suggests he was a busy lad.

2 fox newses. Wednesday night at quarter to midnight and last night/this morning at twenty past midnight.

Nice hard frost out there. I like a nice hard frost. Tis as it should be. Hard winters, the wind screaming down from the north, freezing the ground and driving honest folk indoors to their hearths. Make sure that window seal is sorted. Newspaper will do the job. If you don’t get a paper just nip to Waitrose for their free weekend job.

One of the nice things about the cold is that I can start wearing my chunky black yak Himalayan sweater. Green. It’s very cosy. Today I’m going to see how I get on with putting on a pair of jeans. I’ve been wearing loose tracksuit bottoms for the last month but they aren’t warm enough for this weather, especially as I’m hoping to walk to the barbers, finally. Desperate for a haircut especially as tomorrow I’m off to London for the CCUK Christmas lunch. Tracksuit bottoms would not be appropriate for that. Also need to see how I get on with my physio exercises wearing the jeans. Might need to change back for that. Seehowitgoze. shudbeok.

After yesterday’s success with the grapefruit the story is different this morning. I had enough confidence to keep my specs on but on this occasion a squirt of grapefruit juice spurted up, squeezing through the gap between face and specs to catch me straight in the eye. Hey, one of life’s experiences eh? Oh how we laughed. Rich tapestry and all that.

This morning I have the joy of having to fix my mac mini. Developed a software glitch yesterday pm and now won’t progress more than a millimetre on the progress bar when moving on from the login screen. This is not without its challenges as the mac mini is on a rack screwed to the underneath of the desk and the screens on the desktop face the other way to where the power button sits. I need to be able to see the screen to boot it in recovery mode. I’ll work it out. Might be able to swing the Apple Studio Display around sufficiently. 

Not bothered renewing the mac mini support and it is unlikely that anything will go wrong with the hardware and if the worst comes to the worst they aren’t as expensive to replace as the Macbook Pro. Maintenance on the macbook renewed today. That is real value for money if you have a habit of knocking a glass of red wine all over it.

Successful scout group meeting last night. Moved a few things forward and got a lift home afterwards from Steve Quinn. Was dog tired and went straight to bed. Reynard came twice in the night. Twenty to eleven and twenty to five. Managed to do his round twice obvs. Still looking for food on this cold night. Second physio session this pm.

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Lake frozen over btw. Totes in keeping with the conditions.

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Walked to Antonio’s. Furthest I’ve walked in a looong time. Over a km fwiw. Things are on the up. Nice crisp walk for which I was well wrapped up. Passed the Number 151 National Express going the other way. Birmingham. On it’s way from somewhere on the coast by the looks of it as the names Louth, Wragby and Lincoln scrolled by as interim stops. Not many people on it but I guess it might pick up a load in Leicester if the final port of call is Brum.

No sign of Antonio. Just his son in law Alfio who is very quiet. This isn’t the New York barbershop social experience. Hey, he does the job. Couple of old geezers in there including one whose parting comment was “see you in a couple of weeks”. Gotta stay on top of it I guess 🙂 

My main job for this afternoon, apart from a trip to the physio, is to choose the menu and wine for the next dinner I’m hosting in London. TBH when it comes to the menu I usually just run my finger down the right hand side and choose the most expensive but in this case the wines get quite pricey and considering we usually get through at least fifteen bottles I have to choose a mid, ish ground. Well slightly higher than mid ish. Life is short, eat good food and drink good wine.

I also need to decide what to wear for tomorrow’s Christmas lunch. I do have a very nice bright red silk jacket that might do the job and a v shiny party bow tie. Trouble is it’s effin cold out though tomorrow does look as if it’s going to warm up a bit. Take the edge off at least.

It is noted that Melvyn Bragg will be a guest editor on Radio 4’s Today programme over the Christmas break. I’ve been listening to his “In Our Time” podcasts in the wee small hours to try and get back to sleep. Last night was v successful. The subject was “hypnosis”. Didn’t make it to the end of the programme 🙂 I like Melvyn Bragg. Had to filter out most of the news on the wireless. It’s all bad, including the sporting results. For some time I’ve tried to shut out the news and just look at the sport. Can’t even do that now! Maybe I should just listen to the back episodes of In Our Time. There are 1,700 of them.

It’s a grey day out there. Hiphop2 +27. I’ve decided to ditch crutch 2 a day early. Did the same thing last time as I recall. Life is a lot easier on just one crutch. Just imagine what it could be like with no crutches. That will be Hiphop2 +42 if I stick to instructions. 42 sounds like a lot. It’s odd to think that the term Hiphop2 will shortly be retired when it has been such a big part of my recent life. What comes next? Christmas. In six days, ie December,  I will officially allow myself to talk about Christmas.

Just got meself dressed, as usual. Socks apart. Uhuh you say. Valid. Where I’m going here though is tshirts. I usually take the tshirt on top of the pile in my wardrobe. This means I tend to always wear the same few shirts as the washed and ironed ones just get put back at the top of the same pile. I wonder which ones are at the bottom. Chucked a load this year and at least the shelf is a bit tidier, more manageable. My sock selection process has also been streamlined as all my winter socks are now in the same drawer, second one down from the top.

THG has gone weight training. I need to get out of the house meself. Hair cut. See how it goze.

Fox strolled by at 01:35

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15 min walk to the traffic lights at Ruskin Avenue and back. 0.4 miles. Couldn’t be bothered to go as far as the Tesco caff but could have made it physically. Google suggests my route is an 8 minute walk so half speed. Not too bad at this stage. 

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Pitch black out there. Came in from the shed at around four thirty. There were no lights on at the back of the house and the floodlight was switched off so I felt my way there in the dark. Bit of artistic license being employed here 🙂 Watched “the great mountain sheep gather” again. A timeless classic. It’s available on YouTube.

Tonight’s tea, currently in the oven, is an aubergine parmentier bake. The parmentier bit refers to the use of parmigiano apaz. We are having asparagus to start. I like a bit of asparagus. I’ll let you know about the bake. THG is off to choir practice ce soir so we are eating a little earlier than the usual six thirty. Tomorrow it’s fish finger sandwich and wednesday it’s burger. Thursday I am in London for the CCUK Christmas Lunch and won’t want an evening meal. Probs. Maybs.