where art collides philosoperontap

17:14. Hung around for.perhaps a minute

Bishop of Manchester got me out of bed this morning. Cmon Tref, shake a leg  yeravin a sausage sandwich for breakfast.  Sausages don’t cook themselves yanow. I got up. Was helped by the wireless timer kicking in and switching the bish off mid sentence. He had been talking about bad things going on in the world and then moved on to the subject of his wife. Not sure what the association was but that was when it switched off. I will never find out.

It’s a much more relaxing start to the day. Gotta pick THG’s car up from the menders this morning and take Coops’ van back. Different to yesterday where I had the pressure of cooking a leg of lamb. If you read all the recipes a 3.7kg leg should take 4 hours. Even Meater said it should take 4 hours. After setting it going Meater changed its mind and said it would only be two and a bit hours. Blimmin eck. That meant it would be ready two hours earlier than I wanted.

Gemini, which I’d been using to advise on this subject, suggested double wrapping the lamb in foil, then in two towels and sticking it in a coolbox, not switched on obvs, and it should be ok. Well, the lamb turned out near perfect. Worrarelief. Lunch was a v boozy affair and I had an early night. Not totes sure how early but it can’t have been much after eight!

Mark Castle posted a flight radar screenshot of his trip yesterday showing all planes diverting around Iran. I looked this morning and was interested to note how you could tell which parts of the world were war zones. What I also found interesting was the relatively low density of flights over Russia. An indication of the lower levels of economic activity I’d imagine.

btw the fox appeared in the garden whilst we were having lunch. 14:18. Bit of entertainment laid on for our guests.

Fox spotted at the back of the greenhouse at 16:36. Didn’t appear on lake cam but the greenhouse cctv caught it. That is all.

Tis a joyful morning in the shire. The land is reawakening and the fact that spring is just around the corner has been underlined by a message from Brian the fishing gnome saying he expected to be back sometime in March. He hasn’t firmed up on his dates yet but has a flexible plane ticket so can decide on the spur of the moment. It will all be down to whether he gets to the point of being totes fed up with all the partying and craves for the solitude of the lake. We all like a bit of solitude from time to time. 

Last night at 18:35 we had a feline visitor to the lake. Might have been a panther but it could equally have been a cat. It was dark and hard to tell. It was certainly out on a wander, up to no good I daresay.

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The joyful morning has continued into a joyful afternoon and because tomorrow the forecast is for a less joyful rain all day I decided to get a few outside jobs done, to whit splitting some logs. I’ve worked out a method. I use a hand axe and bash it in with a lump hammer. Sometimes takes a few whacks but I now have a trug full of very fine oak logs ready for the weekend. We are having some folks round for Sunday lunch. With it being Dydd Gwyl Dewi a leg of lamb is on the menu together with leeks and any other dishes of a Welsh nature I can whistle up. Don’t think you can get Welsh lamb round ere but I’ll see what Fosters have to say.

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Fox update. As I was carrying logs back to the house the fox came in from next door. 15:04. We looked at each other for a second or three and then he continued his amble. He stayed in the garden for 10 or twenty seconds before going through the hedge to next door. A moment later he was back and went through a different part of the hedge. I stood there watching. Gosh.

Listened to an interview on the Today programme with the CEO of Netflix. V articulate and intelligent guy as you might expect from the leader of a $320Bn company. His bit was directly followed by Thought for the Day. A v dull delivery by some bishop or other which immediately made me switch off.

Made a good start on the raised beds yesterday. Wood cut to size though I ended up resorting to the old fashioned saw as the blade on my circular saw was totes blunt. Will need to get a new one before next I use the tool. Might use it to make a start on log splitting. The splitting axe is no use as the logs are too hard. I have a splitting wedge so if I make a cut and get the wedge in the crack it might help. Been investigating buying a powered log splitter but not got to the buying decision yet.

Whilst I was doing that THG removed a load of ivy from the beech hedge. Have to stay on top of it. Orrible stuff. Today I will plant the chilli seeds. A heated propagator is in situ with some seed compost. Just needs me to apply the seeds, add a layer of vermiculite and water. THG is planning on painting the raised beds wood with preservative. When she gets back from weight lifting obvs.

Otherwise I have some admin to do this morning. Tedious paperwork.

Been scanning the media for upbeat news about Lincoln City but it is all about the Premier League. The action is equally hot in the third division yanow.

Fox 05:32 this morning.

I was re-reading the History of Carmarthenshire Vol1 yesterday. There was a bit that said the folks of Mabudrud were all freemen. Somewhere else also said there were typically around 50 freemen in a maenor. This actually stacks up very well with the 44 comportioners in Llanllwni who gave up their rights regarding the church. Llanllwni is a part of the commote of Mabudrud. 

In 1291 “Llanllwni too was divided between the Bishop of St David’s and Walter Wynter. In the case of a messuage granted to this house in the vicinity of Llanllwni Church in 1291, the number of comportioners was 44……”

Some of these people were my ancestors. I have nothing to link me with them other than my imagination as any paperwork long since disappeared..

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Just back from a swim at Yarborough Leisure Centre. I’m ditching Total Fitness and rejoining Yarborough which has a new management. Yarborough is half the price, has a bigger window for off peak hours and is not as rammed. Since the new management team has arrived it has also been smartened up. Also the steam room was much hotter than in Total Fitness. The TF changing area is bigger and better but doesn’t make up for the other comparisons.

And finally planted my chilli seeds: habanero, scotch bonnet and jalapeno. Only 6 seeds of each in the pack but I probably don’t even need that many. Might have a plant or two to give away later in the spring. Oh and the rosemary bush is in flower. Not seen that before. Not sure how many pollinators there are around at this time of year.

Some v pleasant background noise emanating from the church in today’s Sunday Service. Switched it off now when vicar type (presumably – I dozed through the intro) got into his sermon but that was as much down to me getting up and going down for breakfast as any reflection on the listenability of the speech itself. Not talking about the content. Just the relaxation aspect.

Now downstairs and THG has already smashed an avocado in preparation for spreading it on sourdough toast. In fact she’s already eaten hers. I was going to say scoffed but I don’t think that would have been a fair representation of how THG consumes breakfast and I wasn’t in the room to observe the action anyway. I will add a chopped chilli to mine and fry three slices of streaky bacon as an accompaniment.

We spent much of yesterday with friends watching sport, eating and drinking. It is pleasing to report a huge improvement in the Welsh on pitch performance in Cardiff, albeit ultimately a loss to Scotland. Ditto the Irish walloping of Engerlund. Moreover Cardiff City lost 2 – 5 away at Prymuff and the Imps won 0 – 2 at Mansfield which brings them within a point of the Welsh side at the top of division three and ten points clear of nearest rivals Bolton Wanderers. You now don’t need to read the sports pages.

Today, if it is the will of god, I will make a start on building the THG requested raised beds in front  of the kitchen window. In this case the god concerned is the god of gardeners. Many of you will now say “oh you mean Monty Don” but Monty is not the god I had in mind. Monty is the god of middle aged women gardeners. I am more likely to be referring to Percy Thrower of whom I only have vague recollections. Percy was the gardening  trailblazer of his time and will almost certainly have built innumerable raised beds in career on the surface of the planet. As opposed to the cloud where he now sits in the presence of other members of the pantheon.

Outside the sky is blue. This is a natural feature we are unused to and it usually takes some time, eyes blinking, to reacclimatise ourselves to it. We are approaching the best time of year. Make sure you are well prepared for it. Your success during the growing season will determine how well you eat next winter. Let’s not talk about next winter. I know I started it but soon realised my mistake.

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Relaxing now with a cup of tea in the snug. Been hard at it all morning with raised beds construction. Have now cut all the pieces of scaffold plank to size and THG is going to splash some fence preservative on them before I assemble the actual beds. The measuring up is critical here – don’t want wonky raised beds do we?

Did have a slight issue with the circular saw who would now appear to have an extremely blunt blade. Rather than messing about sourcing a replacement I resorted to the good old fashioned handsaw which, to be fair, sliced through the planks with relative ease.

The Bishop of Lincoln has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. Just came on the news right now. Oh dear. Can’t tell you any more than that. I don’t listen to the news even if the wireless is on but this item must have triggered a keyword. Probs Lincoln.  There are almost certainly other keywords or phrases that will have the same effect. “Trefor Davies just won the lottery” and simlar. What’s not to like? Well the Bishop being a naughty boy for one but he is not guilty until the judge puts on his black cap and bangs the gavel. I wonder what the gossip will be in church tomoz. 

Lying in bed just now I have decided that potato rosti could be on the breakfast menu. Perhaps I should print one off. A menu that is. Just like they do in hotels. Not totes decide yet, about the rosti. I like rosti but im still feeling quite full after last night’s Chinese beef curry and fried rice. Was the first time I’ve cooked either dish and the result was a success despite the absence of rice wine from the list of ingredients assembled. Figured it wasn’t worth spending £3.60 on something I only needed a spoonful of and might never use again. Mind you I can see myself cooking the beef curry again. THG was most complimentary. 

The great thing about a Chinese meal is that it doesn’t take long to cook. I did all the preparation after lunch yesterday and only really took ten minutes from start to being served up last night. Just enough time to knock back a glass of tonic water with a splash of gin innit.

I switched the wireless off btw. Too much crap involving some deranged idiot with a fake tan. Mind you it’s the only way to get a tan around ere. Even when we fled to España last month it chucked it down. Just booked flights for a bit of a golfing trip to España in September btw. Thissun is purely for  pleasure although that will to a certain extent depend on the quality of the golf.

Back to the subject of breakfast, I have a sausage to cook. Was in Waitrose with THG the other day, a very rare event btw – we are not very compatible when it comes to shopping, and I playfully decided to buy one sausage. It came from the deli counter and was not a Lincolnshire or Cumberland sausage which would be my preferred variety of banger so decided that just the one would do. Normally I buy breakfast meats from Fosters as the quality is miles ahead of supermarket stuff but I was stood there at the counter, threw caution to the wind and made the purchasing decision. The young girl behind the counter must have thought what a weirdo, or tight git. She served me anyway. The customer is always right, especially if it is me 🙂 

Now in the shed watching the winter Olympics. 50km endurance race. Even 50km of just downhill skiing would be an endurance tbh, unless it was on a skimobile.

Last night we had an interesting series of visits. 23:37 saw the return of the muntjac and then again at 00:47. In between these visits at 00:23 the fox came. I’m waiting for the day when they both come at the same time, from different directions. Sparks might fly.

Didn’t cook potato rosti. Too much faff.

One other thing. I woke up in the night and for some reason checked the weather forecast. The metoffice told me there would be no weather next wednesday. This morning I checked again and they had changed their mind. Gosh.

Today, as you may well know unless you have just woken up from a long coma, is called Friday. If you have just woken up from a coma the first question you ask might well be what day is it but just as valid would be an enquiry as to who won the league or how did the silver jubilee go? I generally consider Fridays to be a day of rest although it is not officially so. Certainly Friday afternoons were always deemed to be a work free zone. In my mind.

Today is not such a day. I have to reattach two clips to the side of the worksurface in the utility room so that brooms and other useful items of household equipment might be kept upright in a tidy fashion. I don’t know how much of a job this is. It might be a five seconder or it might involve drilling, screwing and attaching that requires a risk assessment, careful planning and, in due course/fullness of time, timely execution. My bet is the former but you have to have contingency plans in place in case it is the latter. There is no contingency plan. I’m just living life on the edge. Caution to the wind. Sometimes you have to free yourself from the shackles of a restrictive society and inject a little danger into your life. Excitement. Thrills.

Yesterday, Thursday, the fox transited through the garden on three occasions. 12:16. 12:21 and 16:03. Visits like this don’t get recorded by the lake cam because the camera doesn’t wake up quickly enough when movement is detected. I do have CCTV as backup footage but it isn’t as near to the action as the lake cam. The visits have been recorded on my “Fox Visits” spreadsheet which is how I was able to remember the exact times.

For those of you who know me well you will agree that I am from time to time the fairest of people so this morning I decided to give Thought for the Day a chance. Canon Angela Tilbury, fair play. I was immediately rewarded with the knowledge that today is Ash Wednesday which this year coincides with the start of Ramadhan. Gosh. Moreover I googled it and discovered that:

“The start of the Lenten period (Ash Wednesday) coincides with the start of Ramadhan approximately every 33 years due to the cycle of the Islamic lunar calendar shifting through the Gregorian calendar. This year, 2026, both Ash Wednesday (start of Lent) and the beginning of Ramadhan will occur on February 17, 2026.”

Then she started telling me that Ash Wednesday was all about reminding me of my mortality and it wouldn’t be long, in the great scheme of things, before my bones would be “resting” in the dust. That’s the point I switched off. Life is too short to be reminded before breakfast that I am destined to be food for the worms.

Down at breakfast I was complementing THG on her home made granola when the conversation turned to yo’ gurt. I pondered over how the stuff was invented:

“Yoghurt was likely invented by accident around 5,000–10,000 BCE by Neolithic nomadic tribes in Central Asia and Mesopotamia, who stored milk in animal stomach bags. Natural enzymes in the skin containers, combined with warm climates, caused the milk to ferment, curdle, and create a sour, thickened, and preserved product.”

Oh ok, thanks. I am reminded of the time when I was at uni when my Sudanese pal @Mansour asked me to get some yoghurt for him when I went to the shops. When I got to the shop I realised he hadn’t specified a flavour so I randomly chose strawberry. I quite like strawberry yoghurt though we tend not to buy fruit flavoured yogs these days as they contain a lot of sugar in them. So I get back to his hall of residence to a general sense of amusement. Turned out he wanted natural yoghurt to stick in his curry. That was my first ever exposure to natural yoghurt! I hadn’t experienced curry before going to uni either.

Mans will be doing Ramadham today. I’m not an observant so had toast as well as my granola and yoghourt. Got a streaming cold so as the old adage goes, starve a fever feed a cold. Did my best. Left over curry tonight as well. Lamb madras. If that doesn’t sort the cold then I don’t know what will.

Will have a houseful today. Mark the joiner is coming back to finish off the bit of skirting board and Simon the plumber is going to fit a new heat exchanger in the boiler. Worcester Bosch provide free replacement heat exchangers but you have to pay for the labour which will be best part of ¾ of a day!

Other than that it’s business as usual. Better go. Should get dressed before Mark and Simon arrive.

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Fox came at 2.30pm and 3.15

Our brightly lit kitchen contrasts strikingly with the miserable February morning out there. Gloomy. I have a home made bagel (yes, yes another THG talent – worragal!) in the Dualit toaster and some bacon under the grill. Gotta set myself up for the day as there is a big rugby club funeral to go to. Terry Cleaver, Tex, was a legend at Lincoln RFC and I imagine there will be a huge turnout. 

There are loads of stories about Tex. I remember watching a game once and at half time all the spectators hot footed it to the bar. Tex walked in in his playing kit so I bought him a pint thinking must only be playing the first half. He downed that beer and then strolled out to play the second half. Tex was always the judge in tour court sessions and attained his legendary status by missing the flight home on the Prague Easter tour along with Paul Clarke. Couldn’t find the way back to the hotel having not slept for three nights. That tour was the first in living memory where we actually brought some kitty back with us. Beer was that cheap. We drank the rugby club dry for £57! Today I’ll be wearing my Prague Tour tie out of respect. RIP Tex.

No fox news to report since Sunday but I did get some video footage at 3.28pm as it strolled around the garden for a bit.

Gloomy or not, THG has gone out running with the Pink Ladies Running Club.

Fox visits since 23rd January
23 Jan 20.58
24 Jan 02.31
25 Jan 06.36
26 Jan 10.45
27 Jan 22.38
29 Jan 16.21
29 Jan 17.44
29 Jan 23.44
30 Jan 12.54
31 Jan 16.39
31 Jan 16.58
01 Feb 06.49
04 Feb 14.03
Because I didn’t get to report them whilst we were away in Espanya.

Post brekkie cup of tea in the snug with THG. I have my Bose noise cancelling phones on so I don’t have to listen to the nuze. It’s all about Don. I find anything related to Don to be offensive and try not to listen/watch/read.

Animal sightings at 03:57 and 04:02. Can’t quite be sure whether it was hoofed, vulpine or feline as it only briefly appeared at the edge of the lake cam field of view. Defo didn’t roam around the lake, shed or greenhouse. Cctv didn’t help either other than perhaps to err on the side of fox/cat. Must have been fox I think.

Good night watching huge footy in the shed with THG last night. Liverpool. Cut her arm open and she bleeds Scouse. Conveniently the Liverpool strip is red innit 🙂 I fell asleep on the sofa to find that the rest of the house, ie THG, had gone to bed! Normally I’m the first to go.

The rain falls steadily on the demesne of THG. I am in the shed getting ready to do some admin. Bills n stuff. Packing for Seville is mostly done. Just have to be careful not to keep shoving stuff in the case just because there is room. Not yet decided which carry on to take. I don’t need to “carry much” and thus the Stubble & Co Adventure Bag might be overkill but it is a handy bag with lots of useful pockets, a zipped laptop compartment and a slot that lets you slide it down the handle of the suitcase so I think I’ve just persuaded myself that it is the one. Room for the duty free on the way back as well!

Rain is forecast all day. Ordinarily we don’t play golf if the weather is inclement but I’ll have to see how it goes this pm. One of the boys wants to play regardless of whether it is raining or not. Will defo be in the strugs afterwards, hence the need to have finished packing today.

Potentially might get some work done in le jardin today. It’s much warmer than it has been. There is a slight threat of rain around lunchtime. If not today the defo Wednesday. This is in keeping with an executive decision I made to nominate one day in the week for non sitting at the desk activity. Start off with a day and who knows where we might get to 🙂 

The pressing garden work is the pruning of apple trees and the vine. These, together with the wildflower meadow are my responsibilities. I also have an application that requires the use of my new socket set which you can imagine is quite exciting.

The other garden related job this week is happening at the weekend when @Adie is swinging by to bottle the cider we made during the 2024 harvest. It’s looking beautifully clear. Gemini offers the following insight into what we might expect potency wise:

• Natural Fermentation (No added sugar): Most standard apple juices have a starting gravity between 1.040 and 1.050, yielding an ABV of roughly 5.5% to 6.5%.
• High-Sugar Harvests: Exceptional years or specific apple varieties (like those from the 2025 harvest) can produce natural ABVs of 8% to 10.5% without additives.

As this is from 2024 we might expect 6% which is strong enough. I do need to sort out some bottles. Might have to tip some cheap lemonade and similar purchased for a party but never used. Will keep you updated obvs. Didn’t harvest any last year due to mobility issues affecting my enthusiasm. In 2026 my bionic powers should alter that.

There is news from the lake this morning. We had two overnight visits from the herd: five past ten and twenty five to one. Seems to me that the fawn is getting bigger, as children do. Although we only have firm evidence of two animals, the exciting thing is that I think we see three pairs of eyes in the earlier vid. Two having emerged through the hedge and potentially another pair still within the hedge. Check out the pic and vid to see what you think. 

The camera isn’t set to record long enough clips to validate this. Might have to change that, at least as an experiment. We have 30GB of usable storage and it loops round and overwrites the earliest media when full. I deleted the content once last year before we went away (late summer?) but there is still a gig and a half of free memory so increasing the length of the clips shouldn’t be a biggie from the perspective of timeframe storable in memory. Only needs to be able to cover a few weeks really rather than months. I download vids of interest on a daily basis or in a batch if I’ve been away.

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The walk to the shed was done without the aid of a jumper which has been discarded due to the clement weather and the heating has been turned down. In fact it almost feels like a spring day. The birds are in fine voice and the red arrows (I assume it is they – can only hear them – it could be some jets from Waddo) are practising in preparation of the 2026 display season.

Video clip length increased to 15 seconds fwiw. Fox came at 16:04.

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Was in from the shed by five fifteen. Figured I’d spend some time with THG but she is hard at it in her sewing room. We are off back there to watch the Liverpool game later so doesn’t do me any harm to take a break.

I spent the afternoon, once back from the pool, looking at drovers roads and similar. I have Davies Family Tree Locations in “My Maps” in Google maps. It registers a number of features such as farms, churches and woollen mills and now I’m adding features of interest such as Roman roads and drovers roads, both of which touch our spaces. Pubs called Drovers Arms also feature. There is one down the road from where we lived. Bit of a clue there as to the route of the drovers innit. Also fields called Cae Nos (Night Field) which were used by drovers to park cattle overnight. There are a few other landmarks I’m looking at but there’s no point in telling you it all in one go.

The point about the drovers is that we would have sold cattle to them, or they would have sold cattle on our behalf.

Dylan Thomas would sometimes write 200 versions of a poem. Was watching a program about him last night. You don’t see that these days with word processors where versions overwrite themselves in real time. Doesn’t quite carry the same romantic vision. I also heard that he made much use of a thesaurus. It makes sense although it somewhat tempers the image of him as the ultimate wordsmith. It makes me feel a little better that sometimes I am scrabbling around for a word that I know is there but I can’t quite lay my hand on. Sometimes it eventually comes to me but sometimes I have to make do with a lesser alternative. Not that any of it really matters but I do take pride in my words. 

This morning’s Sunday Service is coming from the Isle of Man.  Quite enjoying it. Some nice vocals. Enhanced by the fact that I grew up there. We are off back there before Easter. They are talking about the fact that they have 27 dark sky places. I’d be quite tempted to experience one but the problem is we are in Peel and by the time it gets dark we are usually in the pub.

This next trip we are on the boat from Heysham. It’s a longer journey but gets in at a more sensible time than the cat from Liverpool otherwise we’d have caught that. At least they have nice cabins with double beds and balconies on the Heysham sailing. Believe you me if it’s rough being able to lie down on a bed helps. In those circumstances the balcony is somewhat redundant. 

Uhoh. They’ve slipped a happy clappy modern job into the running order.  Soz IoM. The radio is going off. The pic is from the webcam on Peel Breakwater. One of our fave spots. Petty deserted at the time of the pic. There’s a caff there where you grab a cuppa and sit on the roof watching the boats go by. Saw a basking shark, once. At one time I was Mayor of Peel Breakwater caff until I dumped 4square as a waste of time. Ditto Lincoln Cathedral.

It was cold overnight and the frost lingered but now it is warming up and the garden is a mess of dull grass and soggy wet leaves. I do have a job to do. THG has identified a place on the wall where she wants a picture putting up. Not much of a job you’d think but picture hooks are rubbish these days. The nails bend all too easily. Probably always have done. I might try drilling a hole with a v thin drill bit first. See how it goes. There is no rush, unlike yesterday’s dash for the Park Run.

Breakfast was a small bacon roll and a slice of sourdough toast with THG’s very fine home made orange marmalade. It must be said that this is a great batch. Best of our married life, fair play. 

Re read a book on life and traditions in rural Wales last night, specifically about the woollen industry. It was interesting to observe that the industry really took off in the mid nineteenth century at the same time that my 3g grandfather Benjamin Davies got into the business around 1860 running the Abersannan woollen factory in Llanfynydd. This was a small spinning mill and the building is still there today. I suspect he didn’t own this mill. Then he moved to a place called Felin Obaith (hope mill) in Rhiwadar, or Bird’s Hill. Three of his kids got into the business including my own 2g grandfather JP Davies who after a number of interim stages ended up at Maesdulais mill in Porthyrhyd where my dad was born. The industry went into decline after the first world war but the mill continued to function for some time after that. JP died in 1928 but one of his kids, “Twm Ffatri” continued there. Don’t know when they finally shut up shop but my sister Sue remembers seeing the factory equipment still in place. The decline of the business at Maesdulais reflected what was happening in the wider industry. Sister Sue and I both have blankets woven at Maesdulais.

My current activity is still very much centred around our time as farmers and I’ll get to looking at the woollen industry in the fullness of time.

Fox came at 8pm last night. THG is off to church.