Just an ordinary day

It’s barely after 9am on a very warm day in South Wales. The Met office yesterday issued for the very first time a severe heat warning covering much of the UK including this neck of the woods. Frankly, they’re a bit late - it’s been rostio here for a few days, knocking 30°.

Why is it that us British bemoan the cold and wet of our climate, only to moan like buggery as soon as it gets a bit Mediterranean like?

Anyway, no golf today (normally play on a Tuesday). Nevertheless, up with the lark, or at least when my wife got up to go to work at 7am. Breakfast on the patio (porridge - on a day like this 😂). Then watered the garden, fed the cat (again), emptied the dishwasher, changed a couple of plug sockets (been decorating you see), and brought the green waste bags in from the road. The other 5 recycling bags/bins won’t be emptied until about  2pm. Also sent a couple of emails in my role as cricket club Secretary. Just caught up on my social media feeds as well, although why I bother I don’t know. It’s either covidiots or sensible (ish) people retweeting or moaning about covidiots. 

Oh, and I’ve had a grump about next doors dogs, which bark incessantly driving me nutty. 

Just an ordinary day, and it’s only 9.20am. 

The Fence Post

I take photographs for the simple pleasure of capturing a moment, a view or maybe a special occasion. Something that might invoke a memory when viewed back at a later date. I have no preferred theme to my shooting such as landscapes, wildlife, or street photography, I just snap whatever I think is worth a shot.

Occasionally, a photo may stand out for a particular reason, and this happened today. Mrs H and I went for a walk this morning to get out and about before the weather got to hot, and on account that we're going to be busy later having a BBQ in the garden and a few shandies as it's our daughter's 23rd birthday.

We walked up to the Wenvoe Castle golf course, a place we've been many times over the last couple of months, although it's now open to golfers so we had to be wary of flying golf balls. Actually, the place seemed fairly quiet, and judging by the shots I saw being hit, it was evident that no one-s played for almost three months. There were golfing singletons about (currently rules in Wales allow you to play alone or with one other member of your household) and I did see a woman apparently caddying for her husband which seemed to be a marvellous idea!

Anyway, we walked through the course and then down a lane that splits the first nine from the back nine, and it was along this lane I took this shot of a fence post.

Ageing

Now ordinarily, a photograph of a fence post is nothing to get excited about. It wasn't until I got home and was flicking through today's shots that this one stood out to me from amongst the landscape views of the Vale, a couple of squirrels and a distant woodpecker.

Initially the reason I took the shot was because of the bright morning sun on the vividly yellow lichen. But the more I looked at this shot, the more intrigued I was. I thought about the passing of time, and specifically ageing. The lichen on the post is itself the obvious indicator that this post has been here for several years. But it's also fallen at an angle over time. I don't suppose it was put into the ground this way, unless the person doing it has DIY skills like me! That's two indicators of the passage of time. And then there's the rusting barbed wire, slowly oxidising over the months and years.

Looked at from this perspective, this photo now means more to me that just some yellow stuff on a concrete post, or a colourful snap on a walk. It's got history - perhaps not decades worth, but it's certainly been there a while, and the three things that pull that together - the lichen, the subsiding angle and the rusty barbed wire make me think that for all the wildlife and magnificent views we saw on our four miler this morning, this for me, was the shot of the day.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Lockdown blues

I've got to admit it. Spending two and a half months barley venturing from my door (bar the odd walk up to the local golf course), is not how I envisioned my first year of retirement.

The initial novelty of lockdown has long since passed. As I've mused on this blog before, I'm not even sure that we have lockdown in any real sense of the word now. Coffee shops, DIY shops, golf courses, garden centres are all open - I even sent my son to B&Q today to get a new toilet seat, as I broke an old one whilst decorating (I consider this an essential purchase). Despite texting me to say it was "so busy" along with a photo of a queue, he was gone barely half an hour, so it can't have been that bad. Roads are busier by the day. My wife said that one of her work colleagues suggested that the promenade at Penarth recently is just as busy (if not busier) than "normal" - whatever that means now, with people walking, sitting, drinking coffee and so on.

So whilst I'm trying to remain "on message" by staying at home, seems like the world and his dog have decided that lockdown's done.

I'm fed up. I want to get out and about, if only to hop in the car drive to Penarth and go for a walk somewhere different and buy a coffee from a shop  just to change the day to day picture because I'm getting stir crazy here.

Richard Pryor, left, and Gene Wilder in “Stir Crazy.”

Whilst I understand the Welsh Government's cautious approach, that's only going to be effective if everyone stays compliant with the lockdown message, and it feels to me that is no longer the case.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

The things you do in lockdown you'd never do otherwise

I was sitting in the conservatory yesterday (as you do when you're stuck at home - if you've got a conservatory of course), and noticed that the roller blinds were looking a bit, shall we say, in need of a clean. Actually they were manky.

Couple of points here for context. Our conservatory (built before we moved in), was built by cowboys. For one thing it had a laminate floor, laid straight over some joists above a 5"-6" void. That meant walking on it was like walking on a trampoline. We fixed that. The conservatory frame itself (uPVC) looks like a 5 year old had built it out of spare bits from their lego box. It's OK, but it's got gaps where there shouldn't be, and the overall handiwork was, erm crude. Still we stuck with it (it's a lot cheaper than pulling it down and starting again, although in hindsight...). The roller blinds themselves, and they're pretty bog standard blinds at that, have faded over the years. Anyway, this all means that it's not the poshest conservatory in the world, but it does a job. But after a damp and dingy winter the blinds were beginning to look a little grim.

So I took them down, unrolled them, checked them in the bath one at a time with a washing machine tablet and a large dose of Vanish. A good soak and rinse later, and a dry on the line they look remarkable better. Not brilliant, as they'e slightly two-tone - they were probably once cream, but having spent most of their life rolled up  the bottom bit tends to be more sunbleached, but at least the grime's gone.

Maybe (probably) I should have done this every year since we've lived here, but the reality is, at least in this house, a lot of these sort of jobs just don't get done, until that moment when you have a little more time to reflect and think..."Oh dear, that needs looking at...."

Still, I suppose that's what lockdown and retirement's for......

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 29th: Quiet day and disturbing figures

On the personal from it's been a quiet day, painting followed by a 2 mile walk around Cadoxton with Mrs H to get some exercise. Not much else to report really. My photo today is from a path near to our house where hawthorn blossom was falling like snow. A colour photo doesn't do it justice, so I've put a black and white silver tone filter on it, which makes it much more dramatic.

Today's Government briefing on the coronavirus pandemic pointed to a "slightly worrying" upturn in the amount of traffic. Certainly from what I've seen on my (not always) daily walks and from what my wife is reporting from her trip to work, shopping and to care for her mother is most definitely an increase in traffic. It seems that the country is deciding it's time to ease the restrictions not the Government. However, given that the total number of deaths being reported is now in excess of 26,000 now that care home deaths are bing includes, 6,000 higher than the 20,000 that one of the earliest briefings suggested might have once been the "best case scenario", it's clear that we're far from out of the woods.  Stay at home people.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 28th: Exercise - what does it means for you?

Hurrah, it's raining!

There are a couple of pluses to this rain - and who'd have thought anyone would be saying that about rain after the persistent precipitation and devastating floods of a couple of months ago - yes it was less than seven weeks ago when our focus was on flooding not coronavirus!

Firstly, the garden needed rain. I know, only gardeners say that, but my clay heavy soil had pretty much solidified and and starting opening up cracks you could fall into following the recent dry spell. And it means I don't have to water my fledgling fruit and vegetable plants  for a few days at least as nature does the job for me.

Secondly, it might stop some of the idiots who think lockdown is a nice opportunity to get out and about, have a picnic, climb Snowdon or otherwise go beyond the spirit of the guidance about being allowed out once a day for daily exercise. Perhaps it's worth re-iterating the Government's guidance here. You can exercise:

Yes – provided it is alone or with members of your household.People must stay at home as much as possible to reduce the spread of the virus. But you can also still go outside once a day for a walk, run, cycle. When doing this you must minimise the time you are out of your home and stay at least two metres away from anyone else that isn’t from your household.

The key bit here for me is that "...you must minimise the time you are out of your home".   Interestingly in relation to cycling, the website cyclist.co.uk initially said on 24th March shortly after lockdown was announced, that

No guidelines were given as to how long or how far the ride could be although with limited services and restaurants and cafes shut, it would suggest rides are to be kept short and close to home

And on 24th March, Wales updated it's guidance to say that:

Cycling for exercise in Wales has been restricted to rides that are within reasonable walking distance, as the Welsh Government publishes new official guidance that prohibits long bike rides for leisure and exercise.'Cycling should be local, as a rule of thumb limited to travelling no further than a reasonable walking distance from home,' the new guidance states

Returning more generally to individual daily exercise, the challenge is that for one person it might be a 5 minute turn around the block , whilst for others, perhaps more used to bigger bouts of exercise a 10 mile run might be what they deem to be their daily exercise. Whether a 10 mile run or 50 mile cycle is what the government meant by daily exercise is another thing. I know that every time I step out of the door at the moment I feel guilty, even though I'm only going for my turn around the block or at most a 2 mile circular walk.

And so to more mundane matters. I said a couple of days ago that I'd kicked my procrastination in respect of decorating into touch and bitten the bullet. Well, I'm pleased to say that bar a couple of minor snagging issues the living room is complete, and very please with it I am too. It's been far too long since this room was re-decorated. I was looking at some old photos the other day and I can see this was last done probably done....well actually, I'm not going there, it's too embarrassing.

Before (top) and after....next!

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 22nd: DIY distasters

I couldn't put it off any longer. I've started to decorate. It was meant to be my rainy days project, but we haven't had any precipitation of note, and there's none forecasted in the immediate future so I just have to bite the bullet and start. There's a long old list of rooms to be done.

Some of my procrastination is down to my level of DIY competence. I'm not very good at DIY and do my best to avoid it at all costs. I'm not terrible, but on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a member of the master guild of builders/decorators/plumbers etc., I'm probably no better than mid-table at best, and possibly as low as a 2 depending on the job at hand. When decorating I've steadfastly shunned wallpaper for years. Just the thought of taking a radiator off a wall to paint behind it brings me out in a cold sweat, and so on. Age has certainly improved my abilities, so you can imagine how bad I once was. For a start, these days I take things more slowly. Back in the day I wanted to finish a job as quickly as possible and tended to go at things like a bull in a china shop. There are two legendary episodes in our household that exemplify why I'm best leaving this stuff alone. 

The first comes from 20th October 1996. The reason I can remember this date so vividly is because I was decorating our then spare room ready to move my almost 2 year old son from his small room and cot into his new room with his first big bed. And whilst I was decorating I was listening to an epic football match on the radio between Newcastle and Manchester United which the Magpies won 5-0.

Anyway, the room had been stripped and carpet lifted to allow me to do the decorating (at least I'd done that - I often paint around things). We'd had a plumber round to service the boiler that afternoon, and I'd taken the opportunity to take out an emergency contract for plumbing emergencies - seemed like a sensible thing to do at the time, although I could've done without the £60 odd cost (times were harder then). 

So boiler serviced, painting ongoing and a temporary halt for dinner after which I returned to the room to carry on my decorating. As the carpet was up, I thought I'd take the opportunity to fix a squeaky floorboard (do you know what's coming yet?). So powered screwdriver in hand (all the gear, no idea) I took a nice big screw and screwed the offending floorboard down. Right through a hot water pipe. I managed to quickly lift the floorboard, but what do you do then when hot water is squirting out through a pipe? Call the wife? No, she said, call the plumber. So I did. You can imaging that he was slightly incredulous both at what I'd done, and that I'd taken him up on his emergency contract so quickly - I reckon it was about two hours from the point he'd left the house after servicing the boiler. I never screw down floorboards now. 

The second occurrence was in the same room. We'd bought a three door flat pack wardrobe from somewhere. I was assembling it (taking my time and following instructions, honest). I'd assembled the outer parts (sides, base, top and the instructions then said, "carefully lift the casing upright". So I did (on my own and that's probably where it all went wrong). It stood upright for a few seconds as I admired my work to date, and then slowly fell to one side ripping out the fixingsas it collapsed into its constituent parts on the floor. In the end I managed to salvage it, although one of the side had to be put on back to front due to the damage. 

I haven't had any real disasters since then, and have even managed to rewire light switches and fixings without electrocuting myself, but normally whenever it's suggested that there's some DIY work of any description required, my wife's first response is "Let's get a man in". Well I would, but we're on lockdown, so it's down to me.....now where's the paintbrush?

Queen of all she surveys

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 8th: Death, procastination and mice

Back on 30th March I posted about John Prine, a country/folk musician who was battling coronavirus. I was sad to find out today that he had passed away in Nashville (just to be clear, I'm sad about everyone who is impacted by, or worse dies from this dreadful virus).  Here's a link to a YouTube video of a live session of one of his best known songs "Lake Marie". There's a BBC article today also that you can find here.

Sadly, I think we in the UK haven't even started to see the worst of it yet. There are suggestions from many quarters that the lockdown (if that's what it can really be called) are working and that rates of infection are slowing, but as many are quick to point out, we're not testing that many people, so it's hard to trust the data with any great degree of confidence. As I said yesterday, at my wife's hospital, whilst there are Covid-19 patient there and the ITU is busy, they don't expect a real hit for another week or so yet.

It's been another relatively quiet day at the manor. Mrs H has gone to see her Mum who's doing pretty well all things considered. She was pretty much in a lock down situation anyway before all this began, not being able to go anywhere due to her frailty, except that she could at least have visitors, but she's managing OK (as we all are). Both kids still working from home although my daughter's IT  many and frequent IT issues remain largely unresolved, or only resolved for short periods of time before another issue rears its head (and not just her, it seems many in her company are having similar issues), so she's been limited in what she can realistically do. She has a day off today so we'll see how things go tomorrow.

We had a video call catch up last night with my wife's brother and one of her sisters and their other halves. It's good to stay in touch and we were yakking for about an hour.

I keep putting off the decorating I have lined up - I'm arguing that the weather's too nice to be indoors at the moment, so focusing on gardening, and waiting for rain before I start to tackle the painting. Seems to be a good strategy as we haven't had any significant rain for a few weeks now, and none on the immediate horizon. Oh well.....it can wait.

The cat brought her first "present" for a while in last night. Just after I went to bed at about 11am I heard her bang through the cat flap, followed by her "I've got something" miaow (very different from her normal "I'm here and I want something" miaow. I then heard my son who was still up mutter something unintelligible (and probably non-repeatable) and some clattering. When I got downstairs, he was in the process of putting that cat in the downstairs loo (in the room not actually in the loo!) and said there's a mouse under that box, motioning to a small cardboard box on the floor. We're pretty well versed in dealing with these stains, so once he returned he lifted the box and I pounced with an upturned plastic takeaway container, neatly capturing said mouse before sliding the lid under it. It didn't seem physically affected by having been between the jaws of the cat, so it was quickly returned to the garden. Oh, and we let the cat out of the loo. I make that 2-0 to humans vs the cat .

Butter wouldn't melt....

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives