Posts that Didn't Happen - September 2022

And on to September - traditionally our main 'holiday' month, but also the month where there is usually a glut of garden produce to deal with.

So the first week of the holiday involved lots of sorting through apples, tomatoes and marrows - freezing some down, cooking up tomato and chilli jam, etc. etc.

Then there were other domestic tasks, such as cleaning the upstairs carpets; a Covid booster jab for Martin; and on the recreational front a fishing trip with his Dad up to Dinas Reservoir.

Other notable pre-holiday activities, included a walk along the prom taking in the sights of the Rali Ceredigion, which ran a short stage through town and round by the Castle.

Then it was holiday time 'proper' - bags packed, and on the road for our first slightly more extended break since before the pandemic.

First 'in-transit' stop took us to Malvern - lovely town, nice walk up to St Ann's Well with some great views - ending the day with a pint or two, and a very tasty curry.  All in all a good start!

From there it was a cross-country drive to Norwich - via the National Trust's Wimpole Estate - arriving late afternoon to news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II - truly the end of an era.

Had a couple of days in Norwich, exploring the city, and visiting the Cathedral - where the sights included the Cathedral Cat, Budge, enjoying a nap; tributes to the Queen; the Book of Remembrance (actually turned to a page with my Great Grandfather's name inscribed); and this rather macabre 400 year old ode to mortality:

All you that do this place pass bye
Remember death for you must dye.
As you are now even so was I
And as I am so shall you be.
Thomas Gooding here do staye
Wayting for God's judgement daye.

From Norwich we moved on to the Norfolk coast . . .  meeting family for a beach walk and lunch at Winterton-on-Sea . . .

Visiting Cromer (with its roaming Goats) . . . 

. . .  National Trust properties at Felbrigg and Blickling . . .

. . . and Sheringham, with its murals and historic steam railway . . . 

Loved this piece of WW2 signage at Sheringham station - no 'leaves on the line' excuses back then!

Left our cabin on the coast for a couple of night's visiting family in Cambridgeshire, before returning home again.

Back to the reality of hedge cutting and wood chopping, and my own Covid booster jab - before returning to work the Tuesday after the Queen's funeral.  Life was more or less getting back to normal, then the 'new' government under Liz Truss released its budget, and appeared to be in the process of bankrupting the country.

In other news, we had the end outside wall of the Folly rendered (as you can see it wasn't in the best of nick before all the Folly works started).

The addition of the chimney for the log burner hadn't helped matters, but now we have a nice solid wall - just need to paint it!

Finally, the end of the month saw us down by Tan-y-Bwlch beach enjoying some late September sunshine (while waiting for the car to be MOT'd!) - watching the sea, and the passing Hercules aircraft . . .

Living the Dream

Martin is still enjoying his life of leisure . . .

Hedge Happenings

There's always plenty to do in the garden, not least keeping control of the hedges. One of our main problems being the width of the hedge between us and the field next door.  

While Martin regularly thins out the foliage on our side - yes, it looks bad but it does grow back! - the field-side grows out of our control.

It's been getting wider and wider for a while now, to the point that even our long-handled hedge trimming toys can't quite cope.  

Time therefore to venture into the field itself and hack back - it's a bit of a long-term project, but Martin is making good progress, and  the end is in sight.

And at least on the field-side - we can mercifully leave the debris in situ - cutting out what would otherwise involve a lot of trips to the tip!

Bonfire

We've been accumulating hedge debris, and odd bits of wood round the back of the woodshed for longer than I care to  remember, and to be honest it had all got a bit out of hand . . .

Martin's recent hedge-chopping activities had only added to the pile, which had gotten so large we couldn't actually get to any of the outside wood storage areas.

No pictures were taken, but here you can see the subsidiary pile accumulating on the other side of the fruit cage - a mix of rotting pallets and hedge clippings . . .

So with time on our hands (two week's off, and our first reasonably decent day weather-wise since Saturday) we decided that today was the day to tackle the wood-pile.

We started by sorting, chopping and discarding the twiggy bits not worth keeping.

One load made it to the tip before we decided we were on a highway to nothing, and had the bright idea of putting a match to the smaller pile by the fruit cage / compost heap.

A slosh (scarily) of petrol later, and we soon had a fine blaze - in fact it was hard to keep up with it as it turned out that even relatively fresh leylandii burns very very well!


So we now have a pile of ash, and the external wood storage area is satisfyingly clear and tidy.

A good day's work!