En Garde

It's been a while since I last donned my fencing gear, and crossed swords (foil or epee) with anyone.

The 10th anniversary of the annual Triangular competition between 'Town' and 'Gown' and 'Old Boys' didn't see me come out of retirement either, but it was great to see so many old friends.





The competitors had a great day of fencing, followed by a gala final in the Marine Hotel - with the 'Old Boys' carrying the day, and taking the 'Taylor Trophy' which commemorates the legend that was our fencing coach Munro Taylor.  It was particularly pleasing to be able to cheer on the lads from my own 'era' to victory in the Men's Foil and Epee.

With the swords packed away, it was time for dinner, dancing, drinking (naturally!) and a good deal of reminiscing - might have to break out my fencing kit in 2014 . . .

Explore Your Archive

Today saw the launch of the 'Explore Your Archive' campaign in Wales - a UK and Ireland effort to raise awareness of our archival heritage and what is on offer in the archive services that preserve and provide access to it.






So this is me - as an archivist - doing my bit (as it were) . . .

Go on, have a look (check out the videos on the Archives Wales YouTube channel), you might be surprised at what you are missing!

Christmas is Coming . . .

Work trip to London, but with a bit of spare time to wander round Covent Garden, where the forthcoming Christmas season was already well in evidence . . .

There was a busker just out of shot of this picture trying to attract an audience, and moaning loudly that people were more interested in a giant tree in a tub than they were in him!

Guttered . . .

The leaking roof is becoming something of a theme here . . .


This time it's the porch roof, where the water run off from the drain pipe had eroded away at the concrete tiles to the point where water was getting in where the roof meets the window pane.


We'd known for a while that we needed to look at the lounge roof (which also has concrete tiles) and where we'd been told the underlying roofing felt was rotting away.  So it looks like 2014 will see some major roofing works!



In the meantime, we've solved the immediate problem by fixing an extra piece of guttering between the drainpipe and the porch gutter.

Keeping the Wood Dry

We'd been aware for a while that the woodshed roof wasn't really doing its job any more - the old asbestos concrete corrugate had become quite porous and was flaking away in a number of areas - and we'd already had to empty out a couple of bays of wood to dry them off after major leakage.

So time for a new roof . . .

First job - get rid of the 'old' one!

The builders had to take off the old corrugate (carefully!), then dispose of it - which because of the asbestos content doesn't come cheap.  At least they removed the rather extensive moss deposits before taking it down to the tip - otherwise we'd have been paying asbestos rates on the weight of moss!

Then of course, there was a brief 'no roof' stage . . . .


Followed by the 'new' roof - green metal box sections, with similar 'barge-boards' sealing off the sides:





So now we're watertight again - and ready for the winter weather!




Update - 14 December - minor issue with the 'barge-boards' in some extremely windy winter weather - luckily we noticed that the wind had lifted off one side, before it got blown off entirely, and the wind got underneath the main roof.

Fair play, the builders were straight out to batten down the hatches, and within a couple of days it was all securely back in place (this time screwed firmly into the wall).

Shropshire in the Sun

A Friday in early October and after work we headed off for a sunny weekend in Ludlow:


On the Saturday, we walked in from our B&B just outside the town, and followed the 'Bread Walk' alongside the River Teme to Dinham Bridge below Ludlow Castle.


Spent the afternoon wandering round Ludlow (although didn't actually make it into the Castle), took in the market and shops, had a couple of drinks and dinner out, before heading back to the B&B .


Woke up on Sunday to another lovely sunny day, and headed home via the extremely picturesque Stokesay Castle - a fortified medieval manor house, with a timber-framed gatehouse, great hall, and a more castle-like tower.

Enjoyed the sunshine in the grassy courtyard and moat walk, before heading on our way home - losing the sunshine as we left Shropshire behind.

Neither Wet Nor Dry . . .

The late summer weather has been a bit of mixed bag of sunshine and showers - neither wet nor dry nor hot nor cold - could have been better but could also have been a lot worse!