@Baptist Trainfan you will be unimpressed that here just outside Australia’s capital city our maximum temperature on Midwinter’s Day was also 12°C, although as it was breezy and overcast, it felt cooler than that.
14 degrees and trying to rain here, though it looks like the forecast improves through the week.
Yoga class done and I’m recovering with a cup of tea until younger son arrives back from college for lunch. Then I have some writing to do this afternoon.
I have just dug out the warm socks and am already wearing a big hoodie. In summer I'm normally in t-shirt and shorts. We walked early as the forecast was better earlier and still got soaked. Wet boots and coats are dripping into the bath. Brrrr
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of June,
And summer's vanished far too bloody soon...
Vanished? It's hardly made an appearance!
In other news, we had a lovely weekend in The Smoke with our family who we haven't seen "in the flesh" since October (or was it September?) Mind you, my wife is now exhausted after having played so much with our (delightful) three-year old grandson!
We were worried we'd miss the train to London as our bus to the station got caught in very heavy traffic - in fact all went well and we even get an earlier connection onto the local train than we expected. Coming home everything went perfectly and we managed the tight connection into the bus home with ease.
Love.y and sunny with a good sea breeze here. The ground, which I have just been attacking in a first attempt to tame a garden which has been untended for a year, is brick hard.
I've booked next week off work, and if I can arrange accommodation and flights, I might be spending part of it in Orkney. <tentative yipee>
Oo, I hope that works out for you.
It's grey and overcast here; the gardens do need the dampness but I went for a walk with a friend at lunchtime and it was cold. I'm heading off to cook tea soon, but will be donning a fleece top first.
Very dark and cold here. My garden doesn't just need dampness, it needs a lot of steady RAIN! I suspect the weather will not improve until early July when we return from a weeks holiday in Norfolk. I think the wind is getting itself going for a steady easterly blow until then.
However I will pack warm clothes, and we are taking my new Mobility Scooter, so i will be able to terrorise the locals on that!
I've booked next week off work, and if I can arrange accommodation and flights, I might be spending part of it in Orkney. <tentative yipee>
Oooh, if you get there, do give Orkney our love!
I am, and I shall!
I'm flying up on Tuesday; I would have gone with my sister at the weekend, but I've got an appointment in Edinburgh on Monday, so that restricted me a bit. I'll be able to come back with her though, which may have saved me a bit on the return fare.
I've booked myself into an Air BnB flat in Kirkwall; it's going to be weird (and expensive!) staying in Orkney but not in Dad's house. I'm really excited though - it's nearly two years since I was last there (just a few weeks before David died, so there may be an element of bittersweetness).
As if to get me in the right frame of mind, there's a cracker of a sunset over the loch at the moment.
Could you kindly ship about 8 of your 32 degrees to us here in Wales, please? Then both you and we will feel much more comfortable, and I'll be able to turn off the heating again!
15 degrees here, overcast but the sun is occasionally trying to break through. Looks more promising tomorrow though.
I’ve done the one piece of work I need to do today but can’t proceed any further until someone else does their bit. Frustrating.
Off to potter round the garden for a while. I have a module meeting at 7pm this evening.
Blazing summer's day here. I spent the morning mowing - I can't really say grass, it's mostly clover - and fighting back the hedge as it attempts to devour the path.
Just about to go out again to paint an iris which has sprung up unexpectedly among the clover in the wild patch.
I'm sitting here watching my husband cut the hedge. The weather here is bright and sunny but not that warm. I'm not totally getting out of work though, as I've offered to go and help tidy up when he's finished.
This morning we went off to a garden centre that had been recommended to us. Though it was one of those places with loads of non-gardening stuff and a big café the plants were nice and gave us some ideas. The main one of which was getting the landscape gardener from next door in to talk about options for turning the garden into the space we want. Don't worry @Firenze, our ideas are mainly about planting fruit trees, putting climbers over the pergola at the end of the garden and establishing an area of raised beds. I love the look of the bloke's own garden, so hope we can achieve something similar.
Have a fabulous time in the Orkneys @Piglet and I'm glad you are enjoying your time in Greece @Boogie.
We have had a significant thunderstorm today. It's stopped now but I don't think there's much point going to play outside - everything must be soaking wet. Won't need to water the garden though.
[...] Just about to go out again to paint an iris which has sprung up unexpectedly [...].
Why? Has it lost its colour?
It's a pleasant low 20 degree C here, in Continental WesShire, and at night a bit lower. Some sun, a lot of rain and thunderstorms, but apart from that rather enjoyable. I can do without Athensian degrees (see Boogie's post earlier)!
... Is part of the reason for the trip to scatter or inter David's ashes?
No - we haven't been able to fix on a date yet that suits everyone (I suspect such a date doesn't actually exist, like the 30th of February*). It's more likely to be some time in the autumn, or maybe even next spring. I'm almost giving up on the idea of a memorial service: Heaven only knows when we'll have proper music in church again, and a memorial to him without it would be Quite Wrong.
* Funnily enough, there's a quite celebrated gravestone in the churchyard at St. Magnus with the date "30th February" on it, and it's probably not that far from where his ashes will be scattered, once we can get at least bits of both sides of the family together.
Firenze's right - it was a cracker of a day in Embra, although cool enough for a lightweight waistcoat in the morning (which was discarded for the trip home).
I decided it was too hot to contemplate cooking, so I bought in a load of ready-to-eat stuff from M&S for supper: charcuterie, hummus, olives, prawns and potato salad. I'll get some cooked chicken tomorrow to go with what's left - I have to go in anyway and collect a small suitcase I've ordered, as the cases I've got are (a) too big for just a few days; and (b) getting very scruffy.
We are being inundated with strawberries! I made jam with a kilo of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have another kilo in a few days.
Years ago when I had made all the strawberry jam we could possibly eat, I made strawberry sauce. I used the recipe on the pectin package, but I doubled the quantity of strawberries while keeping the quantities of sugar and pectin constant. The result was a delicious pancake topping that was not as sweet as jam.
We (by which I have to admit I mean my wife) purée strawberries with sugar and freeze in appropriate containers. Then, at any point in the year the thawed purée can be combined with cream in an ice cream maker to make the most delicious strawberry ice cream.
We have strawberries in the garden too but not many as the small strawberry bed keeps getting overgrown with bluebells!
Today is the birthday of Master Heavenly the Younger who is 17, and has been thoroughly spoilt.
Good news last night when I received my assignment results back (several weeks earlier than expected) and have passed the first half of my doctorate with a good grade. This means I can do my data collection in the next academic year. Today I will be submitting my ethics application.
With that out of the way I can spend a couple of week concentrating on my health. My post-covid postural tachycardia is very much improved but I still have a dysfunctional breathing pattern so want to do some regular breathing exercises and relaxation.
We are being inundated with strawberries! I made jam with a kilo of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have another kilo in a few days.
I've heard of climate change, even of "raining cats and dogs" - but strawberries falling from the sky is a new one to me!
When I was a child, we had a large garden with lots of soft fruit. On arriving home from school each day, my sister and I had to pick some. I remember large bowls of strawberries, raspberries and/or redcurrants on the dinner table and look back fondly - but at the time, as I remember, I grew heartily sick of the stuff! My mother did make redcurrant jelly and, I think, strawberry jam though; also gooseberry fool and a sort of raspberry dessert which I loved.
Good news last night when I received my assignment results back (several weeks earlier than expected) and have passed the first half of my doctorate with a good grade. This means I can do my data collection in the next academic year. Today I will be submitting my ethics application.
Goodness - we just drove straight into Ethics at the weekend - maybe Suffolk has different quarantine regs?
The strawberry patch in my garden plot didn't do well. Yield was.... minimal, and it was so cold in the Spring that they weren't at all sweet. The plants are quite old and I'm contemplating taking them out next year.
I have recently planted up a strawberry pot, but don't expect any fruit this year. Given the voracity of the birds round here, I doubt even if I get any next year I'll get to eat it.
Yesterday we decided to walk to the nearest village along the footpath at the end of our road Obviously not something many people do. The walk should have been very easy, but it was so overgrown you couldn't see where to put your feet a lot of the time, and I got very prickled by all the brambles, nettles and thistles. It was interesting when we got there. There is a very large country house, built on the lines of St Pancras station, with a semi-derelict parish church in the grounds. It was tempting to visit the village pub, but given the easy with which I fall over on uneven ground (I have very dodgy ankles), I didn't fancy my chancing of getting back in one piece after a glass or two of wine.
@Sarasa - if you use this footpath now and then, maybe you'll actually make it easier for yourself, and others, to negotiate, which would be a Work Of Charity.
There is a similar footpath near here, leading from Arkland up a steep hillside to the corner shop. It's mostly so overgrown as to be hard to discern amongst the luxuriant jungle, but, when I could walk reasonably well, I did use it from time to time (on dry days!).
It's noticeable that there aren't quite so many lockdown walkers this year, possibly affected by the weather. Last year one of the local four mile loops was on our done it so often it's boring list and I was walking it in flipflops by this time last year, but this year it's been so wet that we've hardly walked it at all and boots if not wellies have been de rigueur. And having taken that route for our morning walk today, I am pleased we left it to dry out as far as it has to now, because it was definitely on the muddy and skiddy side.
Another route we wandered over the weekend it felt as if we were the only people to have used it for months, although we did meet another group braving the knee to waist high overgrowth in reverse. That one is such a pretty walk with skylarks shooting up beneath our feet and yellow hammers a plenty.
I've just done a YouGov survey, in which one of the questions was whether "curate" was a good name for a brand of paint.
I could imagine Farrow & Ball having a yellowy green colour called "curate's egg" but why anyone would choose "curate" for a paint range is beyond me.
ETA - I've misread the question, haven't I? I read it as CUR ate (clergyperson) but it was probably intended to be cur ATE as in to select items for a collection.
Good news last night when I received my assignment results back (several weeks earlier than expected) and have passed the first half of my doctorate with a good grade. This means I can do my data collection in the next academic year. Today I will be submitting my ethics application.
Well done! *applauds*
I met a friend for lunch; someone I haven't seen for months. We sat under a tree in the garden of one of the cafés in town and ate delicious open sandwiches (smoked salmon and cream cheese, since you ask) with salad and talked and talked. She's something of a soul friend so we always talk about The Deep Stuff first and then, towards the end, say "And how's the family?" It was lovely.
It's a glorious day here. I'll be nipping out later for my Slimming World session and have taken my necklace off in preparation for the weigh-in (I kid you not). Then it's a tight turnaround to get tea cooked and served before two Zooms this evening.
I think it is probably curate as in gather a collection, but it isn't a particularly great name for a brand of paint, though I guess it is supposed to make you think you are making a considered choice by using it.
I agree about doing that footpath again to keep it open @Bishops Finger . Next time I won't wear thin linen trousers and lightweight trainers though. A particularly vicious bit of bramble went through the sole of the ones I was wearing. Husband has gone off on a bike ride. He's hoping that most of it will be on old railway tracks so I can join him next time. I used to be a keen cyclist but am far too deaf to be let loose on main roads now
Well, done Heavenlyannie - you'll be Dr. Heavenlyannie before you know it! And happy birthday to Number Two Son!
Complete bollocks of a commute this morning - North Bridge is closed, and the bus didn't come anywhere near my stop. Of course, I only discovered this once it was too late and ended up waiting for 20 minutes then forking out £13 for a taxi - stuff that for a lark!
I'm going to have to get off at Haymarket and find my way from there tomorrow, as the disruption is apparently going to be for a few days. Glad I'm going on holiday next week!
And the only rain we had today fell while I was going home from the station ...
Never mind - it's a bonny evening now, and I've just sent a message to about a dozen old school friends suggesting meeting up when I'm in Orkney, and most of them have replied to say they'd love to.
So sorry to hear about the commute @Piglet but glad the Orkney plans are coming together well.
I've finished my Zooms for the evening and am enjoying a bit of time to myself while Mr Nen is down the pub with a few friends. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting another friend for coffee.
Comments
About the same here in Arkland, with a Horrid East Wind direct from Kadath In Ye Cold Waste...
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of June,
And summer's vanished far too bloody soon...
Yoga class done and I’m recovering with a cup of tea until younger son arrives back from college for lunch. Then I have some writing to do this afternoon.
I'm going back to bed.
15C, which makes it comfortable in shorts and T-shirt. Welcome break from the oppressive heat of recent weeks.
I've booked next week off work, and if I can arrange accommodation and flights, I might be spending part of it in Orkney. <tentative yipee>
In other news, we had a lovely weekend in The Smoke with our family who we haven't seen "in the flesh" since October (or was it September?) Mind you, my wife is now exhausted after having played so much with our (delightful) three-year old grandson!
We were worried we'd miss the train to London as our bus to the station got caught in very heavy traffic - in fact all went well and we even get an earlier connection onto the local train than we expected. Coming home everything went perfectly and we managed the tight connection into the bus home with ease.
So have we - we are at a lower altitude than you, conversely we are nearer the Equator!
Good wind for drying the washing, though ...
Oooh, if you get there, do give Orkney our love!
It's grey and overcast here; the gardens do need the dampness but I went for a walk with a friend at lunchtime and it was cold. I'm heading off to cook tea soon, but will be donning a fleece top first.
However I will pack warm clothes, and we are taking my new Mobility Scooter, so i will be able to terrorise the locals on that!
I got my work done so have a quiet day tomorrow. Tea was salmon kedgeree followed by a hoppy beer.
I am, and I shall!
I'm flying up on Tuesday; I would have gone with my sister at the weekend, but I've got an appointment in Edinburgh on Monday, so that restricted me a bit. I'll be able to come back with her though, which may have saved me a bit on the return fare.
I've booked myself into an Air BnB flat in Kirkwall; it's going to be weird (and expensive!) staying in Orkney but not in Dad's house. I'm really excited though - it's nearly two years since I was last there (just a few weeks before David died, so there may be an element of bittersweetness).
As if to get me in the right frame of mind, there's a cracker of a sunset over the loch at the moment.
It’s 32° here in Athens but with a pleasant breeze. It’s lovely to play with our little Enkelin - she’s 19 months old today 🙂
15 degrees here, overcast but the sun is occasionally trying to break through. Looks more promising tomorrow though.
I’ve done the one piece of work I need to do today but can’t proceed any further until someone else does their bit. Frustrating.
Off to potter round the garden for a while. I have a module meeting at 7pm this evening.
Just about to go out again to paint an iris which has sprung up unexpectedly among the clover in the wild patch.
This morning we went off to a garden centre that had been recommended to us. Though it was one of those places with loads of non-gardening stuff and a big café the plants were nice and gave us some ideas. The main one of which was getting the landscape gardener from next door in to talk about options for turning the garden into the space we want. Don't worry @Firenze, our ideas are mainly about planting fruit trees, putting climbers over the pergola at the end of the garden and establishing an area of raised beds. I love the look of the bloke's own garden, so hope we can achieve something similar.
Have a fabulous time in the Orkneys @Piglet and I'm glad you are enjoying your time in Greece @Boogie.
I have just scaled Mount Iron Ing.
Great to hear of your plans @Piglet . Is part of the reason for the trip to scatter or inter David's ashes?
I met a friend for lunch and we sat outside to eat. The coffee cooled down rather more quickly than usual and we felt very chilly towards the end.
Why? Has it lost its colour?
It's a pleasant low 20 degree C here, in Continental WesShire, and at night a bit lower. Some sun, a lot of rain and thunderstorms, but apart from that rather enjoyable. I can do without Athensian degrees (see Boogie's post earlier)!
I managed to refrain from asking what colour @Firenze was going to paint it.... (but I certainly thought it)
I should worked on it when it was in shade though. The sun on the white paper was a bit dazzling, and the watercolours dried rather too quickly.
We are being inundated with strawberries! I made jam with a kilo of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have another kilo in a few days.
No - we haven't been able to fix on a date yet that suits everyone (I suspect such a date doesn't actually exist, like the 30th of February*). It's more likely to be some time in the autumn, or maybe even next spring. I'm almost giving up on the idea of a memorial service: Heaven only knows when we'll have proper music in church again, and a memorial to him without it would be Quite Wrong.
* Funnily enough, there's a quite celebrated gravestone in the churchyard at St. Magnus with the date "30th February" on it, and it's probably not that far from where his ashes will be scattered, once we can get at least bits of both sides of the family together.
Firenze's right - it was a cracker of a day in Embra, although cool enough for a lightweight waistcoat in the morning (which was discarded for the trip home).
I decided it was too hot to contemplate cooking, so I bought in a load of ready-to-eat stuff from M&S for supper: charcuterie, hummus, olives, prawns and potato salad. I'll get some cooked chicken tomorrow to go with what's left - I have to go in anyway and collect a small suitcase I've ordered, as the cases I've got are (a) too big for just a few days; and (b) getting very scruffy.
Years ago when I had made all the strawberry jam we could possibly eat, I made strawberry sauce. I used the recipe on the pectin package, but I doubled the quantity of strawberries while keeping the quantities of sugar and pectin constant. The result was a delicious pancake topping that was not as sweet as jam.
Today is the birthday of Master Heavenly the Younger who is 17, and has been thoroughly spoilt.
Good news last night when I received my assignment results back (several weeks earlier than expected) and have passed the first half of my doctorate with a good grade. This means I can do my data collection in the next academic year. Today I will be submitting my ethics application.
With that out of the way I can spend a couple of week concentrating on my health. My post-covid postural tachycardia is very much improved but I still have a dysfunctional breathing pattern so want to do some regular breathing exercises and relaxation.
When I was a child, we had a large garden with lots of soft fruit. On arriving home from school each day, my sister and I had to pick some. I remember large bowls of strawberries, raspberries and/or redcurrants on the dinner table and look back fondly - but at the time, as I remember, I grew heartily sick of the stuff! My mother did make redcurrant jelly and, I think, strawberry jam though; also gooseberry fool and a sort of raspberry dessert which I loved.
MMM
Goodness - we just drove straight into Ethics at the weekend - maybe Suffolk has different quarantine regs?
Yesterday we decided to walk to the nearest village along the footpath at the end of our road Obviously not something many people do. The walk should have been very easy, but it was so overgrown you couldn't see where to put your feet a lot of the time, and I got very prickled by all the brambles, nettles and thistles. It was interesting when we got there. There is a very large country house, built on the lines of St Pancras station, with a semi-derelict parish church in the grounds. It was tempting to visit the village pub, but given the easy with which I fall over on uneven ground (I have very dodgy ankles), I didn't fancy my chancing of getting back in one piece after a glass or two of wine.
There is a similar footpath near here, leading from Arkland up a steep hillside to the corner shop. It's mostly so overgrown as to be hard to discern amongst the luxuriant jungle, but, when I could walk reasonably well, I did use it from time to time (on dry days!).
Another route we wandered over the weekend it felt as if we were the only people to have used it for months, although we did meet another group braving the knee to waist high overgrowth in reverse. That one is such a pretty walk with skylarks shooting up beneath our feet and yellow hammers a plenty.
I could imagine Farrow & Ball having a yellowy green colour called "curate's egg" but why anyone would choose "curate" for a paint range is beyond me.
ETA - I've misread the question, haven't I? I read it as CUR ate (clergyperson) but it was probably intended to be cur ATE as in to select items for a collection.
I met a friend for lunch; someone I haven't seen for months. We sat under a tree in the garden of one of the cafés in town and ate delicious open sandwiches (smoked salmon and cream cheese, since you ask) with salad and talked and talked. She's something of a soul friend so we always talk about The Deep Stuff first and then, towards the end, say "And how's the family?" It was lovely.
It's a glorious day here. I'll be nipping out later for my Slimming World session and have taken my necklace off in preparation for the weigh-in (I kid you not).
I agree about doing that footpath again to keep it open @Bishops Finger . Next time I won't wear thin linen trousers and lightweight trainers though. A particularly vicious bit of bramble went through the sole of the ones I was wearing. Husband has gone off on a bike ride. He's hoping that most of it will be on old railway tracks so I can join him next time. I used to be a keen cyclist but am far too deaf to be let loose on main roads now
Complete bollocks of a commute this morning - North Bridge is closed, and the bus didn't come anywhere near my stop. Of course, I only discovered this once it was too late and ended up waiting for 20 minutes then forking out £13 for a taxi - stuff that for a lark!
I'm going to have to get off at Haymarket and find my way from there tomorrow, as the disruption is apparently going to be for a few days. Glad I'm going on holiday next week!
And the only rain we had today fell while I was going home from the station ...
Never mind - it's a bonny evening now, and I've just sent a message to about a dozen old school friends suggesting meeting up when I'm in Orkney, and most of them have replied to say they'd love to.
I've finished my Zooms for the evening and am enjoying a bit of time to myself while Mr Nen is down the pub with a few friends. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting another friend for coffee.