It's been a passable sort of day. I went out on the bike after lunch with the intent of visiting a local church. I did, to discover some very impressive medieval Wall paintings, then went on to the next village... and the next... and the next! At which point I realised I really ought to get home again. This I eventually achieved via an extremely circuitous route - however short the cut is, bridleways on a road bike is a daft idea, especially in winter - just as the sun was setting.
Two barn owls seen en route, to my delight. I've also just popped out after supper and found a spot with enough horizon to catch a glimpse of Mercury between the bands of cloud.
Google suggests the shortest route between my start and furthest point is 10 miles, so I've done 20+, especially as at one point it turns out I was near enough travelling in the opposite direction to home. And I'm feeling every one of then right now! I am nowhere near fit....
It's been 20+ years since I went out on the bike to get creatively lost, and my bum (tbh, most of me - I think tonight's beer might be a low-fat one) is feeling every one of them!
@Twangistinter alia Bodhrán reskin appears to have worked; playable* and not ripped. Need to treat the skin with the cream that came with it. There's a slight wrinkle and it's not the neatest but sure, 'tis fixed.
Another calm and Sun-Shiny day in Arkland the Calm, so yet more sitting-in-the-wheelhouse is being indulged in...
The wheelhouse is not directly accessible from the Ark's main accommodation - one has to go up a companionway onto the deck - but is like having an extra (but small) conservatory-like room. It contains the wheel (!), engine controls, a chart-table, some cupboards/lockers, and a couple of folding chairs.
If you'll excuse me, I left my BEER up there a few minutes ago.
After church I invited a friend back for coffee ( Earl Grey tea actually) and we put the world to rights ( if only). She is spending the winter months in Europe, back home on a short visit before Malaga and Morocco beckon.
Lovely sunny day here after a cold start so I ventured forth for a walk, but came home to news of the death of a long-term friend from cancer, much too soon.
I'm sorry to hear about the death of your friend @puzzler.
Today has been rather nice and sunny. I actually took the cover off the garden bench and husband and I sat there with a cup of tea after doing some gardening.
@Twangistinter alia Bodhrán reskin appears to have worked; playable* and not ripped. Need to treat the skin with the cream that came with it. There's a slight wrinkle and it's not the neatest but sure, 'tis fixed.
Some leftover chicken has been turned into coronation chicken for enjoyable sandwiches. Will have some later with strong Belgian beer and then iron-ing and TV
Very unusual to get clear skies so much at this time of year as well! We may have seen Mercury once in the past (and I did last night), but this was by far and away the clearest.
Sorry to hear about your friend, Puzzler. I took heard today of the sudden death of an old friend from our Belfast days, although he was in his mid-80s. RIP Billy.
Supper chez Piglet was the other half of the beef casserole.
Another calm, blue-and-golden day in Arkland the Elysian, with SOSSIDGES for lunch (again? - well, mustn't let them go off! Would be Outrage!).
The Monday Expotition to Tess Coe has been accomplished, and I'm now recovering from the excitement. Restage is planned for this afternoon, to prepare my Weak and Feeble Frame for tomorrow's Pilates session.
I became more and more aware as yesterday went on that I had a sniff. Its turned into a bigger sniff today so I cancelled Pilates and Badminton this morning and I'm debating whether or not to stagger out to a meeting this evening. Probably not, but I'll see how I feel a bit later.
Thanks to everyone who has offered preyers and good wishes. This morning seemed to go OK - still quite informal, I think they are screening informally to bring the numbers who get the full-on panel interview down. I guess I'll find out in due course!
Sarasa - hope it's not anything too serious and you get over it soon. You need a nice hot toddy, with lots of honey and a splash of lemon, and lots of sleep.
Work was nicely do-able, and I managed to Do Something Intelligent; I got what looked like a dodgy email (although it was only addressed to me, it started "Dear All", and purported to be from J, summoning everyone to a Teams meeting that had never been mentioned before). I gathered both halves of my remaining Wit together, and rather than clicking on anything, gave J a call, prompting him to come rushing down the stairs* to see what was up, and commending me for having "passed the test".
Clever piglet!
* actually, he rarely comes down any other way ...
Supper was prawns and pasta, and now I'm going to put in a Tessie's order, as I have bulky things like dishwasher tablets, loo roll and WINE to get.
The school holidays are over, and with the house to myself, Clean Ing has been done. We have a big floor to ceiling cupboard in our kitchen which is very convenient for putting Loads of Stuff in. It was also a big dusty mess. I think the last time I gave it a proper deep clean may have been during lockdown. After a good two hours solid work it is now immaculate, and I don't promise to do it again before another four or five years have elapsed.
In other news, I am quite chuffed that I have worked out how to attach a clear plastic visor to our space helmets.
We have had another good post-retirement day. This morning we made a long overdue trip to our solicitors to replace the executors in our Wills to executors who have the advantage of being alive. Our executors were my late father-in-law, who died in 2017, and my father, who died in 2021. We've been meaning to update the executors since 2017, but somehow the NE Man was always too busy. So I've very pleased we've finally done it.
This afternoon I gave a talk to a local history group, which was fun.
What great space helmets @la vie en rouge . Fingers crossed you get to the next stage @Sandemaniac. Glad you didn't click the link @piglet, and got things sorted.
I still feel somewhat crap so didn't go and sneeze all over the other attendees at the meeting tonight. I certainly hope I'm better by Friday as I'm leading the U3A philosophy group and have spent ages researching the theme. A brain cell or two would be useful too. At the moment mine seem to be awol. Most of the other things I have on I can miss even if I don't want to.
I got lamb & leeks in for a St Davids Day dinner, but owing to some confusion in my menu planning I found I had prepared it for dinner the previous Saturday.
It was good, but I didn't feel like doing it again on the correct day.
I also got Shrove Tuesday wrong, but as I had bought supermarket pancakes and put them in the freezer then forgot to defrost them on what I thought was pancake day I still have them to eat on the correct day . Unless I forget about them tomorrow.
I took a funeral yesterday, a middle-aged lady who had worked for the Police and sadly died of cancer. I've never seen our church so full - standing room only! It was very moving and the Chief Constable gave an excellent eulogy.
Last night’s rehearsal was - er- a bit different. We paused our preparations for our March concert to have a look at May’s. Lovely music, much to my taste,( Giovanni, Lotti, Palestrina) but more suited to The Sixteen than a large choral society. Allocating the parts took up much time. It didn’t help that we had to sit at desks set out for exams. It will eventually all sound very different when sung in the cathedral.
This afternoon my son is coming to resume work on building my rockery. I’m busy with paperwork ( recycling bin goes out tomorrow). My French group is coming here on Friday so Cleaning and Baking will be needed.
Lovely and sunny here, and slightly warmer than yesterday with the frost disappearing fast.
I am currently reviewing a 2 hour tutorial on grief which I wrote yesterday, and I then need to write a short one for my youth module on supporting families. Then it is back to the marking again this afternoon with a new batch of essays, this time on young people and social inequalities.
Mr Heavenly will be doing the catering at this evening’s worship group, making pancakes.
I hope your Man turns up when he is supposed to. Yesterday a Man booked for 10 arrived at 11. Last Friday a Man booked for “ late morning” didn’t turn up at all and I have heard nothing since. That is a local very reputable company. The one Man who did turn up one time has quoted a ridiculous price for a small job. So I am back to square one.
Lovely and sunny here too, and it looks like staying that way for a while, probably for the first time in about 18 months.
I still feel a bit weedy, so haven't gone line dancing and won't be going to Italian. On the other hand I've just made two batches of lentil soup to freeze, cleaned the loos and tweaked my chapter of my writing groups upcoming book.
Sun-Shiny and Blue again in Arkland the Elysian - but WSPFILYMMW...
Pilates has been endured, with much Pain, about an hour earlier than usual, on account of cancellations. Wash Ing is about to be hung out, after which Lunch is called for.
It's PRAWNS n'CHIPS again today, but later this week I'm going all Ukrainian, with Chicken Kyivs, and some nice Varenyky. The latter are actually labelled Pierogi (the Polish word), but are meat-and-herb-filled dumplings, to be served with sour cream and/or fried Onions.
Although I popped into the village Co-Op on the way back from torture Pilates, I did, of course, forget to buy an Onion. I have some onion granules - I wonder if they'll do, if I fry the Varenyky rather than boiling them (the label says you can do either)?
I'm struggling to settle as I await news on our grandson. Despite the anxiety I'm really hungry. Haddock with roasted vegetables and potatoes for supper 😍
It's quite a nice evening here, a wee bit of a breeze, but clear patches in the sky (which still isn't completely dark).
I mustn't faff about on here too much; I'm reading a poem at Night Church and I'd better have a look over it before I head over the road. I'm not as confident about reading poetry as I would be about reading a psalm or other Biblical passage, but someone else "bagged" the psalm for this evening.
No pancakes here, because I couldn't really be bothered trying to make them, and I'd taken a popty-ping curry out of the freezer this morning. It was OK, but not really much better than that.
Many thoughts and prayers at Casa Nen for the Beakies this evening.
It's Mr Nen's birthday tomorrow and we are spending the day with Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling. To this end, I have done Much Cooking and Baking, including the production of a Large Lasagne. It's years since I made a lasagne, partly because it involves a great deal of work which hardly seems worth it when there are only two of us and it's far from being my favourite dish and also because it's only recently I've been able to source gluten free lasagne sheets.
The resulting lasagne is huge so I only hope people are hungry tomorrow. As I've been slaving over it for a large part of the afternoon it's currently one of the last things I feel like eating and I hope I'll feel differently by lunchtime tomorrow.
As Lent starts tomorrow, we have Drunk Much Wine and Eaten Much Chocolate this evening. I suggested to Mr Nen that we might as well start celebrating his birthday early as at our age we can't be sure how many more there will be to celebrate. He seemed curiously unimpressed by this thought.
Hope the reading went well @piglet.
I'm feeling quite a bit better tonight so hopefully will be almost better by tomorrow though I've opted out of going walking with the Ramblers.
I'm feeling a bit sad as my favourite vegan restaurant has just announced it is closing in May and we only discovered it last year. We have a table booked for a couple of weeks time so I will get to enjoy it at least one last time.
The poem was We Grow Accustomed to the Dark by Emily Dickinson, but I actually ended up reading two, as the lady who was down to read Shadow by D H Lawrence couldn't make it.
I thought I did OK; I hope other people did too.
I used the silences and musical interludes to say my prayers, in particular for the Beakies and the people of Ukraine.
ETA: sorry about the restaurant, Sarasa - I hate it when a favourite place closes. 😢
Another talk last night - this time to the local WRI. They say they find it difficult to get speakers; I've no idea why because the coffee and home bakes are first class. Plus I won a rhubarb scented candle in the raffle!
The NE Man flies to London this afternoon for a work thing. (Yes, I know, he retired in January....) (He'll not be paid, but he gets all expenses paid, and I get two days of not cooking, so it's all good)
Lord and Lady. p came for tea last night with mini P, who’s cute but 31/2 and very loud so we were quite glad when they went home!
It’s Lord P’s 35 th birthday today - where has the time gone since he was in school?
Your night service sounds lovely @piglet. It is so useful to have a church across the road that you can just pop into things like that.
I feel a lot better but having decided I didn't want to risk going walking in case I started to feel a bit ropey again. I do have to go out this evening but I think I'll be OK. I've used these last few lazy days to finish a jigsaw, and sort out some bits of writing.
Tonight, before I head out, I am going to be making a risotto using up odds and ends in the fridge, so it'll be a mainly tomato one.
Sunny here and every day gets slightly warmer.
Usual Wednesday morning of student support, phone calls, tutorial planning, etc. and now I need to get back to the pile of marking.
Yes, Sun-Shiny here again, in Arkland the Elysian, after a very chilly night.
I've recovered somewhat after yesterday's Pilates session, but will limit myself to a bit of pootling about in the wheelhouse and on deck. According to the Met Office, we are to be blessed with the presence of the Big Yellow Face (to Her be all praise!) for much of the next few days, so tomorrow may well see - at last! - some Paint Ing...
The *road* outside the Ark is very muddy (the highest tides cover it, which doesn't help!), and there are puddly bits which haven't completely dried out since last summer...
We denizens are making earnest entreaties to the Owner to instruct his Lads, with their bulldozer, to lay down a few tons of *gravel* for us. It's really only the scrapings from road-mending, but it serves to make the damp places drier.
I noticed today that the various wild grasses and other plants on the river bank are beginning to show signs of life, which is a Good Thing, as I like to see Nature doing her stuff. Last year, we had specimens of Great Water Dock reaching nearly 2 metres in height!
My son’s plans have changed yet again so he’s not coming till next week, which means my daughter will come instead, to work on the borders.
This morning I drove 20 minutes to a country park. I got 3/4 way round only to find a bridge was closed, so I ended up going further than intended ( no bad thing). Quite an achievement for me, in fact.
Indeed. My Pilates torturer often encourages me to go just that little bit further than I feel comfortable with. As you say, no bad thing, and the resultant achievement (however small) is worth it.
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Two barn owls seen en route, to my delight. I've also just popped out after supper and found a spot with enough horizon to catch a glimpse of Mercury between the bands of cloud.
Google suggests the shortest route between my start and furthest point is 10 miles, so I've done 20+, especially as at one point it turns out I was near enough travelling in the opposite direction to home. And I'm feeling every one of then right now! I am nowhere near fit....
It's been 20+ years since I went out on the bike to get creatively lost, and my bum (tbh, most of me - I think tonight's beer might be a low-fat one) is feeling every one of them!
*for values of "play" that include my efforts.
The remains of last night's sumac and za'atar chicken are simmering with the kidney beans left over from the chilli (nothing gets wasted round here).
After lunch I shall start back on the interminable crochet and probably fall asleep.
Dinner will be swordfish'n'chips.
The wheelhouse is not directly accessible from the Ark's main accommodation - one has to go up a companionway onto the deck - but is like having an extra (but small) conservatory-like room. It contains the wheel (!), engine controls, a chart-table, some cupboards/lockers, and a couple of folding chairs.
If you'll excuse me, I left my BEER up there a few minutes ago.
Lovely sunny day here after a cold start so I ventured forth for a walk, but came home to news of the death of a long-term friend from cancer, much too soon.
Today has been rather nice and sunny. I actually took the cover off the garden bench and husband and I sat there with a cup of tea after doing some gardening.
I painted the garden shed.
Result - nice one
The littlest twanglet has just started a brownie badge that involves a bit of stargazing so it's been super timing
Supper chez Piglet was the other half of the beef casserole.
The Monday Expotition to Tess Coe has been accomplished, and I'm now recovering from the excitement. Restage is planned for this afternoon, to prepare my Weak and Feeble Frame for tomorrow's Pilates session.
Sarasa - hope it's not anything too serious and you get over it soon. You need a nice hot toddy, with lots of honey and a splash of lemon, and lots of sleep.
Work was nicely do-able, and I managed to Do Something Intelligent; I got what looked like a dodgy email (although it was only addressed to me, it started "Dear All", and purported to be from J, summoning everyone to a Teams meeting that had never been mentioned before). I gathered both halves of my remaining Wit together, and rather than clicking on anything, gave J a call, prompting him to come rushing down the stairs* to see what was up, and commending me for having "passed the test".
Clever piglet!
* actually, he rarely comes down any other way ...
Supper was prawns and pasta, and now I'm going to put in a Tessie's order, as I have bulky things like dishwasher tablets, loo roll and WINE to get.
Fingers crossed @Sandemaniac
Well done @Piglet
I did some pleasant garden-Ing and some not so pleasant clean-Ing. I'm now polishing my halo. 😇
In other news, I am quite chuffed that I have worked out how to attach a clear plastic visor to our space helmets.
Everything crossed for you @Sandemaniac.
We have had another good post-retirement day. This morning we made a long overdue trip to our solicitors to replace the executors in our Wills to executors who have the advantage of being alive. Our executors were my late father-in-law, who died in 2017, and my father, who died in 2021. We've been meaning to update the executors since 2017, but somehow the NE Man was always too busy. So I've very pleased we've finally done it.
This afternoon I gave a talk to a local history group, which was fun.
I still feel somewhat crap so didn't go and sneeze all over the other attendees at the meeting tonight. I certainly hope I'm better by Friday as I'm leading the U3A philosophy group and have spent ages researching the theme. A brain cell or two would be useful too. At the moment mine seem to be awol. Most of the other things I have on I can miss even if I don't want to.
It was good, but I didn't feel like doing it again on the correct day.
I also got Shrove Tuesday wrong, but as I had bought supermarket pancakes and put them in the freezer then forgot to defrost them on what I thought was pancake day I still have them to eat on the correct day . Unless I forget about them tomorrow.
This afternoon my son is coming to resume work on building my rockery. I’m busy with paperwork ( recycling bin goes out tomorrow). My French group is coming here on Friday so Cleaning and Baking will be needed.
I am currently reviewing a 2 hour tutorial on grief which I wrote yesterday, and I then need to write a short one for my youth module on supporting families. Then it is back to the marking again this afternoon with a new batch of essays, this time on young people and social inequalities.
Mr Heavenly will be doing the catering at this evening’s worship group, making pancakes.
Had a good swim earlier, now struggling with Sunday's sermon. We're thinking of getting a new front door: A Man is coming round later.
I still feel a bit weedy, so haven't gone line dancing and won't be going to Italian. On the other hand I've just made two batches of lentil soup to freeze, cleaned the loos and tweaked my chapter of my writing groups upcoming book.
Pilates has been endured, with much Pain, about an hour earlier than usual, on account of cancellations. Wash Ing is about to be hung out, after which Lunch is called for.
It's PRAWNS n'CHIPS again today, but later this week I'm going all Ukrainian, with Chicken Kyivs, and some nice Varenyky. The latter are actually labelled Pierogi (the Polish word), but are meat-and-herb-filled dumplings, to be served with sour cream and/or fried Onions.
Although I popped into the village Co-Op on the way back from torture Pilates, I did, of course, forget to buy an Onion. I have some onion granules - I wonder if they'll do, if I fry the Varenyky rather than boiling them (the label says you can do either)?
It's quite a nice evening here, a wee bit of a breeze, but clear patches in the sky (which still isn't completely dark).
I mustn't faff about on here too much; I'm reading a poem at Night Church and I'd better have a look over it before I head over the road. I'm not as confident about reading poetry as I would be about reading a psalm or other Biblical passage, but someone else "bagged" the psalm for this evening.
No pancakes here, because I couldn't really be bothered trying to make them, and I'd taken a popty-ping curry out of the freezer this morning. It was OK, but not really much better than that.
It's Mr Nen's birthday tomorrow and we are spending the day with Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling. To this end, I have done Much Cooking and Baking, including the production of a Large Lasagne. It's years since I made a lasagne, partly because it involves a great deal of work which hardly seems worth it when there are only two of us and it's far from being my favourite dish and also because it's only recently I've been able to source gluten free lasagne sheets.
The resulting lasagne is huge so I only hope people are hungry tomorrow. As I've been slaving over it for a large part of the afternoon it's currently one of the last things I feel like eating and I hope I'll feel differently by lunchtime tomorrow.
As Lent starts tomorrow, we have Drunk Much Wine and Eaten Much Chocolate this evening. I suggested to Mr Nen that we might as well start celebrating his birthday early as at our age we can't be sure how many more there will be to celebrate. He seemed curiously unimpressed by this thought.
ETA - what poem were you reading @Piglet ?
I'm feeling quite a bit better tonight so hopefully will be almost better by tomorrow though I've opted out of going walking with the Ramblers.
I'm feeling a bit sad as my favourite vegan restaurant has just announced it is closing in May and we only discovered it last year. We have a table booked for a couple of weeks time so I will get to enjoy it at least one last time.
I thought I did OK; I hope other people did too.
I used the silences and musical interludes to say my prayers, in particular for the Beakies and the people of Ukraine.
ETA: sorry about the restaurant, Sarasa - I hate it when a favourite place closes. 😢
The NE Man flies to London this afternoon for a work thing. (Yes, I know, he retired in January....) (He'll not be paid, but he gets all expenses paid, and I get two days of not cooking, so it's all good)
It’s Lord P’s 35 th birthday today - where has the time gone since he was in school?
I feel a lot better but having decided I didn't want to risk going walking in case I started to feel a bit ropey again. I do have to go out this evening but I think I'll be OK. I've used these last few lazy days to finish a jigsaw, and sort out some bits of writing.
Tonight, before I head out, I am going to be making a risotto using up odds and ends in the fridge, so it'll be a mainly tomato one.
Usual Wednesday morning of student support, phone calls, tutorial planning, etc. and now I need to get back to the pile of marking.
I've recovered somewhat after yesterday's Pilates session, but will limit myself to a bit of pootling about in the wheelhouse and on deck. According to the Met Office, we are to be blessed with the presence of the Big Yellow Face (to Her be all praise!) for much of the next few days, so tomorrow may well see - at last! - some Paint Ing...
We denizens are making earnest entreaties to the Owner to instruct his Lads, with their bulldozer, to lay down a few tons of *gravel* for us. It's really only the scrapings from road-mending, but it serves to make the damp places drier.
I noticed today that the various wild grasses and other plants on the river bank are beginning to show signs of life, which is a Good Thing, as I like to see Nature doing her stuff. Last year, we had specimens of Great Water Dock reaching nearly 2 metres in height!
This morning I drove 20 minutes to a country park. I got 3/4 way round only to find a bridge was closed, so I ended up going further than intended ( no bad thing). Quite an achievement for me, in fact.
Indeed. My Pilates torturer often encourages me to go just that little bit further than I feel comfortable with. As you say, no bad thing, and the resultant achievement (however small) is worth it.
Striking a happy mean is not always possible, hence the painful khybers, or other parts.