Monthly Archives: February 2018

A Day of Dullness

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My cold has nearly gone.

As if to compensate, I have a bad finger again. It crept up on me during the night and when I woke at 5.30 this morning it was throbbing away.

It’s annoying, as it gets in the way when doing things like counting coins or writing, and can be surprisingly painful. It was bad over Christmas, as you may have read, but at least I knew what caused it then.

If it’s going to come back every six weeks I may have to go back to the doctor for an injection in the joint. I’m shuddering mentally at the thought. It worked well last time I had one, but it wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences.

Looking on the bright side, the weather should be warming up soon and warmer weather is always better for aches and pains.

I’ve now run out of things to say.

Hopefully the week will become more interesting tomorrow…

Female Suffrage and False History

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Well, it’s 100 years since the Representation of the People Act which, as everyone knows, gave women in the UK the right to vote.

That, at least, is what we’ve been told today by a succession of commentators, journalists, politicians and “personalities”.

Actually, a few women did have limited voting rights before 1918, and even in 1918 the eight million who were given the right to vote were only those who were 30 and passed the property qualification.

Five million men also gained the right to vote in 1918.

Women were allowed to vote on the same basis as men in 1928.

The question, of course, is was it all worth it?

Universal suffrage seems like a good idea but I’m still waiting to see it do something good. In 1918 we had war, pandemics and social injustice. In 2018 we have wars, pandemics and social injustice. We also have Brexit, postal voting and electoral fraud.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

The Afternoon Passes…

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The afternoon slipped past as smoothly as the morning, though it was arguably less productive. All I did in the afternoon was to eat lunch and take a trip to Sheffield.

Lunch was slightly disappointing, so I’m not going to review it, except to say that if we ever need to stop for food in Chesterfield again I will ignore Frankie and Benny’s and go to Harvester instead. You get more flavour at Harvester, and free salad. I say “free”, though I concede this may not be totally accurate.

They have a big wheel in Chesterfield at the moment.  I’m sure it will be quite interesting to go on it and see the twisted spire close up if you can ignore the fact you are being taken for a trip in the sky in a device where costs and weight have been kept to a minimum. I really should have taken my camera, as it made an interesting sight.

We then carried on to Sheffield and dropped Number Two son off, along with two bags of healthy foodstuffs and the contents of my wallet. He’s been home for the weekend discussing his dissertation with Julia. He discussed the Rugby and the Superbowl with me. It’s probably for the best, as, though my grasp of sport is poor, it’s far better than my grasp of matters academic.

Tonight, being back to sensible eating, we will dine on soup. Julia has already prepared and packed the lunch salads for tomorrow. I foresee a dreary, though virtuous, few days.

Another New Week

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Well, it’s another new week and it’s a blank canvas full of possibilities and the potential for cliches.

I rose early, did a word puzzle and then sat and decided what to do. I decided to do more sitting, and did another word puzzle. These aren’t intellectual exercises by any means but at 6.30 my brain isn’t necessarily prepared for heavy lifting.

Breakfast consisted of a pear, a small citrus fruit (I lose track of all the names they use these days) and two turmeric capsules. As a dietary regime it could probably do with some fine-tuning.

My first TV selection was what I refer to as “classic comedy”. That could equally be “very old repeat” as it was a 1982 episode of Minder – the Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs. That’s the episode where they refer to a male Bullfinch, but show a female Chaffinch. After that I lost interest in the assorted rubbish on offer and concentrated on the computer.

Looking through the Q&A section of ebay to increase my knowledge of the system I was struck by the fact that though many of the world’s resources are decreasing the supply of idiots shows little sign of slacking off.  If we could harness stupidity and get it into a fuel tank we wouldn’t need electric cars. I won’t dwell on the subject, as we don’t have the technology for this, and the waste upsets me.

Now, as the clock creeps round to mid-day I realise that a touch of TV, two word puzzles, some light blogging, a quick breakfast, and a bit of ebay, has absorbed five hours of my life.

No wonder I don’t get the washing up done.

 

The Decluttering Diaries – January Results

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At the beginning of the year I set myself a target of decluttering by stealth – throwing out an item of accumulated detritus each day (by dumping, giving away, recycling or any other means) and getting rid of a book a day. Little by little I hoped to make a noticeable difference without too much stress.

So, the January results are in, and how have I done?

Books

Target: 31 books given away.  Actual: Er…0

I haven’t done too well on the giving away of books. I think I’ll say that I’m confident I can move this along in the next month and bring it back on target.

Clutter

Target: 31 items removed from the house. Actual: 6

I had a good ferret round through a load of old paperwork and threw out the envelopes and other bits I didn’t need to keep.  It felt good to take charge of things, but the feeling soon faded.

I also sorted some bits of useless junk, which went in the bin.

It’s a start, though even I have to admit that it isn’t much of a start. February is going to be an interesting month.

The book picture is a random book picture because I mentioned books in the post. I’ve decided I need some pictures around the blog to brighten it up.

 

Improvement at last!

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The cold finally started to improve yesterday. I started to write a post on that subject, found inspiration came slowly and, eventually, fell asleep in my chair. Waking at just after midnight I humphed at missing a day on the blog and went to bed.

The clock went off this morning, waking me from a dream where Julia and I were about to embark, as newly-weds, on an academic career at an American University in the 1940s. I think I was vaguely remembering something I’d read in the biography section of a poetry book recently, probably about Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, but as I’m not from Yorkshire and we don’t have a gas oven it’s not a 100% fit.

Julia is now at work, I’m feeling optimistic about my prospects for the day and I now have approximately eight hours ahead of me in which to achieve either greatness or inner peace, or possibly both.

A cup of tea seems like a good starting point for either of those results, so I think I’ll go and put the kettle on.

The photograph is from the Suffolk trip, but it has tea in it so it will do as a library shot.

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Selfie in a teapot

 

More of the Same

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Sorry, but it’s just another moan about having a cold.

Normally I’d expect to feel a cold coming on (as I did on Monday), would spend a day looking for sympathy, a day sniffing and by the fourth day (i.e. yesterday) feeling considerably better.

Sadly, this has not been the case with this current cold. I’m currently sitting in front of the TV wheezing like a second-hand accordion and coughing periodically in a weak and pathetic manner. The only good thing about my situation is that I’m able to use the word tussive to describe my state. I like it when I actually find an opportunity to use a new word.

The days are definitely longer now, and I traveled home in lovely golden sunlight tonight. It feels a lot better than travelling home in the dark, and I was going to write a post about the beauty of the evening.

However, when I got home the evening just seemed to pass in a blur.

I got home and flaked out, hence the post about having a cold.

I’ll try harder tomorrow.

 

Some Duck Pond Photographs

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I finally got my act together and found the lead to connect the camera to the computer. It had been hiding in plain sight masquerading as part of a reading lamp. There are just too many bits of wire in the modern house.

As are the snowdrops
Damaged tree – looks like a branch was removed badly
Aconites are out

The flowers are starting to show now. I’m particularly captivated by the aconites because of their multitude of alternative names – aconite, monkshood, wolf’s bane, leopard’s bane, mousebane, women’s bane, devil’s helmet, queen of poisons, or blue rocket. Obviously the ones in the picture aren’t blue rocket, and to be honest I always thought that wolf’s bane was blue too. I may have to look into it a bit more.

Peter Livesey used it as a poison in one of his books – I forget which one – where a wife killed her husband by feeding it to him in a curry.

There’s a case on the internet of a gardener dying from touching wolfsbane. This gives me pause for thought because I used to work with it regularly in one garden I looked after, and never thought to wear gloves. I thought you had to eat it to poison yourself.

Cormorant at Arnot Hill
Cormorant on the duck pond
Information board at Arnot Hill Park

There seems to be something causing a glitch in loading my photos, but I’ve got round it by posting and then editing. If you’ve read part of this post and wondered why it ends abruptly, that is the reason.

I’ll end with a film clip of the Cormorant.

Still Sniffing and Sneezing

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The day started with me taking pictures of the wrecked polytunnel to support Julia’s bid for funding to recover it. Then I drove to the shop.

Arriving early I sat and listened to Tony  Robinson reading a Terry Pratchett novel.  Pratchett could, at times, be a bit irritating, and, in my opinion, lost his edge over the years, but he’s still moderately amusing.  Tony Robinson is also quite irritating. The audio books are heavily discounted, but if I could find Wodehouse for the same price there would be no contest.

I managed to be a bit more active today, but by the end was beginning to flag. When I actually stepped outside the wind felt absolutely freezing and I needed the car heater on all the way home.

After a couple of hours of light TV watching I’m giving serious consideration to going to bed. I’m just waiting to see the report about the Nigerian bobsleigh team and then I’ll make a decision.

I just watched the report, and read an article on the team. Although it’s interesting it’s also very noticeable that the first Nigerians, and also the first Africans, to qualify, are actually American by birth and upbringing, which is a bit disappointing. However, I’m probably being churlish by insisting on accuracy over hype.

I’m now waiting for the Cool Runnings remake. And yes, I am aware that Cool Runnings is massively inaccurate, but then again, it’s a film, not a news report. At one time we used to have different standards of accuracy for news and fiction.