Monthly Archives: December 2018

Slowly writing…

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I’m sitting here typing slowly and watching repeats of old comedy programmes. There are worse ways of spending an evening – I could be watching the news, for instance. I read something a couple of years ago which recommended avoiding the news for the sake of your mental health. It seems to have worked as I am now happier and without actively seeking out the news I seem to absorb all I need to know.

As I type I drift off from time to time to wash up, browse eBay, read a new poetry book that arrived today, or make cups of tea.

Picture of Hedd Wynn’s statue from an earlier visit. That was the day we saw the Red Kites.

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That’s how I’ve managed to spend three hours writing just over 100 words.

From the writing perspective it’s unimpressive. From a procrastination perspective it’s world class.

 

 

Lost for Words

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As usual I have so much to say that I’m running out of brain to process it all.

It rained this morning. It was heavy, it was windy and, apart from the temperature looked very much like a gusting tropical storm. And it was dark – more like evening than morning.

I had coffee in the garden with Julia in a cold metal container with no lighting and took several photographs. They have removed the bicycle and put up a Christmas Tree.

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This is Julia’s work. Cold, wet and dark.

After that I went to work, packed some parcels, added some more items to the eBay shop and went home. There was slightly more to it than that, but nothing that I haven’t said before.

This is what my work involves – it’s warmer and drier but I can feel my will to live ebbing away. It’s also what the Queen does for a living. I think she probably comes out of this better than me and Julia.

The Queen – Coin on Cover
The Queen – Coin on Cover
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Posting Challenge – Day 60

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I’m over the hill and on the downward slope.

So is the posting challenge.

It’s a slightly blemished record, as I’ve only posted on 59 out of the 60 days, but I’m quite pleased with it. On the other hand, it is slightly annoying to have missed a day. You can probably tell this from the way I keep mentioning it.

What have I learned so far?

I suppose the main thing I’ve learned is not to set myself challenges, and definitely not to tell people about them. If I set myself any others I will make them shorter. When you hit a slump 100 days can seem like an eternity stretching ahead.

It has certainly made me post more, and I’ve been more disciplined about my posting, but I can’t honestly say I’ve improved. If anything the quality of the blog may have gone down as a result of writing short snippets just to hit a target. This isn’t a great loss as it wasn’t great literature or hard-hitting journalism to start with.

I’ve also had a good look at the stats, decided they mean nothing (which I sort of knew anyway), started to get back into reading other blogs and begun to get the site under control.

When I started the blog I did it partly to get back into writing practice and that seems to have worked. I started the 100 day challenge because I seemed to be getting into bad habits and I wanted to start writing more regularly.

Discipline and quantity have both increased with the challenge, as has the average number of readers. It’s not a bad result. It would be nice to see an improvement in writing quality but I’m not sure you can do that in 100 days.

I shall now insert a few more photos from yesterday, as I’m a cynic and cute animal photos always increase visitor numbers. When I was more involved with Twitter I could predict the increase when I had a lamb as the Featured Image. Puppies and small children were quite good too. Piglets, goat kids and chickens didn’t show much of an increase, if any, and it was a cat-free farm so I was never able to test the kitten effect.

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Seals at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

Looking back, I should have seen the potential for problems. A farmer who doesn’t have cats is not a man to be trusted.

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It’s not dead, it’s just very relaxed

I promise you the one on its back is alive, it actually turned over while I was watching it.

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Sea Buckthorn, Lincolnshire Coast

Finally, a flying bird of the day as an homage to Tootlepedal. It’s a female House Sparrow. And it’s slightly blurred.

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House Sparrow

 

Some Photos

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Here, courtesy of Julia, are the seal photos that should have been in the last post. She downloaded them onto a flash drive, then added her Pied Wagtail photo. Of course, as soon as I returned from running No2 Son to work I tested the camera again and it worked. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

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Seal at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

 

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Seals at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

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Pied Wagtail at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

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Seals at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

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Seal at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

 

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Redshank at Donna Nook, Lincs

 

 

Promising Much, Delivering Little…

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I had so much planned, but it is not to be.

A year ago I delivered a pale shadow of what I promised, when I forgot to take my card and could only take 30 photos.

This year, pockets bulging with cards and batteries, I took several hundred photographs. There are some really good ones there, but unfortunately you’ll have to take my word for it because my camera won’t communicate with the computer and the card reader on the computer is, to say the least, erratic.

For now you will have to look at the ones from last year.

We had a good day out, despite threatened storms, rain, fog, an idiot in a high-vis jacket and a hacking cough.

We also had fish and chips.

As days go, it was pretty good, and it isn’t over yet.

 

Budby Flash

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It was difficult knowing what to do with my afternoon off. By the time I’d been round Aldi to track down their prize-winning mince pies (which weren’t that good in the end) and eaten lunch, there wasn’t much time left.

Clumber is a bit too far, so I thought I’d have a look at the oaks of Sherwood Forest. Well, was I in for a surprise. The car park is closed, the new visitor centre is in place and they now have a new car park. It’s about 400 yards away from the visitor centre and across a main road. When you get to the visitor centre it’s a long way from the proper forest. I say this from distant observation as I couldn’t be bothered with the walk.

Several people feel the same way if Trip Advisor is to be believed.

In shock, I tried Budby Flash. It’s nothing much, on paper, just some flooded subsidence with a few birds, but it can be quite magical at times.

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Budby Flash, Notts

The sun tried to be entertaining, a flock of tits came to frustrate my camera skills and despite a lack of funding to build a visitor centre I left feeling cold but happy.

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An Easy Meal

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Cut some veg into bits.

Tonight I used sweet potatoes, carrots, swedes, onions and sprouts.

Oil them and chuck them in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 C (250 F or Gas Mark 4)

Then add the chicken thighs.

Give it another 30-40 minutes.

Whip up some gravy (Julia insists on gravy) and serve, pretending it’s a proper roast dinner.

Make a mental note that next time I’ll put the sprouts in at the same time as the chicken.

The timings are approximate, as I was watching the Strictly Come Dancing results. That’s why it looks a bit burnt. I think burnt food is more tasty. Apart from sprouts. Burnt sprouts aren’t an improvement.

So there you go – roast dinner, negligible thought or work.

My sort of meal.

Reeling in the Years

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I’ve just been looking at the early months of 2017 on the blog. I seem to have had a much more interesting life in those days, though I did have more spare time, which probably helped. Annoyingly, I also seem to have been a better writer and proof reader.

That gave me the idea for the title, and sent me off to You Tube for an hour or two of nostalgia interspersed with cooking, picking Julia up and checking eBay.

That’s the trouble with the internet – always so much distraction.

I have put the leftover curry in the fridge (for my lunch tomorrow), made the tomato and vegetable sauce for the pasta bake and am currently roasting chicken and vegetables. I keep meaning to take photos but I always forget.

We were planning on seeing the seals at Donna Nook this week, but the weather forecast for Wednesday is looking bad – high winds and rain. We may leave it another week. I actually wrote a second post about the seals last year.

Loking at last November I’m struck by how little we are now doing, and, at the same time, how much remains the same.

I also need to know how to search my own site, instead of searching entire months for infornation. Does anyone know?

 

 

 

Bad Back Blues

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I woke up this morning…

That was as good as it got. Having gone to bed early I woke after six hours, visited the bathroom, thought about getting up, decided that 5.45 was too early and went back to bed.

At some point between then and 7.00  something happened to my back that rendered me unable to stand upright and deprived me of most of the strength in my left leg.

It was not a good start to the day, which worsened when I overbalanced in the kitchen, found it tricky to get out of the car and, finally, found myself unable to get out of my chair to serve customers. It was painful and embarrassing.

Julia rang me in the afternoon in answer to my anguished text messages, and agreed that a takeaway was in order and that she would sort out the hot water bottle for me.

As I put the phone down I realised the pain had gone. I don’t know if it was coincidence or whether Julia cured me, but next time I’m ill I’ll be giving her a ring before I do anything else.

It has been a very strange day.