Monthly Archives: December 2024

A Senior Moment, a Problem with Amazon and a Breakdown

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This morning at 9am I noted that my Amazon delivery had only six more stops before arrival and was planning on delivering between 9.30 and 11.00. A bit later, it was forecasting 10.30-12.30 and only had one more stop to do. It was actually shown as being on the street.

At that point I made the decision to travel to Nottingham to pick it up. Yes, having ordered each item of a three item order to come to Peterborough (after carefully calculating which days I would be here), I pressed the button to purchase everything in my basket. This must have activated the default setting, which is still the Nottingham house, and sent everything to the wrong address. I seem incapable of learning.

Anyway, I have now made suitable adjustments to my details and this shouldn’t happen again.

When we arrived, there was no delivery. The slot had moved on, the van was still nearby and it only had a few more drops before me.

“The driver has to make a few more deliveries on the way to your address” it said.

By the time we left Nottingham at 2pm the time slot had moved round to “Before 10pm” and the van was, again, only a couple of streets away. It was still telling me “The driver has to make a few more deliveries on the way to your address”.

We were back in Peterborough by 4pm. At 5.03pm I had an email to tell me that the packages had been “handed to resident”. Well, I either have a doppelganger, or a burglar, or Amazon is lying.

What do you think?

Just to add to my delight, I am slicing coleslaw by the light of a desk lamp as the starter in the fluorescent tube has broken and we now have no light in the kitchen. Nowhere local that stocks them is open, nowhere that is open stocks them. My sister and Julia have just been on a wild goose chase and are now going to my sister’s house to bring another standard lamp.

What sort of house has a box of various spare bulbs but no replacement starter. If only I’d known about it earlier I could have brought one down from Nottingham . . .

What a night to break down, what an end to the year.

Feed the Birds & Happy New Year to You All

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Squirrel in a bin – Clitheroe Castle

Today provided  a lesson in squirrel ingenuity as it dangled by its back feet to gorge on sunflower hearts. It is, as you have to remind yourself, all part of life’s rich pageant. I don’t actually mind feeding squirrels in moderation, but I do mind that they will spend the spring trying to break into nests and take the eggs and chicks.

I’m thinking that a little strategically placed chilli might make it move on to a neighbouring garden. This will allow nature to carry on, but save me money and allow the birds unrestricted access to the feeders.

The pigeon spent some time on the floor picking up spilled seed – one of things the squirrel is good at – there’s a constant fall of seed as it eats from the feeder. It was interesting to see, as we have a floor feeding station located near the feeder, which it seemed to ignore. Eventually it realised the feeder was there and cleared it. We don’t put much out on the ground so we don’t encourage rats, so it was good to see it cleared. The other birds I think of as ground feeders (robins, dunnocks and blackbirds) are either trying their luck on the hanging feeders or picking up from the spillage. Something else to consider.

Grey Squirrel

My sister is coming round for New Year and I am thinking of ideas for snacks. The subject of cheese and pineapple came up. Then pineapple on pizza. I’ve never understood why people get so worked up about pineapple on pizza. It’s not like pizza hasn’t already been made to suffer a vast number of indignities. I like it. I also think anything that gets more fruit and more variety in the average diet is a good thing.

So I ordered pineapple on the weekly shopping. I also ordered cocktail sticks and a block of moderately priced cheese. The cocktail sticks, I was told, were unavailable. Then the cheese became unavailable. I was able to reorder slightly different ones. They became unavailable. I currently have kebab skewers coming and will use cheese I already have. What was going to the that childhood favourite – cheese and pineapple on sticks – has become cheese and pineapple kebabs. I assume that New Year is a busy time for purveyors of cocktail sticks.

Squirrel at Rufford

In fiction they have all sorts of food problems, including cannibalism, but you very rarely seem to see a plot that hinges on the availability of cocktail sticks.

Time to go now. I may be busy tomorrow, so Happy New Year to you all.

The squirrel in the bin – Clitheroe

Planning

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Peacock on crocus

Today, I messed round on the fringes of poetry. I am no closer to submitting the December poetry than I was a couple of days ago. However, it is familiar territory and nothing to worry about. It is not a matter of life and death. Tomorrow I will make a decision on whether I submit or leave it. I prefer to make a decision rather than just let it drift. Then I must get next year set out, listing all my planned submission dates.

I did, however, do two short articles on medallions for the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire Facebook page. It’s not great literature, and doesn’t solve any mysteries, but it keeps me out of mischief and keeps my mind engaged.

Crocus at Nottingham

Today, apart from this, was uneventful. We had brunch (which included leftover sweet potato fries) and an evening meal consisting of a ham sandwich with a variety of leftovers – including frozen chicken nuggets left over from Christmas Eve and various wrinkly salad items. These two meals allowed us to feel like we were cutting back, and still left time to eat shortbread biscuits.

The sunflower seeds in the garden feeder are going down at a satisfactory pace and the fat balls are showing signs of avian attention. The nyger seed, however, remains untouched. We will probably use it to mix in with other things at a later date. My plan is to replace it with a peanut feeder. I think we have an old one hanging about, and peanuts seem to be an attractive food. Meanwhile, I have plans to plant teasel and sunflowers in the garden to provide natural food. We also need some more berry-producing shrubs.

Daffodils

When mum and dad moved into the bungalow, I produced a planting scheme which allowed for cover, security, bird food and year round interest. Their gardener (they had him for years at three different houses) removed most of my shrubs and substituted the normal boring mix he always relied on. They have a variety of shrubs but nothing with spines or berries. I’m going to start making changes, but you should always spend a year in a garden before you start work on major things.

Daffodils

My first project will be to check for the presence of bulbs, once the flowers start. I’m fairly sure that I will be able to get some snowdrops in, if nothing else. After that, it will be a question of waiting for autumn to plant more bulbs. Bulbs, like me, are simple things. I really should have planted some pots of bulbs in the autumn, but there was so much to do it escaped me.

Irises at Wilford

Sweet Potatoes, Pasties and Peas

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Great White Egret

We had a flock of tits pass by this afternoon, spending some time taking sunflower hearts from the feeder. A few took suet pellets, a few had a go at the fat balls. Nothing showed any interest in the nyger seed. In the past we have attracted a lot of birds – mainly goldfinches – with nyger seed so we will persist.

The passing flock was approximately six Great Tits, four Blue, two Coal Tits and a solitary Long-Tailed tit. It was nice to see, and the Coal Tit is another species for the list. They are lovely little birds. Meanwhile, the robins are still posturing. I may try another feeder at the far end of the garden to see if they can both feed.

Little Egret at Aldeburgh

I made crispy sweet potato fries today, as the recipes call them. They weren’t crispy, though they were close, and they weren’t fried. They were baked at 200° C and they were better than the usual floppy rubbish you get served when eating out, or when using frozen ones. We had them with cheese and onion pasties, red cabbage (yes, we have had plenty of that once I remembered it) and mange tout peas with mint.

I’m beginning to enjoy cooking again.  Julia bought me a gingerbread kit and ingredients for Christmas and my sister bought me books of scone and afternoon tea recipes. The only thing that worries me is the expanding waistline.

Little Egret – Blacktoft Sands

It’s likely to be sweet potato soup tomorrow, using all the inconvenient off-cuts. They need to be roughly regular in shape to avoid burning all the thin and/or pointy bits. Crisp is good, burnt is less good.

Pictures are egrets. As a result of global warming they are becoming quite common in the east and midlands. It’s nice to see them, but I have mixed feelings about their spread.

That End of Year Feeling

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Little Egrets – almost in the back garden . . .

I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things. With a new house and wife who is determined to use her retirement to make me do things, I’m going to have plenty to do (we still have to finish moving an awful lot of stuff). However, I want to get back to writing. This, traditionally, is the time of year when I count up the submissions and the acceptances and decide if I have done enough.

It’s tricky this year. I have definitely not done enough but I have had other things on my mind like the chest infection, the trip to urology and the house move. I’m cutting myself some slack here. It’s not been an overly productive year, but it’s not been bad either, and I do have excuses. Of course, I’ve always had excuses, which is why I am in my 67th year with my carefully horded “potential” still intact.  If I’m not careful I am going to go to the grave with the song still in me (to misquote Thoreau).

May, and the end of an era

Last year I had  20 acceptances and 7 rejections. With the one I am sending this afternoon that will be 28 submissions. It compares with 37 for the year before. Because I lost some paperwork to computer glitches (or, more precisely, my ineptitude in backing things up) I’m not sure what my figures are for previous years.

As I recall, I was pushing towards 50 submissions a year at one time and talking about trying for a hundred, because that’s the figure that is often use in articles on writing and rejection. The theory is that trying for 100 submissions (some even try for 100 rejections) stops the sting of rejection, gives you plenty of practice and makes you more industrious. Blog posts don’t count, because there is no chance of rejection. I can, I suppose, add my 23 pieces for the Numismatic Society of Nottingham FB page, as there is a small chance of rejection there.

Admiral Vernon and Commodore Brown – the start of my numismatic writing career in retirement 

However, that’s still a lot of submitting to be done if I’m going to make a serious attempt on 2025.

First I will get the last submissions of 2024 done, then I will start on the plan for 2025.

Pictures are some highlights from 2024. It takes all sorts . . .

 

Numbers, Ornithology and a Senior Moment

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Robin at Clumber, Nottinghamshire

Sorry, I really did mean to become more regular, and to get round and wish everyone the compliments of the season before it happened. As usual, me and my good intentions didn’t quite gel. So I hope you all had a good Christmas, and go on to have a great New Year.

I just noticed that my last post was my 3,500th. As you know, this has no real significance, but I always like to see a round number.  3,500 is so much better than 3,499, and also better than 3,501, despite being a smaller number. It’s a minor achievement on my way through life, so I won’t mention it again. Other people have written more. Some people have posted fewer times and managed a much higher quality. Some are much more regular and disciplined. That’s life. We’re all different. Some of us, for instance, take childish pleasure in round numbers.

The reason I used bird photos yesterday, as you probably guessed, was because we have started feeding the birds in the new garden. So far it has been a bit quiet, but it is showing signs of building up.

So far (this is now the fifth day) we have had blue tits, robins, great tits, long-tailed tits, dunnock, blackbird and pigeon. The pigeon can’t work out how to get at the food. We have also had magpies, but they haven’t yet attempted to feed.

Robin at Arnot Hill Park

It will take a while for the visits to build up, then I will start complaining about the amount they eat. At the moment the weather is mild, there seems to be plenty of food about and I imagine that most people round here have feeders so there won’t be a shortage of bird food.

The robins met whilst hopping along the back wall. One started posturing. The other, which I believe is the current owner of the territory, puffed up to double in size and the interloper flew off. You see all sorts of things when you are washing up.

We had frozen vegetarian nut roast for Christmas dinner, as my sister came round. It’s easier for us to become temporary vegetarians than it is to force-feed her meat. I prepared red cabbage with apple and onion and Christmas spices the day before then did potatoes. carrots, parsnips, sprouts and leeks on the day, using a list of timings as a guide. The potatoes, which I did properly (par boiled, knock the edges about, hot oil etc) turned out well. The gravy, which came with the nut roast, was not so good. The sachets, which I heated up with the carrots, both split and released the gravy. Fortunately we were able to make an alternative vegetarian gravy.

Then, twenty minutes after the meal was over, it struck me. I had forgotten to reheat the red cabbage. Senior moment alert . . .

Robin, Arnot Hill Park

 

Far Too Relaxed

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Nuthatch at Rufford Abbey

I’ve been relaxing so much that I seem to have forgotten how to blog. However, i’m back now and intending to get more disciplined. Strange isn’t it, that I became erratic when I didn’t have regular internet access, and now that I have proper access I have remained erratic? There’s something about human nature wrapped up in that. Or maybe just something about my capacity for procrastination.

One of the things I was going to do was make a submission for December. I still have time, so I probably will. I also have some pieces to submit, though several of them are returns from last month. Last month’s single submission was returned unaccepted. That’s yet another way of saying it was rejected.

It’s no big deal, things get rejected all the time. If I didn’t get rejected there would be no point in submitting anything. It keeps me sharp(ish) and makes me happier about the acceptances.

Blue tits on feeder

However, I’m not particularly impressed by the extended response of the editor. It’s nice of him to take time to give me advice, but when that advice is to read a book (which I have already read three times) and to look in a magazine for further tips (a magazine where I have actually been published 5 times this year) I can’t help thinking that I should send him a note telling that I have read his advice with interest but it isn’t quite right for me at this particular time . . .

However, I won’t. Editors are busy people and he may not appreciate my sense of humour.

Incidentally, this year’s figures so far are – 20 acceptances, 7 rejections. This compares with 27 and 10 for 2023, which I thought was a poor year.  I have had whooping cough, been in hospital and moved house this year (and written 23 short pieces for the Numismatic Society) so I won’t be too hard on myself, but it’s definitely time to get a grip and start working harder. If you don’t keep pushing yourself it’s very easy just to wake up one day and realise you have stopped writing poetry. I know, because I did it once before.

Pictures are birds on feeders.

Long Tailed Tit

 

Connected!

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Robin

Yes, the day finally arrived and the worries dispersed. We are now connected to the internet, it seems to be running well and I can start blogging again.

The downside is that Julia is now abusing the connection to play Christmas music. It’s currently The Pretenders with 2,000 Miles, so it could be worse. It could, for instance, be . . . I spoke too soon. It’s just changed to It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. There are still five days to go, surely I don’t need to switch to unremitting jollity just yet.

Well, a lot has happened in the last few days. We are now spending more time here than we do in Nottingham and, psychologically, this is beginning to feel like home. Talking of which, I’m going to leave my office now and walk through to the kitchen for coffee and biscuits without wearing a coat. It’s a bit different to the old system, where I would already be wearing my coat as I typed on the dining room table at this time of year.

Robin at Budby Flash

I say “office”. It’s the smallest bedroom. If I stretch out my arms my fingertips touch the walls, but after 35 years of planning an office/writing room it feels like luxury.  It’s not quite organised yet, but that’s going to take time.  We didn’t, for instance, have room to fit the printer into the car on the last trip, so I can write, but I can’t print. When we do return, we want to bring more paintings down, so it’s likely we still won’t have room for the printer on that trip either.  We did make room for a vegetable strainer and hand blender this time.

Talking of kitchen appliances, I’ve just been reading the microwave instruction book again. It’s a remarkable bit of work. It is crammed with detail and instructions, but after reading it I am left none the wiser about how to use it or what I can do with it. After spending hours selecting the one with the most features, and daydreaming about my adventures with microwaves, I’m left with the feeling that I will mostly be cooking soup, potatoes and pies with soggy crusts. I could have bought something considerably cheaper if I’d been more realistic in my assessment of my skills.

Robin

Talking of which, we finally, after several misadventures, have a second freezer. The one in the kitchen is a bit small and we have more or less filled it after buying Christmas snacks and fish fingers, and freezing three lots of soup. That’s why I have been reading the microwave manual again. I swear it’s easier to fly to the moon than it is to defrost a block of soup for lunch. Eventually, I suppose, I will get used to it.

Anyway, can’t linger, as I have things to write for the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire. If you could have a quick look and press some “Like” buttons it would be appreciated. I’ve just had one published about the 1914 bombardment of Scarborough, though if you wait till next time there’s a write up about the Duke of Clarence and why he wasn’t (as has been claimed in the past) Jack the Ripper. Oh yes, there’s a lot of history in medallions.

Pictures represent Christmas jollity.

Robin at Rufford Abbey

 

Fish & Chips – with a Side of Sprouts

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I’m trying to get a few posts done while I have access to the internet. As my last post indicates, I have no reason to be optimistic that I will be connected to the internet any time soon. It is amazing how much we now use the internet for.

I need it to do my weekly shopping and I need it to renew my house insurance. I also need it to shop for odds and ends. And because I’m not good at technology and passwords, I need it for WP. I could, I suppose, blog using a tiny touch screen, but if I do, it keeps warning me about data usage.

It strikes me that we are being forced to use the internet more and more – all my insurance documents will be sent by email – and if we don’t have it huge chunks of our life will disappear. I was reading about how people merge into each other as time goes by, and the problems this causes when one dies. This specifically relates to married couples, where the partners take on different responsibilities. It is certainly true for us. Julia does all the social, empathetic family stuff. I do the . . .

Deep fried Brussels

Actually, I’m not sure what I do. The last time I was actually necessary was when maps needed reading. Since satnav that has become a redundant skill.

Yesterday, travelling up from Peterborough, we stopped at the Cod’s Scallops again. This is becoming a habit. Unfortunately it’s a habit we will have to break in a couple of months when the move is complete. We had our customary pensioners’ special (though they call it something more upbeat on the menu) with a side order of deep fried Brussels. They were in a light tempura style batter and they were very good, though a little hot. They are, I suppose, full of water, and that had heated to boiling point in the fryer. I burnt my mouth. The pictures feature the meal.

How Difficult Can It Be?

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Blue Tit 

After much comparing and researching, we finally fixed on a broadband supplier. Having experienced Virgin in the past, I crossed them off the list (it is my ambition never to use them again for anything after the mobile phone debacle) and BT/EE, who were are with now, are too expensive. We also crossed off the smaller providers, as you never know how good they will be, and that left us with three. In terms of cost, service and satisfaction they seemed pretty similar, but a quick look at local wireless networks seemed to show that Vodafone were the most popular.

So Julia called them up online using her phone and filled in all the copious forms which seem to be necessary these days. This was made more complicated by us currently having two addresses – one needing an internet connection and one still being our current billing address for bank cards etc. It was more than slightly annoying when, after pressing the button to send the documentation, it refused to accept it. Julia did it all again – same result. And again . . .

Pied Wagtail at Donna Nook nature reserve.

So next morning, she rang. She was on the phone over an hour giving them all the same details, because the system had crashed. But eventually, we got it all done, though it was, by this time, costing us £1 a month extra and the £130 shopping voucher had become a £75 credit. However, it was, at last, arranged.

Or so we thought.

A couple of days later we had a notice of cancellation. Julia rang to see what it was about and was told that it was an acknowledgement that we had cancelled the order. We said we hadn’t, they said we had, we said we hadn’t, they said we would have to reorder, so an hour later . . .

We are now waiting to see what happens. The router should arrive by courier this week, and they should be round to install it later in the week. However, they don’t install it themselves. The installation will be carried out by City Fibre, one of the providers we decided not to use.

Let’s see what happens.

Mistletoe from eBay

Pictures are from December 2018 – Clangers because we used them as Christmas decorations that year after their appearance in a local scarecrow festival, and the birds because I saw these two species today at various times.