The travels of Mary Loosemore

Herefordshire Week 072: Tuesday 11 – Monday 17 May 2021

Goldfinches on dandelion puffs. Blossom like confetti. A double rainbow.

FitBit and stats. Front gates repainted. Second jab booked.

Double Rainbow, with Birdsong (Video, 20s)

I don’t know what “light rainshowers” look like in your part of the world, but they were more like monsoon downpours interspersed with blue skies and sunshine here for most of the working week. Things started to brighten up on Saturday, continued to improve during Sunday and Monday was A Scorcher.

Very glad we decided to delay our drive to Bristol IKEA until Friday, in the hope that the things we want to get are in stock.

Had my final physio phone consultation on Tuesday morning. Need to keep working on those glutes and to take more breaks when I’m working – turns out my gammy leg / dodgy hip was all down to Dead Butt Syndrome (and yes, that’s safe to Google!)

No VWW due to other commitments all round, mine being Go Live. Which was not a success. Still, while waiting to log on at 10.30pm for the start of our US time zone friendly upgrade/server switch schedule, I did get a text telling me I could book my second jab, which I duly did.

After a very late night on Weds/Thurs – we called off go live at 1.30am – I had an early Family Zoom on Thursday after an unexpectedly good day at work.

Surprisingly relaxed Friday after the stress of the failed and frustrating Go Live experience. Getting our first goldfinches out on the drive was an excellent start to the day.

Drove into Hereford with Phil in the morning, me to pick up reservations from the library and Phil to buy new walking shoes at Trekkit, and we topped up the car with petrol and filled up the big petrol can in anticipation on an afternoon’s mowing.

With all the rain, the grass has gone into overdrive but the ground is sodden – so it was a lick and a promise level mow – focusing on the “western lawns” and the orchard. Job done, I headed out to walk Duffryn Direct.

Everywhere is so, so green and lush. It’s gorgeous. The clematis over the log shed is in full bloom – beautiful – and we have buttercups galore on the front lawn alongside daisies and the early purple orchids. Blossom like confetti in the orchard and out in the lanes, green hedges are lined with white flowered verges – may blossom, cow parsley, dandelion puffs, greater stitchwort (oh for a less clunky name!).

Caught up with Carl in the evening. We’re interring Rach’s ashes at the start of June. It’s surprising the things that trigger thoughts of her – recently it’s been mugs of tea.

On Saturday I did Cockyard backwards, ie coming home via Kerrys Gate. Drizzle and damp to start with, the sun was out by the time I got home stopping to say hello to the sheep and lambs installed in Canns Hill field. Down in Grey Valley, chatty birds were balancing atop rape flowers – about the size of a great tit with a black head, white collar and rust red breast, their call is a whistle and gravelly clunk like two stones being tapped together. I thought they were stone chats, but the song doesn’t match.

Stunning double rainbow in the early evening.

Sunday I was up early (had a good run of getting ups this week) to walk to Riverdale and back, and after breakfast we headed out again to do Tremorithic on the roads.

Spent most of the afternoon reading – finished Shamen’s Crossing and started one of my library haul, the next Barbara Nadel – A Knife to the Heart – Ikmen’s retired, and Fatma’s died.

Monday was a very productive day. After completing the Bacton Square first thing, I planted out the Albert Schweitzer Rhododendron that D&G bought me on Monday, and then Phil and I got stuck into “dry weather jobs” – P laid bricks to create a solid area for the bins, and I did a bit of Honda mowing tidying up the places the ride on mower doesn’t reach and attempted a few overgrown areas that would have been better handled with the blue strimmer but we couldn’t get that to start.

Then I repainted the front gates, which meant washing all the green off them first. Very satisfying.

I did manage to lock myself in the garage mind you.

With plenty of walking, it’s been interesting seeing the stats on my new FitBit as I familiarise myself with it ahead of next month’s LW Spring Challenge. First though, the FitBit needed to upgrade to the latest software… it only took 3 days, finally completing on Friday by which time I’d practically given up on it. Technically it’s my ancient tech that’s to blame – neither my phone or iPad have a recent enough OS, so I’ve resorted to the old Huawei tablet of dad’s that I use for LED Facebook updates. Even synching to get the data in takes a good few minutes, during which I need to keep the page alive. Oh well.

I do like seeing the stats though, although my Tuesday-Thursday pattern is very different from my Friday-Monday one!

First week's FitBit stats on WalkingSpree — First week’s FitBit stats on WalkingSpree

TV: Finished season 1 of Call My Agent and season 3 of Better Call Saul and thoroughly enjoyed all three episodes of The Pursuit of Love. Started Mystery Road.

Podcasts: History Extra, In Our Time, The Essay, World Book Club, Books and Authors, You Must Remember This and SheDunnit. Running out of podcasts….

Photos: Herefordshire week 72 on Flickr.

Phil: w/e 2021-05-16.

Off to get that jab! Don’t forget your vaccination record card!

Shaman’s Crossing – Robin Hobb

Took a while to get going, but as one of the reviews I read when I was considering putting this first instalment of the Soldier’s Son trilogy aside advised, it really does get going once our hero gets to Military College.

A very masculine novel on the surface, but as Nevare Burvelle grows up it’s amusing to see him slowly start to realise that women do politics, have ambitions and lead too.

Publisher page: Shaman’s Crossing – Robin Hobb

Herefordshire Week 071: Tuesday 04 – Monday 10 May 2021

Work Work Work Work (a 4 day week). More visitors. Week in the Lakes with Val lined up for June.

The upgrade continues. We got to the bumpy stage mid-week but by the end of Friday I felt more on top of things. Exhausted. Now we just have to get through Wednesday night’s go live. One of the downsides of Tech being in LA….

Once I wrapped up the week on Friday, I took myself out for a walk doing the Kerrys Gate – Riverdale route. First though, I did a tour of the garden. Beautiful down by the bluebells, with birdsong in the air.

Loads of flowers – the camellia and daffs are on their last legs, but cowslips and primroses are still going strong, as are the bluebells, violets, forget-me-nots and lady’s smock, and recently joined by carpet bugle. There’s blossom on all the fruit trees and wild strawberries have appeared down on the lower mower path and their domesticated brethren in the patio pots are starting to show buds. Out on the lawn the purple orchids are expanding their territory, with one brave flower emerging much closer to the conservatory than any of last year’s.

The clematis is out over the log shed too, and I finally planted out my birthday Japanese Quince, next to the other shrubs between the patio and the small pond.

Planted out my Japanese Quince birthday present from Phil

My pea stick frame got blown down in the veg patch/herb bed (P and I did a temporary repair on Monday in between downpours), but I do have more shoots, and the mint has recovered. Plenty of rain this week. The water butts are full.

Zoomed with Emma on rainy Saturday morning (and had VWW and Family Zoom in the week) and drove into Hereford to do a big supermarket shop in the afternoon – wet and windy and weirdly warm (quite monsoon-ish) but surprisingly quiet in the supermarkets – and had fish & chips from EH for dinner.

We did the Cockyard walk on Sunday morning, bumping into K&K at Hill Farm. Didn’t manage to get my LW Spring Challenge Fitbit set up in time, and still struggling to get the app working Sunday and Monday. None of my mobile devices are new enough I fear. Shame.

Monday had been pencilled in for Pen y Fan with Steffi but during the week it turned out that it suited us both very nicely to postpone. So we did.

Which meant Phil and I got to see Dave and Gwyn for a late lunch as they had to be in Hereford late morning.

In travel news, I’m off up to the Lakes for a week walking with Val and Steffi at the end of June, and we’ve got visitors booked in for weekends in June and July, with C and SL staying in the Pod while they’re here. Nice.

COVID is wreaking havoc in Nepal: ‘A hopeless situation’: oxygen shortage fuels Nepal’s Covid crisis | Coronavirus | The Guardian

TV: Finished season 1 of Ozark, then a bit more Call My Agent before turning back to Better Call Saul (series 3 – not so gripped), tried out Jonny Vegas: Carry on Glamping (1 was enough), had another attempt at Song Exploder (won’t bother with another – Chris Molanphy’s Hit Parade does it better) and polished off Bridgerton on Sunday afternoon (more please).

Podcasts: History Extra, In Our Time, The Infinite Monkey Cage, The Essay and Bookclub.

Photos: Herefordshire week 71 on Flickr.

Phil: w/e 2021-05-09 (although he doesn’t mention that he’s done a lot of baking this week – two chunky boules of bread and a big batch of oat and raisin cookies).

Herefordshire Week 070: Tuesday 27 April – Monday 03 May 2021

Work work work.

Cuckoo! Bald headed robin. The first squirrel finds the bird feeders…..

This week and next week I’m working a full working week as we migrate and test one of our existing systems onto a new version a new server. A shock to the system in some ways, but it’s nice to have time …. usually my 20 hour / 2.5 day working week is spent manically Getting Things Done. This week I’ve had time to think.

We’ve a bald headed robin visiting the bird feeders.

Not a healthy looking feathered fella / fella-ette, I thought it was leucistic initially, with a white head and lower body, but once we got a better look the poor thing has a bald head. Googling suggests feather mites. There is another robin that feeds it, so another possibility is that it’s a baby and the head feathers are just a little late to come in. I hope so.

On Saturday morning I heard the first cuckoo of the year.

Frosty nights are back, and although some mornings are beautiful –

… it’s still quite cold without the sun. On Tuesday – a cold day with cloud and rain – we even lit the stove. MORE rain on Monday. Lots.

A good Bank Holiday weekend, albeit shorter than my usual.

Dad and Jean came over for coffee on Saturday morning and on Sunday morning we did the Bacton Square, picking two large bags of wild garlic at Bacton Stud and finishing up with a very sociable section in and around Abbey Dore with chats in the Abbey porch, at the Old School House, the end garden in Dore Hamlet and the Old Magistrates Court.

Leisurely afternoon – finished The Buried Giant (OK, but not amazing) and started Shaman’s Crossing (Assassins-meets-Native American Peoples post colonialisation), planted out some more lettuces, sowed some pea seeds in pots. I think I’ve decided where to put the Japanese Quince…

Monday was cold and wet. Good weather for a morning of admin and treating ourselves to telly in the afternoon catching up with Sunday night’s LoD finale before stumbling upon any spoilers, and turning the wild garlic haul into Wild Garlic Pesto and Wild Garlic Pesto and Feta Tarte, based on Tamal Ray’s foraging recipes.

In this week’s articles of interest:

Walton-on-the-Naze: ‘People are almost panic buying beach huts’ | BBC News. Because it’s Walton plus Beach Huts, and also gives more info on some of the huts featured in Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr. Glad we’re not there this Bank Holiday mind you. Foul weather.
Also, sadly (and sadly inevitable), glad I’m not in Nepal: Everest Covid outbreak throws climbing season into doubt | Mount Everest | The Guardian

TV: Ozark gripped from the start, started Call My Agent for some light relief, a bit of Bridgerton on Sunday and Line of Duty (and back again to Call My Agent) on Monday.

Podcasts: History Extra, The History of England, Out of the Ordinary and Bookclub.

Photos: Herefordshire week 70 on Flickr.

Phil: w/e 2021-05-03 (Bank Holiday Edition).

The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro

Alright, but not wow.

One of those books that “I’ve started so I’ll finish” – and I did spend that last third of the book thinking the reveal might relate to Lancelot and Guinevere, rather than simply an allegory of Death.

Publisher page: The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro

(Possibly also “Historical fiction” and/or “Fantasy & Science fiction”)