Main events this week: Mowing + Shopping. The hedges and trees are coming into leaf, and blossom is spreading from the hawthorns to the fruit trees. Primroses, Cowslips galore, although the early daffodils are dying down. Still plenty of yellow out there to brighten up the days.
When you have weather like we had this week, there aren’t many places I’d rather be…. So the first photo of the week is Tuesday’s lunch al fresco. Perfect weather for drying washing too 🙂
We had lunch on the patio Wednesday and Thursday too.
Continuing the food theme for photo no. 2 – Friday night is pizza à la Phil night!
Dough in the breadmaker, sauce on the stove, and a pretty consistent set of toppings: mozzarella, peppers, black olives and a healthy sprinkling of grated parmesan:
Although with the dearth of dried yeast, we may try out this Easy Emergency No Yeast Pizza – No Rise, No Knead recipe from Fuss Free Flavours.
There are plenty of quiet lanes around Forty Acres for walks, and after a “working week” which meant we missed the best of the sunny weather on Friday, Phil and I did one of the regular routes: Kerrys Gate – Bacton – Abbey Dore. Rewalking the same routes at least once a week gives me the chance to follow the gradual changes in the natural world. This week it was noticeable how many of the trees had started coming into leaf, courtesy of the sunny spell. And the hawthorn hedges are a blizzard of blossom.
Although C-19 restrictions mean we don’t do the small detour to visit Dore Abbey, you do get a lovely view of it from the Bacton road. Catching sight of it, in the distance across a field of rapeseed starting to turn yellow, I picture medieval travellers making their way along the Golden Valley to the Cistercian abbey in its heyday, and the lay brothers and labourers out in the fields tending the sheep.
After a grey and blustery Saturday indoors with the log stove on and plenty to read (I’m powering through our LRB backlog), P and I spent a large chunk of Sunday mowing the grass…. and there’s A LOT!
Usually it’s manageable, but the ride on mower wouldn’t start, even after we recharged the battery, so we had to make do with the normal mower – at least that comes with “cruise control”, although I would construe “control” loosely! We both had trouble starting it, which meant we got better at working out how to stop it stalling (key culprit = long, wet grass/leaves).
Who needs the gym!!!!!
On the plus side, being out in the “grounds” as my mum was wont to call them, meant we got to spot more signs of spring.
And in non-photographed news…
I emailed a few friends, mainly replies I should have sent a while ago. I have to be in the right mood to write emails to friends and family, as opposed to admin ones where you can rattle off something in a minute or two.
The LED Fundraising weekend got postponed to September (fingers crossed….), and May’s St Andrews Ladies Weekend moved to next year. Just like the Tokyo 202 Olympics. Did a lot of train ticket refund requesting as a consequence.
I had my first Virtual Wine Wednesday with Hazel and Catherine this week, and Skyped my dad and stepmum on Tuesday. FaceTime Beers with my nephew got kiboshed by work on Thursday (it’s been a crazy-busy few weeks, and next week’s likely to continue in the same vane/vain/vein/ (!)) but we had them on Friday evening instead. Better timing for a pre pizza beer and crisps too… And the three-way family Skype on Saturday – Dinedor-WIV-40A. Lots of fun.
More sociable than I’ve been for weeks!
I also ventured into Hereford for the first time since the lockdown came into force, to do a big shop for me and Phil, and for dad and Jean. Lock’s Garage is a reliable source of eggs (and fresh fruit and veg), and thankfully there were no queues to get into Aldi, Sainsbury’s or Asda, and Aldi came up with most of the goods. Loo roll has returned to the shelves, but dried yeast and tinned tomatoes are the new elusive items. Nice to have a good reason to see dad and Jean, at a safe distance.
And finally, I have chilblains in my hands! After all those high altitude cold treks too…. No photo – too gruesome. But very glad of Jean’s remote diagnosis.
See you next week.
28 April 2020 Update: Easy access to my Herefordshire Week 013 photos on Flickr.