Caught 2 mice in the loft this week. Big news in the Loosemore Gyford world. Nature in tooth and claw.
More flowers and leaves after a warm and sunny (albeit windy!) weekend.
And, hallelujah, a ride on mower revival.
Tuesday morning I headed out across Thistly Field, down to the Army Camp crossroads and around the Grey Valley lanes past Duffryn Farm and Jury Farms. Hedges greening, and blossom on the old apples trees on the last day of March.
Thursday evening I marked the end of my working week with a G&T. Hard to get my head around the fact that it’s only three weeks since Janette came for the weekend. As she says, my sense of time is really distorted. I would have been in LA for work this week, if we weren’t in the throes of a global pandemic, and spending the weekend walking with Steffi. And drinking more gin, no doubt!
It’s felt strange, deleting all those plans from the diary. A bit like when you finally delete someone from your contacts a few years after they’ve died.
Friday had two highlights: a morning walk to Ewyas Harold via the Common to collect our 1kg bag of Formula 6 coffee beans from James Gourmet Coffee. I checked the Village Shop for yeast (no joy), and came out with 6 hot cross buns and a copy of the “Around & About Ewyas Harold & Abbey Dore” pocket map, and so I varied my return route back over the Common, dropping down to Dore Abbey along the footpaths from Box Tree Cottage. And the final section back to Forty Acres I retrod the overgrown footpath up from Cherry Burton. Lunch in the conservatory.
And in the afternoon, lawnmower revival!
My favourite family of petrol heads had suggested putting the battery on to charge for another day. That’s done the trick!
We completed series 1 and 2 of The Crown this week, and so on Friday evening we settled down to watch the NT YouTube screening of One Man, Two Guvnors WARNING: autoplays with an ad), one of the few plays I’d wished I’d been to see in London. Glad I didn’t: we didn’t last more than 10 minutes, neither of us is a fan of farce it turns out.
We returned to the final season of Homeland instead, which is a weekly ration, so we’ve started watching His Dark Materials, recorded at the end of last year, as our nightly viewing. A good choice – just the right sort of escapism.
On Sunday I caught Two Woodpeckers ( ah — Two Soups. How I miss Victoria Wood) on the bird feeders, one braver / greedier gorging on the peanuts, the other more wary / subservient, sticking to the trunk of the pear tree.
And down at the bottom of “The Grounds”, the bluebell bed is coming into bloom and there are patches of purple wild violets everywhere. I’m really enjoying being here and seeing all the small changes that happen day to day.
28 April 2020 Update: Easy access to my Herefordshire Week 014 photos on Flickr.