Herefordshire Week 041: Tuesday 06 – Monday 12 October 2020

More unpacking and sorting all our Barbican Belongings – the bookshelves are populated and the Telly Room feels more homely. Plus the photo album stage – cue nostalgia and “Didn’t we look young?”

A visit from Western Power Tree Team, a splendidly sociable sunny Sunday stroll, and two failed attempts to bonfire the brash.


The week started with a magical return visit by the three deer, last seen in May.

A Visit from the Deer
A Visit from the Deer

After nibbling at the sprouting willow tree stump, they headed back towards the quarry and mower turn.


Work focused on final preparations for the KM Ops Team Meeting next week – slides packaged, and printed and posted by LO Logistics, seven secret Boxes of Delights ordered from Betty’s, although sadly the Gentleman’s Hamper was out of stock.


I had to drive over to Dinedor on Thursday to work from dad’s desk, as Western Power had notified us that the power would be turned off so that they could cut back the trees that encroach on the electricity cables on the Solarium’s downhill slope and beyond.

Phil messaged me once they’d done – he’s been a bit surprised by quite how big the piles of brash (getting technical) were. Me too! It’ll take quite a few bonfires to work through it all, plus lots of lopping. I made a start on Saturday afternoon, and Phil and I did a couple of hours more on Sunday afternoon, in glorious sunshine, cliched shafts of sunlight slanting through the silver birch, cherry and hawthorn.

Only fly in the ointment was that I failed to get the bonfire going.

I’ve just looked up the details of the trees on that slope. Dad bought them with his Long Service award, and the original planting comprised:

Hornbeam
Lavelle Hawthorn
Pink Hawthorn
Acer Chappadocicum
London Plane
Horse Chestnut
Weeping Ash (3 types)
Copper Beech
Red Oak
Evergreen Oak
Handkerchief Tree

I’ve a horrible feeling I said it was OK to cut down one of the hawthorns.


Unpacking took up spare slots over the weekend – and having put the bookshelves up in the Telly Room we worked through our many, many boxes of books and other stuff that had sat on the shelves in the Barbican.

On Tuesday morning I tackled the upstairs bookshelf, which unearthed a few Family Treasures ….

Books: Treasures unearthed as I sort through the upstairs bookshelf at 40A
Books: Treasures unearthed as I sort through the upstairs bookshelf at 40A

I’d already decided to weed out my BJH book collection, which was fairly straightforward, although it’s hard to give away the ones with inscriptions from mum, so they’ve not all gone to St Michael’s Hospice.

On Saturday I fell into the old photo albums rabbit hole….

New Zealand 1996
New Zealand 1996

…. and it turns out that I went to 5300m back in 1994, visiting Tom when he was in Bolivia for 6 months.

Bolivia 1995
Bolivia 1995

Friday was rainy, so we treated ourselves to the first log fire of the year. Plus beer and crisps, seeing as it was 6 o’clock… which everyone knows is Beer & Crisp o’clock.

Beer, crisps and a log fire
Beer, crisps and a log fire

Two good walks – feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve done a big walk though -Riverdale and round via the footpath (soaking my trainers in the Orchard) on Saturday morning, and Sunday was a gorgeous sunny October day, so we did Bacton backwards, which turned out to be very sociable with chats at Kerrys Gate and en route to Canns Hill as we were picking blackberries.

The autumn colours are gorgeous.

Autumn colours, Longwood
Autumn colours, Longwood

In the garden, lettuce, tomatoes and chillies are still going strong, and I’ve picked my pumpkins. We’ve lots of wild mushrooms too. Now I just need to work out what they are and if they’re safe to eat….


Monday: some admin and flickring, but the morning’s highlight was depositing the third car load of stuff at the St Michael’s Hospice Donation Station in Ross on Wye. In the afternoon managed a quick trip into Hereford to pick up my next batch of Click & Collect library books, and then it was back down the sorting mines – we’re both at the mutually grumpy / fed up with it stage.

Almost there though.

Almost there....
Almost there….

Podcasts: Taking a break from The History of England, I listened to Slow Burn season 4, mainly whilst doing the first lot of lopping, with a History Extra chaser on Sunday afternoon.

TV: The end of The Tunnel, BBC Four’s Soul America, and Mid90s as our free film for the month.


Photos: Herefordshire week 41 on Flickr.

Phil: Phil’s weeknotes for w/e 2020-10-11. How could I forget the BAT!