More greenhouse construction. Christmas Cake made. Sorting out and reading.
Overdoing things.
But, the sheep are back!
Phil and I did the Bacton square on Tuesday morning, bumping into the farmer who has the sheep in the field opposite and adjacent to Forty Acres. A good chat. He’d bought the sheep at Hereford market – they’d come from Builth Wells – and raises them over winter to sell on in the spring. He’d lost eight to acorns, down by Abbey Dore Court.
Afterwork Zooms Tuesday (Rach), Wednesday (VWW) and Thursday (family). I’m trying to stop myself working through to 8pm and a commitment to a Zoom helps, although I did spend the first 15 mins of Family Zoom finishing up an email…..
Too shattered for my planned FaceTime with Janette on Friday, and Jenny’s work foiled our catch up on Saturday.
A lovely surprise parcel arrived on Thursday. Completely unexpected. But we now have 6 posh wine glasses – thanks Cat 🙂
More greenhouse construction on Friday morning, getting the frame up and the roof beam in.
I made our Christmas Cake in the early afternoon and I realised I was overdoing things when I blew the motor in Jean’s old Kenwood Chef and then hit my head on the worksurface getting out mum’s old Magimix. I do have a bad habit of wanting to get everything done, and not realising when I’m done in.
So, cake in the oven, I settled in the lounge with a book. Having finished Madeline Miller’s excellent Circe, I started on Ben Aaronovitch’ s False Value – lots of fun in the high tech world of Silicon Roundabout. And there was time for a chat with Val too.
Pizza for dinner, and we took a break from our current TV staple (Gomorrah) to watch some more factual fare courtesy of the BBC, starting with the first episode of 12 Puppies and Us (educational – we are still playing fantasy dog, and I’m still holding a candle for a collie….) before moving on to Saving Britain’s Pubs with Tom Kerridge.
Spent a rainy Saturday sorting stuff. Phil and I worked through the “junk shop” piles in the spare room – bundling clothes hangers, rationalising the wardrobes and clearing bubble wrap and boxes. Much more under control.
I then tackled my personal filing, reintegrating the letters etc that have arrived here since January with the filing folders that came from London in September. I now have another box of old papers to burn. I also came across a notelet that my mum sent to “Aunty Carriage” right after I was born, which ends “VERY SUPER” 🙂
Jobs done, time for more reading in the lounge.
Decanted my Blackberry Gin, and had a small taste. It is a lovely dark purple but doesn’t taste very brambly….
More rain on Sunday, which foiled our plans for a walk in the morning but we managed to get up to Kerrys Gate and back in the mid afternoon. In between, I chatted with Tom, read and pottered.
The day’s highlight was a St Andrews’ Ladies Zoom organised by Helen W complete with Quiz. Smashing. I’m really hoping we’ll manage our weekend back in St Andrews next May.
Greenhouse construction part 4 on Monday morning doing more work on the roof, preceded by a walk to Wormbridge where I spotted the red brick farm sells its spare free range eggs. Handy.
(Not really visible, but we got the first bit of glass in – the window / vent in the roof.)
We also got a quote for the loft insulation/boarding out. As Jean says, we’ll have to get used to “Herefordshire Time”.
In Nature News, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of watching the small birds visiting our bird feeders, and we can get really quite close. We’ve now got Coal Tits accompanying the families of Blue Tits and Great Tits, plus Chaffinches and Robins, Blackbirds and greedy Greater Spotted Woodpeckers.
The Fieldfares seem to have flown, with Starlings (I think) roosting in the Oak Tree in Kiln Field (aka where the Sheep Field). No sign of the cock pheasant that used to strut around the place. Perhaps he had too close an encounter with a car….
We are still making good use of the Usborne Spotter’s Guide to Birds, which is definitely the best of the bird identification books we’ve got here.
Photos: Herefordshire week 46 on Flickr.
Phil: Weeknotes for w/e 2020-11-15.