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)
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.

Our first goldfinches
Our first goldfinches

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!).

Log shed clematis in bloom
Log shed clematis in bloom

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.

View towards Vowchurch
View towards Vowchurch

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.

Front gates repainted
Front gates repainted

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!