COVID Jab 2. IKEA. A lot more rain. Starting to see people. Holidays commence!
Walked over to Ewyas Harold for my second COVID vaccination jab on Tuesday morning. Took the direct route there, and returned via Dulas. Got very wet on the final stretch back from Abbey Dore. The rain came earlier than advertised and has stayed all week No side effects at all from the jab.
Normal working pattern this week, with the upgrade / server migration finally completed overnight Wednesday / Thursday. Thankfully no presence from the UK required. Busy week, but managed to get things to positions where it’s OK to leave them untended for a week – and on Thursday evening it was a pleasure to activate my Out of Office just before starting Family Zoom, knowing that that signalled the start of a week’s holiday.
We drove to Bristol and back on Friday to go to the IKEA there. Foul weather meant we had to go M5 as the Severn Bridges were both closed due to high winds – 50mph gusts. Treated ourselves to a sandwich and crisp lunch from M&S – both slightly underwhelming – but M&S sultana scones made up for things – we scoffed two each once we’d got home.
On Saturday we headed over to Dinedor for coffee and lunch, and to see Judith, Mary, Colin and Finn, and Huw. M&C were on their way to Chepstow to start the Offa’s Dyke Path. Lovely day. Back home I had time to complete Cockyard in the long sunlight before we settled down for an evening of Eurovision. My top four: Malta, Italy, Ukraine, Iceland. Reckon Iceland would have come higher had they been able to perform in person.
Bacton backwards on Sunday morning, just beating the deluge that stayed for the rest of the day. Phil built IKEA things while I mixed lounging on the sofa watching telly and making scones for teatime.
I woke up on Monday with a big dose of the blues.
Hazel arrived Monday afternoon, and Phil and I made the most of the trip into Hereford with stops at the Donation Station, supermarket and petrol station before collecting Hazel from the station… only to find that signal failure at Colwall meant H was stuck in Great Malvern. So off we went…. eventually getting the the station after a sat nav tour of Great Malvern and its many tiny, twisting roads.
Later today (Tuesday) we’re off to Pembrokeshire to stay with Steffi for the week. D&G arrive Friday for the first Everest Trek Get Together of 2021. It’s 10 years this year since we met.
This week’s small birdwatch highlight: a gorgeous bullfinch tucking into the dandelion seed heads.
In between the rain, thrushes and blackbirds are busy extracting worms from the front lawn.
TV: Bit of a mish mash once we’d finished season one Mystery Road; I’m Thinking of Ending Things as our Friday night film (not what either of us expected), Eurovision on Saturday and my Sunday afternoon telly indulgence comprised The Dig (OK) and Medici season 1 episode 1 (“We’ve got a real version of GoT and we’re going to use it. And some of the GoT actors.”). On Monday we watched the last two instalments in Hip Hop Evolution.
Podcasts: Not much listening this week – mainly Tuesday morning’s walk and while doing my physio exercises – History Extra, In Our Time and SheDunnit.
Photos: Herefordshire week 73 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2021-05-23.