Social events in Stow on the Wold and Kerrys Gate, back to the Brecon Beacons to walk Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn, and iPhone upgrade.
Plus the spring flowers are OUT!
New joiner onboarding this week meant I was working Mon, Tues and Weds am. Rather nice to finish at lunchtime mid-week, although it did throw out the rest of the week – I kept thinking we were a day later than we really were.
Wednesday afternoon didn’t go well. I stuffed up my Indian Visa application (managed to submit without a photo, so I’m waiting to hear back from the email helpdesk as to what I should do…), and Facebook emailed to say that they’re deleting grey accounts – which the LED one is, and it’s the only account set up to run the LED Facebook page. Timely that I caught up with Val on Wednesday evening, although it did mean I was late to VWW.
It took far too much of Thursday morning to work out how to keep the LED Facebook page alive. I think I’ve managed it but we’ll know on 06 May. The help pages they’d linked to in the email tell you to do the wrong thing and it took me 4 hours just to add a new account as a page admin. I hate having to use Facebook – it’s so unintuitive but, worse, it freaks me out, showing me people I’ve not been in contact with for years as friend suggestions. How?
Thursday had turned out to be a day of sunshine and showers, so, FB sorted, I put off my plan to walk around the lanes and tackled some admin:
- Bought tickets for the Herefordshire Walking Festival to balance things out. And – stop press – RG is coming along for some of them too.
- Bought train tickets for the St Andrews Ladies Weekend, at least for Crewe to Leuchars and back. I am now waiting for Transport for Wales to release their timetable/advance fares. The London ladies bought theirs weeks ago.
- Did some Pembs Prep, including soliciting requests for chutney / jam / marmalade / sage.
- Set up Phil’s old iPhone SE, replacing his old iPhone 4 (Tech Support from PG) (aka iPhone upgrade)
- Caught up with Tom in lieu of Family Zoom.
Williams Water were with us all day, moling a new water pipe from the mains to the house. We’re hoping that’ll provide better water pressure inside the house.
Had a lovely day in Stow on the Wold with C and SL on Friday. Sunny weather made for a fab drive there/back in the MX5, a long lunch in the rear courtyard of The Queen’s Head and then a stroll around the town. It’s bigger than the High Street we drive along on our way to/from Essex. The clouds and raindrops held off until I was home.
Saturday brought two highlights.
I spent most of the day walking in the Brecon Beacons with the GVWC, doing the Corn Du – Pen y Fan – Cribyn Horseshoe from Neuadd Reservoir Car Park. Once up on the ridge, we could see the Bristol Channel shining in the distance.
Another sunny day and not as cold as the forecast (which had promised wind chill at -10C). Walk done, we stopped off for medical rehydration (aka a pint) at The Stag Inn, Talybont.
And in the evening, Phil and I headed up the lane for dinner with friends in Kerrys Gate. Really fab.
Took things easy on Sunday – slow start then Cockyard with Phil before a late lunch.
A pair of blue tits have taken a shine to the gap in our soffits on the corner of my office, evidenced by frequent tapping I can hear when I’m working. And on Saturday we’d spotted some moss hanging from the gaffer tape we’d used to patch up the gaps last summer, so we reckoned nesting was probably in progress. So Sunday afternoon’s main task was trying to close the gap by pushing chickenwire into the hole(s). Partially successful, but it did make us realise the whole section could do with replacing.
After all that excitement I was ready for a lazy afternoon in the conservatory, listening to Hayley Atwell reading Jessie Burton’s The Confession – thoroughly enjoying it.
I did manage one more job – potted up the lemongrass. Doing well!
Spent Monday morning in the garden – cleared up windfall sticks, hauled some weed out of the pond, sowed the meadow flower seed, then did a Honda mow and a big mow. The ride on mower is sounding much better.
I did manage to put a trio of rips into my trousers though.
Cloudy and breezy afternoon, with smatterings on rain, so I adjourned to the computer.
Lots of blossom out on the fruit trees, and the Christmas Present tulips are about to flower – including the ones we’d planted out on the verge. More alliums are surfacing in the pots. Primroses looking lovely, cowslips are popping up everywhere. and the bluebells are out too. Beautiful.
(This morning, I spotted the first flowers on the clematis.)
TV: Friday Night Lights (finished season 5, farewell all you lovely people in Dillon, Texas), The Split (series 3, farewell Hannah Defoe & Co), This Farming Life, Russian Doll (not what I was expecting, but ep1 was OK) and back to Brum for the last series of Peaky Blinders….
Audiobook: The Confession – Jessie Burton (No Podcasts)
Photos: Herefordshire week 119 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2022-04-10.