Frogspawn. Auntie A. Reading (thank you, new lounge sofa!).
30 1/2 working days until I retire.
Tuesday morning was cloudy, with mist in Grey Valley and over Garway. Yesterday’s clouds had returned east with me. A good time for doing weeknotes and photos, catching up with photos from Fan y Big. Then work. Pancakes for tea! VWW on Wednesday.
Social whirl on Friday: in the morning, tea with T&L, a flying visit from Firefighter W; in the afternoon, dad, Jean and Auntie A came for tea and a tour of the gardens. Then dinner at The Temple in EH.
AND Phil made cookies.
AND I fixed the dodgy downpipe into the greenhouse water butt.
What a day!
Saturday morning, Phil drove us to Parc Bryn Bach Park to join in the birthday surprise / celebration of one of our neighbours. A nice lake to stroll around, lots of people hanging around enjoying the sunshine – we played the “are they waiting for X too?” game. Cold wind up there in The Heads of The Valleys, but the pussywillow catkins out; they’re amazing.
Home via Abergavenny Waitrose. Late lunch, log stove on, finished The Overstory, started Our Missing Hearts. G&T and 2 episodes of Euphoria. It’s not for me.
Tidied up the greenhouse on Sunday morning before we drove into Hereford for B&Q, Dunelm (curtains and cushion covers), lunch at De Koffie Pot and The Banshees of Inisherin at The Loft. I liked The Loft – independent cinema run by a couple, you hire a sofa and it’s a small space.
The film was OK – a bit tedious watching grumpy / angry / frustrated / depressed men fail to escape their fate. And how come, in late March / early April, on an island of the coast of Ireland, Siobhán only needs to wear a dress and an undone cardigan inside those cold thick stone built cottages? And she has two smart coats? And Pádraic can lift two full milk churns without any effort, one in each hand? A big milk churn holds 10 gallons, that’s around 50kg. EACH.
Home for tea and biscs and my book, and to complete cleaning the haul of surplus plastic pots generated by the greenhouse. They’re off to a good home in Kerrys Gate.
Overcast on Monday – but we’ve not had rain for weeks, so I’m hoping that will change. In the garden, more daffs are coming out and the first snowdrops are just starting to turn. Wild garlic shoots have just broken through the soil. The gooseberry bush in The Coffin has leaves, the blackcurrant has buds, the rose bush I pruned a while back has plenty of new leaves.
Phil spotted two clumps of frogspawn (toadspawn?) in the small pond. The first we’ve had / seen in either pond although we’ve come across frogs / toads in the garden and various wood piles.
A came over for tea in the morning. Read in the afternoon. A cold day. Early to bed.
I’ve created a Retirement Days Tracker spreadsheet. As at today’s date (21 Feb), I’ve 33 working days to go. When I publish these weeknotes (28 Feb), I’ll have 30 1/2 days to go…. I’m going to put that lower number into my weeknotes.
TV: The Last of Us, We Own This City (grim), Euphoria (nope), Julia (at last, something light. Hurrah for Sarah Lancashire, and TA for the recommendation)
Podcasts: History Extra, The History of England, The Last Soviet.
Photos: Herefordshire week 165 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2023-02-26.