Lots of local walking. Discovering Rowlestone Church. Repotting the house plants. Spring flowers are bringing colour to the garden.
PT then physio kicked started Tuesday, and I made the most of being in Ewyas Harold and did the Recce for Saturday’s GVWC route: Ewyas Harold & Rowlestone Circular. I went into autopilot after EH Castle and did a completely different route from the one I’d planned to get to Wigga Farm. Oh well!
On the plus side, I did meet a lovely lady (and lovely Collie dog) at one of the farms, and paid my first visit to Rowlestone Church, which is beautiful and shares history and stonemasons with the more famous Kilpeck Church.
Late lunch then outside to plant the bulbs we’d dug up from around the compost bin and to dig up some of the “carrot-like” weeds from under the pear tree.
Phil and I strolled up to Hill Farm and back before tea, then admin before returning to the GV Gym for pilates. I took the Zoe… lovely to drive. So calm and quiet – it feels like you’re gliding along.
In the evening we watched Renault Zoe beginner’s or new owners guide to using a help you with your new EV on YouTube and picked up lots of handy tips. I can see why Phil’s started driving differently – gotta make the most of that regen!
Took the Zoe to the gym again on Wednesday after a surprisingly cold night. Put some of the tips learned last night into practice (lock / unlock and interpreting the dashboard colours – very nice….) and back home Phil and I had a run through setting up charging from the porch plug socket and identified films to see in this year’s Borderlines Film Festival. Spent the afternoon in the greenhouse splitting and repotting coin plants and ferns.
Thursday was a lovely sunny day, which I started in the orchard clearing the trailer ready for dad to collect. To the gym for PT, speedy drive home for a shower then off out to Radway Bridge to meet SY for lunch (and coffee and cake) then back via Winchester to catch up with dad and Jean and to accompany dad and the trailer full of hedge trimmings to the tip. Also picked up the surplus dustbins – I’m sure I’ll find a use for them at 40A. Lidl finished off the Hereford trip and I drove home towards a technicolour sunset, lovely. Made dinner (always worth a mention as it’s not a common occurrence).
Up early on Friday so I had time to watch the birds over coffee and toast, and to marvel at the technicolour sunrise.
Gym, then home and a shower before P drove us, in the Zoe of course, to Gwatkins for a coffee, which expanded into scrambled eggs on toast and a lovely large pot of tea (me) / Americano (P). The restaurant / conservatory extension basically occupies the footprint of the old section of covered barn where the Bacton BBQ was set up and looks much smarter.
Gorgeous sunny day (even though the BBC Weather forecast insisted it was cloudy all day) so I spent the rest of the day pottering in the greenhouse, splitting and repotting three more ferns and using up a lot of Jean’s surplus pot supply and some rat-excavated compost from the compost heap. We now have 35 pots containing ferns of various sizes from single stalk to sprouting mass and windowsills in the kitchen, the utility room, the landing, the main bathroom and my office are now fully occupied.
I had a brief sojourn in the sunwarmed conservatory reading for an hour or so in between ferns two and three… ie until I remembered the one in the spare bedroom (aka fern 3). I also put two of the dustbins to good use as new homes for the black bags of rotting leaf mulch that I’d got piled up inside the greenhouse.
And it’s still light at 5.30pm.
Out with the GVWC on Saturday, leading 19 folk around the Ewyas Harold & Rowlestone Circular. I’d walked to Ewyas Harold Rec via the Common and got Hello’ed by one of the gym ladies as I crossed the (empty) football pitch.
Went very well in spite of the mizzle in the air and we adjourned to The Dog for drinks etc afterwards, snug in the main bar with the log stove on. P picked me up in the Zoe and drove us home for a late lunch followed by reading and snoozing until it was time to walk down to Kerrys Gate for a smashing dinner with K&B and K&N. We walked home under semi-starlight.
Not a good night’s sleep and a bit down in the dumps on Sunday after I’d finished reading Snow Country. My mood brightened a bit as the sun brightened up the day. Blitzed the third bag of oranges and chopped one of the apple rack shelves of apples and put them all into the freezer. Then read in the conservatory moving into the lounge as the day cooled. Breeeezy too.
Another good walk on Monday morning, “Forty Acres Footpaths”. I started out doing Duffryn but decided to divert onto the local footpaths and realised I might be able to make a four leaf clover (although it does look more like a figure of eight). Quite a sociable walk too.
Cleared some of the baby brambles from the verge before lunch and then in the afternoon P and I unpacked the new electric coffee grinder, put together the IKEA bamboo bathroom chair / towel rack, and P set up the new printer while I marked up a scan of the map to show Saturday’s walk and sent that round, and then finalised my LPAs.
I’m sure you’re all finding this fascinating…..
In the garden we have our first daffodils, spotted on 30 Jan but I reckon they came out while we were in London. There are carpets of snowdrops and a rug of aconites, and the rhubarb is returning.
There are hints of pink on mum’s camellia too…. And the first flower!
We are now seeing plenty of long tailed tits on the peanut feeder. They’re still outrageously cute.
TV: This Is Us, The Winter King, Sound of Metal, Red Rocket, Bodies.
Podcasts: Gone Mediaeval, History Extra, Offstage: Inside the X Factor, The History of England, In Our Time.
Photos: Herefordshire week 214 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2024-02-04.