Herefordshire Week 032: Tuesday 04 – Monday 10 August 2020

We’re staying.


Yes, Saturday was Decision Day. It turned out to be a really easy one to make, and only partly thanks to COVID.

Bought a 10 Drawer Wooden Apple Rack from Primrose to celebrate.


What else is there to say? It all seems rather mundane – but here you go:

Did a lot of Household Jobs:

  • Hoovered under the bed. So. Many. Moths.
  • Cleared cobwebs. Sorry spiders.
  • Defrosted indoor freezer.
  • Moved the dining table into the conservatory.

Did some gardening:

  • Propped up the tomatoes.
  • Picked oregano and thyme to dry.
  • Gave everything another good water with dad and Jean’s handy hose arrangement.
  • Pulled up the bolted lettuce and planted out the two trays of seedlings.
  • Collected windfalls and cut back some surprisingly long bramble shoots (technically “canes” wikipedia tells me).
  • Sawed off and cleared dead branches from the big tree down by the bluebell patch.

Did some walks:

  • Bacton Backwards (solo) on Friday.
  • Bacton Normal (with Phil) on Sunday.

Did some computing:

  • Caught up with weeknotes on Monday’s cooler morning.
  • Avoided the too-hot-heat by Flickring photos from Pembrokeshire, Walton and here on Saturday.
  • Chased COVID-19 train refunds: Great Anglia, Avanti, GWR. HOW TEDIOUS.

Did some reading:

  • In The Shadow of the Sword – Tom Holland
  • Deadly Election (Flavia Albia 3) – Lindsey Davis

Made some chutney. First of the year.

Watched Chernobyl (superb). Listened to lots of History Extra podcasts.


In wildlife news I found a tiny frog in the downstairs loo on Saturday, which I liberated down by the pond, and we also had our first bird casualty in months later that morning. This time it was a warbler that went head first into the kitchen window. Thankfully the blinds were down.

But best of all…

The Sheep Are BACK!
The Sheep Are BACK!

Here’s the link for the full set of photos from Herefordshire week 32. Some favourites below:

Clouds across the moon
Clouds across the moon
Bacton Backwards: Butterfly (or moth?)
Bacton Backwards: Butterfly (or moth?)
Bacton Backwards: Dore Abbey - Now Open and COVID-compliant
Bacton Backwards: Dore Abbey – Now Open and COVID-compliant
I've missed Friday Night Pizza!
I’ve missed Friday Night Pizza!
Tomatoes in progress
Tomatoes in progress
Lettuces old(er) and new
Lettuces old(er) and new

This week’s Weeknotes were embargoed until all close family had been informed.

Herefordshire Week 031: Tuesday 28 July – Monday 03 August 2020

A return to the Sunshine Coast, which lived up to its name.

A week’s holiday – my first of the COVID-19 Year – in sunny Walton on the Naze.

Hipkins Beach
Hipkins Beach

(And yes, I know this one is a week late.)


After Monday’s mega drive from the Herefordshire Hinterlands to the Essex Coast, we took things easy on Tuesday. The LED Trustees Meeting in the early evening (mainly to decide what to do about the Fundraising Weekend in Sept) was preceded by an impromptu glass of wine with Margaret and Richard on their roof terrace. The start of what would prove to be a sociable week.

Wednesday took us to Witham and Wivenhoe – seeing Phil’s folks for take away afternoon tea from a local tea room in their front garden in the former, followed by a lovely evening on the waterfront with my brother in the latter, and featuring my first pub pint since February courtesy of The Black Buoy‘s takeaway service and a takeaway curry from a local Indian restaurant.

Beers
Beers

A scorcher on Thursday, so we set off for the beach hut and Hipkins Beach. I spent most of the day on a sun lounger out on the Prom, reading and starting to relax more fully. The only fly in the ointment was the discovery that Hipkins cafe isn’t opening this year. I don’t blame them – but it does mean no mega ice creams. On the plus side, it meant our bit of the beach was noticeably quieter.

No 20, Hipkins Beach
No 20, Hipkins Beach

Friday was another scorcher, so back to the beach hut for the day.

August arrived on Saturday, as did Catherine! We all headed up to the beach hut and Catherine and I settled into sun loungers on the Prom for a sunbathe and catch up. Lunch in the hut, a walk up around the Naze and along the beach / estuary opposite Felixstowe, back towards town for ice creams all round from the Colonnade Kiosk. YUM.

Sunday – you guessed it, back at Hipkins and the Hut.  Not so busy today. I celebrated with two sea swims on the morning. High tide was at midday, so you are swimming over sand rather than the slippery clay that’s underfoot at low tide. I would have swum (well, “dipped and floated” is more accurate) earlier in the week except I thought I’d taken my swimming costume back to London… But when I dug deeper into the bag of towels we’d brought back from the hut last autumn, there it was.

The Prom, Hipkins Beach
The Prom, Hipkins Beach

Tom, Jo and Rosa came over in the afternoon. Really nice to see them all in person. Tea at the beach hut first then a stroll up to the Naze as far as the John Weston Nature Reserve. Lots of large caterpillars, green with black stripes and a horn, munching on the thistles, which subsequent Googling revealed were those of the Privet Hawk Moth.

Privet Hawk-moth, The Naze
Privet Hawk-moth, The Naze

Back at the beach hut, a hawk hovered overhead.


Our Walton week was accompanied by the first season of Elena Ferrante‘s My Brilliant Friend. The hype had rather put me off reading the books and if NOW TV hadn’t had the TV adaptation I wouldn’t have sought it out.

But it is as amazing as everyone says.


We drove back on Monday, assisted by Apple Maps, taking the more leisurely cross country route avoiding all the motorways and major A Roads (looking at you M25 and A12). Although it was longer in hours (6) and miles (270-ish), it was much easier driving and featured several Shires:

  • Essex
  • Suffolk
  • Cambridgeshire
  • Hertfordshire
  • Buckinghamshire
  • Northamptonshire
  • Oxfordshire
  • Gloucestershire
  • Herefordshire

We stopped half way for a lunch break at Ampthill Great Park, a good find (easy parking, cafe and loos), and again in Ross on Wye for a speedy shop, dropping off supplies for the Dinedor Quarantiners before finally making it back to base.

A lovely sunny evening. Sat out on the patio with tea and one of the Walton Bakery cakes…. The bird feeders* refilled and the garden rewalked.

Dad and Jean had visited on Friday, thankfully. Dad mowed and Jean watered and resuscitated the chillis I’d left in the conservatory. A good soaking revived the tomatoes and plumped up the pumpkins.

* The woodpeckers had destroyed one side of the seed feeder trying to get at the bird seed that loiters below the feed hole. We effected a gaffer tape repair and the feeder is back in action, albeit as a one-sided affair.


All in all, a lovely week in WON. Could quite happily have spent another week there.

All the socialising left me feeling a bit out of practice 🙂 – but lovely to see so many people In Person. Zoom’s great, but it’s not the same as a one-to-one, face-to-face (socially distanced faces, of course) chat.

Being “On Holiday” seems to make it harder to remember that we’re still meant to be keeping 2m apart. There are plenty of signs up, but families still walk three or four abreast on the pavements.

PAVEMENTS! Not seen so many of those since February! —

At least Walton on the Naze isn’t getting the crowds that have been invading Bournemouth and Margate.


Photos from Herefordshire week 31. A bit of a misnomer really as they’re all taken in Essex….

Where Next: 2020 – COVID-19 Update

Here’s a copy of the update I made to my Where Next? page today.


2020

2020 is going to be a rather different year as Phil and I are moving to Herefordshire in January to try out the country life (but not Country Life). I’m still aiming to get a few trips in, but living in Herefordshire opens up a whole new world of walking opportunities, and travelling further afield means getting to grips with regional flights or factoring in a 3 hour plus train journey to/from London.

Naturally, there are some travel plans – but the only one booked is a return to northern Spain with Steffi and Hazel to walk the El Anillo de Picos in the company of Alfonso who led last year’s week in the Picos. I’ve already got weekends in the Northern Lake District, Pembrokeshire and St Andrews booked into my diary, and Phil and I are off to Northern Italy for Michael and Katja’s wedding in June. That still leaves a chunk of time for a Big Trip, but what, where and when depends on what Phil and I decide come June on the Herefordshire front….. About which, read on….

COVID-19 Update – August 2020

Well, we made our move to Herefordshire at the right time! Although not the trial we’d anticipated, it’s certainly proving to be a better place to be this year than London would have been.

As lockdown has been easing I have made it to Pembrokeshire for a weekend with Steffi and Phil and I have had a week in Walton on the Naze. All other trips – foreign and domestic – are all now cancelled.

Who knows what 2021 will bring? ‘More of the same’ would not come as a surprise.

Trip No. 1 of 2020: Relocating to Herefordshire

Destination: Abbey Dore, a hamlet half way between Hereford and Abergavenny.

When: January – June 2020, possibly long term. We’ll see how it goes.

What: Living in rural Herefordshire, with Phil. Working remotely for LW (I got the official approval this week).

How: With the cooperation of family, friends and work.

Why: I’ve spent a lot of my life in Herefordshire, whilst growing up in Solihull, studying at St Andrews and Chester, and working in London. We’ve had a holiday home there since I was tiny, which is where Phil and I will be based, and dad and Jean live half an hour’s drive away.

I did my first walking in the Black Mountains, up Skirrid and along Offa’s Dyke. I love the history of the Welsh Marches, and the fact that we have a Cistercian Abbey and a Saxon Motte and Bailey castle (remains of) within walking distance, and stone castles scattered across the landscape. Not to forget Bacton, Kilpeck, Craswall and Cwmyoy.

I’m ready to spend some time living in a green world rather than a grey one, with space to grow things and to make and store things. The preserving pan and sewing machine will be coming with us.

“But why leave London?” I hear you ask –

“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” — Samuel Johnson

Well, I am somewhat tired of London. I love the fact that everything is on the doorstep, from shops to cinemas to museums, that I have family and friends within easy reach, that every Wednesday I can meet friends for wine and pizza, and that trains and flights offer a boundless choice of destinations near and far.

But I don’t love the noise, the early morning dustbin lorries and delivery vans announcing to all and sundry that they are reversing or turning left, the late night drunken revellers shouting and singing as they try to navigate the residential back streets of the Barbican, the police helicopters hovering over possible crime scenes in the middle of the night or monitoring protests and public gatherings during the day. The construction sites, providing relentless background noise of jackhammers and power tools at play, for new luxury developments in place of buildings with civic and social worth, signifying the Corporation of London’s distain for its residential communities and neighbours.

So. Watch this space.

Forty Acres sign post, Kerry's Gate
Forty Acres sign post, Kerry’s Gate

Trip No. 2 of 2020: El Anillo de Picos – POSTPONED July 2020

Destination: The Picos de Europa, Northern Spain.

When: August / September 2020.

What: Steffi, Hazel and I – plus Rache – return to Northern Spain to walk El Anillo de Picos.

How: In the wonderful company of Alfonso Gallego de Lerma who was our excellent guide/leader on Exodus’ Picos de Europa trip we did in July 2019.

Why: July’s trip whetted the appetite even though the bad weather restricted our routes and made the Grade 5 trip closer to the standard Grade 3 holiday than any of us would have wished.

This time we’ll get to spend a long week in the Picos de Europa proper, hiking in and around  the three massifs. We will be staying in refugios and carrying “everything” with us.  That shouldn’t be as dramatic as it sounds – we are used to carrying wet weather gear and warm layers, plus lunch and water, in our day packs and will only need a sheet sleeping bag for the refugios which will also provide all our meals. I for one am not renowned for my vast wardrobe when I’m walking …. Plus we will have clean clothes to enjoy once we’ve competed El Anillo.

Itinerary: Factoring in travel to/from London, our itinerary is:

Day 0: Travel to London
Day 1: Fly to Bilbao. Travel to Arenas de Calabres.
Days 2 to 8: Trekking through the Picos.
Day 9: Relax and swim…. Drive to Bilbao or Santander. Visit the city.
Day 10: Fly to London
Day 11: Travel back from London

Steffi has  booked flights and Alfonso is booking hotels and the refugios (turns out four clients is a good number, as is Alfonso’s price), so we are All Systems Go!

Herefordshire Week 030: Tuesday 21 – Monday 27 July 2020

… will be with you next week.    Ta daaa!

Sofa Song.

Pembrokeshire, and El Anillo postponed.

Hello Walton-on-the-Naze!


Tuesday morning I walked the Camp Crossroads – Cockyard – Kerrys Gate route and then settled down for my last week at work before my first holiday of 2020.

Golds and greens
Golds and greens

The working week ended in a rush making Thursday evening’s fish and chip supper with dad and Jean rather more manic than I’d wanted. Still, The Old Stables turned up trumps again, and we polished off three cod, two large chips and one battered mushrooms in a birthday and pre quarantine celebration. Plus one bottle of wine, which ousted the traditional pot of tea for three.


Friday to Sunday were spent with Steffi in Pembrokeshire.

St David’s Head: Caerfai to Whitesands
St David’s Head: Caerfai to Whitesands

The A40 from Hay provided a winning driving route, and I was there in about 2 1/2 hours. Reinvigorated by coffee and a slice of sourdough toast, Steffi drove us over to Bosherton Lakes where we strolled around the lily ponds and along to Barafundle, Stackpole and back before returning home for a takeaway Mexican treat.

A leisurely morning in the caravan on Saturday and a leg stretch south from Newgale  before setting off north to Solva in the afternoon. There and back was 14 miles mostly under grey skies with rain arriving towards the end.

Bramble gin, bread, cheese, toms and apples for dinner.

Sunday was sunnier, and we walked around St David’s Head, starting at Caerfai and finishing off with  ice cream at Whitesands Beach aka Sussex-on-Sea.

A lovely long weekend.


Less lovely was the UK Government’s surprise announcement on Saturday night that it was reintroducing, immediately, 14 day quarantine for anyone returning from Spain.

So Picos is now postponed.

Picos postponed: GOV.UK email
Picos postponed: GOV.UK email

Having spent my weekend on the coast in the far west of the British mainland, on Monday Phil and I drove all the way east to Essex for a week in Walton on the Naze.

It was a long drive and the M25 and A12 were particularly tough – heavy traffic, with lots of lorries heading, presumably, to Felixstowe. The motorway pace itself isn’t a worry, but there are some drivers out there making manoeuvres that left no room for mistakes. No room for anything!

Anyway, we got there. And Phil made his first foray to the supermarket for a good few months, returning to stock the fridge full or treats for our week’s holiday in WON.


TV: I May Destroy You – do believe the rave reviews. I don’t think I’ve seen twenty-something life in London shown so truthfully on TV before.

After that, we went back in time to the early 1930s, with HBO’s remake of US Private Eye series Perry Mason, which we’ve powered through only to find they’ve yet to release the final pair of episodes – that’s our binge-watch blocked!

Podcasts: On sleepless nights, I often put on the earphones and listen  to a podcast or two, and on Wednesday BBC Radio 3’s The Essay featured Chris Wood‘s Sofa Song. A poignant piece about a seemingly mundane item of furniture. Lovely.

And for longer listens, I’ve embarked on the latest series from You Must Remember This exploring the life and work of Polly Platt.


Photos?

…. All in good time. Work calls!

10 August 2020 – Update: Here they are: Photos from Herefordshire week 30.

Herefordshire Week 029: Tuesday 14 – Monday 20 July 2020

A socially distanced, social whirl, of a week. Relatively.


Major event of the week that the couple from down the road come up for drinks on Friday evening, which saw us sitting outside chatting until 11pm.

Other social events took place over Zoom, and there was a visit to Dinedor / ‘Winchester’ / The Taste of Raj Indian takeaway. Details below.


I’ve been better at rolling out of bed at 6am for a morning walk this week. In return, I’ve had various views of Hatterall Ridge and The Cat’s Back, and a meeting with some cows:

Morning, Cows!
Morning, Cows!

My walks were soundtracked by accumulated podcasts from Shedunnit and The Infinite Monkey Cage.


Most of my working week has been accompanied by the gentle sound of the hay field being mown and then the hay being baled and gathered in. All with antique farm machinery.

Hay Baling Complete
Hay Baling Complete

My chilli plants seem to have had a growth spurt and acquired some small white flowers, and I picked my first radish crop on Wednesday lunchtime.

My First Radishes!
My First Radishes!

Small green tomatoes are materialising too. And I have a courgette!

My first (blurry) courgette
My first (blurry) courgette

Admin on Friday morning, then a Zoom with one of my London friends which lasted until lunchtime.

Friday afternoon featured a thorough cleaning of the inside of the Tree House, aka 40B, with the assorted toys getting a wash and de-cobweb in the dishwasher. I repainted the outside on Saturday morning, listening to more of The Infinite Monkey Cage. The Anthropocene Reviewed had accompanied Friday’s deep clean.

40B - Spick & Span, with a new coat of Preserver/Paint
40B – Spick & Span, with a new coat of Preserver/Paint

Mid afternoon Phil drove us over to dad and Jean’s, where we found them entertaining some of our Abbey Dore neighbours with tea and cake. Visitors waved off, dad drove us to ‘Winchester’ to view the transformed back garden and the pergola – a v smart addition.

En route, we stopped off at dad’s favourite, General Dogsbody, to stock up on a 25kg sack of peanuts for the birds. I can see why dad likes it.

Evening at Dinedor feasting on Indian & Chinese takeaway. What a treat.


Sunday was, appropriately, a day of rest.


Monday – Skirrid in the morning:

Skirrid Views - Panoramas (N&E, S&W) from the Trig Point
Skirrid Views – Panoramas (N&E, S&W) from the Trig Point

And a tour of Abergavenny’s backstreets trying to find my way back  onto the A465 towards Hereford.

Mowing in the afternoon:

Mowing: Stage 2
Mowing: Stage 2

Photos from Herefordshire week 29.


The cows are back in Thistly Field.