Little victories....

firstly, here's the photo of the crop rotation yellow - taken from similar angle to the blog header:

and here's another shot from the other side of the junction looking more towards the left....

I've really grown to like the in-your-face'ness' of this colour intrusion in the spring, and look out for which fields are going to be colour blocked each year...

My next photo shoot will need to be the guttering - I got it done on Thursday, with a couple of trips to Wantage Builders Merchants - plumbers counter.  I've learned over the years that if you want to replace a faulty/broken whatever, then it's usually a good idea to take the item with you.  Be it oven lightbulb, or in this case guttering brackets (I got 5 - to have a couple spare, just in case), and a second trip about 2 hrs later, for a guttering cornerpiece.  The cornerpiece was actually intact, it was the tightening bracket which had snapped with the brittleness of age and the unexpected tampering I was inflicting on it.

Anyhoo, the guttering works just fine now, the gradient's falling the correct way, and the waterbutt is already nearly full with the day of rain we had yesterday.  Little victories indeed....

On Friday we had a letter from Thames Water .... essentially telling us that under their 'Customer Guarantee Scheme' we were entitled to compensation for the flooding we experienced at our premises, and they have credited our account to the tune of 50% of the bill for the year.  Filling in that form was worth it after all.  <Grin!>

Although the victory is minor, it felt good.  I'm curious to see what happens next.  They didn't state in the letter what the compensation related to.  I've actually sent in two forms - for the two incidents - being 6 days of flooding in January, and 11 days of flooding in February.  So I'm watching the post box to see if another letter arrives with more good news!

Off to Faringdon tomorrow for Tom to attend the District Scouts St George's Day Parade - hope the weather stays fine.  If it does I'll be wanting to be getting on with painting the playhouse, but as with everything it can wait.  And if it rains, then there's always the ironing to come home to.

Tom's mouse has turned out to be a bit of an acrobat.  He stands on his exercise wheel, stretches up, and catches hold of the roof bars of his cage/home.  He then starts scurrying along the bars upside down.  He can do this for 10-15 minutes.  We've timed him.  

He's actually not quite as round as that - it's just really difficult to get a good shot of an agile mouse in full scurry.

Nighty night y'all.

Kat

This year's crop rotation....

... will be mostly yellow.

The fields are yellow.  They never used to be this colour here in 'England's green and pleasant land', but every year, around here, the landscape changes slightly by crop rotation, and the yellow fields appear, disappear, and reappear with a noticable regularity.

I'm going to head off tomorrow to the spot I took the photo of the blog header - it's field pattern looks like a negative by comparison.

The first time I came into contact with the OilSeed Rape was on a cycling break about 20 years ago.  A group of us had decided to cycle part of the Ridgeway (funny how it turns out that we now live about 2 miles away from it) over a long weekend.  I'd never seen it before, but my nose and eyes let me know something was around the corner long before I spotted it.  My hayfever well and truly triggered and the smell is quite distinct, brassicas come to mind, and pepper too.

Back then I was affronted at this incomer, this change to our 'natural' landscape, our English heritage, but now, I'm cheered up by the sheer vibrancy it brings.  Even on dismal cloudy days the yellow screams at you - 'I'M HERE!' and, by implication, so is summer.... even though the weather belies it.

So, to the weather. Since our Easter break, which by usual standards, was lovely, the weather's taken a turn for the wet.  We had the wettest winter on record, and then, by comparison, a relatively dry spell - no rain for 6 weeks or so.  The ground had begun to crack in the hen enclosure and on the dog walk at the top of the park... but since Good Friday there's been rain enough to put things right.

We've not had too much rain yet, but tomorrow (I don't usually work on Thursday) is forecast dry, and I've guttering to put right before the next wet spell comes in again.

So I'm turning in early.  Busy day tomorrow, and who knows, it may all turn out all right.

Nighty night.

Kat.

Bits 'n' bobs

Sometimes blogging feels like an unravelling knot instead of a tieing up of loose ends.  There are things I want to say, but somewhere in the telling the thread is, if not exactly lost, then put aside for a while and not always returned to, and it strikes me that this is what can happen to us in life - we take our eye off the ball, and in the blink of that eye we miss the goal.

I don't think this is a bad thing.  Missing the goal.  There seems so much pressure to achieve goals throughout life - and we're not all footballers are we?  Children/students have exams to pass, the goal is the passing, the certificate, the piece of paper, the grade, the judgement, the pressure.

We seem to have lost the pleasure in learning along the way.  The living, the breathing and understanding.  The sharing, participating and pleasure.  It occurs to me that it's a short step from pressure to pleasure or vice versa.

So yesterday, recovering from my lurgy, we paid a quick visit to the National Trust property at Nuffield Place - the home of Lord and Lady Nuffield.  http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/nuffield-place/

This was a place I will go back to.  As the weather was inclement we didn't stay long, the house was crowded but the gardens looked inviting and inspiring.  However I do take pleasure in learning about the past on these visits.  I also hope the experience of visiting the National Trust properties we take them to comes to mean something to our children - not in a pressured way, but if only for the memories they will look back on as they grow older.

So in a theme of 'bits 'n' bobs' I'll tie up the ends with the promised further photos from Cornwall, and I found that book I mentioned last time on Amazon...

Attitude: your most priceless possession

The Lost Gardens of Heligan:  http://www.heligan.com/
had changed since we were last there - understandably, it's been 12 years and things move on.  Some of it was remarkable....

Magnolia

Tree fern fronds unfurling- even writing that gives me pleasure!

Dexter calf and Mum

Giant

Mud maiden

The morning at Heligan was overcast and cool, but the afternoon brightened up and we fit a quick trip to the beach in on the way back to The College...

One of these days I'm going to write my blog with time to spare, with no pressure to get to bed, so I can fiddle with the settings and become an expert in layout...  Obviously these two photos would be better side by side, but this is the best I can do.

So, you know what's next. night night.  Back work tomorrow, yeah! (no, really, I work in a Library - I LOVE my job).
:)
Kat

Just my luck

Back in the 1980s I was given a motivational training book - 'Attitude: your most priceless possession'.  I can't remember who wrote it, which publisher published it, why I was given it (I could hazard a guess....) or much about it, other than the title summed it up perfectly.  It was probably the first wave of self-help/motivational/staff training that I was aware of, and the title sticks in my memory still.

I try (admittedly, not always successfully) to apply it to situations where my first plan of action has been scuppered and Plan B has to come into play.  Take the greenhouse for example.

This year feels like we've turned a corner in our personal struggles and there is clear water ahead.  This coincides nicely with the reported 0.1% (?) upturn in the fortunes/finances of the country. An end to austerity may be in sight for the country as a whole, but as individuals the majority of the population are still feeling the pinch and the reliance on foodbanks has increased threefold.  Thankfully, we've been careful, we tightened our belts as necessary and we weathered the storm.  How many more cliches can I get into this paragraph?

Casting the cliches aside, I've hankered after a greenhouse for several years.  For the last four summers I've been trying to grow tomatoes in one of those plastic covered tomato frames, which is ok, but is obviously limited.  So I've hankered after a greenhouse, and being careful with money, and also having an attitude inclined towards recycling, reusing (upcycling!) and reducing waste, I speculatively took a look on e-Bay last Sunday to see if there was anything suitable to bid on.  There was.  Ah-ha. I feel an Easter project coming on.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Greenhouse-/00/s/MTYwMFgxMDY2/z/SrAAAOxy0x1TQX1U/$_35.JPG

The size was right, and it turned out that my winning bid of £21.12 (cheap as chips!!!! will need a couple of new panes of glass, but still a bargain) was right as well.  I paid by paypal and arranged to collect it from Bicester (a 40/45 minute drive away) on Wednesday afternoon after work.

It being Easter holidays I'd re-arranged my work hours to supervise our 'decorate an Easter Egg' event in Witney Library that morning.  Tom was in supervised Easter Holiday Fun / childcare at the Leisure Centre, and I popped home for a quick bite to eat and to collect Phoebe to give me a hand.

The seller was very helpful, explained that he was downsizing, and thoughtfully had a marker pen with him which he used to label connecting / joining points 'A' 'A'; 'B' 'B', and so on.  The weather was sunny, and quite warm, as it had been all week.  We got there at 3.30pm dismantled, wrapped and packed it all in my car, and left at 5.05pm.  Phew!! Drove a steady and careful 50mph home, avoiding potholes as the rattles in the back were unnerving. Arrived home at 5.50pm, giving me 5 minutes to walk to the Leisure Centre to collect Tom before 6pm close..... nice.

When I knew I'd won the auction, I'd started to prepare the space where I want to position it.

So the plan is to snuggle it in the 'corner' of the playhouse.  After several measurements were taken I decided to move the waterbutt from the left side to the right side (where the ladders are in the photo).  This wasn't just a whim. The greenhouse will have its longer side on the left side and its shorter side on the right side of the playhouse. It needs to fit that way around to leave the pathway unimpeded, so the waterbutt needed to move.  Simple. I can do that I thought, and I did it.

So.  Have the eagle-eyed among you spotted my elementary-(school) mistake?...  It seems obvious now, but when I tested the guttering was still watertight (it wasn't, but that's fixable), it also dawned on me that I needed to adjust the gradient of the brackets holding the gutters.... doh.  So it all needs taking down again, and then the brackets need taking off and adjusting so the water falls from left to right rather than from right to left.... still, I won't make that mistake again.

We've also decided to spruce up the playhouse BEFORE erecting the greenhouse, although I'm chomping at the bit to get it up and get things growing.  So after the gutters are corrected, the exterior will need a coat of paint, and the perspex/plastic windows will need replacing as they've yellowed with age.  Hmm. The paint cost me £18, the new plastic window pane cost me £20, and as for time spent on the project... this greenhouse is starting to add up.

And then I lost time.  I had a bug of some sort, which put me to bed with bed-socks AND a woolly hat, dressing gown, extra fleecy blanket and I couldn't get warm, headache, slight nausea, dizziness and no appetite.  The last symptom means I MUST have been ill....LOL.  Anyway, now feeling better two days later, the weather has changed, I'm behind on everything, and it seems that I have to adjust my attitude.

Just my luck.

Thinking postively, there's no need to rush, (except my tomato seedlings are coming up 12cm tall already), I can stay inside, take things slowly, do my ironing, and wait for my full energy to return and the weather to improve.

Happy Easter!
Kat.

A welcome return

We spent Monday to Friday last week in Cornwall.  The school Easter Holidays are upon us, and although we're lucky to have the apartment in France, it's the cost of the ferry that's prohibitive.  So after some phone calls to see if our friend's cottage (where we honeymooned back in 1995) was available, (it wasn't), we plumped for a Landmark Trust property.

So, for the uninitiated among you, here's a link to The Landmark Trust:
  
http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/  

Short breaks in restored historic buildings

We are a charity that gives new life to castles, forts, follies, towers and cottages.

We found a lovely property 'The College' at Week St Mary, not far from Bude on the north coast of Cornwall, and within striking distance of Padstow, the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

When Phoebe learned that The College slept 5, and she would have a twin bedded room her immediate response was 'can Honey come too?'.  Honey's parents were kind enough to say yes, and so we set off  in the rain, in anticipation, with a boot crammed full of luggage and wellies and board games and coats, and the back seat of the car jammed with 3 children (Phoebe, 13; Honey, 12; Tom, 8) and their assorted paraphenalia.

The College was a dream.  Originally built in 1506 by Thomasina Percival also known as Bonaventure, she was married 3 times, and founded the school house and endowed it with a charitable trust to maintain it... and the story goes on, but there's not time for it here.  The restoration was simple, comfortable and warm.  And the mod cons ran to a dishwasher in the well equipped kitchen, and ample hot water, but no TV, no radio, no wi-fi, internet and barely a phone signal....  although the girls found this a challenge at first they didn't let it spoil our fun.

Tuesday saw us hire bicycles at Wadebridge, on the River Camel Estuary, and then cycle (with about 500 other holidaying families) along the Camel Trail down to Padstow.  We had pasties and they cycled back. Weather fair, windy, sunny intervals, dry - perfect for cycling.

 

Wednesday was Eden Project day.  We were last there in November 2002, and Phoebe was 2.  It was fairly new back then, and were keen to see how it had matured since then.  We weren't disappointed and the children loved it.  I'd also arranged to meet an old school friend there, and she brought her 3 children along as well.  We met up at 11.30am, and were almost the last people to be shown out at 5.45pm.  A great day!

Tulip display in the Mediterranean bi-ome

Thursday was the Lost Gardens of Heligan.  We tried to lose the children in 'the Jungle', but failed.  The Jungle has particularly unusual plants, such as gunnera, tree ferns and cycads...

Juvenile gunnera macacata (sp?) splendidly green!

newly unfurling tree fern frond  :)

I'm going to stop here for tonight, as I'm struggling to load any further photos (of which there are many).  So this will have to be continued another night.

Sweet dreams out there.  Kat

April foolish

The intrigues of family life fascinate me.  No, don't worry, I'm not about to spill the beans, but the back-story to all our lives, if written down, would make a great aga-saga, a 'fam-dram' in modern abbreviated text-speak, the likes of which, I dare say, could be filmed for TV in period costume (1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.... you get the picture)... and I don't just mean my/our family life.  This applies to you and yours as well.

Signpost on the Ridgeway

We wrote another chapter at the weekend with the immediate clan gathering to celebrate the great patriarch's 80th birthday.  My wrist was metaphorically slapped by my aunt for the insensitivity I displayed in my earlier blog, (Swimming through treacle, 3rd paragraph).  Guilty as charged, and I'm sincerely sorry if feelings were hurt, that was not my intention.  I can only say I think I was trying to convey the pressure of being a middle-aged parent trying to do too many things with too little time, and I didn't think about how what I said would sound to those who matter to me.  Sorry.

... this is when I'm tempted to upgrade my camera - I think  it was a kestral, but my zoom only allowed me to get this close....

Assuming we maintain good health, I'd say that there are advantages to growing older:  knowing yourself being uppermost of these.  In as much as, having gained enough life experience, we know the basics - essentially right from wrong - and have learned how to apply them appropriately/correctly/honestly in most situations.  We should have learned not to make the same mistake again - to avoid hurting ourselves or others unnecessarily.  We appreciate that treading gently is just as likely to get you where you want to go, and if we meet an immovable obstacle on the way then the best thing to do is go around it.

tractor tracks near the Monument on the Ridgeway...

At my age, 48, coming up 49, I call myself 'middle-aged'.  This is accurate on several levels.  My father is now 80.  My son is 8.  I am, approximately, in the middle.  In the span of my life, it is likely that I am in also, hopefully, somewhere in the middle.  Physically, things are slipping more towards my middle, but not as badly as some you see...  And reading back through this blog, you will see that I am, more often than not, pulled in this direction and that, trying to do more than seems possible, seemingly in the middle of everything, when really I would be better off standing to one side and letting some of it go.

Through woods near Lockinge point-to-point course - to go up to the Ridgeway

There is no point in dwelling on it.  It is as it is.  And as I've said before you can't turn back time.... Well, in this country we can, because the clocks go forward as well as back, (British Summer Time started at the weekend) and that must be why I was so tired and reluctant to get out of bed this morning.  So on that note, I feel an early night coming on.

Nighty night y'all.

Kat.