where art collides

Just looked up and it is ten to eight. This is good. I have finished breakfast and am now sat in the conservatory enjoying the morning. Sbeen raining. Might even be a bit of a mild drizzle out there now. It was always raining on Wragby Road, except when it was fine. THG has just brought in a pot of tea fair play to her.

I like the rain. Do need a dryish week though as I have a few outdoor jobs to do. Tie down a bit more grapevine, clear the ivy from the back of the potting shed and pick apples. The ivy is a bigger job than it might sound as I will need to empty a water butt to get at it. The everyday life of Tref in the twenty first century. Twenty first century man.

Despite the rain it is still shorts weather. Longs will have to be worn for the apple picking as this involves getting across some brambles near to our fence to the allotments. One apple tree has a fair few fruit hanging down into the allotments. Will need to get a step ladder out there.

We have three step ladders. Short medium and long if you like. The long ladder is a ten footer that I will probs get out for this activity. Funny how you accumulate things over a lifetime. Nowadays whenever I go to B&Q for something I always peruse the tools section but there is rarely a tool there that I either don’t already have or can think of a reason for buying.

My tools are in need of a good sort out mind you. An indoor job for the long winter months. I must have about fifty million screwdrivers that could do with rationalisation. Ok a slight exaggeration but you know what I mean. I have a red box where all screwdrivers are chucked. Whenever I need one I have to root around in the box until I find the right one. Screaming out for a system 🙂

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Back from a spot of lane swimming. Invigorated ish. Have hung the cozzies and towels on the line and now sipping a cuppa in the shed. Sun has come out.

Whilst THG and I were sitting in the lobby area of Yarborough leisure centre an Americun friend passed by wearing a Kamala hat and stopped to chat. When we complimented the hat some woman sat in a group of overweight pensioners at the next table jeered and shouted vote Trump. I’m not going to comment other than to say our friend is a highly intelligent retired foreign correspondent for Reuters whilst the overweight Trump supporter looked as if all she had to do was change her accent to fit perfectly into that demographic.

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Cup of tea on the deck. Made a fast 800 one egg omelette for lunch using one of the eggs we bought from a farm in Zummerzet. Oo arr. I think it was a step up from shop bought, older eggs but tbh it needs to be poached or fried to really tell the difference. Might make spinach mushrooms and egg for breakfast tomorrow.

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That time after lunch where your food is still settling and you are sat on the deck simply being outside. Looking up I see the sycamore tree is heavy with brown seeds all waiting to be dropped on our lawn for next spring’s invasion. Never noticed them before. 

You have to take time to notice the world in which we live. Life will have passed and the opportunity wasted.

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Strike a light luvaduck just downed tools. Sbeen an active afternoon with a bit of ivy clearing and a lot of apple picking. Two trugfulls of eaters, mostly in perfect nick. I didn’t see the point in picking the imperfect ones at this time as I may struggle with storage for the ones I’ve already picked. Waiting until the end of October for the zoider pressing. Still loads left on the trees. One of them is fairly difficult to get at as the logpile is underneath it. The other is fine.

I downed tools after two hours or so and was pleasantly surprised to find a cold diet coke at the back of the fridge in the shed. Hidden behind a can of pale ale it was. Much as I like pale ale I’m off it for the mo. Full of carbs. Been debating restocking the fridge with more diet coke but that stuff is crap really. I guess if it keeps me off the pale ale that is good. Pale ale is obviously jam packed full of nutrients as well as the carbs but that’s not enough of a reason for me to drink the stuff 🙂

Mahoosive breakfast at the Old Stocks Inn. V good quality. A step up from the Hollies in Martock. Letting the food go down now before taking a morning stroll around the market square, refuelling the Silver Bullet and setting the navigation computer coordinates for home.

Our room in the hotel faces directly onto the square with the old stocks themselves just to out right. When we arrived yesterday the square was rammed but it had emptied by five or so leaving a pleasant open space devoid of day trippers, Sunday drivers yeah.

Yesterday afternoon @Terry and I meandered around the square visiting a few ancient waterholes before meeting THG in the hotel bar for pre dinner cocktails. We had finished food by around eight thirty and retreated to our room. Sbeen a hectic three days. 

Hoping the traffic has died down for the journey home. The M5 yesterday was a bit tedious, frequently grinding to a halt due to the weight of traffic. THG is taking the reins today for the last leg of our trip. We are glad we broke the journey in Stow on The Wold. As you will know had we made the trip back in Roman times it would have taken two weeks not two days. Each way.

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Got home at 1pm. Had figured I’d do some apple picking this aft but it was a knackering weekend so am just chillin with some sounds. Quiet night tonight. University Challenge. Maybs a soak in the bath.

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Sat on a sofa in the TV room under one of THG’s quilts. She is listening to the Archers. Not my thang. Tonight is going to be very much a quiet one. A bath followed by a bit of University Challenge. The good things in life.

Can’t remember when I last had a bath. It ain’t a summery thing to do. A sign of the changing of the seasons. Although we like the summer the autumn does bring with it some nice things. Sunday roasts for example. Maybe a nice pork loin with crackling, a rich cider influenced gravy, bit of mustard and some veg. Roasties done in duck fat. Or lard seeing as it’s pork.

Ya don’t see lard being used much nowadays. Really if you are doing sausages and bacon lard is the right fat to cook em in. Also fried bread. Me mam used to use it. I asked for fried bread for breakfast at the hotel on Sunday morning. The waitress returned asking whether the fried bread was instead of toast or as well as. Doh. Then she only brought one slice of toast made with crappy cheapo sliced bread.

In contrast the hotel in Stow this morning provided two good quality pieces of toast. I didn’t ask for fried bread. Struggled to finish the cooked breakfast. This might well have been partly down to the fact that I’d previously consumed a croissant and a pain au choc and a bowl of high quality fruit and yo’gurt. Plus some milk and OJ, and tea. Not all in the same glass obvs.

That’s all finished now. Back on granola for the rest of the week. THG makes good granola fair play.