where art collides philosoperontap

Relaxing start to Sunday. Two cups of tea in bed. Fullish English (no egg). France v Tonga on telly. Chicken casserole prep (fiddly onions).

Rain. Yesterday’s outdoor efforts vindicated: lawn mown deck oiled. I daresay there is an indoor jobs list today. Anne needs some cranberry juice. Check if curtain pole repair has worked (remains to be seen – less than 50:50 I’d say). Upstairs the rowing machine sings.

Bookshelves in front need filling. Two hundred books this summer consigned to the loft. Cut not made. 

I find cooking very therapeutic. There is a difference between cooking in the morning and preparing a roast, say. A casserole deserves to be started early and given time to slow cook. The one time that cooking is stressful is Christmas Day where the timing is everything, the food more complex (parmesan parsnips, honey roast carrots, carrots and swede and the rib of beef where the right level of pinkness is paramount). Christmas also requires the right timing for the champagne – starting too early marks trouble.

Enough of this ritin stuff. A casserole doesn’t prepare itself.

Shut away in the TV room. Still no aerial connected for the AV gear in the office so not watching the game there. Tis a beautiful morning out in the garden and were I in the office (garden room) I’d have the doors open. However this is not yet to be and so I’m settled in front of the house TV to watch Wales’ opening game in our Rugby World Cup campaign.

As I strode over the dew wet lawn to the house it occured to me that it won’t be long before we are hit by winter. It’s been a good summer, despite a few  ups and downs, but I quite like the changing of the seasons. I like the rain and I like the cold. We do need our central heating sorting out before Siberia sends us its customary icy Eastern blasts. 

This year I have my new pea jacket to look forward to. Should arrive towards the middle of October. Hopefully before I head off to Rotterdam for the RIPE conference and Amsterdam for Euro-IX. Purple lining. Think you’ll like it 🙂

My calendar is filled with such events. Not a bad gig really although these conferences are tough full on weeks – long days at the internet coal face and long evenings networking.

Tonight I have the Scout Group committee meeting. I am the treasurer of the 18th Bailgate Sea Scouts. Not had to do any treasuring yet mind you. Takes ages to get all the forms sorted out. Perhaps tonight is when I get going on the job. Get my teeth into treasuring. Treasurering? Fiscal fortitude. Like it.

It’s a warm September afternoon. I’m sitting in the garden shed, light on, listening to my faves playlist. All retro stuff natch. Cleaned the windows, for the first time. I keep spotting bits I’ve missed. I will never make a good window cleaner. Don’t have the right attitude 😉

I’m waiting for a delivery. Some TV aerial connectors and an aerial. I’ve had this audiovisual device for weeks now but not got around to plugging it into Freeview, aside from what I can do with tinternet. Tinternet itself is still accessed via the weefee coming from the house pending getting the cable run to the attic. The ducting is in place, just not the cable.

Anne has gone inside to listen to the Chelsea v Liverpool commentary. It is she informs me about to rain anyway. V sensible.

Harvested all my carrots and onions this afternoon. Very satisfying. Only a small crop but my crop. Now I sense the evening is approaches. A number of the carrots and onions were included in the beef stew currently bubbling away at gas mark one. It’s bound to be a goodun.

We will soon need to think about clearing a bit of the raspberry and strawberry patch to make way for the raised beds. Manyana.

My parcel arrived. Not sure I’m going to make much progress today. I’ll need to take the TV off the wall which is a 2 person job and then fit some temporary connectors which in itself is not a big deal but part of me tells me I might as well wait and get the job done properly. It isn’t as if I watch much TV anyway.

Been compiling a setlist. This is for me on the geetar. This is what I currently have:

Somewhere over the rainbow, Sweet Caroline, American pie, Hey jude, A little help from my friends, Lean on me, Dancing Queen (or Mama Mia maybs), Teenage dirtbag, 500 miles, Bohemian rhapsody, Killing me softly

Some of these I can already play but I need to learn them all without needing the chords in front of me. Also it isn’t a definitive list. Some songs won’t make the final list and maybs some new ones will appear. Whaddaya think. Some, like Bohemian Rhapsody, are great in theory – most people know the words but there isn’t much repetition music wise so would be a bit of a job to learn. V shall C.

The rain forecast by Anne has arrived and it is very heavy. I am trapped! All I have for sustenance is four bottles of beer in the fridge along with a tin of tonic water with no gin. There is the stew in the oven in the kitchen of course but will I be able to make it in safely? 🙂

The shed is not yet finished but I sense it is going to serve me well.

It is a beautiful sunny day but the summer may be said to be officially over as John our fourth offspring has been despatched to the first term of his second year at Birmingham University.  I dropped him off at Lincoln railway station with only a Tenor Sax, a North Face duffel bag (mine!) and a leather satchel procured during our recent trip to Donegal. He has already delivered the rest of his kit to his room in Brum.

On the sibling front Hannah is in Germany assisting with Colt’s Munich to Vienna charity bike ride, Joe is also in Birmingham running a gig and Tom, one assumes, is in London, likely enjoying the hot tub he has on the roof of his new flat. All is good.

Anne and I have regained our house and we are back into planning meals for two with suitably sized joints of meat, and pared down vegetable offerings such as the single leek I bought this afternoon for tomorrow’s stew. This is all good stuff.

Anne has gone to the football leaving me the run of the house and the responsibility of preparing tonight’s tea which is venison steaks in blackberry sauce with a suitable vegetable accompaniment. Won’t take long. 

It’s going to be a quiet night following a busy ending to the working week that included a trip to York for the Lonap board meeting.

I have a book to read – History of the Irish Civil War 1919 – 1922 or simlar. Can’t remember exactly. It’s upstairs.

Outside there is a fair breeze. Returning from dropping John off there was also a long tailback of cars being held at the traffic lights down our road. On occasions like this I delight in overtaking on the wrong side of the road and pulling in to our drive. As long as there are no cars coming in the opposite direction obvs 🙂

The house is quiet…

Sat in the garden office with the doors open to the autumn. It is still warm and in fact last night we lit the bbq and ate outside by the blazing furnace that is the kadai fire bowl.

A chicken and leek pie has been prepared and is sat on the worktop ready for the pastry and the final blast in the range oven. Carrot, green beans and spuds will accompany it together with quite possibly peas seeing as they are my favourite.

Today is day four of the last Ashes test. Another indicator that the summer is coming to an end.

The trees are still – there is the barest murmur of a breeze. I can hear the strains of the piano floating across the garden from the conservatory. I may light the fire. It isn’t cold enough but there’s nothing quite like a nice log fire. Adds life to a room.

The greenhouse is about at the end of its useful life for the year. Still some onions and carrots to harvest. Outside the raspberry patch is also nearly fully fruited, if I can put it like that. I will soon be able to shift some canes and put together the raised beds we have been planning.

The birds are singing…