Wednesday 31st January 2024

This is what happens when I go for a walk at lunchtime. Often it's just a quick snack and back to work, today though, with the weather being nice, I decided to stretch the legs. My route passed the Oxfam bookshop on Cotham Hill and the book Rival Queens was in the window display. Julie's on a course at the moment which covers the history of just before Queen Mary, so I thought she'd like to read this. The trouble was going in to pay, I then saw two more books, Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, and a 1939 journey along the old A4 from London And So To Bath. I returned to the office £8.98 lighter and three books heavier. Julie loved her book and began reading it immediately. As for the hot chocolate, that was lovely.

Tuesday 30th January 2024

 

It's not what happened today, simply a mood I felt today. It happens every year of course but suddenly the days are lengthening, strictly the amount of daylight is lengthening. I'd been head down this afternoon working from home and while I'd noticed light levels slowly reducing during the afternoon it was only when I stopped at 5.10pm that I realised it was quite light, after 5pm. Just a month earlier up in Northumberland I recall talking to Julie about a feint blueness to the night sky at. 4.45pm. here we are nearly half an hour later in the day and it's light enough to see. February tomorrow and a month that day length will increase by three or four minutes a day. We take it for granted but in reality this is the Sun and Earth in their annual dance, driven by energy and forces we really don't fully understand deep within the blackness of the Universe. Celebration of the lengthening days indeed.

Monday 29th January 2024

Quite a productive day today in setting up, or is that hopefully setting up new editions of the Radio 4 series Tweet of the Day. This began in May 2013, firstly covering British birds, then World birds which I produced all, then a couple of series in a more conversational tone. More recently the daily except on Saturday series has been repeating the near 800 episodes now on file. From April though the weekday editions will cease, replaced by Weather for Farmers after Farming Today, and the Sunday repeats will now be replaced by new editions, which I'm producing. Today was good as I've secured two presenters, probably a third and hoping our most respected naturalist broadcaster may wish to voice a few too. After all he began the whole thing with the cuckoo a decade ago. 

Sunday 28th January 2024

Even though I'd visited the Shapwick Heath reserve yesterday, after our errand in Worlebury, I'd not mentioned it here. I did though write up that visit on my wildlife blog.  Today was different, I planned to come to Catcott and therefore had my binoculars with me (read the other blog to understand where that's coming from). I arrived at Catcott and the car park was full. The hide was even fuller, though I managed to obtain the last space. Everyone inside had gargantuan scopes and lenses yet they failed to notice the ring-tail hen harrier when it floated by, I'd seen it through my binoculars, and called it out. That was nice, if unexpected, as the hen harrier has been here for a few days. A couple of confiding snipe in front of the hide added a little more interest, but the main inhabitants were wigeon, lapwing, teal and shoveler. The light was glorious too. It was nice to be out birdwatching today, no need for a coat either.

Saturday 27th January 2024

My view this morning. This is Worlebury, an enclave of Weston super Mare. In the thirty years I've lived here this is the first time in this road. The reason being Julie had wanted to visit a pop-up-tapdancing-shop at Worlebury Golf Club, and upon arrival the car park was full. Who knew such things existed? All because Julie has taken up tap dancing as a form of recreation, and some tappety-tap shoes would be sensible, as tap dancing in training shoes isn't quite the same. Anyway it turns out the shoes she saw this morning were too costly. Plan B then, the internet. Meanwhile while all this excitement was happening in the Golf Club, I was parked in this street enjoying the view of some horse evacuation and an Orcado van. Fabulous.

Friday 26th January 2024

 Not everything in life is positive. Today I was asked by my father's carers to order new catheter bags. I'm of course very happy to do so but this reminds me of the subtle shift from child being looked after by parents, through self absorbed adulthood to now being someone who looks after his parents. The change is subtle, incremental even before one day, we realise life has changed. The focus is different. That said they should be ready to be picked up on Tuesday.

Thursday 25th January 2024

It is unbelievable this image above, taken from a VHS home movie, was from October 1995. I remember the occasion well. My friend Andrew and his first wife came to stay with me for a weekend. I'd only been living in my flat in East Brent for about six months. The boy next to me is my godson Daniel, whose own son is now not far off the same age. I'd forgotten about this video for years, but unearthed it tonight while rummaging through some DVD's. I remember them staying, what we did, and it brought back some lovely memories. I'm just shocked at the passage of time, and also how much I'd forgotten about my flat. It was lovely seeing it again, very uncluttered, a small television, but a microwave I still use. It was a good time those three years I lived at East Brent, in many ways I should have stayed down there. Interesting too how rural it all is, fields at Brean where there's now caravans, fields at East Brent where there's now industrial units. A lot has changed in those 29 years, I'm still as daft though.  That will never change.

Wednesday 24th January 2024

 

I've taken better images. Mobile phones aren't great for night shots. I'd wanted to capture the lovely moon shining over the rooftops of the Victorian buildings at work, but it wasn't quite what I had in mind. In reality the moon was bright and well defined. The windows emitted a warm glow much like a Dickensian scene. Being unable to capture it properly isn't too much of an issue. I know what I saw in my minds eye, a scene of night joy which uplifted me after a day marooned indoors.

Tuesday 23rd January 2024

I received this image from Julie at lunchtime. She was at a client's when the heavens opened. The client taking pity of her said she could work on these indoor plants in their shed, not the plan of action before Julie went there, but a job well done. And she was given a cup of tea and chocolate. It's extraordinary, being paid to stand in a shed, while I've been glued to my laptop since 9am unable to go outside. I think I'll retire and become a gardener.

Monday 22nd January 2023

This used to be a very familiar view, now I park on site I rarely use this carpark. This is 3TPR. The illuminated office is the Arts office of Network Radio. My office is across the corridor. As I got into my car tonight at 6pm, a couple of colleagues were still beavering away. We don't work 9-5 hours in the media, we just work as and when it's needed and if that means burning the midnight oil, so be it. I like these Victorian villas which have housed the BBC for fifty years or more. One day this won't be my workplace so tonight as I sat in the car I thought I'd best record this moment.

Sunday 21st January 2024

 

This image hails from 20003, celebrating the tenth anniversary of our graduating from Newcastle University. I'd dusted it off as at 10.30 this morning Annali had suggested we have a Zoom call to think of planning a new reunion this year. As it happened George, Darren and I were on the Zoom call, Annali was missing, the reason of which was to do with her family. It was however such a lovely 45 minutes chatting to Darren and George who I'd now spoken to in 20 years. I hope some form of reunion does happen this year, it's been too long since we caught up.

Saturday 20th January 2024

 It was good to get out again into Hodders Combe on the Quantocks. My first walk of 2024, though Julie is out regularly on long walks. Being mid January the Combe was very quiet, both of people and birdsong, though jays were especially raucous. After a week of sub zero temperature the air was back to normal for this time of the year, though ice clung to the land still. It really was good to be out and enjoying the winter landscape. Afterwards it was a trip over to the Exmoor Rambler in Porlock and new boots for Julie, topped off with a quick drink in the Castle Inn. A good day indeed.

Friday 19th January 2020

The end of an era. For years we as producers have submitted what are known as Pres to the Radio 4 scheduling team. A Word document allowing the continuity announcers, when live on air, to link into a programme and link out, often known as the back anno. However from the 29th of January these details will be submitted and accessed electronically, via the BBC's production site Proteus. Thus today as I submitted the pres details for a repeat of Tweet of the Day, it struck me that this willow tit information will be the very last time I'll complete one of these forms. Change is happening right across the industry, it seems to be accelerating as change often does. RIP presentation details, a large part of my working life for many years.

Thursday 18th January 2024

There's a strange shadow in this image, and only after taking it did I realise the arm of my glasses is also visible. Tragic. This is Whiteladies Road and just mooching about over lunch, I just liked the view. I can't remember what the church is called, but I'm standing by the RWA taking in the blue blue sky. It's not that cold either, not as cold as up north where there is quite a bit of snow too, with some cold Scottish areas nudging minus 15oC. It was minus 5 at home at 9am, that's cold for our part of Somerset. Anyway there was a little warmth in the sun on my back this lunchtime. And it could have been a descent view if I'd bothered to realise my optical error at the time.

Wednesday 17th January 2024

Image from Amazon of the book cover.

I do sometimes wonder how, and more importantly why, the brain does what it does. 

This afternoon I was quite busy at work, when suddenly as clear as if someone was talking next to me the name Len Auld came into my head. I've not thought about Len for a very long time. In the early 1980's I was between jobs and went to work for my father in his printing business. During the time I was with my father he moved his business from South Shields to Sunderland, renting a unit from Speeding's and Co. It was a sensible move in many ways as Speeding's made flags, and my father printed flags, in fact Speeding's were one of his main clients at that time. Their salesman at the time was Len Auld and over  conversations with my father he had an idea to print hand made tiles with a special glaze to produce a single image from 36, 48 or more tiles. Quite ambitious designs, abstract flowers, birds in flight and so on. It was becoming all the rage back then. 

My father and I spent a fair bit of time trying to develop the technique of screen printing the glaze onto the unfired tiles, not an easy task at all with the ridges between the tiles and it took many months of trial and error before we'd almost, though not quite, got there. Then it all began to change we saw less of Len and the project faltered, before suddenly in February 1984 Len disappeared off the face of the earth. It was three years later that some hill-walkers discovered his body on the Simonsides Hills near Rothbury in Northumberland. Foul play was not suspected, he'd been a keen walker, and of course it was all over the news but once that died down life moves on and I'd not thought of Len for over three decades, until this afternoon?

A quick bit of sleuthing on-line and I discovered his widow had written a book in 2007 of his disappearance, the title a quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Do I want to read this book?  I'm in two minds. I'd like to know the full story, but also it was a tragic end to a really nice chap, who was always happy, courteous and in those days in very smart 1980's three piece suits with wide lapels, dark glasses all suiting his green Ford Cortina company car.

It was a shock when he disappeared, and now I know a little more of what happened. But I wonder why his name came into my head today after so many years?  Intriguing. 

There's a summary in this 2007 Evening Chronicle article.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/here-one-day-gone-next-1481969

Tuesday 16th January 2023

The best bit about this image is of course my slippered feet, which shouldn't be visible. The real reason this image was taken was that Julie's parcel had just arrived, and as she was out walking on Blackdown, I thought I'd let her know. It's a gold feather down jacket from Mountain Warehouse. And the back story is fairly uninteresting. On Saturday afternoon last we'd seen this coat in the Mountain Warehouse outlet at Clarke's Village in Street. Full price £79.99, but £29.90 in the sale. However despite the stock sheet saying they had a size 14 available, it wasn't there. 12 was snug and 16 like a circus tent. The very efficient assistant said we could order the 14 and it comes with free delivery. The £29.90 was paid, and just over 2 days later it arrived, dropped off by Sam our local courier. Now that is good customer service. Fits well too.

Monday 15th January 2024

On Wednesday in London, my colleagues Alasdair and Emma will be recording two editions of the new environmental and natural history series, Rare Earth. In many ways this series replaces the long running Costing the Earth which was decommissioned in the spring of 2023. Since then Alasdair and Emma have been beavering away with a topical themed replacement, longer too at 53 minutes and with a more studio based feel, a couple of guests talking through the topic of the programme with Tom Heap and Helen Czerski. This series is more conversational in tone than Coating The Earth, the latter very much being recorded in the field. So we'll see. A lot of hard work has gone into getting this series to where we are, not by me, but behind the scenes editorially. I'm part of the team but behind the scenes. it reminds me why I'd stopped being a full blown producer and reverted to the back room. there is an awful lot of effort for what will be a good programme, but by next week, episode two will take over. 

 

Sunday 14th January 2024

 

It has been a wonderful day here today, blue skies, sunshine right through and cold, but not as cold as forecast. However we didn't fancy venturing out.  There are only so many times I wish to get in the car to go somewhere. I'm definitely slowing down. I spent the morning working on the drumstick for Julie. I really enjoyed those two hours or so outside. I still have a few hours work on that. I've begun the book Julie bought me in Hexham on Christmas Eve, it's very good. Later we watched a PBS America three part series on the lead up to and beyond 1066, itself followed by watching the second part of A Dinner Of Herbs. We've seen this Catherine Cookson drama many times but it remains a firm favourite. A stay at home Sunday then.

Saturday 13th January 2024

 

It was our first visit to the Hub cafe at the Avalon Marshes centre in 2024, and it was good to be here. Despite it being late in the afternoon they still made Julie a cheese and tomato toastie, not many cafes will provide food after the cut off time, it is one of the many reasons why the Hub is so popular. I've been coming here for years and years, firstly when Amy had her Eco-bites from a small catering van, to when Sally first arrived to a similar set-up, a few years back that expanded into a proper building, with a much larger set-up being built in 2023 with a large outdoor space, now roofed over. I like it here now, but I do miss chatting to Amy and her own produced wonderful salads from her smallholding with outdoor seating then being disused cable drums.  Change happens all the time though I'm not sure Amy would have used buzzing food is ready technology, she just shouted out the door.

Friday 12th January 2024

Imperceptibly these evenings may be shortening, but for another month we are living through the long dark nights of winter. Given there is precious little to entertain on television or the radio, we have started playing games again. Aside from card cames, there are surprisingly few for just two players (we are obviously too miserable to have friends). However tonight I dusted off my Othello board. I honestly can't remember when I last played this, maybe a decade ago. Julie had never played it before. On the surface it is a simple game but with experience a surprisingly mentally stimulating process. I like it a lot, domination of the game involves holding the corners. We played three games, the first to explain the tactics to Julie, the next two in anger, I won the first, but having placed one of my counters in the wrong square towards the end,  Julie turned over 11 of my counters with her final move and romped home to win her first game 42 to my 22. Devastating play there from the beginner. Backgammon next?

Thursday 11th January 2024

 My elevenses involved a spin through some of Siegfried Sassoon's poetry. Across the corridor from my office is the Poetry Please office which is piled floor to ceiling with, poetry books. I have a collection of Sassoon's work at home but I've simply taken ten minutes for a coffee and a skim-through read.  I particularly liked At Max Gate, p244, involving a meeting with Thomas Hardy who wished to be alone and The Question, p270, six lines musing on what it means to be. That latter poem does hint at his age and mortality with a last line of '....Eternity's quick creature, born of what has been."

Wednesday 10th January 2024

Sometimes a day is so lacking of interest that the purchase of a Marks & Spencer meal for lunchtime was the highlight of the day. But then again life can not be a rollercoaster ride every day. Oh yes, we had a heavy frost overnight. That was exciting.

Tuesday 9th January 2024

Occasionally there are red letter moments that permiate a year. This morning I was idly looking out of the kitchen window and spied what I initially thought was a goldcrest flitting through the standard hollies. I watched it for a while, fidgety and flighty, never still, before it flew off and into the greenhouse through the open door. Hmmm I thought I'd best rescue this bird. As I approached it flew to a window bar and hung there, not a common goldcrest, but a much rarer firecrest. There are only something like 500-600 breeding pairs of firecrest in Britain, predominantly in the South East. In winter they do spread along the coast, and here in the South West there will be an occasional sighting in the shrubs around my local part of the coast. But I've never seen a firecrest for years. To have one in the garden was astonishing, and later in my hand, as I rescued it, was amazing. They really are tiny.

Monday 8th January 2024

This image is here to remind me of my evening. It was a Zoom meeting of the Richard Jefferies Society. The topic was his novel-semi-autobiographical book Amaryllis At The Fair. During the course of the hour and a half we discussed the book, how the characters are based on real people Jefferies knew and that it could have been either the first book in a series, or a last will and testament book given the ambiguous ending. I didn't let on I'd not fully read the book before the meeting, having only skimmed through the Guttenberg version on-line. A couple of passages were read out to illustrate points, however the beginning of Chapter 9 featured in everyone's view, and we loved the thought of barefoot walking in a dewy meadow. I must read the book properly.

Sunday 7th January 2024

Last century when I was nought but a pimply teenager I read Memoirs Of A Fox Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon. At that time in the mid 1970's I had grandiose thoughts of being an acclaimed wit, writer and raconteur and along with Oscar Wilde and others Sassoon for me epitomised chic literates. Over the years I've discovered other writers of course but a core remain in the foreground. And so it was today when I made a pilgrimage to Sassoon's grave in Mells in Somerset. It's a wonderful rural location to be put to rest alongside many of his aquantance including Ronald Knox his mentor and friend and whom he wished to be buried close to.

 I discovered while planning today's trip that Mells, at the end of the Victorian and into the Edwardian age, was a centre for arts, crafts, philosophy and social thinkers. Sassoon was a frequent visitor to the village along with Lutyens, Munnings, Burne Jones, Nicholson and Morris. Near to Sassoon's grave is that of Knox and next to that of Lady Violet Bonham-Carter and her husband. Today my visit was short, the biting wind made searching for other items of interest in the village less than pleasant. I shall return in warmer weather and take it all in properly, there's a lot to learn about this most English of villages.

Saturday 6th January 2024

It may take a lot longer than popping into a shop and simply buying it, but today I began the process of making Julie a double headed drumstick for her new banded drum. The initial idea for this emerged when I bought the drum in Glastonbury. The sticks there ranged from £15 to about £30. Which seemed a lot for a bit of wood with a bulbous end, or two. Then when in the cottage at Slaley I found myself looking at a log destined for the wood burner and thinking that would make a drumstick. I brought the log home with me. It's a lovely bit of oak (I think by the bark) and after an hour of sawing I'd got it cut down to a rough size. I don't have a wood turning lathe therefore the next process will be whittling and sanding over a number of days. Turning it on a lathe would be quick, making this by hand will take longer but feels more personal. I only hope Julie likes the finished article.

Friday 5th January 2024

An astonishing sight today, blue skies and sunshine. Clio was ready to be picked up this afternoon therefore I decided on taking up some gentle exercise and walk around there. It's a pleasant twenty minute walk which today felt almost spring-like. However everything is still sodden after weeks of heavy rain, though we've fared better than those living in Nottinghamshire and Gloucestershire who are now subject to extensive flooding. After two months of turbulent wet weather we all need a break and today's sunshine was therefore most welcome. Less welcome was the £818 bill, but that's not bad for the open heart surgery Clio had had this week, let's hope the new turbo makes the car 'go like the clappers' as Justin said.

 

Thursday 4th January 2024

 What an intriguing read from an author I'd not come across before. My friend Rob loaned me this book when we met up on New Year's Day. I'm half way through the book now and I'm finding it a real page turner, if slightly bonkers. Jasper Fforde somehow makes the absurd a riveting whodunnit cum crime thriller cum comedy read. The simple premise is the Nursery Crime Division based in Reading investigate the suspicious death of Humpty Dumpty who, fell off a wall. Jack Spratt the investigating officer is hot on the trail with his sergeant Mary Mary. Ludicrous yes, but this is so well written it makes complete sense. As a lover of Monty Python, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine etcetera this book is right up there in the believable unbelievable canon of surrealist comedy.

Wednesday 3rd January 2024

After a night and morning of astonishing rain it has finally stopped. I'm on my lunch break from the office with an errand to the Post Office completed I fancied a sit down with a coffee. Oddly I ended up in Costa at Clifton Down, which seemed sacrilegious given their are a number of independent cafes around Cotham Hill. This street became pedestrianised during the Pandemic, that was a temporary measure for social distancing (remember that) however it has now become permanent and this is the first time I've walked along the new surface. It is still a little new and crunchy underfoot. My view of Clifton Down shopping centre has cemented my thoughts that I'm no longer on a Christmas break. Reality bites!

 

Tuesday 2nd January 2024

What a day of weather contrasts. First thing I took Clio to Justin's garage as it is having it's turbo replaced, that turbo has done a lot of work over it's 182,000 miles. After a chat with him and Mike I walked back in a deluge, a very mild deluge, but talk about wet there was a river running down the lane and all the fields are absolutely sodden. The wet and windy weather of December is still with us (though about to change by the end of the week we are reliably informed).

I resembled a drowned rat when I got home but it was nice to be out in the elements, a lot of birdsong too, presumably as it's so mild they think it's spring. However by 2pm the eighth Storm of the winter Storm Henk had hit the humble abode and the wind had really picked up, very gusty. Julie was on the train to Taunton but many of the services had been cancelled so there was a point where I'd even considered driving down to rescue her. But she is on a train, by the time I got to Worle where I'm writing this, sitting in the car waiting area, the sun was out and the wind was dropping. And right on que there she is walking towards the car. Home safe at last at 15.44.

Monday 1st January 2024

2024 has arrived. How on earth did I get to this year? The year I'll stop being a quinquagenarian (age 50-59) and instead morph into a sexagenarian. Is there any hope? Well not really but the alternative is less appealing. So here I am, New Years Day.

Way back on October 29th I wrote of planting scented indoor narcissi for Christmas. This year I've kept them in the cold frame and they're blooming now. A week late but all the better for that as we can enjoy the scent. A lovely start to the new year. In the background are visible the January Gold daffodils which are blooming well.

Today however we'd arranged to meet friends at Slimbridge for a catch up. It was busy there when we arrived but we soon found each other and had a very enjoyable few hours watching birds while gossiping. They do good food at Slimbridge too. I wonder though what Sir Peter Scott would make of the crowds visiting here, with his house by the Rushy pool now a holiday home and people everywhere. It doesn't distract from the good works being done here though I'd like to turn the clock back to when Sir Peter first discovered Slimbridge, as an out of the way wildlife rich farm. It would be interesting to see that.