Friday 31st May 2024

 

Another lovely day at Little Orchard Alpacas in East Devon. We were last here on December 5th, today couldn't have been more different. Perfect weather, the alpacas were on good form, including my mate Yorvik. As we're regulars now we are doing really interesting things. Aside from feeding and poop scooping, Vic the owner suggested we take three of them out for a longer walk in the lanes around there (never any traffic we were informed). There was, car, van and bicycle, but that didn't spoil the walk. I had Yorvik of course and he was completely different off home soil. He is a great animal. The countryside around here is stunning, that's Seaton in the distance.

We did do quite a bit today, got going about 9.30 and finished about 2pm. One interesting task was putting a mineral mite treatment out, made from crushed microorganisms. The alpacas loved it and couldn't stop rolling in it, exactly as they should be doing. All in all a fabulous day, which also included sorting fleeces and making felt wrapped soap, with a surprise cream tea thrown in too.

We then drove to Lyme Regis which was a bit of a disaster, a broken down vehicle blocked the very narrow road to Monmouth Beach, that caused chaos, and being the last day of half term the place was packed. It was a stark contrast to the peace and quiet of the morning. Alpacas it is then.

Thursday 30th May 2024

 

My lunchtime treat, a packet of crisps from the vending machine at work. Not that long ago we had a proper sit down canteen where riotous chat would ensue as we all met up and decompressed the relentless work flow, while crammed around a table fit for just a few people. We also had a Club underneath, sandwiches and snacks plus alcohol at lunchtime, and after work. These were great places to meet colleagues and discuss ideas and what was happening, as well as having a laugh. Now both the canteen and Club have gone and we're left with a self service vending machine in an empty communal space. The media thrives through networking, this mechanical device is not quite the same.

Wednesday 29th May 2024

Well, well, well. Two years ago the BBC site emptied as the television side of the business moved to new premises in the centre of Bristol. Since then endless discussions have taken place over what to do with the remaining eighty or so people, Points West, local radio and us in Network Radio. Various discussions and plans have been put forward. Throughout I've said the OB base would be the obvious choice, for reasons I'll not go through here. Well today it looks as though we'll be moving to the OB base at some point. I need to take up fortune telling I think.

Tuesday 28th May 2024

Obviously I'm being summoned to Court, there can be no other explanation as to why I'm wearing a suit. Well there is really.  I felt I needed to try on my new shirt and so on before our big day at Royal Ascot in a couple of weeks. It's odd to think a whole year has nearly passed as I bought the tickets on the 21st June last year. Anyway the suit is lovely, a little big around the shoulders but that's due to my body shape, not the suit. It's quite unusual seeing me in a shirt and tie, I look different. Everyone says I look like my father. I only hope they let me in to Royal Ascot with my baseball cap and Chelsea boots - there's no dress code for hats or footwear for men in the Queen Anne's Enclosure, though oddly I have to wear socks that cover the ankle. Are there any other sort of socks?

Monday 27th May 2024

I've never been keen on Bank Holidays. To be honest I don't know why we have them these days. Especially the two in May which were connected to pagan and rural festivals which no-one adheres to now. Today the nearest we get to spirituality is a trip to Sainsbury's on a Bank holiday afternoon. Look at that motley pile of stuff. I only went out for milk, and spent £84... I blame that bottle of wine which seems to have snuck in behind the lemonade. But at least that was more pleasurable than being on the M5, as at around that time it was a slow moving convoy of holidaymakers enjoying the open road during a Bank Holiday relaxing few days.

 

Sunday 26th May 2024

 

Gingernut is funny. This cardboard box has been on the floor for a few days now, it once contained the smallest tool belt ever received from the work wear company Julie buys her clothing from, Strauss. Anyway it's been there, and as we've a new kitchen coming soon we'll use it to store some things over the four days of chaos. On Friday, Gingernut who had ignored the box all the time it has been there decided to sit in it. No preliminary checks, he simply walked out the kitchen, hopped into the box and sat there like a captain of a ship keeping watch. He's now repeated this performance a couple of times and tonight after pinching some of my pastrami beef, jumped down, sat in the box for only a minute, before heading to the sofa for a well earned nap. He really is a character.

Saturday 25th May 2024

This was taken at around 11am on top of the Quantocks. We'd just climbed up Hodders Combe which becomes Lady's Edge. At the top of which you reach this vantage point looking towards Minehead in the far distance. It's a spot we often stop at either for the view before returning or as a rest before heading elsewhere. It was the latter today, but not before taking this image with Gideon in it. I sent this to Rosie who knitted Gideon with the caption 'Spot The Gideon'.  It's lovely up there on that ridge, always breezy though and I noticed the hawthorn was in blossom but only on the leeward side. After about fifteen minutes we set off along the ridge back towards Crowcombe and then returned to the car via Holford Combe. Very nice 6.5 miles in nice weather. In the evening it absolutely poured with rain. We were lucky then. 

Friday 24th May 2024

Bloody Facebook.  I used to love this platform right from the days when it was Friends Reunited. But recently it has become weird. My timeline has been filled up with sponsored waffle, mostly from the USA, and in the last month a blizzard of AI generated soft porn images of female celebrities. It's just become rubbish to spend my days wasting my time trying to find something actually worth looking at, and mostly failing. Overnight the post below was sent out by the platform. It's the last straw. So I've deleted everything on my profile, posts, likes and comments and decided to disappear from Facebook permanently. It was good, but like all things they have their time. Facebook's time is passing and life moves on with new possibilities. I'll miss some of my friends postings but from comments I've received after posting that I'm leaving, it seems I'm not alone in being fed up with it.

 

Thursday 23rd May 2024

And interesting combination. The General Election was called for July 4th last night. On top of everything I had to do today a bombardment of changes to the Radio 4 schedules arrived throughout the morning. Very busy indeed including mixing three more Tweet of the Days. I needed a lunch break and wandered off in the drizzly rain to Cotham Hill, finding myself in the organic health shop. This black bean spaghetti caught my eye, as well as a gluten free breakfast cereal. That spaghetti could be a dramatic looking meal at some point. Time afterwards for a hot chocolate in the little cafe opposite. Which was very nice. I wonder whether the spaghetti will be as nice?

Wednesday 22nd May 2024

 

Pop shields, foam hats, microphone thingies, call them what you will, today's big job, in a very small way, was packing up ten Radio 4 branded microphone covers for Tim Allen. Tim is up at the Hay Festival of Literature overseeing the technical side there and had ordered some himself, which had not arrived in time. He then asked if he could have some I had in stores. So off they go, who and where they'll end up I've no idea, even less idea of how many will return - people 'borrow' them as souvenirs. 

Tuesday 21st May 2024

 

Well it's all getting real now as today I received my digital tickets for Royal Ascot next month. As can be seen I booked these tickets a year ago nearly, actually while watching the racing at Ascot in 2023. Since then I've had to buy a suit, Julie's bought a dress and we'll be in the Queen Ann Enclosure, one down from the Royal Enclosure. It'll be a long day but hopefully a fun day, I just hope it's fine weather otherwise we'll be in a picklette. I also bought car parking, so hopefully we can nip back to the car for nibbles and a sit down. There are lots of eating places there, we hope, but some of the pre book catering is thousands of pounds. I think we live too quiet a life. What we won't be doing is betting, that's a mugs game.

Monday 20th May 2024

Why on earth have I chosen an image of one of our meeting rooms, See Hear? We'll only because I've never been in this room but booked it for Eleri my new boss to hold PC interviews in a couple of weeks. As she had not seen this room I took a quick photograph to send to her. It's ok, phew.

 

Sunday 19th May 2024

 

This is my microwave. And this is about what I thought had happened but hadn't. I bought this microwave in January 1994 after being offered a tiny annex to rent in Portbury. I've got very fond memories of this minute house, but for me it had everything including a kitchen area. The house had been converted from a pig sty for the owner Jo's mother, who sadly died before moving in.  At fifteen feet square it had a single bed, a corner bath, a central wardrobe, an area to sit in and aforementioned kitchen. And an acre of garden to play in with chickens. The kitchen was so small I couldn't have a conventional cooker so I bought this microwave from Comet in Sunderland. It's a grill, oven and microwave and has travelled with me to various houses for all the time I've lived down south. Today however it stopped working mid cooking of a jacket potato. I was devastated thinking finally after 30 years it's given up. Oddly I felt quite sad. But then I checked the plug, it was half way out the socket. Of course it didn't work, it had no power. How or or why the plug worked it's way loose I have no idea. But I'm so glad it's working still, especially as at the time I took out a 3 year warranty which at £99 was almost the price of the thing in the first place. Such good value I'd say (and my mum got very annoyed that I'd been 'conned' into buying the warranty).

Saturday 18th May 2024

 

On paper this morning we planned to be on a walk in the Quantocks by 07.30 hours. In the real world neither of us slept well overnight, at 6 am I was more zombie like than raring to go for an early start. Decision made. Abandon plans and go back to sleep. Wind the clock on to 2pm and I am relaxing on the lawn looking at the wild flowers in the no-mow area from a worms eye view. Quite interesting looking at things from underneath. The hawksbeard are looking wonderful and attracting lots of insects. But I like the daisies. Released from endless lawn cutting, the stems supporting the flowers are a good six inches long. I like daisies, one of lifes' survivors.

Friday 17th May 2024

 

I was hoping the odometer would spin over to 184,184 miles as I trundled home with my fish and chips lunch. But it was not to be. Still impressive though for our 19 year old Renault Clio. I do maintain it properly, mechanically at least. The bodywork is okay too, a few minor dints and scratches but it polishes up well. Now it has it's new turbo and ERG valve cleaned it flies along, it feels more powerful than it's official 100 bhp, I think the more modern turbo may have added a few more horses under the bonnet. I love driving this now tiny car, compared to modern vehicles which are oversized and ugly. After all the recent work I put my foot to the floor and immediately there's a whine and the speed picks up. Hit the sweet spot with the revs and there's a roar followed by very rapid acceleration indeed. Great fun if a BMW is hassling me to go a bit faster. It can certainly do that.

Thursday 16th May 2024

My initial thoughts for today had been the lovely raindrops on this bearded iris I've growing in a pot. This mauve-lilac iris is one I've grown for years but I've been unable to identify it properly, I don't even know where it came from initially. This morning though after an overnight shower the spherical droplets looked beautiful. 

But then, like yesterday I received some images, this time from Julie at one of her clients at Mark. She was trapped as some sheep had escaped from somewhere and had been rounded up on the drive, with, to stop them escaping, the gate being shut. Apparently various farmers were contacted until the right one was found. He arrived with a trailer and took them back home. As Julie said it's the first time she's had to stop gardening due to sheep.

 

Wednesday 15th May 2024

 

A bit of a bird day today. In the morning I recorded three Tweet of the Day with Martin Hughes-Games. They sounded lovely, he has such a nice rich voice for radio. It was also very good to catch up with someone I've not seen for years. We had a good chinwag about the old NHU days and his time presenting Springwatch. 

After having my lunch, two Scotch eggs and some chocolate milk, I set too editing the three episodes. In the middle of doing that I received a number of images from a friend up at the farm in Northumberland I worked at. What's this odd looking bird was the question? After a bit of thinking it turned out to be a common Mynah. Presumably an escaped from someone's house. I didn't find out what happened next but I hope it was reunited with it's owner.

Tuesday 14th May 2024

Life eh! For weeks, if not months rubbish has not been collected up north where my father lives. It's chaos apparently with skips being placed around the region for people to take their rubbish to. It now seems whatever the dispute was it's resolved and now rubbish is being collected. For weeks people have ranted about the amount of rubbish now in their gardens. The real rant should be, why do people these days have so much rubbish to dispose of. It's a lively topic but the key point is in a throw away society we throw away an awful lot.

 

Monday 13th May 2024

This succulent bowl in the conservatory is a real joy. The only reason I've these succulents is a few years ago hundreds came back from BBC Gardener's Live, so many we were offered them for free, or a small donation to Children in Need. I brought home half a dozen, they were labelled but now long lost I can't remember what species they are. In the winter they looked a little worse for wear in the greenhouse so I repotted them into this bowl. Since then they've grown well and look really healthy. The stone came from somewhere special too, from one of my travels, but I can't remember where either. It's going well then. I'll just enjoy them.

 

Sunday 12th May 2024

A wonderful day on Giants Hill, Cerne Abbas in Dorset. I have written at length about this day on my wildlife blog, so won't repeat myself here too much. Up with the larks I was at Castle Gardens in Sherborne for 9.40, twenty minutes before the café opened, where I consumed a very welcome all day breakfast. From there, after buying heliotrope and beetroot for Julie I arrived at the car park under the hill just after 11am. A fabulous, and hot, day watching Duke of Burgundy butterflies, which can be read in full here https://wessexreiver.blogspot.com/2024/05/dukes-of-hairstreak.html

Home via the Hunter's Moon pub in Middlemarsh for a shandy and a packet of crisps and a quiet evening. A simple day, one I love.

Saturday 11th May 2024

 

After yesterday and a hot long amount of time in the car, today was very much a stay at home day. Which was actually very welcome. I read my Red Deer book, I like it though Richard Jefferies often repeats phrases or sentences in a chapter. I also tried to identify these tall composite flowers, which I've got down to beaked hawksbeard  - I think. I've learnt that if I wait until the seeds form, their shape is the best way to be certain of the species, and there may be more than one species in our wild lawn.

Later in the day I received a WhatsApp message from my friend George in Northern Ireland. His parents have started seeing this great spotted woodpecker come to their garden, which surprised my friend as he thought these birds were not found in the island or Ireland. Well that was true until about twenty years ago, since when great spotted woodpeckers arrived in Northern Ireland and first bred in 2006. They're now along the whole east coast and slowly moving inland, to places like Country Antrim where my friends parents live. Good to see, and a success story in the natural world is an added bonus.

Friday 10th May 2024

A properly warm day today, low twenties outdoors much warmer in the car which was awkward as what should have been a hour and a bit drive to Dorset became a two and a half slog down there. The reasons being a lot of slow traffic and many roadworks, the worst of which was at Shepton Mallet where we crawled for over 30 minutes covering less than a mile into the temporary traffic lights letting a dozen vehicles through at a time on the A37. 

But that aside it was worth the slog to arrive at Bere Marsh Farm at Child Okeford. We'd not planned to come here but their Buzz cafe was open as we drove by. Just what we needed, a covered outdoor cafe, drinks from a horsebox type vending area and a warm welcome. Perfect. We'll return to this Countryside Regeneration Trust site in the future I think, though we were half tempted by the dawn chorus walk in the morning, but 4.30am start?

No our destination was Hod Hill. I'd read that the Duke of Burgundy butterfly was already on the wing there and that was our quest. In the two hours walking there I thought I glimpsed a pair of Dukes fighting in the air but as they disappeared from view I can't be sure. There were certainly a lot of skylark on the wing, singing, and brimstone butterfly too. Large white, common blue and small heath, plus a wall brown which I've not seen for years. It's lovely at Hod Hill but not quiet, a good bit of road noise from the nearby A350.

Our journey home took as long but only as we stopped at the Fiddleford Inn for a refreshing cold drink, then sat at the view-point on Bulbarrow Hill before having another refreshing drink at the Fox at Ansty. Home by 8pm and Gardener's World on the telly, from RHS Malvern Spring Show, another vague option dismissed for my day off today.

Thursday 9th May 2024

I'm taking tomorrow off, we may go to the Quantocks or we may go to the RHS Show in Malvern. If we do the former this arrival is timely.  I'm thinking about the 75th Anniversary of the Richard Jefferies Society next year and one of the things I'm interested in is whether we can create some form of an event in Somerset, to places where Jefferies himself visited to research Red Deer - possibly his most natural history of books. What I mean is it is a species monograph in it's true sense, hunting, ecology, how deer fit into the landscape of West Somerset. Jefferies other nature writing books are possibly a little more esoteric and mystic in tone, how he feels being in the landscape, how the landscape feels. Red Deer is, though I've not read it yet,  a descriptive piece of nature writing. It will be interesting to explore the Quantocks a-new with this facsimile of his 1884 work in my hand. 

Wednesday 8th May 2024

 

The silver pipe is for the central heating which was installed about 5 years ago at work. Before then this flat roof was devoid of virtually all vegetation other than a little bit of moss. I find it fascinating that this one pipe has created such a micro climate. First there was a thin covering of moss, uniform in shape and only of a couple of species as far as I could tell. Then over time other plants have come along, so now there are ferns, succulents and what looks like a millet or some other grass, presumably coming in from a bird. One day this will all need to be cleared away as it must be having an effect on the waterproofing feature of this flat roof, but for the moment it is a lovely micro-habitat developing nicely inside the BBC.

Tuesday 7th May 2024

 

Treacle. Naughty but loveable.  I've mentioned her before, belongs to a neighbour, but she spends a huge amount of her time in our garden, or to take today as an example huge amount of time in the conservatory. We try and keep her out of the house but allow her in the conservatory now and again, but it's a worry given Gingernut isn't keen on her. Until recently she's run away when he approaches her but now she hisses at him. Last thing we want is a fight in the house, we've had a few of those over the years and they're not pleasant, with Gingernut so far being top cat.

Monday 6th May 2024

 I know Julie isn't keen on having her image taken but this for me is a sign of domestic bliss. Being a Bank Holiday today as we always do we stayed in. Going out on a Bank Holiday is a nightmare for traffic. So we pottered and messed about in the garden too. In the evening we sat for ages in the conservatory. Julie decided to do some sketching and as soon as she'd got her stuff together Gingernut jumped up onto her lap, making sure he was the centre of attention. He sat there not moving for the entire time Julie was sketching. He does like being with us, which is good. Very nice day just pottering and relaxing, we don't do enough of that.

Sunday 5th May 2024

I like getting pictures from my Father's garden, today one of the grey squirrel who live in the big holly tree. I'd received other images of the squirrels earlier in the week but this one came through from Kate today. I know many people class these as pest and vermin due to their effect on the native red squirrel but I like them. It's not this individual squirrels fault someone introduced grey squirrel to Britain, so why should we persecute it. Live and let live I say.

Saturday 4th May 2024

At last, warm sunshine. It really has been a long winter, not cold but very little sunshine. Today though it was a no coat day and we were off to Taunton. General shopping and I had to pick up my new suit for Royal Ascot. Julie came with me and likes it too. I even got a 'free' suit cover from the shop, Astaires.

After that and a drink in the Museum cafe we came home via Staple Plantation where we spent an hour just doing nothing. Heard a cuckoo, plus tawny owl and whitethroat amongst many other species, such as Mr Bumble-Gnome on his first ever visit to the Quantocks. With us anyway.

Friday 3rd May 2024

 The news is out. The Richard Jefferies literary award has been announced today, Late Night by Bristol University lecturer Michael Malay. The nominations for this numbered nearly 50, all published in 2023. I've not read this book yet but it caught eye when the six in the shortlist were announced on January. This award is starting to gather good coverage after nearly ten years, with the winner asked to speak at the Marlborough Literature Festival in September. Later in the year there'll be a zoom meeting with him just for the Richard Jefferies Society.

Thursday 2nd May 2024

 

I was microwaving my soup this lunchtime when it simply struck me that I'd like to record forever the mood board in the kitchenette. I've mentioned before this used to be my office, now a communal kitchen area complete with fridge and kettle. The two figures on the mood board are all my doing, a modern version of Charlie Says from the Second World War. The excitement you can't guage from this was I'd forgotten I'd left soup in the fridge on Monday. It was almost like a free meal after discovering it again.

Wednesday 1st May 2024

The mundane staples of life, eggs, bacon, sausage and cider. Nothing else comes close to sustaining the sixty year old gentleman now that we've reached Beltane. A nice surprise then receiving this image on WhatsApp from Julie. She's been shopping then?