H and the drill
Granddad had a wall that needed a hole. The wall was thick so a long drill bit was required, as demonstrated by little H.
The hole was needed close to the gas supply. Much measuring, and re-measuring, and re-re-measuring was done.
Switch
The one on the left is for the central heating. It’s in the off position. That explains why there was no heat. The coffee machine, positioned in front of the switch, explains why it took two weeks to realise what the problem was.
Duh!
Finn @ Eight
A football-themed day for F at the ripe old age of eight.
Plus some Krispy Kreme’s from the previous day’s excursion to London (and Rooney’s smelly boots).
Ewok didn’t get any Krispy Kreme’s. Hence his deprived dog impression.
Bellamy-style
Finn demonstrating the optimum technique for walking 3 miles on loose single Bellamy-style (apparently).
Hurst Castle
Dog friendly
Hurst Castle
for the day: a mile-and-a-half walk from Milford-on-Sea along the spit (with a hello to
Norman
and
Zoë
along the way).
Ewok slept well.
Fay’s Stall
First stall at Wallingford Local Producers market. Good day. There again in November and December.
First Day at Junior School
F joins H at junior school – makes the school bike run a tad less complicated…
Thames Swimming
David Walliams is swimming the River Thames for Sports Relief .
Late yesterday afternoon he made it to Benson Lock where a rather large crowd, for Benson Lock, cheered him on downstream to Wallingford.
Most awesome.
Victory is Ewok’s
Mummy took Ewok to the Ewelme horse show (for dogs) with Winnie and Missy from next door. Ewok got 1st in tricks and look a-like, 2nd in fastest sitter. Ewok got 4th in fastest ``down`` and in tail wag. Ewok won over-all! Yheahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Bunkfest Lanterns
Wallingford Bunkfest was awesome, and what better way to round things off than a Lantern Parade? Huge work from F and many many helpers to pull it off.
More piccy’s on flickr .
Greenbelt
Fab time at gb11 (it wasn’t as cold as H makes it look).
Last time we were at
Greenbelt was in 2005
– before the BigTrip.
Need to stick it on the calendar for next year now.
Flying By
Didn’t realise that RAF Benson Family Day was today until the acrobatics started.
We had quiet a good view from across the river.
Was a tad worried when the Chinook decided to just hang vertically, but the Tornado at
---censored-- metres literally shook us back to our senses.
Looked like the base put on an excellent show.
Pottering about in London
H and D went up to London for (fab) Potted Potter and some other stuff too.
Funny!
Dawn and Dusk
The beginning and the end of yesterday across the fields around the house.
I could grow slowly old contentedly here.
August in the Garden
Sunflower
Poppies
Winter-set onion; going to seed
Courgette | Zucchini
Every year c r o s s o a k covers
May in the Garden
.
Here’s a little glimpse of August.
Harvest
H with some of the carrots we grew this year.
Not half bad once I’d figured out what wasn’t weeds. Apparently stuff growing in straight lines is the clue… you did plant them in straight lines didn’t you?
Keeping snug
Finn perfected the art of keeping snug when camping, although mum’s attempt was almost as good!
Harvey and the Rabbit
Harvey befriended a rabbit. The rabbit moved in.
This rabbit was not imaginary .
Tate: Martin Creed
Tate St Ives filled half a gallery with playful white balloons. Or was it Martin Creed’s Half the Air in a Given Space ?
The many sides of Les at 70
Big birthday called for a big birthday bash for granddad with
the grandsons pictured with their pictures.
Better late than never.
Harvest
Going full cycle – the rapeseed has been harvested. As I type, the stubble is being ploughed back into the field.
Dorset Hike
Fantastic hike with Martin along the beautiful Dorset coast.
The ranges were closed, so we took a slightly different route so we could get a great view of the red danger flags in the distance.
Further along the coast we found what looked like the end of the line on Egmont Point.
Thanks to the world’s best sign posts, we found the pub. And it was open.
Fibonacci
The sign claimed this was a Fibonacci Spiral (or rather two spirals, interlinked). Fortunately I didn’t have time to measure it.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34…
Holden Forest
Where were we? The ‘Which Way’ tree was of little help.
The ladybug lady suggested we look out for the antler boy.
The antler boy suggested we seek the xylophone girl.
The xylophone girl just thought that we were lost.
Ah ha. We found ourselves on the sing a song seat.
Fun in
Holden Forest
.
Next time: bikes!
Woodinville Basking
With the sun out, Woodinville has moved onto the front lawn to bask in the late spring warmth.
He tells me that he’s not missing the Seattle rain.
More ducks
Mum duck has been sitting on her nest outside our window for 3 weeks or so. Ewok (and shadow) behaved and left her in peace, but all the same, 3 weeks!
Yesterday, the nest was empty and mum, with 8 ducklings, was marching across the garden down to the pond where she commenced a swimming lesson.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of mum duck chasing Fay and Ewok across the field later that day. Traumatising.
Grandparents again, twice in a week!
Blue Tits
The woodpecker was after the eggs, and made a real mess of the bird house in the process.
But mum and dad seemed to cope okay with the larger entrance.
and the chicks flew!
We’re grandparents at last.
Visitors from Google: this probably isn’t the post you were expecting.
Don’t worry, I’ll
forget
your IP address.
Local Plonk
I’m slow. It’s taken several months to realise that living next door to a vineyard has certain, shall we say, advantages.
Emirates
Fay and H had a fantastic day at the Emirates, watching Arsenal being “cheated” (H’s assessment) out of a 4-2 win over AVFC.
Big thanks to Jo & Kären for arranging the tickets.
Granddad and S were at the game too – so many a tale was swapped on the train back from Paddington.
Water
For almost two months the rain harvesting system was considered a failure.
Why? no rain.
Meanwhile Seattle is having
unusually high amounts of spring rain
.
Good move :-)
The Leaning Meadow Tree
The warm weather has resulted in early buttercups, cow parsley, daisies and just about everything else in the meadows.
The weekend downpour gave everything a bit of a boost apart from the oil seed rape flowers which took a hammering.
Still too many cushions
It’s only my opinion of course, but we do ( still ) have too many cushions. And it’s not helped much when H decides to become one for the day.
Wind Blown Garden
It’s been dry, warm, and windy.
For the time of year very dry and very warm. Not sure about the wind.
May early in the garden
Warm April this year, so everything in the garden is early, so this years ‘May in the garden’ comes to you in April. Enjoy.
Past May in the Gardens: 2010 , 2009 , 2008 , 2007 , 2006 , 2005 .
Lovely Fay in Paris
Sacré-Coeur
Sacré-Coeur dome
Musee de Montmartre
Merci
Abbesses garden
Opposite Georges Pompidou centre
…and as the birthday girl at the Hotel Gramont Opera – best small hotel in Paris?
Paris and Books
Merci’s second-hand book cafe ( www.merci-merci.com )
Upstairs at Shakespeare and Company ( shakespeareandcompany.com )
Finding our next stop
Model Paris
After many months work, my scale model of paris-west was completed just in time for us to use it instead of a tourist map when visiting the city.
Sacré-Coeur Views
Views from 283 steps high: from the dome of the Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre, Paris.
Someone had a great sense of humour when they installed the potting shed.
Thanks to John Davies and family, who we randomly bumped into, for recommending going up to the top, and to the anonymous Irish man who counted the steps.
Kremes!
One of the (very many) things that little-getting-bigger F misses from the USofA has been Krispy Kreme Do nuts which were always a treat on the road trip south to Mt Rainier .
Fortunately, while meeting Tory inbound from SEA, I found that LHR T5 now has a Krispy Kreme stand. What could I do other than getting an assorted dozen?
The box is now empty.
The Barrow
A moody Brightwell Barrow from Wittenham Clumps.
Apparently the Barrow is bronze aged and was mentioned in the Domesday Book. I don’t speak olde englisch, but for those that do here’s the link .
More Flat Friends
The beans are doing well, especially now flat friends have arrived and can help with the weeding and watering. Not sure this is what they had in mind when they set off on their vacations…
Bike Jump Measuring
The boys jumping model motorbikes down the garden with granddad – attempting to beat the 1:20 scale world record.
Pen Y Fan
Breakie for champions (or just Aiddy & Mart) after a restful night (ignoring the herc at 150ft) in the camping field at Cantref Adventure Farm and Bunkhouse .
Before setting off down the lane towards the mountains.
The bright spring morning with clear blue skies had obviously unsettled the locals who, knowing that hikers expect it to rain when in Wales, instantly sprang into action, seeding some low level clouds to make us feel at home during the hike up through the foothills.
We saw some sheep too – another unusual sight for this part of the world.
The path up to Pen Y Fan was clearly marked
and in next to no time we were up at the top, with next to no one else around. Except that is for the UKs teenage population “doing DofE” and two crazy polish mountain bikers.
Not content with just one peek, we bagged Crybin and Fan Y Big (or was it Big Y Fan?)
before skirting Craig Cwareli which dropped us right into the lovely village of Llanfrynach…
…and the pub for a well deserved pint of Brains.
Except the pub was shut.
Next time we’ll ring ahead and check before hiking 14-odd miles and up (and down) 3,800 feet for a drink.
Top hike. Cheers Mart.
Clearing Fog
Looking across the field from the end of the garden this morning – mist clearing over the river.
Fixed Broken Glass Flower
Having safely moved 4,800 miles, including the trials of storage and shippers handling, one of the amazing glass flowers from
Bassetti’s Garden
was tragically attacked and mauled by the washing.
Fortunately,
Araldite
came to the rescue. Can you spot the join?
The thin edge
If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear-stained eyes
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet.
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind
With your fear flowing out behind you
As you claw the thin ice.
The Thin Ice. Pink Floyd.
Trauma
They were “just passing” so Fay and H thought it a good idea to nip into the Emirates Shop, shortly before kick-off on a home game day. F was with them; wearing his ManU shirt…
…cue phone call to Dad from traumatised son.
Flat Cole
Flat Cole is visiting from the USA. So we took him on the train to Olde Londone Towne
Where trash cans are litter bins.
Blue mail boxes are red post boxes.
Football is a game where you kick a ball with your feet
And the street where McDonalds first restaurant was opened!
Do you know what it is yet
Do you know what it is yet? Yes Rolf, we do.
Brassica Napus
.
It was the yellow flowers that gave it away.
Ewok Doing The Shake
Down by the river, and another attempt to get Ewok swimming fails. But he succeeded in giving the boys and me a quick shower.
Storm over Wittenham Clumps
Timed my head-clearing ride all wrong today. Did a loop, starting into a strong blustery headwind. Weather front moved through, so homeward stretch also had a headwind.
Lost the cobwebs & got a snap of the clumps from a different angle though.
Cheeky Homework
F had to categorize the larder contents for homework this week.
Halfway through he was caught having a sneaky snack.
The winner
The boys planted loads of bulbs with Fay last autumn. H had the left side of the garden, F the right. First flower was this tulip, under the window on the left. H was duly declared the winner. F, it’s quality not speed that counts…
World Pooh Sticks Championships
The mug punters and the berko bouncers almost managed to miss the World Pooh Sticks Championships…
What with the clocks changing, roundabout approach drive and mixing up the ‘where to meet’ instructions.
But we managed to just make the heats, clutching (or not) our regulation pooh sticks
Focus and concentration, as well as peak physical fitness, being the key attributes of world pooh stick championship contestants, as demonstrated here by Dave’s perfect stick release technique.
Unfortunately that perfect release wasn’t enough to get the mug punters on the leader board, much to the amusement of the on looking berko bouncers.
May be next year? Team training starts in October…
Shillingford Bridge and Hotel
Fantastic morning in Shillingford, river like a mirror in a steamy bathroom and the bridge lit up by a golden glow. Worth getting out of bed for.
When not in Rome
P & R are in Rome, I’m not, which means I’m able to look after their chickens (a goose, and some ducks). So far, so good.
It turns out that chickens make eggs, lots of eggs, which you can find labeled as follows:
From chickens fed on organic GM-free feed, and free to roam and nest at will.
The free to roam bit is what makes collecting the eggs a tad tricky, unless you have help of course.
Red Nose Day
Much redness with red Noses and other stuff for
Comic Relief
.
I remember doing similar for the first one, but I think only as far as a red nose…
The top field
After a pause for the worst of winter, the crop in the field is growing again. The shoots are getting long enough for the wind to send ripples across the surface.
World book day
Today is
world book day
(in the UK and Ireland).
F celebrated earlier in the week by dressing up as Harry Potter for school (the Wallingford book shop provided vouchers and books!) while H has taken
Fablehaven
into school today to read.
I’m planning to pop into Oxfam Wallingford later today to treat myself to something.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-12-22 to fix broken links.
Florence and Lawrence
Couldn’t leave Aylsham without pausing to remember, and to share those memories with H and F.
professional photography
Yikes. Written permission for professional photography?
I had thought ‘professional’ meant something like ‘earning a living from’. But the definition in the OED also includes having the skill of someone that is a competent professional. I suspect that the sign is meant to convey that no
commercial
photography is allowed without written permission, either that or it could be more clearly written as
only incompetent photography allowed.
But, just to be on the safe side, I wrote myself a note giving myself permission to photograph before proceeding to do so.
Holkham with Faith
Our second visit to Holkham Beach – the last was in 2005 .
This time with Ewok
Faith
and her umbrella!
Half term at Bewilderwood
Den building
web climbing
maze solving
death slide sliding.
All at Bewilderwood .
Joes’s Cafe
We missed Joe’s. But we’ll be back. It just has to be the best beach café. Ever. There’s even a facebook group for it.
Studland South Beach
A stop off on the way back from Corfe: Studland South Beach
Man U supporters had been there before us.
But we made sure people would know that we’d been there – at least until the next high tide.
F decided to draw a line all along the beach.
H decided finding caves was more fun – observe the high tech outdoor equipment he’s showing off in the pic.
Fay found a pill box, washed onto the beach by the eroding cliff
which H explored.
Fortunately it was too cold for naturists.
The Knights of Corfe Castle
Visitors to Corfe Castle beware…
…there are knights around…
…who will challenge you to a duel by sword,
or chop seuy!
Four Door Poem
Door with a scooter.
Door with a wheelie-bin.
Collapsed door with Fay supporting.
And a small door with a Finn.
Relaxing on Holiday
Mum and dad had a party to go to in northern most London Towne, so Ewok took the boys to Granddad and Nana’s for a relaxing holiday.
Very relaxing.
Ewok does King of the Woodland
“Ah” said Ewok “It appears that this is not the definitive map you were looking for.” Other definitive maps may apply. Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-08 to fix broken links
2-2
H played for the school team today! Great game, 2-0 up against the run of play but the opposition pulled 2 back to level the score. Fantastic result for all.
The gunners went one better this evening, beating Barcelona 2-1. Happiness.
Divide and Plough
The bridleway across the ploughed fields seen from Dyke Hills – an ancient defensive boundary from pre-Roman times that the lie between the south of the town and the river.
Above the flood plain
I was surprised that the environment agency doesn’t include our postcode for flood alerts. But a quick look at the OS map shows that we’re higher than a huge swathe of the surrounding countryside along this reach of the river.
Two views of the path to the River
Monday was stormy and dark, but late in the afternoon the weather system passed south (to the right in the pic above) and the skies opened up.
No cloud overnight meant a misty start to Tuesday, with the river disappearing in clouds of water vapor rolling across the field.
Winter Sunset
A winter sunset across the field in front of the house. At the end of a stormy day like this you can watch those cloud shapes changing for hours.
Arsenal Fan?
Yikes! Ewok appears to be an Arsenal fan now – just look at his bed! I do hope Sounders aren’t too disappointed…
Ride
Blowing out the cobwebs by exploring the bridleways of South Oxfordshire…
…and the views they open up.
There’s some strange stuff hereabouts. Like this pig farm with private dirt bike track.
The River Thames at Wallingford Bridge
Pausing to meditate on Wallingford Bridge on a walk home from town along the river.
900 feet long, 22 arches, with portions “ believed to contain 13th century elements ”.
Shipped It
Friday was my last day with Microsoft.
A sad-happy day since Microsoft was a great company to work for, that let me do some awesome things with a bunch of wonderful people.
But now it’s time for a
little
change <grin />.
Friday was also the day that the patent award and WP7 “ship it” arrived.
Timing sometimes is everything.
Right, time to get back to my life of leisure…
The fence
Fence : a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction.
Path : A Footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a thoroughfare intended for by pedestrians but not by motorized vehicles.
four dawn snaps
Got up early and took Ewok for a walk down on the beach.
Oh for a tripod and a decent coffee.
Harry Potter, Pah!
Harry Potter thought sleeping under the stairs was rough. H sleeps with Ewok on the door mat. At least he’s first to get the post.
The adventures of fred ted
Fred Ted helped to cook the dinner
And lit the candle for the table
After dinner Fred Ted went exploring in the garden
and then took us on a moon-lit walk
the next day we wanted to take Fed Tred canoeing on the Thames. But the water was flowing too fast and the health & safety assessment concluded an excursion would be too dangerous for Ted Fred.
The end.
Didcot Power
Another
view of the
power station
at Didcot.
This from Wittenham clumps at dusk, which I ran up with a head-splitting headache as the sun was sinking fast.
Dog walking
A nice wonder along the river for Ewok and Shadow (friend of Ewok)
Across the field skirting the set aside
through castle meadows
and then back along the river bank
to check out the lock and weir where the gauge was at 12 feet.
Someone left a pressie
Great, thanks, just what I always wanted.
However, I do understand, I mean what is one to do when the link to South Oxfordshire District Council information on the disposal of commercial waste is broken?
Still, at least the link to report fly tipping works. Not.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-08 to remove broken links
Parcel Force Fail
Coming home from work this was blocking the lane.
Apparently a parcel force driver had decided ours was a quiet spot for a spot of lunch, pulled over into the
alluvial mud
, and got stuck. Fast.
Some time later, with the van still stuck, two other parcel force vans arrived to pick up the parcels (one of which also managed to get stuck for a while). So if something you were expecting to arrive today didn’t, maybe you now know why.
Lonely tree, with friend the broken fence
On the edge of the meadows is a lonely tree. There’s fragments of fencing like this all over the place .
Muddy
It’s very muddy.
Alluvium mud
, very sticky.
Here H demonstrates the preferred technique to avoid muddy hands when nearly falling into the river.
Swyncombe Down
The sun was already sinking as we headed up Swyncombe Down
F discovered the “Kingdom of the Moles” on the top
with some super views of the Oxfordshire Countryside
and some super industrial views of nearby
Didcot power station
.
Aside: Didcot is a tad different from the local electricity generation when we were in Seattle .
Second aside: Didcot might be our local generator, but our leccy comes from GoodEnergy . Recommended .
2022-03-29: Fixed broken Link
Dusky Walk
Leeds drew, much to pablo’s (and our) relief. Pants avoided.
We wrapped up warm and headed out for some needed fresh air as the sun sank,
to watch the moon trees dancing.
Depth Gauge
The river’s much higher than last October . The sluice gates on the weir are open. Must be all that melted snow coming down.
The road to Brightwell-cum-Sotwell
We’re in the
parish
(not
village
) of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. I guess the boundaries were drawn when travelling on Bridleways was as common as travelling on
tarmaced
roads since the nearest place by road isn’t Brightwell. We must visit someday.
A muddy, very muddy, ride; but a decent loop via Wittenham Woods and Dorchester-on-Thames .
Emirates tour with Granddad
Harvey and Granddad go to London to get a tour of The Emirates
Emirates grounds
Harvey under premier league cup
Harvey and Granddad under Fabregas shirt
Arsenal put on music[of the crowd]when we go through the tunnel
Harvey outside Emirates grounds
[guest post]
Near Tyneham
Tyneham is an evacuated village (population zero in the 2001 census) on the south coast that was initially used for pre D-Day training and then became part of the Lulworth Military Range ( MOD ).
A perfect place to meet up with M, K, D, F & M on the way back from Devon…
…but best not to loiter by the targets for too long!
Shove Ha’penny
Granny teaching us to play shove ha’penny. Wikipedia tells us that it’s also known as shove halfpenny or shoffe-groat (but what a groat is I don’t know). But then H reminds us that you shouldn’t rely on wikipedia as it’s not authoritative. But then it might be as good as it gets¹ .
[¹] Link is broken, but the Wired article still lurks in the internet's archive… https://archive.is/AUQeW#selection-1783.302-1795.156
Banned
Dogs are banned on this beach
but only from the start of May to the end of September.
So we laugh at your sign. Ha Ha Ha Ha.
Exploring Sidmouth
F explored Sidmouth as pootle
while A sought out the puddles
and F, H & F carved graffiti into the cliff at chit rocks.
