Well I have been busy, so busy in fact that I am now trying to catch up from the end of June. Talking of catch-up, since last writing, I've watched the whole of Peaky Blinders, start to finish, the last series of Mayans M.C. and a few good films on Netflix.
The latest thing is Bat watching. We have recently noticed a couple of bats flying around in our garden about 10 o’clock in the evening, so the other night I decided to go and sit in the garden and watch to see where they came from. Wanted to make sure that it wasn’t from our roof! It wasn’t from our roof, we did think it might be next door as they seemed to have what looked like dropping by their guttering, but it doesn’t seem to be from there either (they must have birds instead). The bats appeared to vanish across the garden the other side. Now if you have ever tried to film bats flying, you have my sympathy, certainly with a phone it’s a nightmare, even if you can guess roughly which way they are going. Tried about 3 times, that’s enough for now.
After the bats, of course we spotted a hedgehog, so that was then the thing to look out for each evening. I’ve tried to get it on the camera but that seems to have a mind of it’s own at the minute. It’s either recording once every minute or it doesn’t do anything after about 8 o’clock in the evening and I haven’t changed any of the settings, maybe I should. Still, we haven't seem the hedgehog for a couple of weeks now, so that phase seems to have passed.
With the stamp duty holiday, things were busy at work, now that that has ended, things have quietened down a bit. So the other week I finally got around to re-felting the roof of my mother in laws shed. Earlier in the year a large swathe of the felt blew off the roof during some high winds, I patched the roof up with the end of a roll that was in the shed with the promise of re doing the whole roof sometime before the autumn came. About 6 or 8 weeks ago I went to get something from my Dad’s shed and the shelves along the back wall had fallen down. He has these shelves crammed with glass jars full of nut & bolts, screws, washers etc, so thankfully only 3 of them had broken. The back wall was absolutely sopping wet and the weight of the jars had pulled the screws out, obviously the roof was leaking!
I went up onto the roof to inspect the damage and found great big gaps that had weathered away leaving the wood exposed and holes where the water was getting in. Another roof to re-felt! I managed to patch the holes with adhesive and small strips of felt and then a week later I went back and I did the whole roof.
So I’ve now done 2 roofs, one was a flat roof and the other was pitched, both almost the same size and of course each of them needed one roll and one strip of felt. I reckon that it is about 15 years since I last re-roofed both these sheds and I probably only used felt guaranteed for 5. This time I have used 10 year felt, so I don't think it will be my job next time! I still need to do the timber trim around my dad’s and board over the rotten slats at the back, but the roof is good. Once I’ve fixed it up, all I need to do then is to get rid of the mice!
So I’m under the impression that Saturday mornings were for running, every Saturday morning if I am out and about, all I ever see are runners. I assume that they are either going to Parkrun or going home from it or just too cool for Parkrun and are out for a Saturday morning run. Sunday mornings on the other hand are for cycling. Quite a few Sunday mornings recently I have had to take my daughter to work as for some reason the trains are just nowhere. I don’t know if it’s because lots of train crew have had a good Saturday night and don’t show up for work or what, but for some reason more often than not on a Sunday, they just cancel random trains and throw the world of travellers into chaos.
She works in St Albans, which is about 15 miles from our house, and as we approach the city we usually see the first clutch of fully lycra clad cyclists, mostly middle aged men. As we get into the city this is followed by 2 or 3 more groups of cyclists, all in their club colours, and some from other relatively nearby towns, all out for their Sunday morning cycle ride.
I’ve just been to a wedding, the first wedding that I have been to for almost exactly 5 years and the couple that we sat behind, were the couple who’s wedding that was. After the service I went over to chat to a couple of blokes that I used to play football with, 20 odd years ago. I asked how they were and what they were up to and in the course of the conversation one of them was telling me, that with a few others, they go cycling every Saturday morning. I asked if they went in full lycra kit, and of course they do, they’re middle aged men out cycling! But on a Saturday! The other thing about the wedding was that I was wearing long trousers, now I’m pretty sure that the previous wedding I mentioned, was the last time that I wore long trousers. I’m back in shorts again now, obviously!
We’ve been away on holiday, and as is usual when we get back, most of the plants in the garden have died through lack of watering. I did however have the foresight to dig up all of ours and my dad’s potatoes before we went. There was a fair crop, nothing too large, just a bowl full of small to medium sized ones but they will keep my dad in potatoes for a few weeks. The new potatoes that I planted, are in and have been eaten and very nice they were too. All of my onions are now safely gathered in, some of them are huge and there are about 30 of them, so they should last us a while. I have unfortunately let the radishes go to flower and the rocket that I grew has probably gone over. None of my other seeds came to anything, due, I’m afraid to say, to lack of attention and under watering on my part. Could do better, must try harder next year.
My strawberries are a constant failure, every year I sort the plants out, water them, tend them, feed them, they produce flowers and I get about 4 strawberries and that’s it. Next year I am going to re-arrange how they are laid out and make a concerted effort to get a bumper harvest. The tomato plant, I only have one, is absolutely huge and has a bumper crop of good sized green tomatoes. The trouble is they are still green with only 3 or 4 having gone red and at this time of year if they are still green, the chances of them turning red are very slim. More green tomato chutney then!
My son has been home from university for a month now, I would say that the house was quieter without him but most of the time he’s in his room or out somewhere so we barely know that we’ve got him, except obviously for the mountains of washing he brings home, the mess in the kitchen (sorry, that's his sister) and the fact that the shopping bill seems to go up. Although I can’t work out why, as he doesn’t actually add that much extra to what we have, but it goes up anyway. He is due to return next week for his third and final year, how time flies, and for all I’ve said, we will obviously miss him when he’s gone (mainly though for all the reasons above) and hey, he’ll be back for Christmas. Love you son!