To find a tree

Go to a forest. 

Bob, who lives round the back, was telling Husband that, as a volunteer with Clyne Valley Community Project, he had been helping clear the orchard of 150 fruit trees. 

That there was an orchard in the woods was news to us, and we thought we'd walked just about every inch of it in the past umpteen years of dog-walking. According to Bob, via Husband, you go left just after the lake and follow the path. So, as it was a lovely afternoon, Husband and I set out to do that. 

We turned left after the lake and followed the path. And followed it and followed it until Husband's foot hurt. Not a fruit tree to be seen.

We were making our way back down to the main path when Husband said, "I wonder if Bob meant right? He said the turning was about eleven metres after the lake, which is a very precise and strange measurement when you think of it."

So we went back to the lake, and sure enough, about eleven metres after it there was a turning to the right signposted:

It looks as though the clearing is at an early stage.

But we did spot the last few remaining apples.

And a couple of fungi.

Whether it was Bob's mistake (or surely not Husband's?) we had a lovely walk, and on returning home I tried unsuccessfully to find out the history of the orchard. From the sign I'm guessing it was planted in 2014 but Kate remains a mystery. However while googling for said history I somehow came upon this rather wonderful newspaper cutting about the opening of a new library in Morriston. From July 1906:

I also spotted this:

And I remembered what it was that had led me to this page at all. Today Clyne Valley is very beautiful and a wonderful place to walk but it has an industrial past, with the railway, brickworks, arsenic works, and mining happening.

How much?!

 Used the last of our garden raspberries to make raspberry and white chocolate blondies yesterday.

Had to be done.

Returned to exercise class yesterday. I looked at the list of exercises on the circuit and thought, "That's not too bad."

I was wrong.

It was bad. Very bad. Made worse because I've missed a few weeks.

What else? 

I renewed my membership of the Labour Party. Even though I'm not happy with some decisions - or press statements - I feel I need to continue.

I would potentially support either Plaid Cymru or the Green Party but it seems a bit like a wasted vote in this area.

Oh, yes, and we had a couple of roofers come here yesterday to look at the roof of the house and the garage roof. Shocked at the prices quoted.

Anyone watching House of Guinness? I love the music they use. Enjoyed the series too. 

Seasons of the Soul

Took myself along to an art exhibition and community art installation at St Mary's Church in Rhossili. And it was well worth it. It was called Seasons of the Soul, with the focus on autumn.

The exhibits were all based on the three ideas of ponder, pause, and pray.

And the installation (a bit of a grand name for what it was!) gave people the opportunity to jot down their thoughts and make them part of the art.

So well worth a visit especially on such a beautiful day.

In the church there is a memorial to Edgar Evans, a Rhossili boy, who died on Scott's British Antarctic expedition.

There's also a more recent memorial in the form of a stained glass window.

I read that there was also a memorial in the graveyard for sailors lost at sea. The poster said it was in the west corner. Husband will be very proud of me using the sun to work out which corner that was.

My audacious idea

This is Spid, my pet spider. (I call all my pet spiders Spid.) This one lives behind the mirror in our bedroom and only comes out at night for our good evening chat. I call him my pet but it may be thathe thinks of me as his pet. On Tuesdays when I'm late going to bed on account of having been at Zac's I find him out a little further than usual. I like to think it's because he worries about me.

* * * * *

Yesterday morning I attended a meeting for a group that may be working with Zac's in some way in the future. Waiting for Husband to pick me up afterwards I wandered into the art gallery, where I found them selling postcards, six for one pound. I have no particular use for postcards but at that price . . .

You'll notice there are only five in the photo. That's because I have already used one as part of my audacious idea.

On Wednesday I learned that Michael Sheen and Martyn Joseph (Welsh folk singer) would be appearing in Swansea Little Theatre next Saturday, 11th, as part of Swansea's big Arts Weekend. Tickets were free and would be available from 8 o'clock that evening.

At 8 I sat at my computer knowing Elder Son and Daughter-in-law were trying to get tickets too.

I was number 37 in the queue but then it closed and no tickets were available. Daughter-in-law was 107. Elder Son got four tickets! So next Saturday, Daughter-in-law, GrandSon1, and I plus a.n.other will be going to the event. 

Now, my audacious idea. You may recall that five years ago I wrote a book specifically for my then 11-year-old grand-daughter. I called it, The Tree, Granny and Me (not forgetting Michael Sheen). I self-published it on Amazon but never really promoted it, but it occurred to me that if Michael Sheen were to be given a copy, and if he were to take a photo of himself holding it, it might bring me some sales. (And I re-read it this morning and I think it's good!)

So I've put a copy in an envelope with one of the postcards and a short note, and I'm hoping Daughter-in-law, who is part of the drama company based at Swansea Little Theatre, will be able to leave it at the theatre for him.

He might never receive it. If he does, he may toss it in the bin or forget about it. But if I don't take the chance then he won't have the opportunity to do any of those things, so I'm not losing anything.

When this is all it says

 

Send good vibes

I have a freeish day today and, while I'm tempted to sit and write or read, that little nag in my head is saying I should do something, at least for a while. Preferably practical that involves moving - but it's raining, and I'm not in the mood for housework (as if I ever am) so I'm tackling my microsoft problem again.

I've tried, Husband has tried, but I've still got my knickers in a twist. My storage is full and I can't send email from Outlook. As a trustee I have a free 365 account with lots of storage but do you think I can work out how to get there?

I think the problem is that I already have my own free account (with very little storage) and it's a dilemma changing from one to the other. Maybe. What do I know? Very little as this is proving. It asks for passwords and emails. Which email? Which password? And why are you asking again when I've just given you one?

And if I uninstalled my own account would I lose everything that there has ever been? Never to recover them. (I did that once in work. It kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to delete this. Yes, yes, stop asking me. Oops.)

I love technology, I love the ability to contact people and to find out things so easily but I also hate technology.

So think of me today as I prepare for the fight. 

Perhaps I should make cake instead . . .

Here's the wonderful Maxine's thoughts on the subject.

P.S. Thirty-five minutes, that's all it took for me to start screaming. 

Pretty in pink again

Daughter is a freelance copywriter and she's currently working for a company that sells air fryers, amongst other things. They gave her an air fryer to enable her to write about it, and then replaced it with a newer model. So Daughter gave me the original one. Very pretty it is too.

Last night I used it for the first time. Now the sensible thing would have been to cook a simple dish, like a piece of chicken. Not for me. Crispy chilli beef was my debut of choice.

The facts that it didn't come with a manual, and Daughter was in a parents' evening and uncontactable, didn't help. But I did it and it was fine, albeit VERY spicy hot, but that was the fault of the recipe - or Husband's chillis - not the air fryer. Also the beef wasn't very crispy. But I'd bought very thin slices so again that was probably my inexperience.

I will review it properly when I've cooked chips or chicken or something like that. 

* * * * *

I've just finished Fredrik Backman's latest, My Friends. Oh I loved it. Not just because I love everything he writes but because it's a beautiful story, told with love and humour. 

And, in my previous post, I named my flowers a Boud Bouquet because Boud regularly, possibly daily, gathers flowers from her garden.

Battling bots

Reading comments it occurred to me that bloggers like us could be the new first line of international defence. I'd defy code-breakers to make sense of some of my posts! Just think, if we all worked together we could confuse the bejaybers out of them!

My Boud Bouquet

Good to see Debra back in the blogging world. With Kathy and Marie also on short blogging breaks, and a couple of sites being inaccessible, my blog visiting list is reducing. But if you want a laugh, and especially if you have ever experienced the difficulty of getting through to someone dear, then do visit Janie's blog.

A frustrating morning. I was supposed to be meeting Vivien for ice cream but last night I got an urgent message from Stu at Zac's asking if I'd be able to let the boiler repair man in this morning as he had a family/dog emergency and wouldn't be able to be there. I said yes and put Vivien off, and then sat at home all morning waiting for a phone call to tell me the boiler man was on his way.

By 11.15 I thought I should phone the company and check. Man at the other end was very helpful, said, "The boiler's fixed blah blah."
"But I was told someone was coming today to fix it."
"Yes, he did. At 9.15."
"But . . .?"

Okay, so the breakfast crew would have let him in but they wouldn't have stayed. Did that mean the building had been left unlocked? There's not much of value but Stu has left lots of his tools there so I thought I'd better go along and make sure the building was locked up.

I was about halfway there when Stu rang, very apologetic. Everything had changed at the last minute and it had happened so quickly he'd forgotten to let me know I wasn't needed. He hoped I hadn't been sitting by the phone all morning.

It's a good job I'm polite and nice!

* * * * *

My substack articles are coming on apace. I'm scheduling them so one a day. And I've made what I'm calling a Boud Bouquet.

I visited someone I hadn't seen for a long time. I was tentative, half thinking/hoping they would be out. They weren't but it was as if there'd been no gap, no distance between us. It was a lovely visit. There was an elephant in the room but it sat there quietly not interrupting. 

In a few years, if I come back and re-read this, I will wonder who on earth it was I visited!

Spam

Boud asked if her comment was in Spam. I've checked and there was no sign of it but the last piece of spam there was on 25th July.

It seems unlikely there's not been any since so maybe 'something' has happened.

My visitor numbers are off the charts so there's definitely bot work afoot.

Pretty in pink

My head is so full of thoughts that are bursting to come out on my substack page. I imagine I can schedule them to appear a day at a time rather than flood one day with posts. 

I've had a look at my phone to see if I can voice record but don't know what I'm looking for so am consulting the experts i.e. my children.

I didn't have to walk Louie this morning so I was forced to something else instead: cleaned our bedroom. That's enough housework for one day - two months actually, probably since I last did any. So I have time now to write. Or procrastinate. My regular cleaner comes back on 20th October and because we were on holiday I hadn't booked my in-between cleaner for when we came back and when I tried she was already fully booked. Still, how dirty can a house get in five weeks?

I am infuriated with my inability to type 'th' in the right order.

Husband answered my dictaphone query and I've learned that I have a voice recorder already on my phone. Gosh, my voice sounds so peculiar!

And now I've lost it again. Next question: how do I put the little symbol thing on my front page? Ah, resolved.

My two latest stone memory pictures.

The stones from Lake Garda were, I think, imported rather than natural but they were pretty and there so they still count.

Those fun guys

Daughter was feeling unwell so I walked Louie today, and spotted these fun guys on my path. I have no idea what they are or even if they're all the same sort at different stages of life.

I have written a new post on my substack but not the one I was planning to as I got distracted this morning, wondering what my purpose in life was, and going down the 'if my value does not depend on what I do then what does it depend on?' route. And getting very confused along the way.

Zac's tonight. Stu is leading and we're having communion in the form of bread and soup. And banana and chocolate chip cake. I've also booked Zac's in to have a stall at a Christmas charity event for the homeless. Hard to believe it's October tomorrow.

My head is so full I kept saying to myself, when I was walking, I really need a dictaphone. Can I use my phone for that? To record me speaking notes to myself? Probably. I shall have to check.