Another Tuesday in which we have to organise our time a little carefully, as it is my Pilates day. Having picked up our newspaper by car, Meg and I wished to have a walk down to the park as  we have missed this for a day or so what with one thing or another. We walked down a little early according to our normal schedule and hoped to coincide with some of our park regulars but we were out of luck this morning. So we just enjoyed the spring/summer sunshine whilst we have it and drank our coffee alone. After. we had finished, we made a slight detour as fas as the park café but again missed our normal contacts. So we made for home and after another drink I made for my Pilates class. All was proceeding until half way through our normal routines when our Pilates teacher was called out of the class to receive an emergency telephone call. It transpired that our teacher’s husband who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease was thought to have suffered from a minor stroke and was told to make his own way to the hospital in Worcester some 15 miles distant. Our teacher’s inclination (and sense of duty) was to carry on with her class until its natural completion in half an hour’s time. All of the class members insisted that our teacher abandon a class immediately and go and transport her afflicted husband to hospital – as we all know, if the symptoms were to be a stroke then the sooner that a firm diagnosis is made and treatment administered the better. We were relieved that our teacher took our advice so we all gave out our good wishes and made for our respective homes half an hour early.  After lunch was over, I managed to locate my ‘edge cleaning’ tools which the patio cleaning crew had unceremoniously dumped in one of the raised shrub beds by the side of the house and then started work to attack the weeds in the junction bewteen the kebstones and the roadway along the long side of our communal grassed area. As is often the case, I have a variety of tools to assist me in this task. Of course the bigger weeds are easy to pull out but more problematic are of couse those insidious little ‘flat’ weeds and, of course, the dandelions which always have a habit of seeding themselves in inaccessible locations. I have a little curved patio weed rake, a dandelion remover, a general weeding tool, an old but stiff  washing up brush and then a general purpose softer hand brush. I find that this combination of tools allows one to loosen the weeds, rake them out and finally leave a nice clean and weed-free edge.  There is a 20 yard section that I had wanted to get in the time I had allocated myself this afternoon and it is always satisfying to fulfil one’s objectives. Later on this evening, as we always do on a Tuesday, we FaceTime our oldest Waitrose friends and exchange news. Later on there a couple of comedy programmes that we like to watch and ‘Yes Minister‘ to us never seems to date.    I think it is generally well known that the ‘Yes, Minister‘ Storie all have a foundation in fact. Harold Wilson’s private right hand woman, Marcia Williams (later Lady Falkender) and another policy wonk whose name I have not remembered, used to meet with the scriptwriters of ‘Yes Minister‘ each Monday morning and feed them several of these stories. The scriptwriters basically elaborated upon the stories and spun each into an episode for TV and there may have been a certain degree of artistic licence but the kernel of the story is in fact true.

In North Korea, COVID-19 seems to have taken off with a vengeance in a society in which nobody at all has been vaccinated. It seems that 50 people have died and 1.5 million have been infected but this secretive society has, this far, rebuffed all offers of help and prefers to rely upon their own self-reliance. The population are advised to gargle each day with salt water and to drink willow leaf tree three times a day. As I am writing this blog, a breaking news story is the latest sex scandal from Westminster. Scotland Yard confirmed in a statement that a man aged in his 50s has been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office. These offences were committed between 2002 and 2009 and is believed to be a Tory MP – the whips had advised that he absent himself from the ‘parliamentary estate’ but at this precise moment he appears to be in custody. It will be fascinating to see how well the rumour mill is working and whether a name will emerge later on the evening. Try as they might, political parties find it very hard to keep the identities of their errant members private.

Today was one of those ‘sorting out’ days when I knew there was quite a lot to be done. Before I went down into town, I phoned up my Internet provider who had sent me a text to say that a payment (by direct debit) had not been made this month. So I made a phone call and when I got through to a human being, he could not access my account. All he could suggest was that I abandoned the call and get another operator who might be able to access my account. This I did and whilst the more helpful operator was consulting with colleagues, I discovered that a direct debit had indeed been taken about two days ago. So the internet provider apologised for their systems saying I was both up-to-date and also overdue. In the course of all of this, I rediscovered the new password I had been given and this worked as well. So at least, I was not in danger of being disconnected for non-payment (which happened about a month ago) I then went down into town to my branch bank because I needed some cash to pay my dues to the patio cleaning crew. This was quite helpful because they upped the limit on the amount of cash I can withdraw in branch and this might be more than useful to me. Whilst on the High Street, I managed to get some cosmetics of which Meg was in need and also did a quick whizz through Poundland where I bought a small tarpaulin for £1.00 (always useful) and some potting compost as I have some little pots that are crying out to have some seeds planted in them which I will germinate on a window sill. Then it was home to prepare a lightning lunch before our chiropodist called around at 2.00 to do our feet so that we can keep on going for hundreds or thousands more miles yet. After the chiropodist had finished with us, I got onto our internet provider because they are offering a deal which include my landline with the retained number at a price which is actually less than I am paying at the moment. If all works as intended, I can dispense with my BT account (and associated payment) and all of that ought to be taken care of automatically, so they say. All that I can say is that I believe all of this when I see it but at least that is what I have been promised.

After we had our afternoon cup of tea, I set myself the task of starting to do a cleanup  of the various bits of garden furniture that had got  splattered by the cleaning process yesterday. This turned out to be quite a messy job but I made a start by cleaning up the various wheelie bins that had been stored temprarily on the lawn. I got through about half the entire job but I can always finish off tomorrow. Last night we had evidently had quite a downpour and this had loosened a certain amount of moss that had fallen in some clumps onto the newly cleaned patio. I remedied this with a quick sweeping up job and this has stopped the moss from causing a mess on the newly restored surface. However, a longer term solution is required to remove this moss, preferably on a continual basis so I had a bit of a think as to what to do. Our dormer bungalow has a roof that is relatively accessible from ground level so I went on the internet and ordered from Robert Dyas a special brush which has a specially extensible three metre handle. I am pretty sure this will facilitate the removal of most of this moss and I will then find another solution for what I cannot reach. Quite fortuitously, I had bought a tarpaulin from Poundland for £1.00 and at this price I can buy one or two more which should help to protect the newly cleaned patio surface before the moss comes down. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as they say.  

After our trip up to Bolton yesterday, we have had an exchange of emails in which we each thanked the other for the wonderful day we had yesterday. Meg and I were in the state of preparing ourselves for another reunion, this time with ex De Montfort University, Leicester colleagues that had been organised for Wednesday. But fate has intervened and the mother of one of the party has passed away at the ripe old age of 98. So we have had to put this particular reunion in Leamington Spa on hold for the time being until we can all find another mutually acceptable date. We were looking forward to dscussing the political situation both here and also in France (where two of our friends have another residence) but by the time we meet, there may be even more to discuss.

Today was the long anticipated day when we were due to travel North to visit Meg’s cousins in Bolton, Greater Manchester. We did not bother to set an alarm but just got up at the normal time and had our an ‘oats and bran’ quick breakfast for a Sunday morning. We prepared some comestibles and a flask of coffee ready to be consumed on the journey. The journey itself went very smoothly and we made a pitstop at Keele Sevices which is an approximate half way point. We secured ourselves a relatively secluded little location inside the services station where we could drink our coffee and ‘eat our snap’ before resuming our journey. The motorway systems around Greater Manchester are complex so we stuck rigidly to our SatNav which dropped us to the door absolutely on time. By the time we had got ourselves out of the car and laden with the pot plants and wine we were taking long, we managed to arrive practically on time, practically to the second. Inside we were greeted by Meg’s cousin, Meg’s cousing once-removed i.e. the daughter and her husband. The family dog also put in an appearance and after a few barks and sniffs accepted us aspart of the family. As always on these occasions, we spent most of our time talking about family members, particularly a generation or so ago and we managed to convey a few things about Meg’s extended family that they did not know (sort of ‘skeletons in the cupboard’ time) Then we had a magnificant meal of chicken and lashings of vegetables before we started to access some of the photos on our iPad telling the story that lay behind them e.g. the photograph of my grandmother, probably taken by about 1910 which had been ‘colourised’ by the technques popular at the time. My grandmother was wearing a beautiful dress and even more exotic headgear but we understand that photographers often had this type of clothing available for their subjects to wear. The afternoon seemed to absolutely speed by so at 5.00pm we took our leave before we outstayed our welcome and headed for home. We had a quick ‘pit stop’ on the way back down and got home before 7.30 By the time we arrived home, the rain had started to  fall quite gently. We noticed with much pleasure that the patio that we had cleaned yesterday looked absolutely fabulous as the colours glowed in the soft rain. This reminded Meg and I that we had a feature constructed in the garden of our house in Hedge End, Southampton which was called a heritage circle. This utilised a series of differently coloured and sized slabs arranged in a circular pattern and we reminded ourselves that in the rain this also looked stunningly beautiful but as that was some fifteen years ago, we had forgotten all about until today.

There are persistent reports concerning the health of Putin this evening. Some of these reports may be a case of wishful thinking on the part of the West but a persistent report is that Putin is seriously ill and may well be suffering from leukaemia or a similar illness. The puffiness around the face that Putin seems to be exhibiting is probably the consequence of the use of steroids, western medical experts are saying. Whether this is true or not is difficult to say but even if Putin is ill, it may take him some time to die and the war in the Ukraine rages on. In the fullness of time, Putin’s miscalculations may cost him dear but this evening, both Sweden and Finalnd are busy abandoning decades of neutrality and are making haste to join Nato. If these applications are successful, then in the ase of Finland, Russia is now faced with an 800 mile border (with Finland) now facing a hostile NATO front line. There must be some minds in Russia who must be secretly appalled by the miscalculations that Putin has wrought, making Russia less rather than more secure. All that this does is to lower the threshold at which the Russians may feel inclined to utilise tactical nuclear weapons which well presage the start of World War III.

Eggs have been thrown after a statue of Baroness Margaret Thatcher was lowered into place in the former prime minister’s hometown of Grantham, according to Sky News this evening. The original plan was to have the statue erected in Parliament Square in London. After fears that the statue might be attacked or vandalised by ‘far left’ groups if erected in London, it was thought better to erect the statue in Thatcher’s home town of Grantham, Lincs. But after South Kesteven District Council approved a £100,000 unveiling ceremony in 2020, a Facebook group proposing an ‘egg-throwing contest’ at the event attracted interest from more than 13,000 people. What will be interesting to observe in the next few days is whether the statue will attract similar protests some two years later – perhaps the relevant authorities have placed it at such a height or with a physical barrier such that any egg-thrown missiles will fail to reach their target. We shall have to wait and see. 

Well, you never know what a day is going to bring and so it proved today. The day started off whilst Meg and I were in our dressing gowns as the patio cleaning firm which we thought would turn up yesterday actually turned up today. After an estimation and a price had been agreed, the trio of men started work. The first stage was evidently to clear everything off the patio and it was piled, somewhat higgledy-piggledy upon our back lawn. Then a special solution was applied  the function of which was to attack both the black mould and the white spots of algae that had eaten their way into the stonework. The crew departed for an hour or so and then came back and started work in earnest. I have to say that the end result was that the stonework came up in a series of muted colours that we had not realised actually existed. Evidently, when the patio had been laid down some 17 or so years ago, a selection of stone had been carefully chosen and the colours came up to give a very pleasing effect. The patter from the head of the crew was that if you were to lift these stones (which we would not) and sell them they would go for at least a couple of thousand. Whether this is true or patter who is to say. but it was certainly streets ahead of the buff coloured concrete that passes for patio paving these days. Now this is when the fun started. The act of hosing/cleansing had loosened if not dislodged vast chucks of the original grouting. If the truth be told, it was never in the first place a professional grade grout but rather a simple sand-and-cement mixture and over time this had cracked and loosened. Meg and I knew in our heart of hearts that the existing ‘grouting’ was not really fit for purpose and it was pointed out to us, quite forcibly, that if we mixed ‘old’ and new grouting the overall effect would like a bit bodged up. So we did agree to a much more extensive job in which all of the old grouting was removed. I would estimate that we had 250 yds of grouting to be replaced and I knew from previous reearchs on the internet that the specialist grout compound on its own could cost us a pretty penny. Anyway, after some negotiation we agreed a price which was a considerable increase on the initial quote. However, we have been saying for years that our patio needed a makeover so we reluctantly agreed. At the same time, the firm cleaned a small area of roof for us (the difference being dramatic) and was then touting for the whole roof to be cleaned with their specialist steam cleaning equipment. At this stage, we telephoned our son and daughter-in-law to have a family conference on whether we should go head. or not and the consensus view was ‘enough was enough’ and we should assess whether the patio cleaning job turned out to be as good as claimed and we could then make a decision as to whether to proceed with the roof or not. We all agreed upon this and although the firm kep on discounting the price to us we felt we had probably agreed a price that somewhat on the high aide to start off with so we should stay our hand and be content with the patio alone.

As our son and daughter-in-law had come over to help us assess what had been done and how we progress from here, they stayed on throughout the rest of the afternoon. My daughter-in-law helped Meg to sort out some of her clothing so that she can find quickly ‘what goes with what’ and then Meg and went to church at our normal time. When we returned home, I looked at the ‘mess’ of things on our lawn which were now all covered in a sort of sandy grime. The firm had initially indicated that they would put everything back the way they found it but then at the end of the day informed us that we had best keep off the patio for a week to allow the grout to settle. So during the week, I will have quite a job to clean up some of the things we stored outside such as our rubbish bins, some gardening things, table and chairs and what-have-you. Having quickly made some order out of the chaos, I knew that the car needed a quick flash of a wash before we made our journey up the motorway to see Meg’s relatives in Bolton tomorrow. Now we are settling down to ‘watch’ the Eurovision song context except that Meg and I will go to bed about 10.00 or before and listen to the rest of it in bed anyway. Ukraine are bound to win – but can the UK come second this year? At the last moment, though, we decided that Hardy’s ‘Far from the Madding Crowd‘ was a better watch for us.

Today was a fine spring day and we were looking forward to our walk in the park. Meg and I had breakfasted relatively early so we were in plenty of time this morning. When we arrive at the park, we enter not by the main entrance but in a small side entrance that runs alongside the local Girl Guides clubhouse. Then we normally have to cross a rough area of grassland for a hundred metres or so before we join one of the main paths around the lake. But yesterday, the park groundsmen had lowered the normal cutting height of their mowers by about a half and then specially cut two ‘paths’ across the grass, one direct and the other more curving. This seemed to be a brilliantly simple idea as many people (principally dog walkers) as well as ourselves use this top entrance and I thought that a path was long overdue. But now this broad access strip has been mown, psychologically it is easy to walk along it and, in the fullness of time, this path will remain a green path but will no doubt make itself under the pressure of many feet (and some paws). We noticed one of the groundstaff working on his tractor nearby, the tractor pulling some wide cutting units.  We mentioned to him to pass on to his superervisors what a thoughtful and intelligent thing the staff had done for regular park users. The groundman explained to us it was part of a conservation unit to encourage people on some parts but bees and flora and fauna in the remaining parts. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that the Massey Ferguson he was driving was manufactured in France whilst the grasscutting units were imported from New Zealand at a price of £18,000 per unit whereas the British equivalent would cost in the order of £30,000. So we then continued with our walk and had our coffee but hoped we make contact with our University of Birmingham friend but it was not to be, even though we made a detour on the way home hoping that he and our friend might be having a coffee in the park’s own café. Meg and I needed to get home and have lunch because we have some trademen calling around at 1.30pm. As we walked home yesterday, we noticed a specialised form that was cleaning the drive (and the roof) of one of the nicest houses on the other side of Kidderminster Road. We asked one of the workers for a leaflet which they gave us and we also made arrangements for them to call around to our house and give is a quote today. But despite having lunched, got washed up and were generally well prepared, the firm did not show up. So I had a quick read of the newspaper and then made a weekly start of the weekly mowing. I use my extremely light hand mower to do all of the lawn edges (a task taking me some six minutes) and then the main mowing.

After all of this had been completed and refreshments had been taken, Meg and I went to our local Morrisons where they have a little mini-garden centre just outsde the store. We needed to buy a couple of potted plants to take up to our relatives in Bolton in two days time and we also wanted to buy some clematis plants for ourselves. This we succeeded in doing although the clematis plants on offer were quite small (albeit cheap) but climbers ought to grow quickly if we get them into their position early and we have a spell of warm, alternating with wet, weather which seems to the the weather forecast anyway. Traditionally, I always liked to grow parsnip and although this is not a ‘difficult’ plant to grow, the seed needs to be this years and there is quite a long germination period. But I have seen some internet tips how to speed up germination, one from Alan Titchmarsh no less, which involves mixing some parsnip seeds in some potting compost and then keeping the bag with the mixture in the airing cupboard for a few days. Well, it is worth a try anyway. If and when the seeds have germinated, I am trying a novel experiment to get them growing to a certain size and then planting out. This involves taking a toilet roll inner, making a cone-shaped base from the relevant part of an egg box, filling with seed compost and then priming with seeds. When (if) they get going, then the whole tube is to be planted and obviously the cardboard tube will rot away and you should get long, straight parsnip roots as the developing roots will find the easiest way to exit i.e. through the bottom. I am going to give it a try anyway – this has the advantage of not having to thin the young parsnip plants so the ‘tubes’ can be planted at the optimum distance some 10″-12″ apart.

Thursday is my shopping day so I get up reasonably early so that I can get to the supermarket as it opens at 8.00am. Today, though, I left home five minutes early so that I could mak a flying visit to Morrisons store which is adjacent practically to the Aldi store I use. I had had my eye upon some particularly nice large ceramic planters which were very reasonably priced. Fortunately, even at that hour, there was assistant bobbling about who took my payment in the gardening section attached to the store and then carried the planter to the car for me. I got it home by putting on a protective cloth I keep in the boot for occasions such as this and did my normal weekly shop up. This finishes off with me calling in at my regular newsagent as they are in the vicinity and thence home. After a slow unpack and a bite of breakfast, Meg and I were ready to wander down into the park. Once in the park, we did not expect to see any of our regular acquainatances but our Intrepid Octogenerial Hiker strode into view and we exchanged news of our various comings and goings. As he regularly does circuits of the park and has a special Apple watch with an app that records his steps, I asked him for some assistance with a little query that I have. As our friend regularly does a complete ‘circuit’, I asked him to measure it for me and he already knew the answer which was 1000 steps. We then needed to know how many feet he has in a typical step. To solve this problem was fairly easy because we measured the distance from where we were towards the end of.a fairly adjacent bench which we measured both there and back and took an average.Then I did the same and I could compare my steps with those of our friend. The results were that my stride is three times the length of our friend (who is in his 80’s and takes quite small steps). From this we managed to compute that the distance round the lake is 1000 x.2ft andd the net result of all of this is that the distance around the lake is something of the order of 600m. Estimating by eye,I thought the distance was near to 100m (1 km) so I may have to  do a special walk to solve this particular problem to my own satisfaction. Incidentally, is it a ‘man’ thing, this constant desire to measure and record things? I think I will leave this topic for now.

After a lunch of quiche and a bit of a doze, I was ready to start on my afternoon’s project which is to get some of the beetroot and lettuce plants that we purchased yesterday to get planted out. The section that I have marked out under some of our bordering trees used to be devoted to my daughter-in-laws superb dahlia growing but the land has ceded back to me and hence my planting regime. I had ‘rough’ dug the area some weeks ago and then limed it well, as it probably not been limed for years if ever at all. It was then a very simple task to make the soil into a friable condition by a simple raking, assisted of course with a good trampling underfoot under some heavy gardening boots. I know that I had near our compost heap in the far regions of the garden some pelleted chicken manure and I put some of this into an empty tall sauce jar which makes an excellent way to distribute the fertiliser evenly. I then made some drills and fortunately rescued from Mog’s Den a short offcut  of timber with a 2″ x 2″ square cross section. This proved to be an excellent  way of creating some planying holes which almost exactly match the cross section of the plastic cells in which the newly purchased plants were  sold. The upshot of all of this was that I planted out 2 x. 2 rows of beet plants which I hope will now grow away quickly as there is no thinning to do. Beet plants have the added bonus that you can eat the tender young red/green leaves in a salad as well as cooking the roots which are always delicious if home grown ( and even more if baked which I will try if I achieve some success) I finished off with a row of lettuce plants which I think are of the ‘Lollo Rosso’ (i.e. red-leaved) variety. Finally, I doused each of my plants with a special  anti-slug solutuon which is ecologically sound and works to a completely differemt formula to the conventional slug pellets. A ban on the outdoor use of metaldehyde slug pellets is to be introduced across Great Britain from spring 2022.

Downing Street has been issued with 50 more fines which brings the total to 100+. The latest fines relate to a Christmas party which we know that Boris Johnson did not attend  but there is always the possibility that he will be fined when news of further tranches of the fines is realised by the Metropolitan police as their investigations proceed.

Well, today of all days did not start well. As I was concluding this blog last night, suddenly my MacBook upon which I write this blog (whilst keeping one ear on the TV and the other ear on Meg) became completely unresponsive. I tried a reset of the computer, including a reset in ‘Safe’ mode (i.e. with minimal drivers ) but I could only get as far as the ‘Log In’ screen and no further.  I went on the web to identify problems and solutions and it was not uncommon for MACs to stick at this stage, particularly after an upgrade. So for hours I tried a variety of solutions thinking that I would have to take the laptop off to the Apple Centre in Solihull for a diagnosis and repair. At about 2.45 in the morning, I noticed that although my mouse showed a cursor across the screen but would not effect a double-click, the trackpad appear to work as intended (although I never use it). After some experience with another (wired) mouse, I finally came to the conclusion that it was my own mouse that was faulty because of practically spent batteries. The fact that I could move the mouse cursor across the screen did not alert me to exhausted batteries but evidently, the batteries had sufficient for a cursor movement but insufficient for a double click. The relief when I got the problem both identified and solved was overwhelming because I was having to contemplate the prospect that the entire laptop had gone ‘belly up’ and there would be no alternative but to replace it. So I crawled into bed, tired but happy, at 3.15 in the morning.

Today being my birthday, I had a whole series of interesting cards – nearly all of them relating to age/gardening/neighbourly activities. I must say I particularly liked one card in which one neighbour had been shaping the dividing privet hedge into a series of topiaries shaped as as a series of ‘V’ signs. The caption read ‘Relations with the neighbors seem to be deteriorating’ so I thought I would share the joke with my next door neighbour when next I see him. A present of a series of craft beers had been left on our doorstep by our Irish friends before they got away to Munich – fortunately for them, the airport was relatively clear because Birmingham Airport has been badly hit in recent days with an excess of passengers over staff to deal with them. Our domestic help called around today rather than Friday, again bearing some cake (as did our former Waitrose friends who dropped a specially baked cake around for me last night) I now have enough cake to put on several pounds but I am pleased to report that I have now shed 3½lbs in 10 days which is just about the right rate of weight loss for me so I am hoping I can maintain this progress. Meg and I decided to go to our favourite little Georgian town of Alcester down the road – this will be our third visit but we did have an ulterior motive as the range of good quality charity shops is superb. We got there and had a coffee before diving into one of the shops and buying a couple of skirts for Meg.  We have noticed that the charity shops seem awash with tops but comparatively few skirts which reflects the fact that so many trousers are worn these days. Then we went off to our favourite hotel for a meal of lasagne which again was excellent. We had taken the opportunity of making a booking just before we came out which was just as well because with no booking we would have had to have waited for our meal. After the meal, we proceeded to the end of the high street where I purchased a series of beets ready to be planted out. They looked a little the ‘worse for wear’ to be honest but if I get them planted out quickly (tomorrow) they will revive. I also bought some ‘Rosso’ lettuce plants and some runner beans which I am sure I can plant in a little ‘wigwam’ built of canes in a corner of the garden.  I treated myself to a high qulity shirt as well, very much like I already own but obviously the collar and cuffs are pristine and not showing signs of wear. After this huge meal we got home and collapsed a little in front of the TV after our exertions of the day.  

There was an item on the news which was quite shocking. The Ukrainians exploring the areas that the Russians has first invaded and from which they have been beaten back have discovered the bodies of several dead Russian soldiers. The Russian authorities, though, are refusing to take them back or to share any DNA database with the Ukrainians so the soldiers can be identified. At the moment, they are being stored in refrigerated railway wagons until, presumably, the conflict is over.

Another beautiful spring day has dawned but as it is my Pilates class today, the schedule of the morning’s activities has to be carefully managed. After collecting the newspaper by car, Meg and I started a fairly gentle walk to the park. On the way down, we were delighted to bump into our Italian friend and we stayed chatting for several minutes, swapping tips and hints about to keep our patios in good condition. When we got down to the park, we had hoped to meet up with our University of Birmingham friend but it was not to be today. So we had a pleasant drink of our coffee and a pleasant stay in the warm sunshine before we made our way up to the hill to home. Then I changed into my track suit bottoms and proceeded down the hill again walking to my Pilates class. It has become a tradition in our little class that in every six week session, we have two sessions of relaxation for a few minutes at the end of our routines, typically in week 3 and week 6. However, if it is your birthday (or even birthday week) then for a special treat, an additional relaxation session is provided as  a type of birthday treat from the rest of the group. As it is my birthday tomorrow, we enjoyed our little relaxation at the end of our session today and, in return, some cup cakes were distributed to my fellow class members, as well as some gluten-free cookies for my Pilates teacher. On my way home, I popped into Waitrose and there I presented myself at the Help Desk and managed to reclaim the £10.00 note which had been retrieved from the nether regions of the conveyor belt leading to one of the tills which I had lost yesterday. The staff and I reminded each other that tomorrow was the fifth anniversary of the opening of this particular Waitrose store, a fact that sticks in the mind as it just happens to be my own birthday as well. Five years ago, I had hoped to be the first person through the doors when the store opened – in the event, I ended up as the second as I was beaten to it by a rather pushy young woman. Then it was a walk home and the by now traditiuonal lunch on a Tuesday of haddock fish cakes which ‘do’ in the oven whilst I am doing my Pilates and can be quickly complemented by one of those vegetabke packs that can be cooked in the micrwave for about three minutes.

This afternoon, although time was a little limited, I thought I would spend a small amount of time doing some weeding at the front of the house. We have across our access road a series of large cobbles which technically mark the boundary between our own property and the roadways accessed by all of the houses in the Close. This task was not particularly difficult but I am determined not to injure my back by over-much bending. Accordingly, i sort of ‘lay’ on my side on the ground from which position I could quickly attack the weeds I wisjed to remove. As I was just about completing my task, my neighbour approached in his car (we often swing our cars into each other’s space so that we can reverse into our own properties, thus enabling us to drive out forwards the next time we use the car). When I saw my neighbour’s car approaching, I thought for a moment that he was not going to be able to stop in time and I was in danger of being run over. I jumped up to get out of the way and when my neighbour strolled over for a chat he was laughing his head off because he had seen me in plenty of time but he reckoned he had never seen a prostrate figure get to their feet so fast in all of his life. Actually, I was glad to have a chat because my neighbour has absolutely transformed the bungalow which is next to us and has generated a whole raft of improvements both inside the house but even more outsides. He is extremely knowledgeable about gardening ‘things’ particularly when it comes to little landscaping projects so I was very pleased to be able to tap into his expertise about the most effective way to get my patio repointed/re-grouted as necessary and how he would tackly my own patio if it were his.

Today was the State Opening of Parliament which is normally the preserve of the monarch. On this occasion, the Queen had very reluctantly decided that her mobility problems meant she had to miss this occasion which has happened only twice before and that when she was pregnant. So the Queen’s speech from the throne outlining the government’s legislative programme  was actually read by Prince Charles acting under ‘Letters Patent’ whilst the absent Queen was symbolised by a crown on a table placed besides Prince Charles. It was all rather poignant and ceratinly may be a sign that the monarchy is itself in a transitional period.

It was an intermediate day today but pleasant enough for our daily walk. My routine differs a little these days in that I tend to take the car down into town on my own in order to collect our daily newspaper and this means that Meg and I for a walk only to walk as far as the park (about 800m at a rough guess) and not the 1200m to the newsagent. Although we visit the park every day, we always notice new things that hadn’t impinged upon our consciousness. As we looked down the hill towards the cafe in the park, I noticed that it was one of those modernistic 1970’s type designs in which the roof took the shape of a ‘V’ rather than the conventional hipped roof. At the same time, I noticed that there were no rainwear goods attached to the outside of the building  and therefore I speculated that the design of the roof must be such that with a slight ‘fall’ for water to drain away, then might be the need for only one drainpipe in an unobtrustive space towards the rear of the building. Perhaps some of my park acquaintances might be able to put me wise on this. Whilst sitting on our normal bench, I started to speculate how far the distance was from the point at which we were sitting to  make a complete detour of the lake by the normal paths and return to one’s starting point. At a guess, I would think this is 1km so I may ask some of the regular runners and/or walkers in the park if they have any measuring devices with them to measure this distance for me. I suppose I could get an app and do it myself on the iPhone but it might be easier to ask someone. On our way back from the park, we walked past the garden of our closest Irish friends one of whom was gardening (until we interrupted him) and the other was busy hoovering. As they are going on a trip shortly and will be away for eleven days, no doubt there are a lot of domestic jobs to be done before they depart in a day or so’s time.

After lunch, I had only the briefest of rests because I wanted to really ‘crack on’ and get the weeding of the patio outside our kitchen window completed. I have got my technique off to a fine art now and after about an hour and a half of concentrated effort, the task is now completed to my satisfaction. I think the ‘root’ of the problem, if I can put it this way, is that we used to have a regular gardner who kept the terrace looking neat and tidy. However, I suspect that the strimmer that he used took the top off the weeds but left the root systems in the ground, free to grow away again if left unattended. Now that I have done a ‘root and branch’ clearance, I intend to keep it that way. I think that I may use a combination of an old but stiff washing up brush together with a small wire brush to eliminate any weeds too small to be grasped by the fingers. If I do this on a regular basis, then I can keep the terrace looking pristine. After this task had been completed, I dashed off into town because I wanted to go into our local Waitrose to avail myself of some cupcakes because it had been intimated to me that the rest of my Pilates classmates would expect no less of me in a birthday week. Having got my cupcakes, including some gluten-free goodies for my Pilates teacher, I then bought two or three things to keep us going until our next shop up. Then I was the ‘victim’ of one of the most obscure accidents in the history of shopping.  I was behind one other customer and so I slapped my £10 note, my car parking token and my Waitrose card on the conveyor belt. When I came to be served, the £10 note and car parking token had disappeared and the assistant and I concluded that the belt had transported both of them neatly into the internal workings of the belt. Neither of us had ever known this to happen before but I said I was quite happy to wait a day or so in case an engineer had to be called. I left my name and contact number with the assistant who served me and came home to tell the story. Then I got a call on my mobile. The Waitrose manager had equipped himself with a screwdriver, taken off a panel by the side of the belt and retrieved the errant note! They are going to leave it at the Help Desk so that I can retrieve it when I return from my Pilates class tomorrow.

Today being Sunday, I got up early and strolled down to pick up my copy of the ‘Sunday Times‘. On my walk down, I entertain myself to listening to some classical music tracks on my trusty old iPhone, retained just for this purpose. The first track which played was Handel’s ‘Zadoc the Priest‘ composed for the coronation of George II and played at every coronation ever since. The interesting thing about this piece is that there a long introduction of what might be termed ‘tum-ti-tum’ music played on the strings which occasionally swells and diminishes in volume without seemingly going away. One can imagine the rows packed into Westminster Abbey with the crowd waiting patiently in their crinolines (or whatever else was fashionable in 1727). Eventually, the choir breaks in, declaiming in full voice with the start of the anthem singing ‘Zadoc the Priest..” One can only imagine the impact that must have been made on the congregation when it was heard for the very first time and it still thrills. Another track was the ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks‘ and I discerned it was excellent marching music as I could time my steps to the on beats – it would have to be a quick march, I imagine. Another concert favourite was ‘Jerusalem’ which must be, by now, practically England’s (if not the UK’s) second national anthem. I have always found it interesting that the Blake poem decrying the ‘dark Satanic Mills’ of the early periods of industrialisation evokes sympathetic responses from both the political left as well as the political right. I cannot think of any other tract or poetic work of a similar ilk. The final piece that caught my attention was the ‘Halleluja‘ chorus from Handel’s ‘Messiah‘ and this also evokes a memory of the Huddersfield Choral Society singing in Huddersfield Town Hall, which itself contains a Concert Hall seating some 1200 people. I believe that it is still the case that in various towns and cities across the land, if you have a reasonable single voice you can turn up to perform a rendition just needing a score in your hand and allocation to sopranos, altos, tenors or bases. I have never done this but I reckon it would be quite an inspiring experience to do it.

Meg and I made our way to the park after watching the ‘Sunday Morning‘ (politics) programme and there we coincided, as we thought that we might, with our University of Birmingham friend. He had been busy yesterday in a community workshop repairing whatever came before him – generally radios with corroded contacts and the like. Then we bumped some other mutual acquaintances who we have not seen for a week or so but they had been away on a trip to Yorkshire. Then we made our way home for a nice Sunday lunch of chicken which was one of these supermarket offerings complete in its tray and roasting bag which just has to be popped into the oven for an hour and a half before its final finishing off with the roasting bag removed. After lunch and a brief rest reading the Sunday Times, I resumed my task in weeding the patio outside our kitchen window. These tasks always seem to take longer than you think if you do it relatively conscientiously and I had set myself the goal of doing one more ‘line’ of slabs makng only two more yet to be done. I set myself the goal of trying to get today’s quota done in ¾ hour because we had decided to watch a repeat episode of Morse on ITV3. This episode we thought we had not seen before but half way though we realise how the plot unfolded to its denouement but it was enjoyable all the same. When this episode of Morse was over, we wanted to watch Andrew Neil whose politics show, including interview, is starting a run on Channel 4. This first programme was pretty good, I thought and Andrew Neil was just about getting the better of  William Rees-Mogg when the interview was made to give way to a set of adverts half through the programme. To my mind, the program seemed slightly too short at 30 minutes and I felt it could easily have been extended to 40-45 minutes. Anyway I shall watch the next one next Sunday as I think that Andrew Neil takes no prisoners and will ‘go after’ an interviewee if he feels it to be necessary.

There is an interesting ‘afterthought’ that has been occurring to some political analysts after the elections last Thursday. The popular view was that Labour had done OK but had not any dramatic further advances apart from capturing key seats in London. The Tories, for their part, felt it could have been worse and they can probably rise out any short tern unpopularity. But another view which is circulating is that voters in the South were determined to punish Johnson not just by not voting Tory but actively voting Liberal Democrat to actually punish the Tory party. If this view persists, then in the next general election, it may well be that the Tories will lose power, ceding to a minority Labour government tacitly supported by the Lib Dems.