Saturday, 10th July, 2021 [Day 481]

Today turned out to be quite a busy day.The day started off fine but cloudy but with the threat of rain until about midday, after which the temperature rose and the clammy feeling alongside it. We had quite a few chats in the course of our peregrinations this morning. First we bumped into one of our oldest friends who was busy gardening until we interrupted him. We exchange some gossip about church matters because we will both be attending the 6.00pm service this evening. Then Meg and I made for one of our favourite benches and were relieved to find that one was  unoccupied – and no sooner had we started to fall upon our flask of coffee when our old estanblished University of Birmingham friend hove into view. As we had not seen each other for the best part of a week, we had quite a lot to catch up on, not least the sporting news from Wimbledon (currently) and Wembley (tomorrow night) We chatted for a few minutes when one of our wheelchair friends sped into view – she comes to the park most days and patronises the little refreshment kiosk near the main entrance to the park. She was telling us that the little cafe for whatever reason has run out of bread and several other day-to-essentials. As our friend likes her slice of toast she shot off to Waitrose which is probably ¼ mile away, got the cafe the supplies that she needed and then returned to provision them. Our friend is no slouch in her wheelchair – I think that the top speed may be approaching 20mph but she certainly whizzes along at the tremendous pace whoever she has a mind. I then left Meg and our friend in the park whilst I walked to pick uo our supply of newspapers. I know I could get the same newspapers from the Waitrose store but I prefer to patronise the little Asian-owned newsagent around the corner not least because, as a daily and regular customer, they keep my supply of newspapers apart from the main supply in the back office. This means that whoever I turn up, I can be assured of my supply and I want to keep this relationship going as long as possible. We were then joined by another of our park regulars who we have not seen for several days and then I went off to collect the newspapers. Upon my return, seeing the there of them together, I wondered if they had time yet to solve Fermat’s last theorem. Fermat himself claimed to have a proof but it was too big to fit on the margins of his notebook (a claim which is since disputed) Eventually, after 358 years of effort by mathematicians, the first successful proof was released in 1994 by Andrew Wiles ( a British mathematician), and formally published in 1995. As it happened the three of them had not solved the problem so we decided to leave that for another day.

When we did get home (eventually), we had a light cheese-and-biscuits type of lunch because I knew that whilst the weather was fine, the garden beckoned. I would dearly liked to be getting one with the finishing touches to Mog’s Den – instead I told myself that getting the lawns cut was undoubtedly a greater priority. This went fine and half-way through I bunped into the wife of my immediate next-door neighbour.  We both had important bits of news to impart to each other. My neighbour informed me that her husband was going into hospital on Monday  to have the last of  a series of heart operations. Some of the others had provided some technical challenges to the heart surgeons so this was to be their last attempt to get things working as well as they could. At the same time, I needed to inform our next-door neighbour about what had open to our neighbour ‘across the green’ who had suffered a stroke recently but about whom we have received no more news from the relatives. After all of this, Meg and I attended the evening service which was quite quiet and contemplative – for whoever reason we had no music (as the person who operated the ‘BlueTooth’ was away on holiday and I suppose the same might have been true of the regular organist).

The whole of the day today has been the country poised in anticipation of the Euro Cup Finals between England and Italy tomorrow night. Why the commentators are frothing with excitement is that this is the first finals in which England is a finalist since the World Cup in 1966 (55 years ago) So any commentator (practically each one of them, plus all of the array of football pundits) has never experienced England in a final before and are therefore as much carried away by excitement as the rest of us. I think that Italy is far the better team but funny things happen in finals- a deflected ‘own goal’ gifting 1-0 to the opposition followed by ‘do-or-die’ defence for the rest of the match could actually mean that the weaker team eventually wins. In just over a day, it will all be over and the post-mortems will begin!

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Friday, 9th July, 2021 [Day 480]

Today turned out to be quite a fine day, once we actually got onto our walk. We spent a certain amount of time chatting with our domestic help which is quite usual for a Friday. We had got up a little bit earlier than normal because I had spent a certain amount of time sorting out some financial things during a sleepless period in the middle of the night. Specifically, one particular account had matured and then it got whizzed from account to another until I located where the money had eventually lodged itself. This is because I prefer to budget using lots of little individualised accounts whereas my son prefers the approach in which he uses one account but a spreadsheet to organise between one heading and another. I can see the advantages and disadvantages of both ways of doing things but good and up-to-date record keeping is always the recipe for an easy life. I had a routine health monitoring appointment this morning with one of the nurse practitioner team. This was not particularly stressful as certain routine measures were taken (blood pressure, blood samples for a variety of assays) but a more crunch moment will come in a couple of weeks when I have a telephone appointment to discuss some of the results that will have been returned by then. Passing past my local Asda, I noticed that they had quite a range of hydrangea plants for sale for £10.  I noticed when I was showing the practice nurse the laminated cards on which I keep the NHS numbers for both my wife and I that I tucked a spare £10 note into one of my mobile phone case slots so I decided to treat myself to a plant to help to populate Mog’s Den. I have a few more cut-price plants arriving from a web source so hopefully if the weather holds out, I will manage to bring my plan to fruition to install  several tubs of flowering and/or colourful shrubs. One in particular I thought to be quite interesting as it was a buddleia in which three different colours of flower are grafted onto one root stock and the various colours are meant to intertwine and to complement each other. We shall have to wait and see if the promise of the advertising actually gets fulfilled. Having walked home from the medical appointment, Meg and I went down into town by car but, once again, having picked up our newspapers we discovered that the Waitrose cafe was closed for a second day.  So we did what we did yesterday which was to buy an iced tea drink, couple it with a sandwich and make for a set in the park here e consumed our snack in glorious sunshine. Then we made off for home, knowing that we had an afternoon appointment to see our friends at 3.00pm in the afternoon.

Our ex-Waitrose friends had long since wanted us to view their apartment and its surroundings and it was truly impressive, once we had a little guided tour. The building itself had been built especially to provide good quality apartments for members of the Bromsgrove business community. We had to acknowledge the fact that the quality of the internal layout and fixtures were superb – also, the accommodation had some well maintained gardens in which the residents could entertain visitors as well as some communal areas which of course were utilised to the full when there not COVID regulations in place. We spent a very pleasant afternoon, drinking tea and eating some delicious cake, especially prepared for yesterday’s ‘Birthday Boy‘ in the gardens overlooking a pond sporting a variety of vegetation and even wildlife (although we didn’t see any frogs today). When we got home, I carried out a little outside activity in which I am making a series of drain holes in the planters I have recently purchased. This involves making a pilot hole and then gradually enlarging it with a variety of implements until each hole is about 1cm in diameter which I feel is just about right to make sure the whole planter does not get waterlogged.

An estimated 400,000 tested positive for the virus last week which sounds scarily high to me. Although the link between incidences of the virus, hospitalisation and eventually deaths is now a lot more tenuous than it was, it is still there. Also, as the numerate of incidents continues to rise, so too does the possibility of new variants which might be immune to existing vaccines – then we would be in a mess. There are signs that the rate of increase is moderating a little  but the R-rate is between 1.2-1.5. I do feel that the government is running the most dangerous game of ‘chicken’ at this point – and of course the huge crowds of football fans jumping up and down and exhaling vociferously is just what the virus really likes.

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Thursday, 8th July, 2021 [Day 479]

Today has been a day with a bit of drama thrown in at the start of the day. My son and daughter-in-law were pretty sure that they heard an ambulance enter our Close late last night but it could just have been turning round and did not linger. This morning, we were just putting away the deliveries from our weekly Waitrose order when the relatives of our neighbour from across the communal green area called round us to see us. They gave us the grim news that their mother seemed to have had quite a major stroke – it looked as though she had fallen and perhaps banged her head but certainly been on the floor for hours. Her daughter had evidently tried to make contact throughout the day with no success and had called round to find her mother on the floor. At the moment, she is in a specialist unit in Worcester Royal but we have no more news until her relatives have themselves been briefed by the hospital. The stroke appears to have been quite a major one and therefore we have to speculate that our neighbour’s capacity for self care is severely compromised and she may not have the capacity for independent living any more. The gardener who looks after our garden every few weeks also looks after our neighbour and he happened to be working there this morning. So I popped across to brief him on the news of the morning and also took some cash with me  so that the gardener could get paid and I could settle up later. But the relatives and the gardener did coincide this morning so they managed to fund his bill. I asked the gardener to keep on coming on a regular basis as he knows what is to be done – and I promised to keep the front lawn mown with my own petrol mower at the same time as we do our own. As time was now passing, we decided to go into town by car but were a bit dismayed to find that the Waitrose cafe was closed for the day – although the staff indicated to us that it should be open again tomorrow. So we bought ourselves a tin of peach tea (which was actually much nicer than it sounds) and a sandwich and then made our way to our normal bench where we munched and drank and  contemplated what might happen in our little ‘coin‘. Then it was home for lunch – but as it was so hot and humid we decided to forego a cooked meal and indulged ourselves with our special mixture of peaches (tinned), ice cream, yogurt and a drizzle of honey.

I had an outdoor task detailed in my mind, assuming that the weather held up. Down in Mog’s Den, I have a little mini-greenhouse with only an improvised cover as the original got ripped and blew away some time in the past. Consequently, I have treated it as a little store of plants pots, gardening tools and requisites but I thought this afternoon I would turn out all of the contents. Then I would clean up and store (in another place) that which I wanted to keep and junk the rest. But the weather turned a little threatening, so I started another job which needed doing which was to clear off the mud and generally tidy up the steps leading down into Mog’s Den.  This is a little job best done regularly but needs doing when the weather is fine and the soil is baked dry. I had just about finished this task when the raindrops started falling and I judged it best to beat a hasty retreat. But by the time I got my tools cleaned up and inside, the rain seemed to stop. So I started a major task I know I have to do which is to start to attack the 4′-5′ high stack of weeds that the gardener and I had cleared off and ‘process’ them. Basically, the thick stems of the brambles might take years to rot down so I find it better to strip off the small branches, chop them up with my secateurs and get them into my compost bin. The major bits of stem get put into the brown bin system where they eventually be collected by the refuse disposal team (once per fortnight).

Did I mention that England are through into the European Cup final? For the record, England won 2-1 after a rather dubious penalty decision – it looked particularly clear cut to almost everybody, including the referee, but the video replay system indicated minimal contact – whether deserving of a penalty is the moot point. But if England had not been awarded the penalty given their domination of play in the latter stages of the match and the Danes had got through on penalty kicks, then perhaps the best team might not have won. So at at the end of the day, I think that England deserved a little piece of luck given the amount of attacking football played in this semi-final. The country is going mad – until we get beaten by the Italians (which is a near certainty) on Sunday next.

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Wednesday, 7th July, 2021 [Day 478]

I consulted my wife’s iPhone this morning (whilst my own was being charged up) to reassure myself that we were going to get some fine weather so that I could get some outside jobs completed. Specifically, I really wanted it tit to be a fine day so that some of the clutter in ‘Mog’s Den‘ could be either cleaned and stored or thrown away before the reuse disposal men pay us a visit early on tomorrow morning. The app on Meg’s phone assured me that we were gong to have a cloudy but rainless day all day today until about 4.0pm. We did some of our ‘normal’ Wednesday morning jobs and determined that we would go down to Waitrose in the car having collected the newspapers and I would leave Meg with a coffee and a bun whilst I want to shoot off to Poundland to buy a few gardening requisites (putting the finishing touches to Mog’s Den) But whilst we were in Waitrose, the heavens opened and we had a really intense downpour – nonetheless, I waited until the worst of it was over and then did make a trip to Poundland where the things that I really wanted were ‘out of stock – try again on Friday‘ Nonetheless  I bought  some cleaning materials (don’t you just love washing out muddy old plant pots!) but the gardening books tell you that these really do need to be clean so that you don’t transfer virus from old stock to new. I even bought myself a ‘dog grooming brush’ which has wires on one side and a brush on the other which I believe (thinking laterally) may be exceptionally good at removing crusted mud from old plant pots and renovating them. This morning I allowed myself to be swayed by an advert in my Inbox offering me an end-of-season sale of a Large Standard Weeping Pussy Willow Tree (on a 80-100cm stem) theoretically marked down from £30 to £8. The blurb tells me that it will not now taller than this but is an idea ‘patio’ tree which will only get thicker and bushier over the years (with lots of catkins) but not necessarily taller. I can always find space for this in Meg’s Den where it can joon my other section of small but growing trees which I am busy populating as I write but it might even grace our patio at the back of the house.

This afternoon proved to be on of those frustrating afternoons when one was dying to get into into the garden to get one’s jobs done. Although we had several showers I was counting on the fact that in the late afternoon – about 5.00-ish the clouds tend to roll away and you have the start of a fine evening. I took the opportunity to get the little patch of garden dug over and now its awaiting something colourful to get planted into it. Next I started to tackle the area around my old little mini-greenhouse (soon to be replaced as the original cover ripped and got blown away – quite a common fate I should imagine) In my pottering days, I had evidently filled several pots with some sieved soil and then topped off with gravel but whatever the original intention was, they now looked a mess. So a lot of them got thrown away as I have a couple of empty Forest Bark bags which are quite strong and can take a lot of junk. So a lot of that is now thrown away but I have discovered that evidently  I had a penchant for buying plastic buckerts of which I now have about half a dozen. The next job along is to clean out a matching set of plastic pots which is a job which I actually hate doing. But the upside of all of this is that I can plant out the hazel plants I have rescued from my clearing of the border in the front of the house and that means that if they grow well enough, I might end up with a row of hedging plants to make an instant hedge were I to need one as a border.

As I write, the build up to the England-Denmark semifinal is reaching a crescendo. I must admit that I have very mixed emotions about all of this. On the one hand, like most of the rest of the country, I want the England team to do well and to progress, on merit, to the finals if they deserve to win and play the better football. On the other hand, I do not really like the rampant nationalism that surrounds all of this – nor do I wish that Boris Johnson should take any credit for any English success that may ensue. It is not axiomatic that the better team wins as we saw with the Spanish last night – rather it is the team which seizes the moment (and doesn’t make any crass mistakes in the meantime)

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Tuesday, 6th July, 2021 [Day 477]

Tuesdays are always quite busy days because it is the day when I have my Pilates class in the middle of the day. So to save time more than anything else, I took the car down to the Waitrose carpark where I installed Meg partaking of her elevenses whilst I popped off around the corner to collect our newspapers. I had quite a lengthy discussion with the Asian shopkeeper on the psychology of tennis players – we both agreed that probably some of the young players may not have been adequately coached on how to cope with failure rather than with success. Once we got ourselves logged into the system at Waitrose we were delighted to bump some of our ex-Waitrose friends from about a year and half ago. The husband had been diagnosed with dementia but we were recognised straight way and we were delighted to see that he still seemed to be quite alert and in touch with the world. We imagined that COVID-19 and the experience of lockdown might have resulted in a deterioration of his mental condition but this did not appear to have happened – so we were very pleased on his behalf. We have agreed that we might be able to coincide with each other next Tuesday when we can no doubt catch up on the last year’s news. Whilst we were in Waitrose we got a ‘Get well soon!’ card for the neighbour of one of friends from down the hill and this can be posted through the door when I traverse this route again on the way to my Pilates class. This proceeded with only three of us regulars (the fourth being on holiday) and it was one of those weeks (which happens in both Week 3 and also Week 6) of our block of classes when our Pilates tutor gives us the opportunity for 10 minutes of ‘relaxation’.  It is a standing joke amongst my fellow members that I will always fall fast asleep in these precious 10 minutes. However, to be fair, I am never absolutely asleep because I am always just about conscious that instructions are being given to us to gradually come around from our relaxation session – however, I try not to disappoint these days and it is very much the case that I can (and do) fall asleep very quickly.

This afternoon, I knew that after lunch and a brief rest, I could go into the garden and complete a fast 20-30 minute job in ‘Mog’s Den’ However things did not quite turn out that way because although the weather was fine when I was walking home, there was a very intense rain shower just after I arrived home and was preparing lunch. Then we discovered that our 2-metre tall Lavatera (English name – mallow) which we have growing in a pot immediately outside our kitchen window had been caught by the wind and had immediately blown over. I tried a few little ‘feet’ under the pot but this was not enough to stabilise it – so I resorted to a length of fencing pole (I just happened to have one spare) and this was secured in the ground by some hefty blows from my sledge hammer (or do you call it a lump hammer?) Anyway, it’s worth its weight in gold on occasions like this and the Lavatera in its pot is now rock solid secure. We FaceTimed our friends as we always do at 5.00pm on a Tuesday evening (I made it before our iPad with 3 seconds to spare!) and as well as chatting for an hour, we made arrangements to go round and see them on Friday next, celebrating our friend’s birthday the preceding day. As soon as we had finished our FaceTime call and had some fruit-and-icecream for tea, I went outside to Mog’s Den to finish off the job I intended to do earlier.This involves laying a small portion of weed-control fabric and getting the forest bark evenly distributed over it (the easy part), whilst tomorrow, I just have. small section to dig over and some clipping back, tidying up to do to keep myself on schedule.

Tonight we watched the Italy vs. Spain semi-final which Italy eventually won 4-2 after extra time and in a penalty shootout. Both Meg and I thought this was one of the finest football matches we had ever seen – Spain perhaps deserved to win playing a much more attacking game whilst I felt that the Italians actually played a little below themselves. We are steeling ourselves for the England-Denmark semi-final which will be played tomorrow night and I, for one, am not completely filled with confidence. I suspect that the game will be decided on incredibly fine margins.

A final thought on COVID news. Is not wearing a mask (soon to be made ‘legal’ again after July 19th) the equivalent of blowing smoke into someone’s face (which is technically illegal) And is an infection rate of up to 100,000 a day a ‘price worth paying’?

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Monday, 5th July, 2021 [Day 476]

Today seemed quite a full day, what with one thing or another. We walked into town and collected our newspapers as per usual and then called in at Waitrose for our daily coffee. Whilst in the coffee shop we were were greeted by a couple of ladies who had been my yoga teachers in the days before the pandemic and when I was attending more or less regularly. The younger one had acquired a sixteen week old daughter since last we met (and a very good looking baby she was as well) Evidently she had been using lockdown time to good effect and I was very pleased for her (not least because I think she may have lost a baby before successfully rearing this one) We exchanged news of how we had both survived the pandemic and then one of our friendly Waitrose staff told me that another of our erstwhile Waitrose coffee drinkers had been seen in the store and although we did a quick reconnoitre of the shelves we did not coincide with her as we had hoped. Outside the store, we bumped into yet another of our regular crowd and exchanged a few words with her as well. So Meg and I started walking up the hill and noticed an ambulance with a blue flashing light parked outside a house whose occupant we know (as they are the next door neighbours of some of our best friends down the hill) Apparently he lady had got herself to the GP’s who immediately called an ambulance to have her admitted to deal with some incipient heart problems. The lady persuaded the doctor to let her go home (presumably so that she could pack a few things before a hospital stay) and when we arrived on the scene, here was the ambulance, blue light flashing, ready to whisk her away into hospital. We wish her well and hope she has a speedy recovery – not least because she is only just recovering from having nursed her husband thought the traumas of a stroke from which he subsequently died only about a month ago.

The weather was going to be fine all day which is just as well because I wanted a good session this afternoon to get a little section of Mog’s Den prettied up a bit. But my trip out into the garden was delayed when a neighbour called round who acts as the Treasurer to our local Residents Association (I am the Secretary so we have to collaborate over joint signatures on mutually agreed expenditures and the like) He had received a communication from the Bank who looks after our Business Account asking him to confirm his identity as part of their updating procedures. He had gone into the branch in person but there was no-one there who could deal with business accounts so he had to do it online or by telephone. Our neighbour had called round to see if I could assist him (as I am one of the two authorised to sign cheques) and I tried to get through by phone. Eventually after a wait of about half an hour and subject to the constant message ‘All of our advisers are busy at the moment but please hang on… Your business is important to us‘ (have I heard this before, I wonder) but eventually we decided to call it a day. In the next day or so, I will probably have to go down to the branch, take along some ID, be told none can deal with me but hopefully be connected to a telephone line where there is somebody at the other end) I cannot do any of this online as I have lost my log-on details and I know from bitter experience how fruitless these on-line sessions can be if you do not have the correct credentials to start off with.

Eventually, I started off with my little stint of gardening. This involved measuring and then laying the requisite shape of some weed control fabric – fortunately, I have a big roll purchased years ago and it’s aways useful when laying paths and the like.Then I covered the fabric with three bags of forest bark (fortunately, I happened to have some of the in stock as well) Then came the business of heaving some big tubs of existing plants around, clearing old tubs that had got waterlogged  and generally rationing. I relocated a couple of foxgloves from a different part of the garden (they were self set but I now have three in a row) Pride of place had been granted to the nice looking young shrub/tree whose identity may be a bit of a mystery to me but our gardener seems to think if might be a variety of cherry. Then there is rather an untidy area that I use for odd bits of wood sawing, obscure one-off jobs like cleaning up old horseshoes and the like. I have a lot of useful but untidy bits of garden equipment lying around in here (such as some creosote) l housed in a mini greenhouse whose cover has long since ripped and been thrown here so I protect it with a variety of large plastic bags and the like. I have decided that the whole lot, complete with empty plant pots and the like is all looking a bit of a mess so I may clear it all away and replace it with tubs of flowers.

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Sunday, 4th July, 2021 [Day 475]

It was raining quite hard when we woke up this morning. I contemplated going for a walk in the rain to pick up our supply of the Sunday newspapers but eventually concluded that after about 40 minute walk in the rain, I might just about get soaked to the skin – and I did not particularly want to catch a cold. So I made life easy for myself and went down to collect the newspapers in the car. When I returned, Meg was in bed and in fact stayed in bed for most of the day, as she was feeling rather tired and ‘wobbly’. When I returned home I turned on Classic FM (which I am rarely without, particularly when I am on my own) and heard an incredibly beautiful rendition of the hymn ‘Abide with me‘ which, as well as typically being played at funerals up and down the land, is also traditional sung at the English Cup Final each May. I had always imagined that the tradition arose because an aged family member had died and therefore had missed the Cup Final. I had always assumed that the tradition arose because those attending the Cup Final had wished that their older family members could have had the same privilege. So I decided to do a bit of research on the web and discovered that it was first performed at what was then called (according to the programme issued for the day) the ‘Final Tie’ (not the Cup Final) when Cardiff City beat Arsenal 1-0 (the only time a Welsh side have won) The General Secretary of the FA had approached the King (George V?) and asked if there was a particular anthem or tune that he would like played as well as the English and Welsh national anthems. The King replied that he would like his wife’s favourite hymn. The hymn was actually composed by an Devon Anglican vicar – Henry Francis Lyle – who composed it  when consoling a dying friend – he and the friend searched for several Biblical texts for comfort until they found some phrases that conveyed the sentiment of ‘Abide with me‘ and it was subsequently set to the music we know – it was first sung at Henry Lyle’s own memorial service in Brixham.

Upon researching all of this, I discovered something else I did not know. I dare say we are all familiar with the expression ‘Back to Square One‘ but do we know the origin of the saying? It dates from the time that the BBC were going to provide a running commentary on the Cup Final for the first time in 1927. In order to help listeners build up a mental picture of where the action was taking place, the Radio Times published a diagram in which the whole of a typical footballpich was divided into a grid of eight squares – four in each half, with two squares contiguous with the centre line and the other two with the goal line. Rather confusingly, although the squares are numbered 1-8, the numbering started on the right hand side and proceeded leftwards i.e. grid squares 1-2 being on the right hand goal line and 7-8 being on the opposing goal line. This is where, apparently, the phrase ‘Back to Square One‘ originated – but my sources do not indicate for how long this system persisted. Another curiosity in the diagram published in the Radio Times is that the familiar ‘D’ shape which forms the front of the penalty area was not shown in the diagram – and subsequent researches revealed that the penalty arc was added later in1937. The ‘D’ is technically called the ‘penalty arc’ and no player may enter it when a penalty kick is being taken and I now know that it does not form part of the penalty area itself. The idea is that no other player other than the penalty taker can be within 10 yards of the penalty spot.

I had quite a busy morning because my Irish friends invited me in a for a coffee and a natter (welcome as it was still raining) nd I subsequently onto the park to meet with our University of Birmingham friend. When I got home I made Meg and I some lunch and then after a little read of the Sunday newspapers, I wondered if the weather would hold up for a spot of gardening in ‘Mog’s Den‘ as I intended. As it happened, the little spots of drizzle turned into a more prolonged downpour but I did manage, before the heavens opened, to make drainage holes in two the four planters I purchased yesterday.

The latest COVID news appears to be that after ‘Freedom Day’ on 19th July, the wearing of face masks will be a matter of personal preference rather than being mandatory. I would imagine that all of the younger generation will still be wearing masks but not the other way around (which it should be – the young and unvaccinated are more likely to be transmitters of the virus than the old and vaccinated part of the population). Personally, I am waiting for the enterprising manufacturer of a face mask to print supplies with the slogan ”This is keeping you safe – are you keeping me safe?’ or something a bit snappier and more direct which conveys the message.

 

 

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Saturday, 3rd July, 2012 [Day474]

Today is the day which most of the English population have been waiting for – that is, the quarter-final match between England and Ukraine (the slayers of Sweden when the decisive goal was scored in the first minute of injury time added onto the second period of extra time)  This morning, Meg and I walked down into town and I left Meg sitting on our normal park bench. Fortunately, though, I had the foresight to take with us our old bit of tea towel plus one or two sheets of ‘big’ kitchen paper to mop up the inevitable damp park bench.Incidentally, there are two park benches almost next to each and a third which we often used to sit on as it was shaded under a large tree (horse chestnut I think).  However, this third bench is by now almost completely unusable because several of the local birds have taken to roosting in it and to relieving themselves liberally on the park bench below. I wonder if the park workers have noticed this and are prepared to take any remedial action- I will mention it to them if I happen to see them. For lunch, I made a kipper fillet risotto (made with cauliflower rice to radically reduce the carbohydrate load) and I finish this off with a bit of grated cheese and yogurt which makes it additionally tasty.

I knew that I wanted to go into town scouring the local supermarkets in search of forest bark and a few other gardening consumables. My first port of call was Aldi where I was delighted to see that the simulated oak planters that they. used to sell are still in stock. These particular planters are made of recycled plastic and from a distance, they look incredibly realistic complete with a ‘faux’  simulated copper band around the top. To be honest, these look quite sophisticated as I am getting a bit fed up with the large 42″ black planters which are starting to look a little ‘naff’ by now. The only downside is there is no evident weak point in the base through which one can drill a drainage hole. This is absolutely essential as otherwise, in an outdoors location, they would gradually get filled with soggy water and one’s plants would perish. The little label inside says ‘inside or outside use’ so I can see why are intact at the moment but some careful drilling is absolutely called for.However, no forest bark was in evidence and so I took myself off to a local ‘Home and Garden‘ cheapish store across the road to see if they had any forest bark. As it happened they had not but I did buy some ‘Growmore‘ (which I badly needed) ‘Blood,Fish and Bone’ (which I also badly needed), some concentrated seaweed liquid fertiliser, some weed control fabric pegs and a 6-litre watering can, all for less than a tenner. Finally, I shot off to my local  Asda where I purchased three bags of multi-purpose compost again for a tenner (but no forest bark) So then I struck off for home feeling moderately pleased with my afternoon’s set of purchases.

As is normal on a Saturday evening, we attended church for the Saturday evening service. However, I suspect that everybody’s minds was on the football match which was due to start in Rome at 8.00pm. I have promised myself a beer if England are leading at half time – which they are. However, having scored only 3½ minutes into the game, England have had a fairly pedestrian ‘keep ball’ first half and I fear that a certain degree of complacency might creep in as the Ukraine look dangerous once they have players in the penalty area. I think I will wait are two goals ahead before I relax sufficiently to open the beer! 

There is some interesting COVID news tonight. It looks as though half of the countries in Europe are planning to vaccinate school children over the age of 12 – and a further six are planning to vaccinate children with underlying health conditions. Meanwhile we know that schools are a repository of the virus  and whilst not suffering COVID themselves, they can certainly transmit it to their elders and grandparents. Evidently, there is a groundswell of opinion against the vaccination of UK school children but I am not sure whether the resistance is coming from the scientific community, the government – or a combination of the two.

Earlier on, I said the Ukraine players looked utterly dejected – as anyone would,  with two goals scored within about 4 minutes early on the second half and at that point, England were three goals ahead (and I opened my beer) A fourth goal was added later on the half and after that, England just coasted to victory. There is a semi-final next Wednesday against Denmark (the winners of another of the quarter finals) – if we get past Denmark (which must be a 50:50) then we would meet either Italy or Spain in the final next Sunday.

 

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Friday, 2nd July, 2021 [Day 473]

Today was one of those rather cloudy and humid days and we were a bit delayed making our usual venture down into town. We spent quite a lot of time chatting with our domestic help who comes round on Fridays. In particular, she was was eager to know how we had got on with our AirB&B in North Wales and her own view was that the catalogue of little things that were not quite right (no kettle in the room, parking at a distance, dodgy toilet) was such that she, too, would have found it unacceptable. Anyway, we are over that by now and have emerged home with one or two items of Meg’s clothing such as a gilet and a lightweight waterproof anorak (not to mention the kettle that we eventually purchased) all of which will prove useful to us. To save a bit of time, we decided to go down by car to collect our newspapers and I treated Meg and myself to our usual fare in Waitrose. When we eventually got home, we neither of us felt particularly hungry so we indulged ourself in some fruit and ice-cream which is all we fancied. In the afternoon, I had set myself the task of getting our communal lawns cut and this task generally takes about 40 minutes for the main grassed area, then a rest period, followed by another 20 minutes to do our back lawn. In the interval between the two cuts, Miggles the local cat who had adopted us popped round to say hello (and to get a few cat treats, courtesy of Waitrose) Then quite unusually, Miggles decided to have a period on my lap which is quite unusual for him/her – she tends to prefer the lap of my daughter-in-law whenever she gets the opportunity. Anyway, I just about got the lawns cut and everything put away before it was time for the Spain vs.Sweden European Cup quarter-final which Spain won eventually on penalties (although their record in winning matches by penalties is not at at all inspiring) Later on, I watched the Italy vs. Belgium match which was pulsating, end-to-end stuff and incredibly exciting to watch. It was such a contest in styles between the way in which the Spanish play (keep possession and have a long slow buildup) and the way in which the Italians play (go direct for goal with long ranging passes to assist) These two teams are to meet each other in the semi-finals so it is pretty obvious who is gong to win (I think)

Before I started my mowing, I did a quick reconnoitre of the garden to see if there any hidden shrubs (or even little trees) that I can relocate into Mog’s Den. I did discover one healthy looking shrub that was being a bit crowded out and would not be missed from its present location, so that is one candidate. It is a laurel I believe and they are generally quite vigorous growers given enough light and space. Also, I think I have discovered a hazel lurking away in an obscure part of the front garden – it was probably self set but it, too, could do with a bit more light and won’t be missed from where It is (as I hardly knew it was there in the first place) Some time ago, I bought a very speciall kind of spade which has a very long thin blade. They go by a variety of names none of which are very descriptive – I think Spear and Jackson call their version a Tub Laying Shovel and as the blade is narrow but long, a lot more force is concentrated on the cutting edge (and therefore it slices through roots more easily) It is particularly useful, though, when transplanting trees as it helps to ensure that you get the entire length of the root (in which the tap root is much longer than in a shrub)

The extraordinary thing about today’s political news is that the Labour Party did not lose a bye-election. This was Batley and Spen and Labour won it by only 323 votes. The noteworthy thing about this seat is the seat held by the Labour MP (Jo Cox) who was murdered by a far right fanatic in 2016. Campaigning for the referendum was in full spate – but the campaign was halted for a day or so an then carried on. The seat is now won by the sister of the murdered MP and the campaign, by all accounts, has attracted a lot of candidates and there were masses of dirty tricks. It was hoped that a negative result would help to unseat Keir Starmer and the was the motivation for some of the shenanigans in the by-election. In the event, although the Tories hoped to take another seat off Labour, it was not to be and the seat was just kept within the Labour fold.

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Thursday, 1st July, 2012 [Day 472]

I suspect that we all know that the moment we wake up we know we are not really going to look forward to the day ahead. Today was one of those days for the following reason – down in the lower area of ground below the main lawn, there is an area known as ‘Mog’s Den‘ which as an area in which I am trying to cultivate a slight ‘woodland’ feel. The slope is very severe and there are several overhanging trees so what will grow in the area is severely limited. Some of the area is planted up with periwinkle (Vinca major) which seems to be spreading over the area that I wanted it to, making it quite a pleasant and tranquil site. But the rest of the area which can be in full sun has been neglected and I was horrified to discover that some annual weeds and shrubs had gone absolutely mad – in particular, rose bay willow herb, nettles and a shrubs called Leycesteria formed an absolute jungle where the weeds had grown to an average of 5′-6′ high. I tried to reflect how this part of the garden had got into such a terrible shape but I think I know how. We had a terrible May with it being the wettest on record and I did not think about doing any gardening under these conditions. Then, of course, we had some periods of intense sunshine in June and the combination of these circumstances (plus neglect on my part) resulted in the jungle which I now perceived. However I asked our regular gardener for a couple of hours assistance and between us, we got the worst of these weeds taken up (and they themselves make a pile 5′ high!) So after a couple of hours of intensely hard work, we got things restored to the point where I can do lots of fine tuning myself. In the midst of all of this, our local neighbourhood cat Miggles made an appearance from out of the jungle and we also came across a frog which is always nice to see. I also discovered a self-set foxglove, a young lilac tree I had planted from a cutting, a little tree we cannot identify but which may be a young cherry and diverse other plants I have nurtured in the past. I have decided to cover sub-area of the whole with forest bark and, fortunately, I already have some in stock which I can deploy in the next day or so. So after a hard morning’s work, Meg and I treated ourself to a trip down to Waitrose in the car where we picked up our newspapers and then treated ourselves to a coffee and a cake. Then we came back home and enjoyed a curry. 

After lunch, I know that it was time for ‘Gardening Session No. 2’.   I had  2-3 yards left in the front garden gully still to clear and fortunately the sun came out and I got this done under quite pleasant conditions. Needless to say, I had my usual quota of bracken, nettles and couch grass to deal with which is always a foot-by-foot clearance by hand but this, too, got done eventually. Our gardener identified the young plants I had been saving in my clearance activities as wild hazel plants – I have taken a photo of my plants and compared them with images I have discovered on the web and there seems to be quite a good match but I am not 100% convinced. Nonetheless, I will grow my little plants on and then can always be used to make a natural border between one section of the woodland garden and the next. I think that after today’s exertions, I may treat myself to half an hour earlier in bed and a session with an electric blanket to soothe aching muscles. A few years ago, I could have thrown off some hours of heavy gardening with ease but now I have to take a bit more care of myself. I am determined to make sure that I spend about 20 minutes every day from now on (so long as I am not completely rained off) to keep things ticking over from now on.Needless to say, I am determined to make sure that I never let ‘Mog’s Den‘ get into such a run-down state ever again. Although I have some forest bark in stock, I will do the rounds of some of the local supermarkets tomorrow to see is they readily available supplies of forest bark. Just over a year ago, I did treat myself to a ton bag of forest bark from a garden supplier I had used before- and was dismayed to find subsequently that I could have bought the same quality cheaper from my local Asda and in easier to handle plastic sacks as well.   

The latest Covid-19 news is that the number of new infections is now 28,000 which sounds to be horrendous. Several commentators (particularly In Germany as it happens) are arguing that the Euro competition is helping to spread the virus as ‘super-spreader’ events. When you see the results of crowds celebrating when England overcame Germany the other day, it seems no wonder that the virus is spreading so rapidly. On a slightly more reassuring note, Public Health England are indicating that two AstraZeneca jabs give 94% protection against dying with coronavirus in over-65s.

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