hello

 if you build it, they will come.... isn't that what Michelangelo once said?

In my case, if you build it, you will probably find you don't have time to maintain it..... my attention span is so short lived that for three days i've pretty much neglected the whole "reading and writing" thing.....

We just get busy, don't we?

Today .....

I got up and knew exactly where my keys were.... AND the door was already unlocked, ready for me....

It's job centre day.... they come round quickly these fortnightly appointments.  So quickly, in fact, that i almost forgot this one.

The reason i almost forgot?  I've arranged to have a day fishing with me mate, John.  Well, the hot weather today and bright sunshine generally means the fish won't be much interested in eating whatever i throw at them, they'll be too busy sunning themselves and splashing about on top of the water (the warmer layers, see)..... so meeting John at 11ish now, means i won't get fishing till about 12ish, so it's now half a day fishing.....

I've so much gear to take to the pond today for a few hours that i had to start packing the car last night.....  sounds silly, i know, but once you're there, you can't just be nipping home to get a disgorger or a plummet or some silly piece of kit you forgot.

So, that's it....... busy busy.... doing not very much i guess.....

here's a really "out of focus" photo of a bog cranberry flower....... midst a tray of propagated sphagnum moss which looks really nice.

Nigel

 I've been a lazy little blogger, haven't i?

Truth be known, behind the scenes, i've been quite busy......

We've made some plans for a weekend away..... 

I've been watching quite a bit of the old snooker.... dunno if people round the world ever tap into this, but the snooker at the Crucible in Sheffield, is a fairly big draw, and i tend to get sucked into it.... i've probably watched and will probably watch..... far more than i ought to......  but there it is.....

I've been on the volunteering today...... we did the weekly vehicle checks..... cleaned the vehicle interiors..... weeded the trays of moss that were planted....had a spot of lunch and had a wander up into the burnt section of the moor to fix a revetment.....

For some people, the word "revetment" will probably be a new word.....

Revetment, in this context, is a set of boards which support a banking, to stop it eroding and falling onto the footpath..... one of the planks had sprung off when two of the stakes holding them,  were broken.  so we re-staked and refixed the board..... then we dragged some bags of melted tree protectors off the moor.  Sad.

It were quite hot today

After work, i called at my mum's house where Dawn and our granddaughter were "helping"..... 

Our granddaughter had an accident on her scooter, yesterday..... smashed her lip and knocked one of her front teeth out..... she has scraped elbow and knee and stuff, and i imagine, yesterday, she was miserable with it.....

As i arrived at my mum's, Polly was in the lounge, dancing freestyle to some crazy little kids toy that was blasting out some random tune...... we spent ten minutes just free dancing together and getting a bit wild......  quite frenetic and unbounded..... it's always good to do something so unstructured with a young un.... we both laughed as we made some ridiculous moves.....

I took some great pictures of Polly and her joy...... but i won't be uploading them here.... instead, you'll have to accept this lamb taking a ride on momma sheep's back......

lost and found

 When i was a little kid.... in fact, i don't think i was ever a "little" kid.... but, when i was at secondary school.... so, somewhere between.... twelve and seventeen years of age......

Our school had "houses" that we were assigned to.... the houses were generally named after explorers.... so there was Scott, Hilary, Schweizer, Evans, Whittle, Bannister.... i think that was it.... I was in Scott house....

The purpose of these houses was just to lump us into more manageable groups for things like sports day, or some other arbitrary thing.....

Each house had its own tie.... Scott tie was sky blue with a white diagonal stripe...... the other houses were the same blue, but the diagonal stripe was a different colour.....  I could probably remember them but it's boring.....

At lunch time, there were "sittings" in the dining hall, and the sittings changed weekly, possibly daily, and depended on your "house".

I used to go to the lost property store and ask "has anyone handed in an Evans tie?" and i soon ended up with a whole suite of ties that would always ensure i could get onto first sittings at lunch time.....

Pretty smart for a dumb kid.

Well.... i seem to be losing more stuff than i am finding these days......

Today was the third day running where i could not find my keys..... Dawn had left them, still in the front door.... she'd used them to unlock the door and then taken her own keys with her, leaving mine in the unlocked door......  not so much drama today.

The missing parts of the fishing chair were located.... and indeed they weren't as lost as i first, and second thought.... they had been in my fishing bag all along, in a hitherto unrecognised bag, buried underneath another bag..... i can't believe i had them with me all the time.....  kicking myself over this one.

Today i turned the lounge upside down looking for a mobile phone tripod adapter...... i wanted to do some macro photography and i know i'd bought the adapter and seen it recently..

I looked in the cupboard of requirement that generally houses all my cables and electrical bits and pieces......

I looked in the cupboard of doom, which generally ejects a portion of its contents, as soon as you open the door.......

As soon as Dawn came home, of course she went straight to it, and retrieved it from the back bedroom.  It was in a bag that i'd searched previously, looking for the missing fishing parts.....

I ordered some storage drawers to try and organise my disjointed collection of random objects......  i WILL of course keep you posted how this works out!!

Here's a picture of a sphagnum moss i've been growing in a sample tube, in the kitchen..... it's a sphagnum fallax, i think? (this was my best effort without a tripod!!)

crossed wires

 I was all set or a lie-in this morning......

The world was not!

7:30am and someone started chipping trees at the side of my bed, or at least that's what it sounded like..... in reality it wasn't MUCH further from the truth, as the groundsman was scarifying the bowling green 'neath my window......

I rolled out of bed and before the day was in focus i was blearily palm-mashing the control panel of the coffee machine in the vain hope that i might press something right.....

Eventually i grabbed a coffee and headed back up to bed hoping that the marvellous mechanical mouse organ, rattling across the bowling green, would perhaps be on the opposing end by now and i'd catch up on some zeds....

It was not.... eventually when it finished.... of course, another groundsman turned up with another machine and moved the hell out of the already short sward.

I got up.... 

Decided to clean the coffee machine......  it went badly and soon there was water and coffee grounds all over t'wicket......

While i was waiting for the coffee machine to dry before reassembling it, i thought i'd go in the garden..... to find i am once more locked in the house and can't find my keys..... upstairs.... upstairs..... downstairs and in my lady's chamber..... nowhere to be seen..... i eventually found the keys, underneath the coffee machine.

I went in the back bedroom to look for the missing parts of my fishing chair, but i could not find them anywhere......

I picked up a knock-off Meccano kit to make a little drag racing car.... ages six plus..... opened it and put a few pieces together..... got to diagram two.... and could follow it no further...... i showed the plans to an engineer friend and he could not understand them either.....

I should have stayed in bed today.

I made puttanesca sauce ready for tea.... and it was pretty triumphant - i'll take that, as a small victory amongst a litany of failings. (Dawn's favourite thing, is coming home from work and that tea (or dinner, if you prefer) is ready, without fuss)

THIS!

mi, a name, i call myself.....

 Whacky Wednesday.....

Woke up fairly early, contemplated getting out of bed..... thought about it for ten minutes then made the effort to go get a coffee.....

Dawn's already up and out of the house, so the place is strangely deserted..... apart from the hound, half dozing in her bed..... jumps up and "boops" me on the hand with her wet schnozzle as i walk by.

Coffee.... contemplation.....

I have a whole day to myself..... i'm gonna go fishing.... i haven't been in ages, so let's get it together and get out there.....

I'm locked in, can't find my keys.....

Texted Dawn, eventually found the keys.

It takes me an age to get all my fishing gear in the car, make a flask, grab some toast.... i get all the dog paraphernalia together too.... various leads, harnesses, treats......

Can't find my wallet so i text Dawn again.....  i find the wallet before she replies...

This house blows my mind.....  things never seem to be where i would logically be looking for them....

Gotta call at the vets before i do anything, so i go and do that first.....

Call at the shop and get myself a bit of lunch for later on.

I come home and the washer has finished and i have instructions to hang it out.....  find a bag.... find the pegs..... sorted....

Get the dog... got everything i need..... we're off.....

Drive up to a place that we call Tatty Lane...... start setting up and realise i've forgotten all the accessories that fit to my fishing chair which is really annoying.....

Fished for a few hours..... had a nice chat with the farmer whose pond i was fishing in..... he's a nice guy....  caught some roach, some hybrid roach/bream.... some gudgeon.... nothing big, but all really nice little fish.

The relaxation i get when fishing is the tonic....

A pair of peeping oystercatchers swoop by.... a sleepy mallard takes off..... two frogs swim in front of me ......  the soundscape was lovely today.... curlew, crows, frogs, lots of sheep and new born lambs.... a plethora of twittering skylarks.... you get the idea...

Here's a couple of snapshots....

A "woolly boy" - my "app" tells me it's a ruby tiger moth caterpillar..... but your guess is as good as mine.

A gate and a really long, straight farm track.

Behold, the gudgeon.... blue, purple, silver.... a rainbow in my hand.

Tatty Lane fishing hole.... first time the dog has come fishing with me... and it wasn't a disaster....

first

 A day of "firsts"....

First time i fell down a hill.... literally, a hill so steep that my hands were clutching at grass as my legs and arms were spiralling into the blue sky flashing above me.....  it was a silly thing to do, but then we were there ......

Making steps..... the hill was eroded and the steps were inadequate, so we were there to improve the steps of what can only be described as "cannabis clough" where a local weed grower must regularly deposit their obsolescent grow equipment......  the whole place stank of weed, and there was a lot of evidence of several iterations of the growing cycle.

Above the steps, the source of the erosion, where water had been channelling down the edge and washing everything away, over time, of course, like everything on the moors..... it all seems to be gravitating slowly off the moor and into the valley in one way or another......  To counteract the water making its way onto the path, we construct or installed if you prefer, some water bars..... they're the stone barriers that run perpendicular to a path, that force the water to run to the edge..... and down a better route that will preserve the footpath.

On top of all that rigmarole..... today was day one of the rest of my life where i am now duty bound to take one statins tablet, ad infinitum..... the lady in the chemist was very nice and we seemed to broker some sort of deal whereby, someone (like me) on jobseekers allowance possibly doesn't have to ay for their prescription..... i expect the bottom to fall out of this understanding and that i'll receive a fine or something.... but for now it seemed, ok?

And that was about it...... 

Again, for some reason, i did not take pictures of my handiwork, the hill where i tumbled off, the cannabis remnants, you name it.... there's a long list of things i did not photograph
.. but here's something i did take..... as we were collecting some stone to build the water bars, this is pretty much what my office looked like today.....

denied

 What shall we do today?  We spent the first half hour of the day asking each other the same question.... well, what would YOU like to do??

We looked at a few websites to check what was open and/or what might be on today.... it's easter Monday. a bank holiday, and on such occasions, there's a tendency for everything to grind to a halt and close for a much needed rest.

Halifax Market.... we can go there and get some lunch..... there's a very nice sit-down casual Italian diner and there's a really good fast-food Thai place in there.....  i'm feeling hungry now and the market says "open"..... so off we trot.....

It's raining and we park at the far end of Halifax and walk down the very depressing street that always reeks of weed and poverty..... it's the shoplifters, cider drinking capital of Halifax......  it's raining, like i said, so the street is unusually quiet.

We get to the market.... it's closed, of course!

Alternate plans ensue....

Bit of shopping and Wetherspoons (again) for a quick lunch/pint..... 

Walking back towards the car, we visit one last shop to see the previously predicted shoplifter in action..... this is what unfolds..... a guy, stumbling, in front of us.... reaches up, hands grubby and dirty, pushes open the shop door and we follow him in.... he stumbles forward, picks up two bottles of Bold (fabric conditioner) priced at £6 a bottle, turns round and walks out......  easy as that.... now THAT's Bold!

Nip to TKMaxx for some new walking pants.... the choice..... limited, but i get some anyways, and we fail to find a packet of cream crackers in any of the cheap shops.......

Once back at home i begin to mourn the fact that i walked past a set of drawers today, and did not purchase them, so i find them online and click-and-collect......

I try on my new walking pants and they are truly terrible.....

We go back to TKMaxx to return the pants..... head to The Range for my click-and-collect set of drawers, only to receive the email telling me they've cancelled my order......

Head along to Sports Direct where i purchase some really nice walking pants.

And that's a wrap....

I didn't get my Thai food.... or the drawers...... no cream crackers.....

Pants!

As an antidote to today's negative waves..... here's a photo i snapped of a Cuckooflower, yesterday, when the sun was shining.... it's a lovely wildflower and it was festooned with cabbage white butterflies.....  grand!

brainless

 Went to the Scapegoat Hill Scarecrow Festival today.....

Ok, it's easter Sunday, and i probably ought to be writing something about the baby jesus or summat.... but i've never been a religious person..... sure, i've been to church a few times.... i've even been christened.... and once been asked to be a god-parent.......  i just can't get into it.....  that's not to say that i don't deny anyone else their faith or their religion..... on the contrary, i heartily encourage everyone to follow their own path, whatever that may mean.

Well.... easter aside.....

Scapegoat Hill..... last year they did a really successful scarecrow festival - themed around Disney characters...... and off the back of the success of last year, they did it again..... this year's theme is (children's) books, or characters therein.

There was a little map of the village and a numbered route to follow to see all forty-some scarecrows.....  as always, some were much better than others, and despite me thinking i knew a bit about kids' books.... we were fortunate enough to have children with us who put us right on more than one occasion.

Stopped for a breather at the excellent Scape Liberal Club for a pint of Timothy Taylor's Landlord, and i can tell you, it was served very cheerfully and sympathetically, and the beer itself was bright and well conditioned..... at four quid a chuck, i had to make sure the first one wasn't a fluke, so had to check another.... still as good!

Second half of the scarecrow trail was completed and everyone had a good time..... bought a couple of plants from a table top plant sale at the chapel before nipping on the road to my mum's house where we'd set up a little easter egg hunt for the kids in the garden......

All in all, a good day, as family-centric as any religious festival needs to be....

My favourite scarecrow......  Paddington, mainly because it was one of the few "true" scarecrows..... although the gruffalo was also very good.

My favourite book..... Fantastic Mr Fox (of course)

Here's some scarecrow pics....

the very lowly worm?

Can we fix it?  It was the massive googly eyes that i loved!

Mr MacGregor with whom i share many physical similarities.

Winnie the Witch?

My favourite scarecrow... Paddington.

Inventive... Despicable Me!

12" pizza

 You put one foot in front of the other, and before you know it, you're there..... wherever "there" is.....

Today I took my mate for a walk..... he'd specifically asked to see:

a) the Cotton Famine Road (i've mentioned this before but go knock yourself out if you wanna see what it's all about)

b) Some of the work that i've been involved with while volunteering at the National Trust.

I planned a route.

He came over and we drove out to, what is colloquially known, as the Isle of Skye Road, which runs between Holmfirth and Greenfield..... subject of a recent wild fire......

We parked at what i know as Snoopy's car park, regarded the fly tips there (an old boiler and associated packaging and fittings correlating to that of a replacement), a load of cannabis growing paraphernalia), and then observed how fking cold it was as we set off on a linear walk between hither and thither......

So, just cos it sounds poetic, here's a rundown of the route......

Starting on the outskirts of Wessenden Head Moor, we set off along the old Pennine Way.... the new Pennine Way has been redirected a couple of clicks east of here, onto much sturdier ground.

We follow the old Pennine Way, past the Cotton Famine Road, which seriously underwhelms my friend.....  the history is more interesting than the rough, straight lines running across the moorland.  We skirt around Featherbed Moss, by which time i am deep into my spiel about moss types, peat, flagstones, methods of work...... it's probably very boring for my audience, but undeterred i keep reciting the script.....

We walk on, across White Moss, through Broadhead Moss, crossing gullies and fords.  In and out of the cold wind as we nip in and out of moorland depressions where the sparse sunlight warms our backs briefly.

Our north-westerly path has us hitting the corner of Black Moss where we turn right and walk along the eroded peat paths to join the new Pennine Way, which strangely has us walking back up it in the opposite direction from that which we were taking on the old PW.  Strange, but there it is.

Across Black Moss and down Blakely Clough to the little waterfall and across another section of path that had felt the blunt edge of my shovel.

Crossing the dam wall of Wessenden Reservoir, before leaving the Pennine Way behind, and joining the Kirklees way for a short stretch as we follow the string of reservoirs into Marsden itself.  Wessenden becomes Blakely, and in turn we leave that for Butterley.... and the iconic slipway that was saved from destruction by the local uprising when the council threatened to concrete over it.

Past the football ground and back to my car, which we unceremoniously dumped.... mebbe three hours ago, outside St Batholomew's church.

All downhill, no hard walking..... somewhere between six and seven miles..... pretty easy.....  we end up at the Traveller's Rest at Meltham for a well earned pint, but it's served unceremoniously, and leaves me feeling cheated.

I did take a picture or two but i was also wrangling the dog, and litter picking as we went.......  so this is what you get to see.....

The route, if you like that kind of thing?

I actually fell asleep curating the photos, but here they are a day late.......  this walk was Friday but the blog post ended up being done on Saturday.... it's like time travel for dummies......

On top of old Snoopy, all covered in moss.......

I looked at some "calyptra"

And some cotton grass which is not quite "out" out!

I did not skim flat stones across Black Moss.

But i litter picked and ate sandwiches.....

And marvelled at the herculean efforts of people better than me.

easter begins

 Technically i'm now on easter break!

No volunteering till Tuesday next week.... and nothing in front but good times.

Today we have been mostly fencing..... i say "fencing" in the loosest possible sense of the word..... let me explain to you what we actually did......

We went up to Deer Hill, a place that holds a fondness in my heart as i've done many a walk around there, and indeed one of the few places i have ever heard a cuckoo!!  As we got there today, and exited the pickup truck, we were greeted with the unmistakable call of the curlew.... what a treat.

Tools for today..... 2 x fencing bags (each bag contains 2 sets of fencing tools..... two claw hammers, 2 pairs of fencing pliers, wire cutters, a "flamingo" (a tensioning tool) and a tub full of galvanised staples).... 2 x post knockers..... 2 x 6 foot digging bars...... and a heap of fence posts.

The task... alongside the shooting club, runs a fence..... from the culvert, up the side of the hill.... and disappearing over the top of the cliffs.  A previous work party had been up and made a start, and had positioned a lot of replacement fence poles along the length of the fence where previous posts had rotted.  Take out the staples on the rotted posts..... remove the rotted posts..... replace the post with a new one...... reattach the fence..... retrieve the rotten fence posts to a place from whence they could be collected.

Sounds easy, and indeed the first few fenceposts were really easy to hammer into the soft soil..... it's just heavy grunt work......  use the bar to prep a pilot hole...... stand the pole in the pilot hole...... lift the post knocker onto the pole and probably ten or twelve whacks and in she goes.......  slap a few staples into the fence and bob's your uncle....

The upper half of the fence was not so simple, as the fence line seemed to be following an old wall line or something, and the ground was rocky and hard.  The bar would not penetrate, and even when the post WAS going in, the rocks would quickly decide which angle and how far it would go.

Hot, sweaty work, while dancing around the Molinia tussocks that could easily break an ankle as quickly as look at you.

Finish one post......  get your breath..... lug all the gear up the hill to the next spot..... rinse and repeat.

I'm pretty knackered, and the sunshine, and wind do take their additional toll on physical and mental levels.

Had a long bath and listened to a couple of David Sedaris episodes on Radio 4.

Once again, no pictures of the day..... but this is the area where i was working today.....  Don't ask me why but something or someone won't let me upload any images.... i give up - today is finished!

win some

 Well it's true.... you win some..... and you lose some......

Still no joy on the job front, in fact i received a rejection from a water company today that i applied for...... so that's my loss for the day.....

I got up super early today for what i'd normally consider to be the pensioners' appointment.... a 7:30am blood test at my doctor's.  First slot of the day.... Was home before eight.  In theory, the blood extraction could also be classed as a loss, of sorts.

Pissed about in the house a little before setting off into town for my bi-weekly appointment at the job-centre-plus.  Spent twenty minutes in the library reading the newspaper before nipping next door to confess my job seeking sins.  I exchange my story of woe for a handful of loose change.... happy easter.... it's a small win.

Hotfooting it out of the job centre, i walk past the tributes to the young lad who was so callously stabbed to death in the town centre at the beginning of April.  I notice one of the tributes tells us to do gardening instead of murder..... it seems like sound advice.

Ducking into Wetherspoons, i grab myself a table, open up the app, and on the stroke of 11am, i'm drinking a pint of stout, and have a breakfast muffin and hash brown in front of me.... i consider the signing on, the pint, and the breakfast to be part of a benefit claimant's triathlon, and in this one I've deffo won the gold!

Called in at Aldi - not an advert but christ, their veg is SO cheap today.... i kind of go a bit nuts....  garlic at 15p a bulb, potatoes at 8p a bag, carrots ot 15p a bag, broccoli at 8p a stalk.....  the world;s gone proper mad..... and i walk out of there with as much food as i can carry for about eleven quid.

Came home.... roasted some veg, baked some potatoes, made some soup, made a sttew..... a few days of food prepped and cooked.  Winner winner.... no chicken in MY dinner!

Took t'dog for a nice walk, and rewarded her with a crunchy pig's ear.....

and that was enough for me..... i fell asleep watching Tipping Point!

cuckoo

The cuckoo.... a bird rich in myth and folklore..... a symbol of fortune, of good weather, and even able to move between the astral planes between life and death.....

When a cuckoo sings, you can expect a "gowk storm", or you should turn money over in your pocket for a boost in your finances.

Don't hear a cuckoo without eating a piece of bread, and if you know someone born to the sound of the cuckoo, then please give them a kiss from me, and treasure them dearly!!

Anyhow.....

I've been up a ladder today, fixing wooden effigies of the cuckoo to telegraph poles, on the approaches to Marsden.

You gotta be asking yourself why, unless you live in the Colne Valley, of course.

And the answer may well surprise you.... it may also underwhelm you......

So....

Every village in the Colne Valley has an alter ego.... if you live in Slawit (that's pronounced "Slaithwaite" if you wanna get thrown in the nearest canal) you re a moonraker.  If you hail from the hamlet of Golcar, you're a lily.... and them ones from Linfit (or "Linthwaite" if you're a comer-inner) are leadboilers..... but Marsden?  Them from Marsden, well they're.... you guessed it!  Cuckoos!

The tale of how this happened, and you'll have to forgive me paraphrasing.....

When the cuckoo showed up in Marsden, the locals felt blessed, and they wished for it never to leave..... so they hatched a cunning plan, my lord.

They built a wall around the cuckoo in the vain hope that it would be held within the confines of the village, yielding good fortune for time immemorial.

Unfortunately, those canny folk up in the head of the Colne Valley, did not comprehend the cuckoo's wily ability, and no matter how tall they built the wall around the cuckoo, well.... it just fking flew out the top and pissed off .... well, you would wouldn't you?

So the Marsdeners became know as cuckoos.

Every year now, who knows how long this has been going on for, but probably not as long as we might imagine...... every year there's a cuckoo festival.. and how do you know when the cuckoo festival is?  You see some wooden cuckoos screwed to a telegraph pole telling thee when it is, of course..... and that is exactly where me and a ladder and a screwdriver come in!!  And exit......

Not quite.... as i did not take photos, i had better at least publicise the cuckoo day, it's a parade in the village with a duck race and all that family friendly jazz!

There's some stuff on Friday 25th April, but the main cuckoo day is Saturday 26th April.

Go and have a look if you're curious?

While the moors burn, people like to fly tip.... this is just one of ..... mebbe ten that i saw today on the A640..... this was a kitchen ripped out and deposited across two separate laybys.... this is one of the better fly tips because at least they left it in a layby.

To croc or not to croc.....

 I have two pairs of Crocs.... one of them genuine, bonafide, all singing, all dancing, real authentic, straight outta the factory, fur lined, black, complete with "croc charms" or "jibbitz" if you know the parlance.

I also have a knock-off, cheap, middle-aisle, blue, oversized, thin-soled, wrong-shaped holes, sloppy, pair that don't even accept the "jibbitz" as even the holes in top of the croc are the wrong shape.**

** FTR I have some genuine Mario themed "jibbitz" and some knock-off Pokémon "croc charms" off aliexpress - don't hate on me!

Now.....

I love my real crocs, and i love my glow in the dark, Pokémon croc charms......

And i love my cheap blue imitation ones......

BUT.....

Jesus H Christ..... the furry genuine ones absolutely stink to high heaven.....  the fur lining is not detachable, and they now smell like ripe gorgonzola.....  i can only bear to wear them for 5 minutes before they start to get warm and begin festering.

The thought of throwing two enormous, furlined, rubber clogs into the washing machine sorta brings tears to my eyes.... and if anyone's ever washed "shoes", in my experience, once "washed" and worn again, they tend to stink worse than before you did done wash them?

So.... i resort to the cheaper crocs (without my glow in the dark charms)....  or failing that..... i wear my slippers.....

The things i have to think about, constantly.......

• why is there never a pair of crocs or slippers in the room i am currently in?
• why, when i find them are there always 2 pairs of crocs and a pair of slippers ALL TOGETHER?
• why can there never be any indoor shoes available to me in the kitchen, the coldest floor in the house?
• why can't i take the furry lining out of these very expensive plastic clogs?
• why, when i can wear a pair of workboots, all day, every day, for multiple weeks/months/years do my feet not smell.... but these crocs are riper than a fine alphonso mango?

It's very frustrating, you know... honestly......

In other news..... today I parked at a car park..... walked all the way down the side of a valley, almost to the valley floor, to look for an uprooted signpost and a mattock that we'd left behind on a previous work party..... only to find two very similar looking items in the back of the pickup truck back up at the car park....  i need answers!!

here's an animated gof, cos we all love em, of some bog asphodel seed heads...... this is not speeded up, this is how windy it was today on t'moor....

better

 Better get a bucket, i'm gonna throw up.  (it's a line from a Monty Python film)

You'll all be pleased that Dawn is MUCH better today, so much so that when i finally woke up this morning, she was already up, in the kitchen and eating toast.....

So, today was a case of taking it steadily and seeing how we go.....

I got ready to take the dog for a much needed walk, and Dawn was quick to jump out of the chair and ask to come with us....

So we set off..... not far from our house, we took a footpath that neither of us has ever walked before..... it's truly amazing that so close to home, given how much walking we do,  that there are untrodden paths..... it does tell you that there are a LOT of paths around here though.

A quick look at the map, and we were just about to leap the wall at the bottom of the golf course car park, and we were confronted by a jovial old lady who asked us where we were going.....  i described our intentions and she pointed us in the direction across the field in the direction of where we needed to head.

Diagonally across the first field, which was a well trodden horse field,.... down to the stile, and stream beyond..... follow the gully around a bend..... cross the reeds, through the stream.... very raw path.... virtually untrodden...... no discernible path to follow, so thankful for gps and an OS map.

Confronted with a homemade stile which was more of an hinderance than a help.... Dawn and dog went under and i went over, almost breaking my leg as i ended up with one foot facing forwards and one foot backwards on the same fence bar.....

Up the hill.... cross the golf course..... and back onto familiar paths......

(here's a diagram of the new section so you can visualise it)

the walk was nice and we finished over Scapegoat Hill and through Pighill Woods before returning via the golf course...

Circa four miles, and Dawn seemed to handle it well.... i was regularly dragging behind, whilst taking photos of moss or lying down and photographing the sky or some silly shit like that.

I could bore you with a squillion pictures but i won't....

here's one of my two favourite ladies.....

And here's one of some trees i  took while i did an impersonation of a riggwelter in Pighill Woods - by which i am referring to a sheep that fell over onto its back and couldn't get up and not the beer made by the unscrupulous twats that rendered me jobless.....

chalk

 Woke up nice and early, hoping to get on with the weekend.

Dawn woke up with migraine.... and she's been throwing up all day, so i've been left to my own devices, which generally means not much.

The dog was still tired from yesterday... and the day was too hot for her black coat to stand....

We spent a two coffee breakfast al fresco in the garden...... 

I emptied out my wormery, and relined the sections with some cardboard and put everything back together.... hopefully the wormery will dry out a bit cos it's been way too wet and swampy to be healthy, but there ARE lots of worms.....

I also did a bit of research on some other critters i found in the wormery to make sure there wasn't anything too detrimental to the health of the system....

Whitefly.... loads of em...... no dramas.... don't affect the worms and DO help with the composting....

Some, what i described as pine-needle sized white worms/maggots - which turn out to be "pot worms" or enchytraeids to give them their Sunday name.  Also no dramas but do indicate wet, and possibly acidic conditions.

So i padded the wormery out with some extra dry material aka plain shredded cardboard.....

The dog barked, mostly, before being banished to the kitchen.

Apart from that bit of activity, i've mostly skived off today.... it's been a "two film" kinda day - a rarity and a bit of a luxury... of course you can read about these and any other films i've watched, here.

No photos today, so let me find something from my archive..... random selection says.... here's a picture of my mate, John, in Kirkcudbright, seated in Odin's Chair (i think) - June 2024

knit one

 Knit one, pearl a row,

Miss a day, quid pro quo,

Forget to blog, sleep instead,

An early start, sun overhead!

Got rudely awoken by a Yodel or Evri driver delivering some un-tariff friendly Chinese tat, addressed to the lady of the house.

Sun was already up, and i'd had a good kip.... Dawn had even brought me a coffee before she scooted off to work, so i glugged it (cold by now) and got my big-boy-walking-pants on and set off down the road.

The dog was in a mood.... i mean, it was hot but still early, but she was grunting and panting and generally unsettled.... and remained so for pretty much the next two hours.

I walked through the old site of Gosport Mill, which i consider to be new-builds, despite them having been there like forty years or more.....

UpForest Hill Road, past the New Inn, the Dog and Partridge, and over the top to descend steeply down into Stainland Dean.....  Bottomed out and climbed up the steep semi-cobbled Steele Lane before going off road onto Firth House Lane (a farm track) and onto a lovely descending path down to Black Brook.

Celandine, bluebells, lots of mossy tree trunks and drystone walling.... absolutely glorious today.

Spent a few minutes letting the dog cool down in Black Brook while she had a paddle and drank a bit..... before she got obsessed over something that looked fairly dead..... and i had to drag her away.

We crossed the brook at Berry Mill Lane and started the first section of the long climb back up the hill..... up some steps, over a wall.... up a couple of horse fields, and through Dean House Farm onto Moulson Lane.  By now i was drenched.... my hat was wringing wet through and the sweat was dripping into my eyes.

Head down.... one foot in front of the other..... up and up....

Sharp steep climb pas the corner of Broom Hill Road, and back onto a field footpath up to Marsden Gate.  Had to lift the dog over the stile on tthe road and it was, about as much as i could manage.

Walking back to Outlane via the "ten fields" path..... the dog decided she'd had enough and flopped onto the grass and started to snake her way forwards in a most peculiar fashion..... she did this twice before i convinced her we'd get home much sooner if she walked on her paws, and then she could have a drink..... she was actually shattered.

Back home and a chance to cool down.....  not a massive walk, but in the heat and with the sharpish climbs..... it is a good workout.....  i'll do a map and some pics but trying to get pics and wrestle a dog lead is not easy....

here's a map

and here's a few pics:

that's just me and my shadows on Forest Hill Road

Looking down into Stainland Dean

The path down to Black Brook where a tree fell across the drystone wall

Celandines and fungi down at Black Brook

Painted Lady on bilberry flowers at Moulson Lane

Back home begging for a drink and a pig's ear! International pet day today or summat?

wandered

 i wandered lonely,

What's that smell?

It's not the daffs,

Perhaps bluebell?

I never get tired of seeing bluebells in the woods.....  i have a few in me garden but they all seem to be the big blousy Spanish interlopers, or most likely some kind of hybrid (and they are not showing, yet) ....  the woodland ones are much more dainty but i couldn't tell thee with full certainty which ones are which.... i just think the Spanish bluebell are a lot more "stocky"?

Anyways.... we had a nice meander through the woods with the hound in tow..... it was nice to breathe some fresh air, to hear the birdsong, to kneel in the leaf litter and take a photo.  Pretty fine.

Been a bit lost this week without the Popemobile..... it's still in the garage, and probably has another couple of days to go...... 

It's not that i'd particularly want to go anywhere (other than my volunteering) but without the car here, it makes me feel like my wings are clipped.....

I consider all the things i could do if the car was here.... knowing full well, i probably wouldn't have done any of those things even if it WERE here.....  but like any addict, the thought of not being able to have it if i wanted it, is the bit that makes Jack go crazy.... or words to that effect.

Having access to something soothes my soul a bit.... case in question......

I used to smoke a lot of cigarettes.... i think i was smoking forty (yeas - four zero) every day at the height of my smoking career...... and when it was late in the evening or indeed, early in the morning, i'd be planning to make sure i'd have at least one cig left to enable me to get out of bed and face the day before i had to leg it down the off licence for a top up......

the difference between...... got a few left and no drama in the morning,,,, and..... if i smoke this cig and have none left then i won't be able to cope..... is night and ay, quite literally......

So, when i stopped smoking, and to this day, i believe my half smoked packet of cigs, is somewhere in the house, should i want one......  of course they'll be ancient, dry and disgusting now, but the thought that they are there if i want/need them keeps me straight....

weird thing addiction, isn't it?

dog

 1) go to google.com

2) search for the word "dog"

3) click the little purple paw icon that appears.....

4) thank me later

goodbye

fast for'ard

 Shucks, i missed a day... or did the day miss me?  I forget now.

Sunday sort of came and went without much of a fanfare or a trumpet in sight.

I am still carless, and careless.

I am still toothless and hairless.

So, today i had to ditch my volunteering in favour of easter-holiday-baby-sitting for our granddaughter.

We played some games on the computer, we went to the park, played a flapping fish game, ate some sweets......

All standard stuff.

The news on the car tells me.... it needs a load of welding.... they're gonna try and fix the clutch.... and the crunching sound i hear when i turn full lock isn't, as i guessed, the springs.... apparently it's the strut-top(?) which apparently sounds worse than it actually is, and if you can live with it then you should because the springs on a fiat doblo can kill a man.... it's something to do with having to switch them or work with them when they're under compression.... like fully compressed..... and it's the same reason the garage won't touch mercedes springs either!!  I don't blame them and i'll live with the crunchy noises it makes rather than wish death on anyone.

Still no news on when i am going to get the car back but i suspect Wednesday?  or late Tuesday?

Shame, really, cos this weather would be ace to get a spot of fishing in.

I'll see what i can wangle tomorrow and if it's only me getting a small pack of fishing gear ready for another day, then so be it.

One thing's for sure.... i don't think my next career move is going to be as a baby sitter!

At some point today, we were making up rhymes about eating peas of differing colours.... i think when i ate the red ones she said i'd be dead..... i told her she was harsh.....  she laughed and said "I'm harsh".... and as i disappeared up the stairs i heard her ask grandma... "what does harsh mean?" - i laughed to myself.

photo for today comes courtesy of the granddaughter - sitting on her scooter, alone, in the middle of a rugby pitch!

no gnus

 Apparently no gnus are good gnus?  Or so the saying goes.

Well, i haven't had a coroner's report on the popemobile yet..... but neither have i heard that it's still breathing....

Schrodinger's car?

Probably?  Possibly?  Maybe?  Probably not?  All of the above!

Well.....

Saturday is here again.... and despite the glorious sunshine bathing everything in the light of a spring day.... that bloody wind still has a nip about it.

Went out for a walk with the dog, and :

Plump, solitary bee, hovers and lunges.

The breeze quickly carries a single painted lady sideways,

beyond the lens.

A carpet of celandine, acid yellow, lights the way.

Wild garlic, flowers frothing like fireworks.

Wood anemone, tongue twisting, and delicate.

Bluebells shrug timorosity and dance in the breeze.

Bracken unfurling, click, unclick.

Friable fallen leaves, crumble like parchment underfoot.

Courteous nettles with fripperous flowers.

The scent of soil, as nature kindles.

Lone nuthatch, persistently pipping, overhead.

And here's a little curated collection from today.........

Eggs

 Bit of a nowt of a day.

The day began with 'er indoors asking me "what time do we need to be there?".... and of course you're about as well clued up as i was at 9:08am.... "Be where?" i asked......

"Taking your car into the garage....."

"Shit, yeah, supposed to be there at 9."

Already late.

Dole time!!  Unemployed.... having a lie in...... you name it..... i'm already in the zone.

Time wasn't too important, and i got there without much delay but it's a good yardstick for how much these days matter when i am not committed to something resembling work.

The other thing that happened today..... i realised i am now "out of notice"....

Basically this..... after being made redundant...... you have a statutory notice period, which amounts to one week per full year that you were employed...... in my case a full nine years worked means a full nine weeks pay......

And on the 2nd April, that nine weeks was up and i am now entitled to apply for that little chunk of money.

This is good AND bad.....

Up until now, i've pretty much been on full pay from my previous employment (albeit i have to claim the money from the insolvency agency i.e. the government.... i.e. the taxpayer..... i.e. you and me....) but NOW, for the first time in .... oh, i don't know..... i am fully unsupported..... got nowt but the dole money coming in......

I think i'd probably get my act together and REALLY look for work now.

in other news..... i have some nice photos..... and here's one to look at...... here's a hawthorn tree coming out of bud, into leaf.....  juicy, innit?

knot

 This wasn't quite the day i envisaged as i turned over in bed to avoid the dog sticking her tongue in my eye.

A lazy start.....

Caught a few Pokémon..

Listened to the news headlines, several times..... might even have heard something about wildlife and farming on the radio before i emerged from my poly-fibre-filled cocoon as more of a drab grey moth than a red admiral.

Coffee beckoned.....

Flicked on the telly to visually watch the same headlines that had been read to me endlessly through the night on Radio 4.

Donald Trump with his tariff bingo board and his hair that i can never quite focus on, like it's been redacted or blurred out.....

Took dog for a walk and a run and a prance and a bounce..... the joys of spring written all across her silly face.

I looked at some moss.

I looked at the big picture.... and i looked at the small picture..... and i dare say i looked at some bits that fell between the two poles.

Came home, wondered what to do next..... so we went for a swim.

Redbrook Reservoir..... the sun was shining as we approached, and inside the car it felt positively balmy...... outside the vehicle however, it was blowing a bit of a hoolie, and the wind was quite chill...... 

We haven't swum outside in cold water since December last year, and i've definitely been skipping the "turn the shower down to cold" aspect of my grooming regime.

It was so cold.

I have to admit, having felt ok to kick off and start swimming, once the waves were slapping me in the face and the tow float was overtaking me with the wind, i beat a hasty retreat for the shore..... a little panicked and breathless..... i reckon we swam about a hundred yards all told - not very impressive when you write it down in black and white.....

The main thing.... as i always tell everyone..... we overcame all those reasons, the voices, the doubts..... and we got out there and we did it.

Here's a picture of the standing stone at Wholestone Moor - I still want to call it Rocking Stones Quarry, but since the quarry moved across the hill a little, and the rocking stone rocked its last, and fell over, well, there doesn't seem much point.

lift up thine eyes unto the hills - i think?

And.... as an added bonus..... here's a picture of Sookie doing her thing...... running through the heather looking for something to chase...... i would have got a better picture but as she careered towards me, as i lay in the heather, i flinched after this shot, and she was upon me......

game face

As part of my schedule today, i had to make the bi-weekly pilgrimage into Huddersfield town centre....

It starts by me driving to the place where i used to work, it's on the outskirts of the Town but the parking is free, and i don't have to worry about those silly height restriction barriers above the car park entrances that threaten to either jam my popemobile firmly underneath them, or rip the aerial from its roots and render my radio/cassette player less useful than it already is.....

On the subject of the radio/cassette player - it has a tape jammed in it, and it also refuses to play that tape, or any other tape i managed to get jammed into it.  The radio itself..... always, when you turn it on, turns on at a volume so low that it's inaudible, and no matter how loud it was when you turned it off, reverts back to this state.  When you wind (in electrical terms) a window down or up then one of the speakers cuts out - usually the passenger side one. 

So.... parked out of town..... and walking down the road towards the centre in glorious sunshine.....

Through the town centre..... i don't want to be one to be a town-centre-knocker but it was pretty grim..... vape shop, barbers, closed, empty, empty, pound bakery, cash convertor...... you get the idea.  I remember the better days when it was all C&A, Thomas Cook, Jaeger, Woolworths, Wilkinsons.....  Not much left to interest me enough to drive in and pay for parking, that's for sure.

I am early for my appointment at the Job Centre  Plus (I take it the "plus" means that the poor staff are also expected to undertake other duties along with the traditional duties of the Job Centre before it was amalgamated with housing, or Universal Credit or summat?).....

I slink into the library in the new, unceremonious setting, where it is indeed amalgamated with the housing department.....  reading a local newspaper for a few minutes, overhearing the staff at the reception desk dealing with anything BUT library queries.... lots of old people being told that they can no longer get face-to-face appointments for this, that, or indeed the other.... and the very patient desk staff helping them access internet, phones, forms, you name it.....

I feel sorry for the oldies who just can't cope with the technological interface to services these days.

Now.... this is the crux of the tale.......

In order for me to head next door, to register as unemployed, and to explain all my efforts i've been making over the last two weeks to find work..... i need to put my game face on.... not just the face but i almost feel the need to apologise for holding out my begging bowl for the £12.93 that i am allotted for my day.

It's a sad thing, signing on..... i don't enjoy it.

Truth be told.... i actually left the process three minutes before my actual appointment time - my story checked out.... my efforts were deemed adequate..... and i was allowed to continue.

I walk back a different way and discover a shopping arcade that seems to be enjoying a little revival, with independent shops, and even a Pokémon trading card vending machine.....  my faith is a little bit restored, and the sun starts to shine again.

I did 'member to take a photo of the pokemon vending machine, but i know you'd be less than thrilled, so here's a picture of Saint John's Church in Birkby....  a mate of mine got married here.... i used to live across the road from here, and i've spent mebbe 15 years working within sight of this building......  the tip of the steeple is relatively new (in geological terms, or at least within my living memory) after some scrap metal thieves tied the lightning conductor to a vehicle and drove off...... it pulled the spire off the top and it crashed through the church roof...... very sad to see.  Looks good now though.

irony me this shirt, please

 I am always the one telling people to take before/after pictures of the work we do.....

And I am always the one who comes home with no pictures from the day, at all!

We worked in such a nice spot today, beneath the hanging boulders of millstone grit that perch on top of the hill at Buckstones.

Down, toward March Haigh Reservoir..... down the "desire path" or "trod" as they are most commonly referred to......  it doesn't appear on any maps, but when you park in the car park at Buckstones and look down at the water, it seems to make sense to want to walk down to it......

Thus a "trod" is created......

Unfortunately, in this instance, the trod runs through one of the only recovering bits of "bog" amidst all the bloody tussocks of Molinia grass.  There's sphagnum aplenty in this little gully and many feet tramping over it and through the muddy gully, causing much erosion, and damage to the white trainers of unsuspecting "hikers" who thought this was a good idea, looking down from the car park above.

So.....

Without any fanfares or trumpeting, we surreptitiously "guided" the path away from the sphagnum, out of the rushes, away from the gully, and sort of round to the side, through the Molinia, and joining back up at the bottom, in order to encourage all those white trainers to take the higher ground..... morally, and physically.

Because it isn't an actual path already, we aren't allowed to make a path to replace this not-path..... so we just sort of persuaded the moorland to look more approachable in one direction than the other......

Smoke and mirrors, mate.

Then, the long haul, back up the hill to the car park with all the tools, and a car tyre that we managed to liberate from the moorland below.

An honest day's toil, 'neath crystal blue skies, with a chill breeze......

And we left one of the tools behind... a mattock, in fact..... but nobody was going to venture back down to get it - that's a job for another day......

No pictures again, so here's a screen grab of where i am on about.....

picture stolen AGAIN - so sorry about this!!