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Zip Wire Teddy!

30/6/2022

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I have just received updated instructions for my volunteer role at St Peter’s Church Fete in Winchcombe. It is being held this weekend on Saturday 2nd July between noon – 5pm. 

​It looks like I will be spending time with the kids – again!

 
Zip Wire Teddies (link with Tower Tours)
  • Co-locate tickets sales with Tower Tour.
  • Teddies collected by Teddy team and hoisted externally to tower roof.
  • Zip windows: 2-2.30pm & 3-3.30pm.
  • Stickers for teddy owners and their bears provided by //////
  • Requires: 200m cord, 8 x coat hangers with gripping clips, string to attach bears; basket to carry bears & hangars up tower.
  • Bring pen and scissors for ticket preparation and writing owner's name on teddy stickers.
  • Risk assessment completed by ///////
 
So, that’s told me.  Should be fun!!
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Name that Plant - please!

26/6/2022

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It looks like a pink daisy so just might be a pink daisy - but is it?  However, it's on a stem which is about 75cm tall so not your average in-the-grass daisy.

​The other flowers, however, are very low level.  Maybe on stems which are about 20cm tall.  They are actually bluer than purple in real life.  



Any ideas would be gratefully received as then I can do some research!
​
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More Emerging Colour

24/6/2022

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After all the recent hot weather and then a downpouring of rain there has been a spurt of new growth.  Photos taken on 24th June 2022.
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Colours of Summer

12/6/2022

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“Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.”
Al Bernstein - (b 1950 - American sportscaster, writer, stage performer, and speaker.
I took these photos fairly early yesterday morning (11th June). It may be boring for some, but I find it endlessly fascinating how it has developed over the past month.  I 'survey the grounds' at least twice a day and I think the neighbours - if they can hear me - must think I have the saddest life ever when I wax lyrical about what my lupins are up to, or how the rose petals are blooming!
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Extraction - part 2

10/6/2022

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So, the tooth extraction was a bit of a disaster insofar as even after loads of anaesthetic the dentist was unable to remove the tooth! I have to go back in a week or so but have five days of antibiotics to "calm down" the sensitive tooth. Typical - anaesthetic just wouldn't work and dentist was reluctant to inject more!  I had at least six injections so must be a weirdo.
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Rose

9/6/2022

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Extraction

9/6/2022

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I’ve been feeling a little sorry for myself over the past 24 hours as I developed a low-level nagging toothache.  As I have a horror of being in pain in limbo and over a weekend when there are no dentists available, I managed to get an emergency appointment with my surgery (they’re brilliant at Stonehouse Dental Practice in Winchcombe).  The upshot is that a molar extraction is called for – deep joy.  The dentist recommended a full extraction at a cost of up-to £150, with the alternative (root canal, crown etc) coming in at over £1000.  The dentist doesn’t think I’ll miss the tooth (her words!) so it seems like a no-brainer to me.

A number of people have warned me that an extraction can be really painful, and it was also a bit alarming for the dentist to ask whether I would have to go into work – as ‘it’s best not to raise one’s blood pressure…” after the anaesthetic and painkillers.  Oh?!   So, I’ve warned this particular Friday employer (a school) that I might have to swap my day and go in on Monday instead!
 
Hey ho.
 
On the upside, I’ve been making a few plans of “things to look forward to”.  One of which is through one of those ‘internet deal’ links (like Hotdeals / Groupon / Wowcher) I've booked a dinner, B&B at Marco Pierre White's hotel (near Bath) for the autumn. Have a look at Hotels in Corsham - Marco Pierre White's Rudloe Arms. Our friend Frank (who trained with the Roux brothers at Le Gavroche, and who did our wedding supper – now sadly deceased) always raved about M-P White and when we have seen him on TV he seems like a cool guy  - if a bit scary too!.  Anyway, I have “saved” at least £200 on the deal, and we are booked for a weekend in October.  It is only an hour or so to drive there so should be a decent short break away.  The hotel is  set in “14 acres of stunning landscape [which] makes the grounds at the Rudloe the ideal place to unwind and enjoy nature”.
 
As I say, it is something to look forward to as we've decided not to go on a beach holiday this year (boo!).  There are far too many idiot people, airlines are being ridiculous, and prices are all over the place! Therefore, I'm currently in touch with our go-to place in Kefalonia to get in early for next May or June. I am also looking at highly recommended places in Portugal – one as a Lisbon city break, and another on an island near to Madeira.
 
With regard to summer 2022 – and as Paul never knows from one week to the next what work he will be doing - we thought we'd go to places in the UK that we talk about but have never visited. Well, that's the plan (and we’re good at those).
 
Any further recommendations would be gladly received!
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Jubilee Not-So-Big Lunch

5/6/2022

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An enjoyable family lunch - diminished numbers because of relocating the venue due to the weather.  The plan is to have another picnic at No.6 later in the summer when the forecast is decent.

Of course, there was plenty of food and noise - as usual!
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17 Years... and counting!

4/6/2022

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I was expecting to spend our seventeenth (!) wedding anniversary home-alone as Paul was scheduled to be doing two separate 'shifts', leaving the house at 8am, and expected back after 10.30pm.  So, it was a welcome surprise when the one job finished earlier than expected and we were able to enjoy an impromptu lunch in the garden.  

So civilised! And the sun even shone happily for us.
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Artichoke (Prep & Cooking)

3/6/2022

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Even after following the instructions of my favourite chef-author, Simon Hopkinson, I am not sure that the results of my artichoke preparation and cooking were as impressive as they could be.  Also, it was a lot of work for little reward.... but thankfully DID taste good.  Especially dipped in hollandaise sauce.  Yum!
Artichoke: That vegetable of which one has more at the finish than at the start of dinner."  Lord Chesterfield 
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Believe it or not, there are lots of poems about artichokes!  Here is one that seems relevant to my experience:

Artichoke - by Richard Foerster (From The Burning of Troy by Richard Foerster. Copyright © 2006)

For all the bother, it's the peeling away
we savoured, the slow striptease
toward a tender heart--
 
how each petal dipped in the buttery sauce
was raked across our lower
teeth, its residue
 
less redolent of desire than sweet restraint,
a mere foretaste of passion,
but the scaly plates
 
piled up like potsherds in a kitchen midden,
a history in what's now
useless, discarded--
 
so we strained after less and less as the barbs
perhaps drew a little blood
and we cut our way
 
into the core to rid us of the fibre
that would stifle every ut-
terance between us.
 
In our quest for that morsel,
how we risked silence,
risked even
love.
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Jubilee - 1

3/6/2022

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Above:  our new neighbours (opposite) aren't shy in making a bold statement!
​On the one hand I have been keeping myself to myself but in actual fact it has been busy over the past month or so, and things seems to be picking up going into the summer months.  So much so that a Californian friend is going to be in the UK briefly at the end of the month but whatever way I try to juggle between additional work and outside commitments which had been agreed a while ago, there is no chance to meet up.  It is very frustrating.  However, logistics is always the thing, isn’t it?  

Even this Jubilee weekend has proven to be problematic because of the vagaries of the British weather and the fact that Paul is currently engaged on a four-week contract which (as is the case in theatre) doesn’t take into consideration public holidays.  He has one day off over the weekend, and we had hoped to host a garden-based Big Jubilee Lunch for flag-waving family and friends.  
Even this Jubilee weekend has proven to be problematic because of the vagaries of the British weather and the fact that Paul is currently engaged on a four-week contract which (as is the case in theatre) doesn’t take into consideration public holidays.  He has one day off over the weekend, and we had hoped to host a garden-based Big Jubilee Lunch for flag-waving family and friends.  

​Unfortunately, we have had to postpone it because the weather forecast is TERRIBLE for Winchcombe and, as you know, the house is too small for everyone to fit in comfortably - and to be able to eat as well! 

Therefore, the family is de-camping to my sister’s house – a 50-minute drive from No.6, north of Worcester.  The family is keen to meet up not only for the Jubilee excuse for party food, but also to mark my and Paul’s wedding anniversary (17 years on 3rd June), to welcome Violet back from Dubai (again) and to celebrate Clementine’s offer of a new job!
​ 
Yippee!!!
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