Some good days others not so good!

 It has been something of a curate's egg over the past 7 days. 

Last Tuesday I took my daughter for a walk around Hillier's Arboretum. Thanks to my friend Kathy I have joined and as a member I can visit as often as I like and I can take a friend on three occasions. 

We had a very good afternoon enjoying the spell of warm sunshine. We paused a few times to give my back a rest and to have a cuppa and cake. We enjoyed talking to other visitors and members of the staff too, whilst respecting their distance.

I recorded our walk but forgot to turn the recording off so I have had to edit the Strava record. The original showed our ride home, so I have removed that portion.

On Friday I went for my second jab at the Holiday Inn near the Percy Hobbs Roundabout.

All went smoothly and when I got back home I walked into town to collect some pills from the Wessex Pharmacy. I spotted that Dave's Fish & Chips was open for takeaway so picked up a pensioner's portion. It was a good size piece of fish and a very generous portion of chips, so I froze half for future use.

Unfortunately in the evening of Friday my arm began to hurt quite a lot and I felt alternately hot and shivery. I took some paracetamol but slept very poorly as both my shoulders hurt to lay on and sleeping on my back is always a problem. 

I was up and down several times in the night but after a cuppa at 6 a.m. I started to feel better so got back in bed and went to sleep until I was awoken by a knock on the door at 10.30 a.m. A friend calling to check if I was OK!. 

As the day went on I realised that all the pain had gone and I was back to my normal rickety state.

On Sunday I was tempted to go out but decided instead to try and do some gardening. I managed to scarify the front lawn and rake up the loose moss. It took ages as passing folk kept stopping to chat. It was hard work but lovely too.

Today I have been working on my Family History project but i did find time to enjoy a stroll (?) around the block.

Of course, I did find time to watch three rugby matches. Some very good rugby was played too. I always enjoy watching the French when they find their flair. Reminded me of one of my favourite French players Jean Pierre Reeves who was a top flanker for France in the seventies if I remeber correctly. I played the same position when I was at school.

Enough of my prattling, best wishes to you all and don't forget still to "Take Care".

Gridironman.

Good Progress!

 Another week seems to have passed very quickly. I seem to have been quite busy and have enjoyed myself with a variety of activities. 

On Thursday I was tempted to go for a walk but decided instead to get my scarifier out and have a go at removing at least some of the moss from my back lawn. I made good progress, filled my new brown bin three-quarters full and the lawn looking a little more like there is some grass! I did pace myself over a number of short sessions so I didn't overdo it.

On Saturday I decided to investigate Algy's report of there being a new information board about three spitfires crashing near Abbotstone.

Badger Sett.

Badger diggings.

Sunday 7th March I decided to try a little more ambitious walk from Tichborne. Parked by the church and headed SouthWest along a mixture of public footpaths and permissive paths. the going was mainly dry but there were some patches of mud and water especially in field gateways. I was quite warm despite the temperature being only about 6 degrees as I was walking for over a mile alongside a wood. 

 

Map of the permissive path.

Interesting Fungi.

One of the muddy patches.

Old Man's Beard and Catkins.

High seat for shooting. There were three of these alongside the wood.

Sunday's Route.

The weather was fine with some nice sunny spells. The route very quiet, only saw 4 other walkers a couple of partridge. The highlight of the walk hearing a woodpecker drumming. Much as I tried, despite him keeping going for several minutes, I was unable to spot him in the trees.

Because the going was quite rough in places and with muddy patches to work around my pace was quite slow. After the 3.6 miles I was quite tired and hungry and ready for a lunch of baked spud with Coronation Chicken washed down with a tasty beer.

Gridironman.