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.

More Tottering!.

   

Riverside near Easton

Have had a good week with the sciatica gradually becoming less painful. Only two recorded walks as I have been doing a little gardening too. 

One day I walked into the town and back to do a little shopping and return my library books.

My support bubble daughter Sarah and her husband came for lunch on Thursday. I cooked roast chicken with roast spuds, peas and carrots. They had to scrounge puddings!

Yesterday I drove to Easton to walk somewhere different and to give the car an airing. Enjoyed trundling along the lanes at a slow speed pretending I was cycling. A brightly coloured Jay flew past me. 

I stopped to buy a cake at the West Lea Farm Shop and when I got home discovered I had lost my door keys, quickly went back to the shop where I found them on the doorstep. They must have popped out of my pocket as I pulled out my car key. Phew!

Easton Church.

Easton The Old Rectory. A substantial building.

Just missed snapping the heron!

Croci on the bank by the ARC.

Early Primroses.

I hope, like me, you are all keeping well and enjoying whatever you are managing to do.

Gridironman.

One Old Crock Pottering About.

Over the last three weeks my activities I have done very little worthy of comment, but I thought it was about time I let you know how things have been going. Whilst I am still recovering from my tumbles I have in addition had severe sciatica. 

Luckily I have been well looked after by my family and friends. I can manage a mile or two with a walking stick and on Thursday I managed about 1,5 hours gardening with the help of my two grandsons.

I'm sorry to say I am just getting older and all these things do conspire to prevent one from doing many things. 

To keep myself occupied I have been doing a lot of research to update my family tree and to correct errors. I have found quite a few. It is very easy to get two families mixed up as our ancestors often repeated the names in the family so cousins often had the same names making it easy to confuse the line of descent.

Here are the maps of my little walks:_

A massive total of just over 5 miles for the period!

Gridironman.

 

Weeks Three and Four.

With rather horrible weather and some health problems, I have not been able to get out much over the last two weeks. 

Here are my walk details and some pictures.

Cassandra's Cafe using a link to Jane Austen.

This pony had just had a pedicure!

Our little touch of winter!

Our Christmas Day walk! Yes, that was a postponed celebration as we couldn't do it on Dec 25th.

Children playing with the sheep.

My right hip has been painful but at least I have had some fresh air.

Whilst isolating I have been enjoying one of my dormant hobbies researching family history. I have been attempting to verify many previous assumptions with the help of an updated Family History software by Legacy, Millennia, it is like being a detective, great fun.

Cheers!

Gridironman.