Salisbury

We made an unexpected trip to Salisbury this weekend.  The Builder's mother went into hospital on Friday for an operation on her hand and shoulder.  She had to have cancerous growths removed.  We knew she was going in.  We knew when the operation was.  But it was only after I had got home from work on Friday that I thought - you know, we really ought to go down and visit her in the hospital.

I had a look at my diary and discovered that I had no appointments on Monday, so I put in a leave request for Monday and booked us into The Swan in Stoford on Sunday evening.  Visiting hours at the hospital are from 2pm so we took ourselves off at about 11 and got down there in time to go and visit for an hour or so.  Gwen was looking quite cheerful but was a bit cold and a bit bored.  She's not used to spending all her time cooped up in bed but can't get out of bed because of the drainage tubes and so on.  Anyway, we warmed her up with some extra blankets and left when she was beginning to look a bit tired.

We used to stay at The Swan in Stoford very regularly but haven't been for quite a while.  It was rather nice to stop by again.  But we didn't stay long after we had checked in.  Jeanette and Matthew had invited us to go to their place near Portsmouth for a Sunday roast.  And very tasty it was too.  Bailey their puppy is now six months old and nothing like as scared of things as she was the first time we met her.  It was good to see Rebecca and Evie too (as well as Jeanette and Matthew, of course!).  Then back to Stoford, time for a glass of wine in our room there, and so to bed.

I slept very well.  It was quite a comfortable bed.  But not for The Builder.  The doona was too short for him and his feet well and truly poked out from underneath it.  He woke up several times with frozen feet!!!! He should have put his socks back on :-D

We had a plentiful breakfast, which really should have seen us through until we got home again.  And we pootled into Salisbury and went shopping and browsing in Waitrose (which has been refurbished and completely changed around since last we were there!!), and in Lakeland, and in Dingham's, a tardis like cookshop on the market square.  But what to do then?  It was much, much too early to go back to the hospital.  It was only 20 past 11.  So we got into the car, out of the rain and drove off pondering where to go.  Then I saw a sign to Stonehenge and remembered that there is a brand new visitor centre there which I quite fancied seeing.  So we went there.  And it's beautiful!  Fortunately, we could go just for a short time because we have National Trust membership cards.  You wouldn't want to spend £15 just to look at the visitor centre!!!  However, entry was free for us and we had a lovely time pottering around, even if we didn't really feel much like going to inspect the stones themselves in the rain!!

The new visitor centre in the rain

They've built huts like the ones the original builders of Stonehenge would have lived in

Inside a hut

It's quite a cosy little neolithic village

Right.  Hungry work, exploring visitor centres and the gift shops of ancient monuments. Breakfast had definitely worn off, so we headed back into Salisbury and had lunch at The Old Mill.  Simon and Steve have now decamped off to Monmouthshire and there are new owners.  But unusually for new owners, they have kept pretty much all of the old staff, who remembered us from our previous few visits.  The food is as good as it was before too. An excellent lunch.  Then we made a quick visit to the hospital to visit Gwen and then headed on home.

It took FOR EVER to get home ;-(  There were hold ups everywhere, caused by broken down trucks, minor bingles, big bingles, and (very excitingly for us, although not for the occupants of the car) a vehicle on the motorway absolutely and positively ablaze!!!!  I've never seen a car quite so comprehensively on fire!  But eventually we did make it home, where the cat was very pleased to see us.

Back to work today.  Can't say I feel like going.  I'd very much rather stay in our cosy bed, where the king sized doona is more than big enough to cover The Builder's feet!!

Fog

I don't think the fog lifted at all yesterday. Not even when it rained.  And it definitely did rain - we were heading out (fortunately in the car) and the heavens absolutely opened!  Didn't daunt the fog, though.  And it didn't daunt us.  We went to the Post Office to send some stuff Japan-wards.  We went to Clay Cross and dumped some stuff in the clothes recycling bin and we finally made it to Marsh Green to visit the Farm Shop.  No Christmas market this week, so we could actually park the car and go in.

The Under Gardener has begun digging up around the pond.  But no digging today, in the fog and the rain

Grassmoor seems to have vanished

Dogwood bush 

Twisted Witch Hazel, just starting to turn colour

Looking up towards our house

The fog didn't daunt the chickens and the ducks either.  I let them out for a wander around, and the chooks made a hasty beeline for the greenhouse and amused themselves for ages and ages having a massive dust bath.  The duck and chook run is exceptionally muddy at the moment, so no dust bathing is available in there.  The ducks don't mind the mud and the rain so just pottered about outside, dabbling up many tasty morsels from under the leaves and grass and fallen over flower plants

Curry, coming to see if I have any tasty titbits (I didn't)

Dimsim is moulting.  Funny time of year to moult, in my view!

Fennel and Celery out enjoying the chance to explore

Right.  I'd better get on.  We're heading down to Salisbury shortly and I am not ready!

Feasting and Fireworks

Well that was a really lovely weekend.  We didn't do very much - apart from eat, drink, feast and watch fireworks, but that was good enough!

It absolutely chucked it down on Saturday. It poured and poured and poured and poured!  We made a dash to the car, during one of the less pouring bits of the morning. We had intended to call out to Marsh Green for a few bits and pieces but when we got there we discovered that they were having a Christmas Market and the car park was absolutely chockablock full.  We gave that up as a bad idea and pottered out to the Garden Centre and then to Sainsbury's instead.  We haven't been to Sainsbury's for simply ages.  It was quite hard to get to for about 6 weeks.  They had the bridge by the station closed while they did road repairs up by the station entrance, so we couldn't get there by that route.  We could, of course, have gone along the main road, but they are doing major roadworks along there at the moment and the queues are quite substantial most of the time.  It's only a five minute drive to the Tesco in Clay Cross, so we've been going there instead. However, I much prefer Sainsbury's and now that the bridge is open again we are heading back there when a supermarket is required.

While we were out, Tabitha rang to tell me that Cally was going to a birthday party in Chesterfield, and did we fancy meeting them for a late lunch when the party finished at 2pm.  A nice thought, but perhaps not today.  We have foodie plans for later in the day!

It's a year since the Wingerworth re-opened after a full refurb and the acquisition of new owners. As a celebration (and given that this was one of  the weekends that people were having their bonfire parties - bonfire night was actually on Wednesday so people pretty much had both weekends to choose from), the people at the Wingerworth had a bonfire and fireworks party planned.  The bonfire was lit at 6:30 with the fireworks starting at 7:30.  We don't usually eat as early as 6:30, but I booked us a table for that time anyway, so we could go out and watch the fireworks. (This was why I didn't want to go out for lunch at 2:30!!!)  The Wingerworth is about a 2.25 km walk from our place and it had actually stopped raining, so off we headed on foot. And found that they had given us a table by the window, overlooking the bonfire and the fireworks.  No need for us to head out into the cold after all!!!

Wingerworth Pub, Saturday evneing

A huge bonfire down in the car park and beer garden

The view from our table, looking down on the bonfire

We had an absolutely delicious meal, washed down with plenty of wine and even a glass of port to accompany the watching of the fireworks.  We were on foot, so no one had to worry about driving home again!  The fireworks were spectacular and the car park was absolutely full of spectators.  Was a great evening.

A message from Tabitha.  Gareth had got the wrong day for the birthday party that Cally was due to attend.  It was actually on Sunday.  Did we fancy meeting them for lunch on Sunday instead.  Well, yes.  We can do that, or alternatively, they could all come to our place instead.  And that is what they did.  I did barbecue-style food, but cooked and served inside. It might not have been raining any more, but it was only about 8d outside and everything was all soggy wet.  Much more comfortable sat in our dining room rather than outside in the wind and damp.  Cally had already eaten, so she sat in the lounge room and watched telly and coloured in with the colouring books I had bought and played with our teddies and had a small plate of hot chips.  The rest of us sat at the table and ate sausages and steak and hot chips and drank wine (apart from Gaz who was driving home).  It was a lovely, if unexpected, Sunday lunch party.

We had our first frost of the season last week.  It looked very beautiful - but it didn't do our zucchini/courgette, cucumber or butternut squash plants any good at all.

Frost-tinged mint leaves and flowers

Twisted witch hazel in the frost

Morning excitements in the garden

The Builder was bringing in the bins this morning when he heard a commotion out the back.  He went to investigate. And found there was a young-ish fox in Marina and Dean's garden trying to get at their chooks.  Indeed, the fox very nearly succeeded. He bashed in the gate to their run and took off after the chooks.

The Builder yelled, and the fox positively flew over the fence ... into OUR poultry run!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Builder, in his slippers (he hadn't bothered to put proper shoes on just to bring in the bins), rushed down, flung open the gate, rushed into the muddy, muddy poultry run and chased the fox (which had designs on our ducks and chickens, now it had found them) away.  It jumped over the fence and into the field at the back. And then made its way back into our garden, up the path, and out onto the street through the channel we have between our porch and next door's fence so that Marlo can come and go!

Marina's chickens, our chickens and our ducks were not in the least bit impressed with the incursion of a fox into their ordered lives.  I don't think that we or Marina are very impressed either.  The Builder and I have seen foxes occasionally in the fields and out and about but no sign that they were in the least bit interested in our garden - not since The Builder blocked up the gap in the fence between our garden and the field well before we got the very first lot of chickens. Marina says she saw it come out of our driveway and head towards the farm.  I fear that it is not going to forget that there are chickens and ducks residing in Bridge Street. The Builder is going to get some battens and some wire and raise the height of the fences around the orchard, but that's not going to be done in a hurry.  In the meantime we are going to have to put the ducks and chooks to bed at night.  This won't be an issue with the chooks but the ducks might not be quite so biddable. And I am not at home this evening to help :-D

It might be time to buy The Builder a new pair of slippers.  He had been thinking about doing this and I think his mind has now been made up!

Last week wasn't too bad, then.  A few meetings (one over quite a pleasant breakfast in the student cafeteria), a few sessions in the cupboard, some one-to-one meetings with post-graduate students.  It was all quite calm, and culminated with a Friday lunch with Tabitha and Nate who dragged himself away from his explosives to join us at Wa Ding - and then I had Friday afternoon off :-)  Another week done.

The weekend was quite busy as weekends go.  We were at Bishops' House on Saturday morning.  It was a lovely day and we had a steady stream of visitors through the house.  In the afternoon we headed to Waitrose and then on to Costco, doing our bit to keep the economy afloat :D And so home.

Sunday I was working the last of three SHU Open Days.  There were three of us, this time, showing people library services but even so we were very busy.  I don't know what the stats were for the three open Days, but my guess would be that this last one was the largest by some way.  I was quite tired by the end of it!

So it seemed like almost no time at all before it was Monday morning and I was back at the station waiting for the train to start yet another week. I enjoy both volunteering at Bishops' House and working the Open Days, but the Sunday Open Days always seem to fall on the same weekend as our regular Saturday at BH and lo - there is the weekend gone!

On the other hand, I will enjoy the extra money when it comes my way.

This week is looking, from this perspective, calm and peaceful and quiet.  I have a Japanese class tomorrow evening, I have a couple of sessions in the cupboard in my diary, and not much else.  Might be able to get on and clear the backlog of paper work, office work and other things that are awaiting attention.

Oh - I meant to say.  We have new neighbours.  Debby and Steve eventually gave up on the idea of selling their house.  Nobody much was showing any great interest, and some friends of their son were looking for somewhere to live, so they've rented it to them.  They moved in over the weekend and seem very pleasant.  They have two young children, but not the dog that I saw wandering around in their garden early on Sunday morning. That belongs to Grandma and was just visiting.

A day full of surprises

Up towards the roundabout on Queen Victoria Road there is a complex of health and beauty businesses.  There are hairdressers and nail people and beauticians and teeth whiteners and all sort of things.  I noticed a little while ago the the nail clinic had closed down.  This didn't surprise me unduly.  You wouldn't necessarily expect a nail clinic to flourish at the bottom of QVR. In fact, I am surprised that nail clinics flourish at all!

Anyway, as I ambled up on Saturday morning for my 9:00 hair appointment, I noticed that there was a new sign outside the little car park.  It appears that the nail clinic has transformed into a sandwich shop.  Much more useful, in my view.  I'm not sure if it is entirely a takeaway outlet or whether there are seats inside.  I had brought with me just the money for my hair cut and it didn't seem kind to go and peer through the window when I had no intention of buying anything.  But I might wander up another Saturday when I am at home and see what they do.  Not next Saturday, though.  We are off to Bishops' House next Saturday.

So.  I wandered into Angie's hair dressing salon -- to find a complete stranger stood inside! This was definitely a surprise.  Where is Angie?  On holiday perhaps?  No.  It seems she's left.  Gone.  Just like that! The Saturday before, apparently.  The two young women who are now resident in the salon don't really know where she's gone or why, although they think she has moved her business to Ashover.  Ashover isn't all that far, I suppose.  It's a bit beyond The Nettle.  But it's a bit of a step just for a hair cut, when there are hair dressers actually in Tupton that I can walk to.  The nice young woman kindly fitted me in, since I thought I had a 9:00 appointment.  And it turns out that both of them used to work in the salon next door , where I used to go before stomping off and joining Angie's salon up in Grassmoor (and which later moved to Tupton and has now gone further afield, possibly!). I have made another appointment with them.  But it was definitely surprising.  Angie hadn't mentioned that she was thinking of moving the last time I was there, and it wasn't that long ago.

Home I went, and The Builder and I went out to Marsh Green for some weekend foodie supplies and then back to Clay Cross so I could buy him a new tablet. There isn't actually anything wrong with his iPad, but increasingly you can't update the apps on the iPad 1 and some app developers are taking the earlier versions out of commission.  So, for example, he couldn't use Skype any more. A cheap and cheerful tablet with a newer operating system seemed to be called for.  I went with the Hudl, which is Android based but made by Tesco.  This may surprise you, since I am not, as you are probably aware, a huge fan of Tesco, but the Hudl gets good reviews and it was cheap and cheerful and looked cute. The Builder seems entirely delighted with it. He can have all the latest apps, including Skype.  I must say that it is fun to play with. But I am saving up, inter alia, for a new iPad and am not tempted by the cuteness of the Hudl.

Apart from all that excitement, we had a fairly quiet weekend, following my Three Busy Weeks. We remembered to put the clocks back, although I did forget to change the clock radio in the bedroom and woke up at what the clock said was 4:30 but which was in reality only 3:30. In both cases it was far too early to get up, but it did mean that I was lying wakefully in bed for much longer than was necessary :-(  I think we had successfully adjusted all the clocks and timers now, except for the clock in the car which rather alarmingly informed me that it was 8:30 this morning as we set off for me to catch the 7:49 train from the station!

I do have a moderately busy week ahead this week, but my diary mainly has red (meeting) appointments in it, a couple of green (one-to-one meetings with students)sessions, a few cupboard (blue) sessions and a lunch appointment.  No yellow blocks this week

Three Busy Weeks - nearly done

So far this week has been OK.  Tuesday was exceptionally busy, but Monday and Wednesday almost approached normal busy-ness and today has been remarkably quiet.  The student I was expecting this morning didn't show up, my meeting this afternoon was postponed and there was even time for a little stroll outside at lunchtime.  Only tomorrow morning to worry about - I have no teaching or other engagements planned tomorrow afternoon - and then that will be that.  For now!

I am enjoying my Japanese classes at the moment, although I am very glad I am not teaching them! I decided to repeat Level 3 this year; I'm not sure that I really understood a lot of it last year.  Anyway, the class this year is a composite class of Levels 2 and 3, so you have a really mixed ability range. There are people who have come up from Level 1, intending to do Level 2.  there are people who have done Level 2 and were intending to repeat it. There are others who had done Level 2 once or even twice and were intending to go on to level 3. And then there are three of us who have done Level 3 once and were intending to repeat it.  As I say - I'm very glad I am not having to design classes that make all of those groups happy!!!  However, as one of my classmates who is also repeating Level 3 said, it's quite nice going back to the nursery slopes and reminding ourselves of some of the basics.  And in fact, I had been thinking not so long ago that I wouldn't mind revisiting Levels 1 and 2 just to consolidate some of the earlier things that I think I had forgotten about. So a win for me, then!  Plus, of course, I actually understand what's happening in the classes and can even answer some of the questions :-D

Richard came for dinner last evening, bearing a huge bag of eating apples - and refusing to take away with him any of our remaining Bramleys because he has more than enough apples to be going on with.  I might have insisted except that the remaining Bramleys are not the best that we had.  They are a bit mottled and bruised. They taste good, though. We've been having stewed apples with various flavoured yoghurts with our lunches.  Bramley apple with lemon curd yoghurt is a dessert positively made in heaven.  Anyway, we had a lovely dinner (if I do say so myself) - home made salmon fish fingers, since you ask, with home made chips and mixed vegetables in a Japanese curry sauce. The Builder and i might have had a tiny bit of wine on the side.  Richard didn't because (a) he was driving back to Sheffield after and (b) he's on pain killers for a bad back and didn't want to go to sleep while driving back to Sheffield. A pleasant mid-week interval.

And now there is just tomorrow to go and my Three Busy Weeks will be done.  Until more busy weeks find their way towards me :-)

Three Busy Weeks - Two Down

Two down and one left to go. And the one left to go isn't unwaveringly busy.  It has two VERY busy days in it and three relatively all right days.  But it's a bit daunting, looking at it from this perspective, it must be said.

But last week is now done.  We didn't have the excitement of the internet going away - just our external phone lines :-D  This meant, of course, that we couldn't ring out, but it also meant that people couldn't ring in!!  It was very quiet in the Enquiry Cupboard!

My calendar for last week had lots and lots of yellow (teaching) sessions in it, blue (cupboard) sessions and red (meeting) sessions.  But it also had an instruction to go to the pub after work on Friday, which included several people from our team, plus Paul and Linda who have abandoned us for a life of leisure and indolence.

There was another SHU Open Day on Saturday which I came in for.  As you will be aware, I enjoy working the open days, but I have to say that I was very tired after this one.  There were only two of us working in the Learning Centre so we had lots and lots of tours around the building to do.  I was therefore extremely pleased that I had had the foresight earlier in the week to book a table at The Nettle for Sunday lunch.  They do a carvery on Sundays, and they do it very well indeed.  I had a plate full of very delicious turkey, with roasties and mash and veg and a Yorkshire Pud and gravy and sauces and things. The Builder had all of that too, but he had roast beef rather than turkey. We shared some wine with it and went home feeling replete and fairly happy.  We should really go out for Sunday lunch more often, it's a very pleasant way of spending the middle point of Sunday.

Right then.  tomorrow I have two lectures to deliver and two workshops to rfun.  I guess I had better get on and write/prepare/organise them!

Three busy weeks - one down

Last week loomed rather darkly on the calendar.  If you looked at my online diary it was absolutely full of yellow slots (teaching sessions), red slots (meetings), blue slots (duty advisor shifts) and bright green slots (things to do and prepare).  It was a bit intimidating, from the perspective of last Sunday!

In fact, it went fairly well. The students were all amiable and attentive. The classes seemed to go quite well. The meetings were uncontentious. The only problem was on Tuesday when, mid-morning, external access to the internet disappeared.  This might not seem such a big issue to you - but things like our library catalogue, our subject guides, our databases, all sorts of things that we use extensively, are hosted externally.  And it is very hard to teach students how to use them when you can't get to them!!! It made the middle part of Tuesday a bit challenging for those of us who had classes scheduled.  In fact, after I had tried to run one class without the internet, I cancelled the next two.  For the last one the problem had been fixed.  Mercifully!  Wasn't just us, though. Universities across Yorkshire and Humberside were affected.  My Japanese class on Tuesday evening was postponed, not because there wasn't any internet access which we don't really need for the classes, but because the school where they are held was being used for a parents' evening.  I was not unhappy about that. It meant I got to go home instead of trying to engage my brain in student mode :-)

The other thing that was scheduled for last week, which had been worrying me quite a bit, was that I was timetabled to go to Collegiate and to do a law session.  I know pretty much nothing about the law databases. I had swotted up on the databases we were supposed to be looking at in the session but I still wasn't at all confident about this.  In the event, the somewhat over-stretched law librarian rocked up just before the session and asked if I would like him to do the session with me.  I practically bit his hand off!  He did it much better than I ever could have done. But I am better prepared now for next time!

I had lunch with Freyja on Wednesday in Wa Ding, a new Chinese grocery with a small cafe above. It was very encouraging to walk in and find that it was quite busy and that the clientele was largely Oriental.  Always a good sign, I find.  And the food was lovely.  We got two enormous plates of food for £10, plates so enormous that we struggled to eat them.  Maybe next time we should share a plate

And so the week passed, in a puff of activity.  The weekend passed in a lazy, leisurely sort of a way. We had no plans and didn't do very much.  Except that I stewed another mountain of Bramley apples.  I have run out of jam jars now for my apple sauce.  I have some plastic post which I could use to store apple sauce in the freezer, but probably not enough to cope with the large bag of remaining apples.  I think we are just going to have to shovel down apple-y things over the next couple of weeks before the apples go off.

It has been very autumnal around our place this last week or so, although Sunday was a beautiful day. I ought to have got out and started pruning the garden.  But I peeled apples instead!

Autumn vista

Looking out the kitchen window on Sunday at lunch time

Is that a duck I spy down the path, asks Marlo

So one very busy week down.  Two to go. Then things should drop back to normal.  Which isn't to say there is nothing to do, just that it's not quite so frantic

Out and about - again!

We were at Bishops' House yesterday morning.  We were expecting to be quite quiet.  It was raining and blustery in the morning.  It was a tad chilly. It wasn't a nice morning for wandering about in the park.  In the event, we were busier than we anticipated.  A couple of children came in with their grandparents to finish up some school work they were doing on Tudor England.  Another set of grandparents brought their grandchildren in for a look around.  A SHU Student Crew member brought a large group of International Students in as part of a cultural walking tour of Sheffield.  And it stopped raining so people came out into the park and dropped in to say hello.

We headed home, via the supermarket.  And not long after we arrived home Tabitha, Gareth and Cally came by to pick us up, and we all went out to Ashover (near The Nettle) for the Ashover Vintage Engine Fair and Light Show.  We knew that it was happening because someone gave us a flier for it when we were in Clay Cross last week.  I think we might not have bothered going, except that the entrance fee was being put towards fund raising for the air ambulance.  And Ashover is no distance from our place.  Once again, I'm really pleased that we did go.  The fair wasn't hugely big, but it was very cute and we all had a really good time.  There were tractors and campervans and trucks and one steam machine.  Various people were doing Halloween-y things, others were doing early Christmas-y things. Cally had a ride on a fair ground ride. We didn't stay for the lights because we had got there a bit too early to wait for darkness - and because after we had been there for an hour and a half or so we were all getting a bit cold.  I think that next year we'll go a bit later, wear coats and gloves and look at the lights.

Taffa, Gaz and Cally came back to our place (just as well, really, because we had gone to Ashover in their car and while it isn't all that far from our place, it would be a serious walk to get home!) and stayed over night.  The Builder got up early this morning to watch the (extremely wet) Grand Prix race in Japan.  I got up very early because I had to go into work this morning.  Cally slept in until 7:30, which is quite late for her and thus for her parents.  She tells me that she "had a very big sleep in my bed"!.  Gaz, Taffa and Cally gave me a lift into work (the first train that runs from Chesterfield to Sheffield on a Sunday morning isn't until 10:03, and I needed to be there for 9:30). It was the SHU Open Day today and they like to have staff available to take visitors around the Learning Centre and to tell them about library services.  I quite enjoy doing the Open Days.  Not, it must be admitted, at 8:30 when I need to start getting ready to go, but once I get to them they're quite a bit of fun.

And now I am home again, restorative glass of wine in hand, waiting for my salmon and chips to cook, and thinking slightly gloomily of the Very Busy Week I have in store.




Click on Aviator Cally to get to the fair