Easter comes and goes and the weather is still rather unpleasant to say the least
There’s no getting away from it, when the sunshine breaks through the window first thing in the morning your mood is lightened immediately, especially when the last seven days have been just driech, dark and dull, with plenty of rain, and only 4°C. Scottish weather at its most miserable.
Managed two dry days the previous week, allowing us to get over to the mainland for a walk in the glorious sun. But since then it’s not been good. Slight understatement.
Today awake to the sun shining through the gaps in the bedroom curtain. 7am and it looks gorgeous, yet Alexa informs me it’s only 3 degrees out side. But it’s not raining, a plus. More importantly as l pull the curtains open, you can see the gorgeous winter scene of snow capped hills in the distance. Amazing.
So we take advantage and head down to the ferry for an escape to the mainland, Gourock, Greenock and Braehead. So we averaging one in seven good days.
Although a Scotsman would say. There’s never bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.
In fact my thermals haven’t been off since we retuned from the cruise.
When the sun hits you it’s gorgeous, yet when the clouds block it out, icy winds cut you in two. It still feels like the arctic, even though l am wearing thermals, a wool shirt and two down puffa jackets, mits and a scarf. Not to mention wool lined waterproof boots. A school boy error. Forgot my head covering.
Nevertheless, have brilliant day out, bit of shopping, walking. Finishing off with a late lunch and a couple of pints. A man of simple tastes, and boring regularity. Chose my favourite, Brewdog IPA.
Then it’s the bus to meet up with the ferry. Only just make it, and it’s packed. They are down to only one sailing an hour, and are forecasting high winds and the likelihood of cancellations. So we are lucky to get back on the Calmac foot passenger ferry.
Then again, if it cancels, they provide a bus to take you to the Western Ferries. So not a problem, just time consuming.
Norther Lights
This is the view of the Northern Lights over our house. Taken by our neighbour whilst we were away. Sod’s law.
During the evening we get an alert on the phone that we may see the Northern lights, so nip out before retiring to check it out. It’s freezing but there are clear skies. Plenty of stars, but no Aurora Borealis. Seems that the sightings are always whilst we are away cruising.
Undeterred, when l wake up for a trip to the loo, l pop out wearing my slippers and little else into the freezing morning. 4am. And take a couple of photos. Surprised the camera didn’t record the stuttering shakes as hypothermia sets in.
It’s the only way that you can actually see the colour, it’s not visible with the naked eye. Anyway, plenty of stars but no Northern Lights dancing across the sky. Took me an hour to warm up under multi layers of quilts.
Or it could be my eyes. I keep getting reminders from the opticians to book an appointment. But presently too busy cutting through walls to make new doorways, and closing others off.
Perhaps that also contributes, the dust that’s flying around from the cutting of plasterboard and mixing of plaster which coats a thick laser —— see what l mean. The word was layer not a penetrating beam used in corrective eye surgery. So thick layers of dust, scratching my varifocal glasses.
Ultimately will have to treat myself to a tablet and keyboard. People keep saying l ought to buy a iPad Pro. 12.9”Liquid Retina XDR display. Brightest and best. Whatever all that means.
But then l look in the Apple shop and have a sudden bout of the vapers. All brought on by the number of naughts behind the pound sign. Once you press a few buttons, add this and that it’s up to £2000.
Definitely need to sit down in a dark room with a glass of Highland park malt whisky to calm my nerves. Admittedly it’s the 12.9 size with WiFi and cellular (they explained it has its own sim card so that you can connect without internet) so that’s another x amount per month, just for that add on.
Decide a 11” is quite acceptable, and a little cheaper.
Then they tell me a new iPad is coming out in a month’s time. Prices will be going up.
At which point l am light headed and require oxygen.
Back to the drawing board. Talk to friends, check out the web and see that refurbished models are half the price of the new. Admittedly they are 2022 models, but in excellent condition. So Back Market say. But hopefully if a new model comes out, lots of the older models will flood the market, bringing the price down. Well that’s my hope and thought.
So procrastination is in order.
So for the time being l will have to correct all the missgaps problens and typoa.
And of course a trip to the optician.
Easter has arrived, and with it a respite from the building work downstairs. Presently in the midsts of remodelling the area, altering the access into the ground floor.
Have opened up a new route into the bedroom, which has meant blocking off two doors and replacing in a different location. Meant putting in studding walls, moving plumbing and electrics, boarding and plastering. Now waiting on a new exterior door to be fitted in a couple of weeks time.
But the sun is out, and it’s time to play. Alexa, my favourite assistant indoors, tells me we should have two days like this. Overcast, odd glimpse of sun.
The long awaited excursion into the garden. It’s been too wet and windy of late. Have a bucket load of jobs to keep me busy. But it’s not a chore. My spirits are lifted when l am out, smelling the salt laden air, feeling the sun on my back.
First job, take down a tree that has died 2/3rds of the way down, or up. However you look at it.
It had been blown dangerously over in the storms. So the chainsaw was busy. Then a big clean up afterwards.
All part of the rewinding scheme for the section of the garden that is covered in trees and shrubs. It’s not massive, just a small woodland, l just manage within the various clearings. I don’t grow plants as such in this section. There is a lot of deer that come through and they eat everything. Although l have added an orchard close to the greenhouse. But these have protective fencing to prohibit the feeding frenzy of the deer.
Last week in the drizzle l managed to plant thirty whips. Small trees, that will, if they survive help keep the overflow of the water run off from the hills from flooding the land.
Today l am adding more hedge saplings to my existing wild fencing. It helps the garden community and could help support hedgehogs, bees, frogs, butterflies,robins, bats, hoverflies, wrens, toad and a multitude of other wildlife. Ultimately providing food and shelter for all manner of of mammals, birds and insects, and act as corridors for them to travel safely from one area to another.
Will also, time willing, move the compost bins, rebuilding a new section further down the hill. The old pallets had started to rot. It also enables me to utilise the space for another raised vegetable bed. The bed is rich and loamy, perfect for my leek and beetroot seedlings in a few weeks time. That is if the slugs haven’t taken them first.
Glen Sannox, the new Calmac Ferry on its trials up and down the Clyde. Looks lovely, but then it should for the price it’s cost the Scottish tax payer.
With £83.25m spent on the two ferries and £45m loaned to the company prior to nationalisation by the Scottish government, the latest increase means the ships will cost more than £360m.
The new entry into the downstairs en-suite bedroom. All cut out, plastered and painted. Judith finishing off before l put up the architrave and fit new skirting.
The winners and runners up in this year’s World Nature Photography Awards include snaps of a killer whale diving through a herring bait ball in Norway; red-tinged cloud cover above Chile’s Villarrica volcano; a stand of yellow-leaved aspen trees in Colorado, and many more.
On a similar thread, check out this Year’s 60 Stunning Finalists From the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest. Some more amazing photographs.
It’s time we stopped pandering to pensioners
The news is dominated by stories about “old people retaining their perks”, says Sarah Ditum in UnHerd. Take the “Waspi women”, who claim to have lost out when the government raised the female state pension age to match that of men. Campaigners are asking for “an eye-watering £10,000 each” – but of course, British pensioners “are used to being indulged”. This week, Jeremy Hunt confirmed that the “triple lock” – which guarantees that the state pension rises annually by wage growth, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest – would be retained in the next Tory manifesto. It’s an “astonishingly generous settlement”, and one that has proved immune to austerity economics. The reason is straightforward: “older people get what they want because there are a lot of older people and they tend to vote”.
Meanwhile, children are taught in schools “that are literally falling apart”. That’s if they’re taught at all – many were disastrously cut off from their education during lockdown, “in order to protect older people from Covid”. When they enter employment, they’ll then have to fund a standard of living for pensioners they’ll never be offered themselves. Why? Because the British birth rate of 1.49 means we have an ageing population with fewer and fewer workers; eventually, “economic logic dictates that old-age perks will become unsustainable”. A society that relies on young people “should treat them well”. There can be “no surer way to break down the generational contract holding society together” than the old continuing to hoard their wealth and political power
A recent study showed that coffee could reduce the risk of recurring bowel cancer.
In truth, the drink has long been known for its medicinal properties. When Turkish merchants first brought it to Europe, they marketed it as an aid for digestion. By 1663 the City of London had 82 registered coffee houses, whose customers were attracted by claims of “outlandish health benefits” – one document said the drink “closes the orifice of the Stomack, and fortifies the heart within”. But not everyone was won over. The “1674 Women’s Petition Against Coffee” alleged that this “Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish” beverage was causing men to become impotent – though the call for them to resume drinking “Lusty nappy beer” suggests that the petition was probably produced by tavern owners worried about losing market share.
Gorgeous tulips coming into bloom.
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