Month: April 2021

On the Beach TWTW # 123

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Dogs, Garden / Allotment, photography, The Week That Was

I feel like I’ve packed a lot in this week. This might be because what I’d planned to do at the start of the week was scuppered and I ended up having to squeeze some things in on other days.

Monday morning was a trip to the vet, which was supposed to be a drop-off and pick up a couple of hours later. Unfortunately one of the machines that the vet had planned to use failed and a couple of hours turned into most of the day. I used the time well but it wasn’t what I’d planned. Everything worked out in the end, although the ripples were felt across the rest of the week.

The weather this week has mostly been cold to start and then warming up during the day, but each day has been gloriously sunny and I feel like I’ve taken full advantage of the sun whether it be drinking my coffee out of doors or taking photographs (see below).

Work. I’ve been waiting to hear about a couple of things, but incoming transmissions have been quiet this week.


Reading. I haven’t read all that much this week. Each night as I’ve gone to bed, my eyes have become heavy quickly and I’ve not been able to keep them open to read.


Photography. I’ve been taking a lot of photographs on film this week. I had a couple of rolls in cameras that I’d started a while ago and with the glorious weather decided to finish both. I took my camera(s) with me on my morning dog walks and now both rolls are being processed. Hopefully by next week there’ll be something to share.

One of the types of film I use regularly is Kodak Portra 400. I like the colours and the results that I get with that film, so I wondered if there were any instructions on the interwebs where I could adjust the picture styles on my digital camera to mimic this effect. I found these suggested settings and I’ve been using these revised custom settings. I have to say I’m quite happy with the results so far, here are a few that I took last week:

A couple of items dropped through our letterbox this week. Both connected to Robert Macfarlane’s book Underland. The first was a set of the Field Notes limited edition notebooks based on the book. I’ve mentioned this before and the use of Field Notes notebooks that Macfarlane made when researching and writing the book. The second was a bookmark made by the Anna at the Sea Library similarly to celebrate the book. Anna makes these bookmarks and sells them on her Etsy Store, each has a link to a particular book in the library.

Allotment. The weather is slowly getting warmer overnight and I’m planning to sow / plant out my remaining onion sets this week. I’m also planning to sow more seeds. Those sown a fortnight ago have started to germinate, so watering is starting to be the order of the day once again.

I feel like I am a little bit behind with the allotment, but then again looking back through my journal from last year, there isn’t a great difference. Some things are a little bit later but others have happened sooner.

The week ahead promises to be different. I haven’t been able to see my Mum without at least a pane of glass between us for about 9 or 10 months, next week all being well we might be able to hold a proper conversation without one or the other of us having to ask the other to repeat what they said as a van drives by. This is a benefit of vaccination.

Wherever you are and whatever you are planning to do in the week ahead, stay safe and take care.

More Things To Go Wrong TWTW # 122

On By TontowilliamsIn Birds, books, Film, Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was, work

Welcome. I’ve just been potting on some plants destined for the allotment, although not just yet. Nights are still cold so they won’t be going outside just yet. I’ve been looking back at what was happening 12 months ago and despite the obvious I was spending some time in the garden reading and enjoying the sunshine, but it’s been much chillier than it was 12 months ago. It might be warming up again, but who knows.

It’s been a busy week.

Reading. I’ve reading more in Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising sequence this week, finishing The Dark is Rising and then Greenwitch and The Grey King. I have forgotten more about this series than I remember and there’s just one book to go.

Watching. I finally got around to watching 1917. I can see why it won some of the awards it did, but I have to say it left me feeling a little underwhelmed.



Work. I’ve been having several conversations this week about potential work. Some collaborative projects that might come to fruition. Early days but it would be good to get things going a bit more than they have been over the past year.

It’s also the time of the year when I have to start looking at my tax return. It’s not going to take very long this year I suspect given the impact that the pandemic has had on my work.

Allotment. In addition to the plants mentioned above I spent some time on the allotment this week weeding the overwintering onions and preparing some beds for transplanting more onions that I’ve been bringing on in the potting shed. If there is an uptick in temperatures they might go out in the week ahead.

I also had the pleasure of seeing the pair of buzzards above fly right over my head while I was enjoying a coffee break. They’re amazing birds and much more prevalent than they once were, but in some quarters still persecuted.

I also picked up our new car this week. It is more or less the same make and model as our old one, but in the intervening years the technology has grown and now there are many more things that could go wrong. Hopefully it will prove to be reliable and last as long as our previous one.

I’d hoped that when we had to buy our new car it would be an electric powered one but sadly it’s not something that we can afford at this stage even a second hand electric is beyond our budget. I know all of the arguments about electric vehicles being cheaper to run etc and they are totally accurate but sadly you still need that bigger chunk of capital at the time of purchase to be able to afford it. We’re not there yet. So we’ve brought the most fuel efficient, least polluting non-electric vehicle we could. It still runs on fossil fuels and that does make me feel uncomfortable, but I have made concessions in other areas over the years, for example I haven’t been on an aeroplane since 2015, for personal flights I haven’t been on one since 2007. We do what we can, we’re not perfect.

That’s it for me this week, next week I have to take Wilson to the vet and have a couple of other things in my diary. Whatever you’re up to stay safe and take care.

Books Past, Books Future TWTW # 121

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Garden / Allotment, photography, The Week That Was, tv2 Comments

Well it’s been a busy week. There’s also been some spectacular weather, most of the Country seemed to get snow, which once again passed us by but we did get some very cold nights and mornings and some spectacular sunrises. (The rumour that this is connected with me wearing shorts when the weather was sunny over the Easter weekend is greatly exaggerated).

I took the image above on Wednesday, this was the sunrise – I’ve cropped the image a bit but that’s all, not other editing.

So how’s your week been?

Reading. I’ve started re-reading Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising Sequence again, it’s been a few years and I’ve started with the first book Over Sea, Under Stone. A lot of people skip this book, although it is the first in the series, and start with The Dark is Rising which I’m reading now.

However Over Sea, Under Stone, holds some strong childhood memories for me, more so than the other books in the series which I didn’t read until much later in life. It’s one of those books like The Hobbitt and the Willard Price “Adventure” series that I have a vivid recollection of where I was and what was happening at the time I was reading it. Anyway my plan is to read them all over the next couple of weeks, or however long it takes.

I’ve also had a proof copy of a new book arrive for reading and review. The Heeding by Rob Cowen and Nick Hayes. Rob’s previous book Common Ground also holds some special memories for me, and is my favourite natural history book. I read it when it came out in 2015 and at the time I was making plans to leave my job through voluntary redundancy so I was reading it on my last few journeys to work on the train and my first few days of my new life.

A review to follow.

Watching. The Man Who Killed Hitler and then Killed The Bigfoot – I admit it was the title that made me watch this, it’s not a particularly serious movie but it was strangely watchable and Sam Elliott plays a blinder. It gets a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes but only 2 (out of 5 stars) in the Radio Times, so it’s probably one of those that you’ll either like or hate. Probably not something that I’ll ever watch again, but it filled an evening when there was nothing else on.

I found my Cub Scout badges this week. I posted this image on Instagram and Twitter noting that I don’t remember what all of them are for but that I remember a lot of the things that I did for them. There are badges there for; Rank (Sixer), First Aid, Hobbies, Home Help, Cycling Proficiency, Reading and Athletics but I’m not sure what they all are. There’s a modern list of badges and some clear equivalents but some I can’t seem to find. The modern badges are also all a different shape and size. Regardless the memories remain.

I had a test drive in a car this week, all very Covid secure. The car was bought to me, sanitised in front of me before I was allowed to get in and then I was able to go off for a short drive while the salesman waited for me to come back. The car then sanitised again. It looks like we might end up buying it and if so I’ll write more about it next week.

Allotment. Direct sowing the first seeds of the year – lettuce, radish, beetroot and parsnip. All of these are under cover as it’s certainly still too cold at night for them not to be protected, but they are varieties that it is okay to sow this early in the year, so hopefully they’ll germinated in the next week or so. I’ve also prepared the next section for more sowing.

That’s it for now, in the week ahead I may end up spending a lot of money or I may not. Whatever you’re doing this week stay safe and take care.

TWTW # 120

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Dog, Garden / Allotment, podcasts, The Week That Was, Wilson's Story

Greetings from a Sunny Easter Weekend, whatever meaning this weekend may have for you, I hope this missive finds you safe and well.

We’ve had our follow up visits to the vet this week and some more not great news. Wilson has a couple of additional issues with respect to his gall bladder and blood pressure, which need treatment. Suffice to say this will involve some further long term medication for him. In himself he is a very happy little dog and I hope that he will long remain that way but like us all as we age, illnesses arise.

Reading. You remember those mental rabbit holes I talked about a couple of weeks back? Well it was in connection with Richard Nelson and I was trying to track down a copy of a recent biography. I did that and have been reading Raven’s Witness by Hank Leftner this week. More mental rabbit holes have ensued. To me Richard Nelson was a radio show host / podcaster and an author but there was much more to him than that. Now I guess that’s pretty obvious to some people but it wasn’t to me until now. What do I mean? Well the biography’s forward is written by Barry Lopez, who was probably also facing his own mortality at the time (he died in December 2020), but is also a world recognised environmentalist and nature writer. Also for me, this is the field that I work in and whilst these names are ones that are familiar to me, sometimes I don’t realise just how much more widely outside of that field they are known. Now they’re probably not in the household name category but neither are they someone as unknown as I am in that field.

Anyway I’m enjoying this mental rabbit hole and seeing where it takes me and I suspect there will be some more reading along a similar burrow soon.

On the subject of mental rabbit holes and books, Austin Kleon published this piece about books that suck you in and books that spin you out which is kinda the same thing.

Work. Nothing much to report this week. I’d deliberately kept some space in my diary for vet trips and of course it’s a Bank Holiday week so I wasn’t anticipating it being particularly busy in any case.

Listening. More Encounters podcasts, Goon Shows and some David Sedaris this week.




Allotment. It’s been a chilly long weekend so far and the forecast is for a continued cold snap. I had planned to sow some seeds direct on to the plot this weekend but the weather made me think again, instead I just prepared the ground for the seeds, the sowing will have to wait for another day and some warmer weather. I don’t want to sow seeds for them to germinate and then be knobbled by the frost!

I did manage to settle my bill at the allotment shop which has reopened again, they’d distributed seed potatoes and onion sets “on-tick” because the shop was closed so I wanted to make sure I paid up. I also bought a few other things while there as the only form of cash I had was an old £20 note – there’s considerable debate about why the shop doesn’t take cards or at least contactless payments but I think it’s as much to do with the choice of the person who runs the shop. As I suspect that no one else wants to do the job, she really has the final say even though it is a bit frustrating – I don’t think I’ve used a cashpoint in nearly a year!

I’m not a great fan of Marmite but neither am I a hater either and at times it is a bit of a secret ingredient in a few recipes and not just something that you spread on toast or crumpets. Here are some more suggestions.

That’s it for this week. Wherever you are stay safe and well.