Off to the beach this afternoon, to take the dogs for their first summer swim. Water was quite warm (for the time of year), but not so that we could stay in for very long. Still we had a good play, and came home again feeling refreshed but tired.
The video below, is from the last time we went.
Work has been quiet this week, so I thought I’d take myself and the dogs off on a little trip perhaps tomorrow or Friday.
A few weeks ago we walked a very short bit of the Titchfield Canal, but looking at the map there’s an approx 4km round trip we can do. So the plan is, that if the weather stays reasonable, i.e. not too wet or too hot; we’re going to give that route a go. It looks to be fairly flat and not too taxing, so should be a good trip. Something different.
Each year for the past few years I’ve been doing a year end review; books I’ve read, films/tv programmes I’ve watched and other things related to work and the allotment. You can read the end of 2015 here, if you’re interested.
The problem I have is trying to remember stuff (that might be an age thing). I guess that the things that were really good, tend to stick in my mind, as they should, but some of the things that were okay but not outstanding, tend to get forgotten.
So I thought I’d try doing a quick review of each quarter of the year, during 2016; rather than trying to remember everything in December. We’ll see how it goes, and hopefully I’ll remember to do ones at the end of June and September!
Work
Last year I went from being an employee to being self-employed. It was a significant moment for me, and started out well. Although the first three months of this year have been quieter than the tail end of last year, there’s still be a steady flow of work and this has also allowed me to think about goal setting for the year, and also work on some other projects. I don’t want to talk about those other projects at the moment, except to say that they focus more on the allotment / growing / fork-to-fork side of things, and although they are unlikely to make me rich (not that I ever particularly want to be rich), I hope that they might eventually generate some income, and perhaps give me a better quality more sustainable lifestyle. We’ll see.
I’ve also started much more consciously sharing my work side, posts on this blog like the Quick Links that are appearing on Tuesdays, and some new pages are a step in that direction. If anyone has any feedback on those things or any questions, then do please leave a comment below.
Allotment
As you might expect the tale end of winter is a quiet time on the allotment, and although we’ve been continuing to harvest brassicas, leeks and a few other small things, not much has really been happening, apart from the bits that link to work (see above), and I hope I’ll be able to share more on that in due course.
Things are starting to pick up now though, as the weather gets warmer and heats up the soil, the risk of frost decreases and the days get longer. Soon things will be in full swing. I’m looking forward to what I hope will be a good, productive year.
Books
So far I seem to have managed to read 14 books in the past three months, which I am quite surprised about. You can see what I’ve been reading here. Of them, there are a couple that stand out for me. Colter by Rick Bass is one and The Road To Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson is the other. The latter speaks to me because it touches on some of the things that I feel are going wrong with this country, and without wishing to get too political here and now, it was refreshing to read that I am not alone with my thoughts and perceptions. The former of the two was by a new author to me, and I’ll say now if you have a problem with hunting for food, you might want to give this one a miss, as Colter is a German Short-haired Pointer that is the author’s hunting dog, and a lot of the book is devoted to hunts. With that caveat I’d recommend both.
Films & TV
A few things here. Firstly the second season of Bosch, has just aired on Amazon Prime. I mentioned the first season in my review of 2015, and I’m pleased it was commissioned for a second season, and hopefully there will be a third. Although it was only released at the beginning of the month, I have already managed to watch all ten episodes and loved it! I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone who likes crime drama
I’ve also watched the most recent Bond film – Spectre when it went to DVD, although I enjoyed it, I don’t really want to rave about it as it was okay, but not that outstanding. If I was writing this in December I probably wouldn’t even mention it.
A final mention though for A Walk in the Woods, adapted from Bill Bryson’s novel of the same name. Again another DVD watch, but one that I really enjoyed. My only criticism is that it came to a somewhat abrupt end, and was over before I felt it really got going. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte were excellent.
Life In General
Is pretty good I think; we managed to have our first holiday in about three years in March, another benefit of being my own boss now and not having to worry about the threat of being made redundant. I’m enjoying working from home, and setting my own goals and timetables. I have lots planned for this year, and things I want to get achieved. So far so good though, looks like I’m on course.
One of our regular walks (almost daily while the wet weather has been about) is around Fort Fareham. Built to defend us from French invasion, it’s now a light industrial site and area for recreation.
As the trees have lost their leaves Ruby has started to notice the squirrels, particularly as they have been so active in the mild weather. A few days ago she saw one and went on a chase, although the pursuit was short lived (she hasn’t worked out the whole tree climbing thing), she dropped her ball. The video below shows what happened next.
I walk the dogs every morning (& evening). Sometimes it feels the same as the previous day, often we meet the same people each morning. Sometimes something happens that’s different. Wilson found a falling autumn leaf this morning, in a rather unorthodox manner. A different aspect to my morning walk.
I’ve been a little slack posting here, so by way of a couple of videos, here’s an update on some of what I’ve been up to. I hope to have some news on the job front soon, and will cover that separately when I do.
We took the dogs to Emsworth for a swim yesterday. Only really the first time that Ruby has properly been swimming. The video is fairly low quality as I didn’t want to take my expensive camera out over the water with me, so I was using an older one, that I was less worried about dropping, but the quality isn’t as good.
Our garden seems to have become quite popular with a certain juvenile magpie, he’s taken a shine to one of the fatball feeders (rain or shine) and his acrobatics trying to get to the fastballs is quite entertaining. He’s fascinating to watch, particularly recently as he’s been trying to work out if he can dislodge the feeder from the tree branch to forgo his acrobatics (he hasn’t succeeded yet).
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about not seeing deer on my way to work in the mornings. I’ve been on “leave” the last couple of weeks, my official last day in my current job is tomorrow, which has obviously given me more time to take longer morning walks with the dogs.
This morning we were on our way around the fort when I heard something crashing through the bottom of “the moat”. Being Summer the vegetation is now green and lush, and it is difficult to see any distance, but I did glimpse the bouncing white tails of two Roe Deer. I’ve seen deer here before, but not that often as there are just too many people about. We’d obviously spooked them, and they weren’t hanging around, but it’s good to know that I still might see deer in the mornings.
To Emsworth, to walk on the shore. Threw balls into the harbour as the tide was in and started to teach Ruby how to swim. She hasn’t quite gotten it yet but I think she will. There’s a lot of splashing and she hasn’t worked out how to use her tail as a rudder, but she will. Back to the car with two very wet, but very happy dogs.
Brought in all the towels from the car when we got home, and left the car windows open for a bit to air out the damp dog smell.
A fun afternoon.
(Regretting not getting any photos of Ruby actually swimming!)
A quick allotment update, shorter due to other events this week.
Being woken at 2am to the sound of a dog vomiting, is never likely to signal a good start to the day, and things didn’t improve from there. By 4pm I found myself fighting the traffic on the way to the vets with Ruby; ultimate diagnosis, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, treatment; 3 x jabs, plus antibiotic tablets and kaolin paste.
The good news is she seems to be perking up, but not back to normal yet, although she did bring a chew toy up on to our bed this evening. We need to see what tomorrow brings, but hopefully a return to food for her and not more sickness and diarrhoea.
It’s also one year to the day that we bought Ruby home for the first time as a puppy.
Electronic Scrapbook 