Tag: Life

The End of the Year Show | 2025 Edition

On By TontowilliamsIn Annual ReviewLeave a comment
Picture shows a herd of Fallow Deer on misty morning.

Well here we are again, the end of another year. Things have been pretty quiet here, and for that I apologise, but there are as always reasons. I wrote 12 months ago that 2024 had been pretty 5H1T, seems 2025 didn’t get the message that it was supposed to be better, and honestly I can say that 2026 is looking to be an improvement. That said perhaps….

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So what are those reasons for the almost radio silence? Well there are some biggies. Firstly my Mum passed away back in May. Not totally unexpected, she has had Alzheimer’s disease for several years now, and the progression of the disease and the impact on the rest of her has been pretty stark. I can’t say that the last six months of her life were pleasant for anyone. In some ways grief has been a funny thing because really we ‘lost’ my Mum a long time ago. Dad passed away in 2016, so now they are together again. It’s interesting that in my 53rd year I am perhaps more alone than I have ever been in my life. Sorting out Mum’s ‘estate’ has taken a bit of time and isn’t done yet mostly because the Department for Work and Pensions can’t be bothered to get their finger out and tell us whether they have overpaid or underpaid Mum’s state pension and other benefits. It’s difficult to move on.

I was going to talk about the state of the world here, but honestly you probably know as much as I do about that, and I don’t want this post to be too depressing.

Going forward I would maybe like to dust the cobwebs off of this site again. The only social media I keep up-to-date these days is Instagram, and mostly it’s switched to receive, but I’ve been thinking about the good old days of the internet when weblogs (blogs) such as this were de rigueur and maybe there’s a place for it again? I certainly not going back to twitter or whatever we’re supposed to call it these days, I don’t use ****book and I’m barely on Mastodon. I’ll see. Any thoughts let me know.

So aside from the above, what else have I been up to in 2025? Well let’s see now.

Reading

As is my want I’ve read quite a bit this year. I read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas for the first time and found it amazing. Other highlights include The Lantern Network by Ted Allbeury, Ratline by Philippe Sands, Ghost Story by Peter Straub and The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. I don’t tend to read many (if any) modern new releases, so if you want to know about something that was published this year and what I thought of it, then I probably wouldn’t know. I doubt that will change in the future either.

Watching

I hardly watch television these days, and a bit like my reading when I do it’s older stuff. I have enjoyed catching up on the latest Star Trek incarnation – Strange New Worlds. It’s been a bit hit and miss, but overall it’s been quite enjoyable. The latest season of Slow Horses was okay, but I think it wasn’t as good as previous seasons. I did enjoy the latest All Creatures Great and Small although again I prefer the version from the 1970’s/80’s. The new version of The Day of the Jackal was good and Conclave wasn’t bad either, and my watching of it ended with some fairly auspicious timing!

Work

A much quieter year. There has been a lot of work on local government reorganisation happening which has had a knock-on effect of slowing down a lot of the work that I would traditionally be involved in. Uncertainty pervades. It’s meant that I’ve been a lot less busy workwise, but then with things happening with Mum, that has been a balancing force. Not sure when / if things will pick up. Work in 2026 could be one to watch.

Garden

Again my focus has been a little bit elsewhere, and I’ve not grown as much this year as in previous years, there have been some highlights around broad beans and lettuce but otherwise I’d say it’s been a pretty average growing year.

Outdoors

Some salvation here, a lot of downtime has again been spent walking (and thinking). It keeps me mentally on an even keel, and I don’t plan to make any changes here.

So what about the year to come? Well I think the global outlook doesn’t look great, but I don’t think I really need to tell you that or dwell on it too much. I certainly don’t intend to be watching, reading or listening to anymore news than is absolutely necessary. Concentrating about what is in my control and what I can do about it feels like the best course of action.

Will I make more of this site and post more here? Frankly I don’t know, I’d like to but the best intentions and all that. Let’s see what happens.

Fifty From Fifty

On By TontowilliamsIn Life

In a few weeks time I turn 50. I’ve been toying with ideas of ways to mark it in some way and I thought I’d write about some of the things that I’ve learnt in my life, things that were important to me.

I wanted it to be a limited thing too, something that would be roughly 50 posts, done before I turn 51. So rather than post them here I’ve set up a separate newsletter that way if you’re interested you can sign up for it and if you’re not you don’t have to worry about it – although I can’t guarantee I won’t mention it again here.

So if you’re up for some reminiscence and nostalgia you can sign up here: Fifty From Fifty the sign up process might ask you if you want to pay, but ignore that all the posts will be free. I hope you’ll join me.

Some Not Very Good News TWTW # 32

On By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment, Life, The Week That Was, work8 Comments

This last week has been pretty busy, and although I’ve had some good work related news (see below), I’ve had some sad news too. I think I’ve mentioned before that my Mum’s health has not been the best – well she had an appointment this week which was a follow up from some tests and a scan that she had a few weeks ago. The news that the consultant gave was not good, although perhaps wasn’t a surprise given the symptoms she’s had, we’re still processing what that means. For the time being at least I’m not going to say very much more.

The good, work related news, was that the second client I’d been talking to has come on board and that pretty much means in work terms I’m booked solid for the next couple of months. I much prefer being busy to having time on my hands though.

When I went to the allotment last I nearly trod on this pair of mating slugs that were between my shed and compost bins. I was surprised to see them there as this is more of a nocturnal activity, my guess was that they were in the shade there, and it wasn’t until the sun came around that they moved off and went on their separate ways to ultimately lay eggs to produce more slugs to eat my crops!

24 White Storks released in West Sussex rewilding project

I have been listening to the BBC Prom concert based upon the book “The Lost Words” by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris. It’s available here for a short time. As a celebration of nature, wildlife and words, it is very much worth a listen.

I’m leaving it here for this week, lots to do over the coming days and obviously plenty to think about.

Quick Links 12th December 2016

On By TontowilliamsIn Quick Links

Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Life

This past weeks been taken up with catching up on preparations for Christmas. Up until this week I’ve not done anything much in that respect. So putting up lights, writing cards, buying presents etc. etc. have been the order of the day. In between times, there’s still plenty to do in connection with my Dad. I think the latter is going to go without saying for some time.

I can’t say that I am particularly looking forward to Christmas –  but I can’t do much about the timing, as it is what it is – so I guess I’ll just be making the most of it.

Currently Reading

Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and a Writer: 2 (The Journals of Thomas Merton) by Thomas Merton [GoodReads].

The Wastelands (Dark Tower III) by Stephen King [GoodReads], ongoing read for an online disucssion group.

When Eight Bells Toll by Alistair MacLean [GoodReads]. By the time this post goes live I expect I will have finished this. It’s a reread too, although I think I was about 13 or 14 when I read it the first time. Despite being published over 50 years ago it stands up really well, great little action novel. I like many of MacLean’s books, but this is one of my favourites.

The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures

Giraffes have been hitting the headlines this week after the IUCN report showing how they have declined in numbers in recent years. The report also shows that there are 24,000 species at risk of extinction in the world. Humans are driving this planet to destruction and without major changes we won’t be able to stop it. It’s not just the exotic species either, everyday we place pressure on an already strained system in the name of “economic growth”. It seems that have more and more money is the answer to everyone’s woes and yet it is the rich who seem to get richer and the poor, poorer. Poverty amongst working people is on the rise in the UK,  and our NHS and elderly social care systems are bordering on collapse. There are sections of society that are also likely to become extinct, the only difference here is it’s one species and eventually the issues will rise up the wealth ladder until poverty and related issues has a wider reach. We seem to have forgotten what is important to society as a whole. Maybe it’s because we don’t use some of those systems, for example most people hope that they will never need the NHS, but wouldn’t you want it to be there when you did? So doesn’t it matter that just because your not using it, it should still be in a good condition in case you do?

 

A Post A Day

On By TontowilliamsIn Dogs, Life3 Comments

I was going to start this next weekend, but I feel like starting now, so here goes…

I’m going to try and post something here everyday between now and the end of the year. After that I’ll see what happens. It might be something simple, like a photo I’ve taken that day or perhaps an old one; or it might be something else.


So to kick off, here’s a photo from nearly a year ago, in a garden centre car park, in Warwickshire – I was waiting in the car with the dogs, listening to a radio programme on the music from Star Wars movies.

Please feel free to share these posts on social media or comment below.

Routine

On By TontowilliamsIn Life2 Comments

2016-05-21 13.47.07

On May 21st, I broke my watch. I caught the face against the corner edge of my desk as I was hoovering, although I didn’t hit it that hard, the angle of the impact was enough to smash the face. I’ve only worn a watch on one other occasion since (and then it took me several hours to notice that it was still running on GMT and not BST). The once white band on my wrist has pretty much disappeared and I’m not sure I notice that I don’t have a watch on. When someone stops and asks me for the time, I still go to look at my wrist before checking myself and getting my phone out of my pocket to check the time on that. This has pretty much been how I’ve kept track of time when I’ve needed to since, not that I’ve really felt the need beyond the basics of making sure I’m where I need to be, when I need to be there by.

This just reminds me how much my routine has changed in the last 12 months. I no longer have a regular alarm clock, instead preferring to run my day around what work I have on and other calls on my time. I still do use an alarm if I have a morning appointment and have to be somewhere at a particular time but otherwise I rise pretty consistently at the same time most days. Walk the dogs, visit the allotment with them if I need to – either to harvest food, or water the plants – and then start work. Work varies depending on how busy I am (not very at the moment), if there is no work for clients I’ll be working on something else, mostly my writing.

Stop with lunch with Ann, and catch up on any personal things and my Words with Friends games. Then depending on workload, carry on into the afternoon. I’ll take an afternoon walk with the dogs, normally this will be a longer walk and if I remember I’ll take my camera with me (I often forget, and use the one on my phone). I’ll then come back and finish any work that’s outstanding and then prepare supper.

We might watch a little TV in the evening, depending on what’s on, although with Wimbledon, Euro2016 and the Olympics, there has been an awful lot of sport on recently, and so we’ve been catching up on DVDs or things that have been recorded long ago and not watched, as we’re not great sports fans.

Then to bed and read. I do read at other times during the day depending on what else I’m doing and often if I’m travelling by train or bus (which I have done quite a bit of in the last few months). I also keep a handwritten journal, and will update that throughout the day if there are things to record – it’s mostly a nature / allotment journal, so I don’t write in it everyday.

Just over a year ago, my day was dictated much more by others. I think it requires more self-discipline now than before, but it does feel much more like my day.