Brian Snellgrove's personal diary

Today we are going to try and achieve two gardening jobs, both maintenance, both pleasant enough – and regular income. We went to our first one at about 11 o’clock. The lady who we see, she must be 90 to a day, had not yet risen so we had to wait a little bit for her to get up. I decided to go walkaround the local streets and what do I see but a drain cleaning wagon.

I love these. I love seeing films and videos  of unblocking drains. So long as water is concerned I’m interested. I went up and had a talk to the operator. He invited me to have a go. Didn’t believe it at first. the equipment consists an aluminum pipe about 20 cm in diameter. Round the bottom there are a series water jet that blasts high-pressure water at the mud that tends to block the drain. It is counterbalanced so quite easy to swing down the drain. We had a lot of fun and a laugh and a joke and they allowed me to take pictures after my having used the cleaner, which was more difficult than I thought.

Back to the lady customer. There was very little work to do, there were few weeks so we said we would see her again in April or May. We went from Timsbury to our second job in Paulton. On our way we visited the Hub cafe and library. We arrived in the middle of someone preparing lunch. Tea and coffee was not readily available so we left after chatting with a couple of people. We saw this pumpkin on one of the tables.

it cheer me up to see an indication of someone’s 16th birthday, or what their 61st, in the car park behind the community centre.

On to our job. This is a small back garden that we took on three years ago which was in a complete mess. It took us a couple of hours to restore it to a beautiful state and it is now neat and tidy ready for the winter. Grass does not grow much below 10°C.

Back home to have lunch but before that I decided to jet wash my mower and my strimmer. After a drink, I started lunch and I was biting on a roll of bread when inside my mouth I heard a breaking sound. My top platelet of teeth had just broken off. I immediately called the dentist and declared an emergency and fortunately they were able to see me at 12:10 tomorrow Friday. I now have the problem of eating lunch but I adapted fairly quickly because I can bite with my molars to the left and to the right so I will not starve.

We had our ZOOM men’s meeting for the Froome area. A local retired doctor talked about his work as a Christian. He was asked whether he prayed with patients but said that the GMC were quite strict on that so his wings were  been clipped a bit and some of his colleagues were told off for praying with patients with probably the best motive but it was against the regulations.

Largely toothless, I had some soup this evening which was actually more than sufficient

A busy day. We went to my interesting lady gardening client, picked up the rubbish from last Friday’s job and took it to the recycle. For the first time in many visits, the chap checking us in did not have a record of my car but let me in any way. A number of us had to deposit material in the garden rubbish skip. I noticed something I had never noticed before, that people meekly stood in line, heads bowed. Gone was the Spontaneity for the most part. It is part of the obedience training that people have been suffering from all the past six months.

A pleasant day if a little cool so we spent time in the garden and I prepared for my ZOOM meeting with the allotmenteers. I met two new tenants today and sign them up. Both were extremely grateful to have plots since they had only applied a few weeks ago and thought they’d have to wait forever to be accommodated of the people before them had not shown enough signs of enthusiasm so they lost their place in the queue.

I met two other people who were going to have joint tenancy at about 5:30 PM. They were two very muscular and handsome people who could have been mistaken for brothers at any time. Both of whom are called Daniel. We had a laugh about that. I took them to meet my wife who was working on her allotment.

The ZOOM meeting started at 7 PM and went on for about 20 minutes. I explain the basics of the system to the attendees. We had eight people in total. I hope we get more for the real thing; today’s was just a dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s AGM.

Supper, and watching films on youtube. We like mostly travel films and one of them was on the orient express from Venice to London and the other one was to train journeys in Japan and a 12 hour boat trip.

My stomach is performing well today. I discovered that if I have a glass of wine and no more per day I do not suffer any symptoms.

My Covid site has had an influx of technical entries “Monderna’s Covid – 19 vaccine provokes Covid like symptoms in phase 3 trial”, “new NIH research aims to identify promising Covid – 19 treatments for larger clinical trials” and “Johns Hopkins researchers identified immune system pathway that may stop Covid 19 infection” . Hardly riveting stuff I know but I have a strong urge to write everything down relating to the subject and already I have accumulated a considerable volume of references so it is ideal for researchers and those really wanting to take this matter seriously.

I have for example 75 examples of Covid test and testing, 144 articles on health, 110 articles on lockdown and 185 articles on masks.

I do not get many readers each day may be 100 if I’m lucky that I don’t think that’s the point. I find it very valuable for myself because if you know what is actually going on,  you inoculate yourself against fear. I’m in a very positive phase at the moment. I am more determined and clearer than ever before.

The gardening work seems to have dried up for this year, the weather is going to turn colder so they won’t be much growth so our income is slightly affected but we have nothing to complain about.

Today is Saturday. I normally buy my ration of meat from the local butchers and today was the turn of pork. I buy a roll of pork for about £10 and get about seven meals out of it. We then went to buy fresh eggs from a farm for which we pay one pound for six very large eggs.

We then went to the gardening job which I previously referred to to continue our work, this time trimming a tree. There is a definite art to trimming. When artists paint a picture of a step back from the canvas to look at it and it is the same thing with tree shape is not obvious when you’re standing underneath it so you need to go some distance away perhaps 25 m or so and see how it will look and what it needs.

During our preliminary talk with the customer she asked us if we wanted a tea leaf reading. This is a form of clairvoyance that some people will be familiar with. I think she’s psychic anyway so it doesn’t really matter what the catalyst is. She told me that my son was 41, actually he is 42 years of age just turned so that wasn’t a bad estimate. I have some readings on myself. She saw lots of clarity and said there was considerable love between myself and Françoise. We knew that but it’s always nice to be told by somebody else. She saw that I had lots of good friends and that I was appreciated.

We left the job on a high. Sometimes, the jobs are not exciting but if the relationship between ourselves and the customer is good we get the feeling that we are working for the greater good, the universe, and it doesn’t seem like work. I can tell a successful job when I feel we move lively  at the end than when we start.

This evening I had a talk with someone from California called Tim.
Tim wanted to join my ZOOM group for discussing Covid. On the particular Skype call he was joined by his wife Alexandra. They were both on the same wavelength and seemed particularly enthusiastic about meeting people on the same level of understanding so I invited them to the next ZOOM meeting this next Wednesday.

Early this morning I could not sleep so I listened to radio five live and I heard a policeman from Durham was close to tears because he was trying his best but they were receiving different and conflicting information almost every day for example whether to wear masks not wear masks, one day they are told to wear gloves the next day they are told not to wear gloves. This is really sadism. I felt like calling up but I just wondered what effect this would have on whether the BBC will tolerate any view that differs from the norm for example that the virus does not exist, that it is an exozome, that lockdowns are completely unnecessary etc.

I am rewriting my website which focuses on my psychic and remote view skills; I feel these are needed more and more in this age of disturbance and fear. The challenge is in trying to see what I offer from the point of view of the public and deciding exactly who I am appealing to. There is a phrase that if you try to appeal to everybody, you appeal to nobody.

I have a copywriter, Lawrence, who has done a splendid job so far but I’m thinking of putting some illustrations on the site to make it more human. He and I were discussing how to present our ideas and he felt that a picture of us to would be a good alternative. This fired me up to write a note to him telling him all the things I hated about people who appear in advertisements both on television and printed.

I wrote last time about the very remarkable lady who was an alcoholic and yet a delight to deal with. I am learning the hard way how variable these people can be. She thinks her neighbour wants to cut down our tree or have her do it. She defended her neighbour by saying that she lost her husband six months ago but I said this is not sufficient justification to demand that someone else fails a tree on their land. We shall go along tomorrow and try and sort out a diplomatic middle way.

I thought my stomach was improving but it seems that the culprit is wine. I’m sure which is the sort of wine because sulphides and so on are no good and divide by organic wine I do not get symptoms.

The weather being fine, we decided to go to the canal and take our bikes for a first time together ride. This will be my first proper cycle ride for about 50 years and the old saying is correct that you never forget – give or take a few wobbles.

We rode along towards Bath and then enjoyed the Weir, where there was absolutely nobody else around and we enjoyed it. On the return journey I had an interesting conversation. I came across two ladies one of whom was holding a baby. I went up to them and said in my usual outrageous manner “you are showing signs of happiness, what’s going on?”

The woman was obviously enjoying the cuddle as much as the child and she said that since Covid she had not cuddled anyone. I got some clairvoyant information about her father which seem to be spot on. I discussed the stupidity and crookedness of Covid with them both and they agreed, the daughter more than the mother. There were three generations there in that little group. Again, the difference between the fear based and the non-fiat-based or shall we say the love based people can be seen in Technicolor. I gave them one of two encouraging remarks and went on my way. I love these random meetings but little did I know what was going to come.

We rode back to our car and noticed a woman searching around on the ground. I asked her if she had lost anything and she said yes, she had been playing Scrabble and had lost a ‘P’. We looked round as much as we could but did not find anything and we were joined by a chap who had been playing loud music and drums in his van. We had a lot of jokes about P only being worth one point. We were on the point of giving up when I walked up the main path towards the tow path and found the lost letter lying on the ground. The woman could not believe her luck and said, if it were not for Covid I would give you a big hug. See how the programming of this lie has worked in the minds of people. The more often you repeat the lie ..

I have said this before and I’ll say it again that both Hancock the Health Secretary and Boris Johnson the Prime Minister should be tried in court for treason because the amount of damage they have done to the whole country and seem to intend to continue to do his exacting high price for everyone who lives here in the UK. It is the same in America, France, Germany, Spain, and many other countries not excluding the Third World countries where the level of poverty is even greater. Anyway before I go on my ranting we did in the day on a final note. I cycled about 1 mile but that was a mile long the life cycle as I said for a considerable part of my life so armed with more confidence I will probably exceed myself next time but it has to be on level ground. Maybe I will treat myself to a power assisted bicycle.

Today we said no to a garden job. The lady lived in Wellow, a delightful village, very posh and upper-class. She said on the phone that her garden was the size of a tennis court. I reckon it was about the same size as four snooker tables. The said she was 93 years of age and was not able to garden like she used to do due to her fingers becoming more stiff.

Normally, I would be fully sympathetic with such a person but we decided not to do the job for two reasons. First it was not our sort of job. We do not do weeding. Secondly, her attitude.  I can’t say she was rude but she was brittle and irritable. We got the feeling that we would not enjoy working there and she would be too critical of our efforts. I have learnt long ago that if the first impression is not good, it will not get better. Okay, it’s turning down money but if it’s money earned under duress or unpleasantness it turns into bad money.

I have a gardening job to do which I visited yesterday. The woman who asked me to do the work had a rather over friendly dog, but there was something about her speech that made me worried about her mental condition. She would be speaking, and then pause for no apparent reason and then forget what she was saying. I just wondered whether this was the sort of job which we wanted to be involved with. It consisted of cleaning a small patio, and mowing an area of grass and doing some clearing away. Technically, it was not difficult and would be enjoyable. I texted her a quote which I thought might be too high but she agreed straightaway.

We turned up and unloaded our stuff. She had requested on the phone that she be taken to the local shop to pay her phone bills,  complaining that she had done enough walking around so far. That is the first time I have ever been asked to take some shopping that something within me said that I should at least offer. The local shop could not help so she asked me to take her about a mile away to Radstock where she could both get my money and pay her electricity bill. We then returned together.

I then asked her where the nearest electricity plug was because I needed to plug in my jet wash. She took me to the front of her house and showed me the control box. I have to demonstrate using sign language that I wanted a place where she would plug in the kettle.

We both thought she had had a stroke but I talked to Angela, the lady who lived upstairs, who said that she was an alcoholic and it ‘was very sad’. The customer offered us some coffee and, knowing that Françoise was from France, made a special effort to get some biscuits that would remind her of her hometown of Lyon. I was very moved at this. We did the work and finished after about four hours. As we were concluding, she bought us a thank you card in which she thanked us for our hard work. I have never had this happen before though I have had one or two e-mails thank you’s.

I saw this lady as a very sweet soul, who had possibly fallen on difficult times and sought solace in alcohol. She treated us far better as individuals then I have been treated for some time and this is in the case of a person with every excuse, a medical condition and bad back, not to take much notice those who work for her.  This event will teach me not to judge by appearances (again).

This area is one of the forgotten corners bypassed by main roads which have a considerable amount of community spirit. I enclose a couple of images of what I saw on the same street.

A bright(ish)  morning so bearing in mind the rain of recent days we decided to go off to Wells. Our annual pass to go around the gardens expires on 14 October so we thought we might as well make the best of it. We parked and went to the high Street. I can never get used to the sight of people being masked up in the street never mind a country walk but some people have become wedded to it. Is it becoming some sort of fashion statement? I have approximately 135 links on the attributes of masks and most people who study this sort of thing find them to be of more harm than benefit. This is the biggest psy-op in my lifetime.

First, to the market, where social distancing rules apply and there were far fewer stalls but each stall was doing good business. We had timed our visit to coincide with the inauguration of the new mayor who for some reason has a term of 18 months (normally one year). I assume it’s something to do with the disturbance of the lockdown.The market, busy as ever, under a huge plane tree.

To the Bishops Palace. No matter how many times we visit, it is always different. I had not seen this notice and we seem to have a new ‘people’s ticket’ where you pay once (£15) and get free entry for 12 months. That is a good improvement upon the joint price of about £64 per couple for ‘membership’ which entitles you to visit other places over the same period.

We had two meaningful conversations. I went up to a chap who was sitting on the bench overlooking the spring and chatted to him naïvely about the muddy state of the spring water. Little did I know that he was a caving expert and I got a long explanation of the sources of water, their comparative power and purity, and why this phenomenon of muddy water occurred after rain.

The second conversation was with the lady teacher who taught schoolchildren about trees. She said that all children thought of trees as “oak trees” and she does her best to educate them.

Both of the people were not wearing masks. It is part of my defense mechanism  that I do not to speak to people when I cannot see their faces. You never know, they could be snarling and preparing to attack.

It’s amazing how people are conforming to these arrows. From a scientific point of view it makes no difference if you walk one way or meet someone coming the other way. The active period of the Covid virus finished about April. the scare tactic is being maintained for other reasons. I noticed that one of two people steered clear of me when I walked towards them but more than 50% did not abide to this so-called guidance.

This was once a rather beautiful carved hand but the years have taken their toll and it’s almost at  the stage of decomposition. A lovely idea.

This can be seen in the arch on the way out of the gardens.

The Swans regard the moat  as their own property and do indeed swan around. Advice, do not get between them and their offspring.

This was taken from an adjacent field and shows how the Cathedral must have looked in previous centuries. Wells is a truly delightful place with a creative is slightly snobby population. Be prepared to part with substantial amounts of money if you are thinking of living in the preferred areas never mind something historical.

We then went home via Hartley’s tea rooms. Françoise had a roulade and I had sticky toffee and custard with a latte. Afterwards we went into the adjacent grocery and bakery and bought some bread. I was impressed by the fact they didn’t ask for track and trace nor did they wear masks. The lady behind the counter who I think is the co-owner, called Tara, was totally up to speed and said they don’t believe in masks, distancing and anything else.

I gave her one of my leaflets and she said that her husband would be very interested. Our leaflets are not for everybody. They are for researchers. Most people are totally besotted and convinced by the mainstream media, the BBC, and will not even listen to any other explanation even if you say that the masks are a device to cause us to submit to something which is counter intuitive.

Anyway, I’m getting my hobby horse again so I will get off and upload this diary.

It is some time, about six months, since I have listened to Trans World Radio which is an evangelical Christian radio station broadcasting not only by the Internet but the way I get it, via Freeview TV. This morning I woke after my usual assortment of dreams and decided that the best remedy was hearing the gospel of Jesus being preached.  My favourite preacher is Colin Smith. He is from the Free Church in England now working in California I believe and is a very good academic as well as preacher. You can find out about him by searching for ‘unlocking the bible’

Choosing between BBC ‘News’ and TWR is a no-brainer so I listen for half an hour to remind myself about values, priorities, things to bear in mind when leading the good life and soul. From now on – touch wood – plus  the weakness of the flesh permitting I will do the same every morning.

This evening, we had a ZOOM meeting with the men’s group in Frome. The best sort of discussions happen from a simple enquiry like “how are you”. We were discussing the ways that God has protected us and were asked to give an example. I said rather scurrilously and if we were protected we would not be aware of it because nothing would happen to us.

We also discussed in this Covid society context about touching and was then how important it was. I pulled up a study piece from the Bible saying that Jesus had healed on 16 separate occasions by touching the people concerned including replacing the ear of the soldier that Peter had cut off, healing a woman from bleeding and a man who had leprosy.

Even amongst Christians, awareness of the real nature of Covid is very low and I think most people prefer to switch off and do what they are told. I have to be very careful how I mention it in case I alienate people so I just content myself with the occasional comment about the absurdity of masks etc.

The organiser of the ZOOM meeting said that he had a mailing list of 90 men. I was surprised to see only four people show up that is apart from me and the organiser. I suggested that he write a letter to everybody, not scolding them saying what a good time we had and the topics that we discussed hoping that they would feel free to join next time. When we write e-mails we need to see it from the point of view of those who receive it not from our point of view.

People who write stuff – and I’m sure I’m included in that – tend to take others’ knowledge for granted. For example I have no fear of ZOOM but I know some people don’t like any form of technology and put this ‘needs must’ phenomenon into that category. It is indeed a very useful piece of kit and you can for example chat to one person or everybody, the organiser can run a poll to get people’s opinions and can be more efficient than a real-life meeting.

I celebrated evening for more than one reason. This was the first time in my 76 years that I’ve heard the word ‘previnent’ never mind used it. It is an adjective with framing news, one of which is going before or preceding, the second is anticipating or expectant of something, or thirdly and antecedent to human action. I don’t know how often I will use that word but it’s nice to have it in my toolbox.

I have designed my own particular face covering to defend myself against Covid 19. You may spot certain weaknesses in the design of my original concept. I can tell you that it is no more effective than facemasks. A Covid 19 virus ( actually quite a useful worker in the body) has no trouble getting through all round the side of masks aided by the ingress or explanation of air. These viruses are very small as I have mentioned so I thought I would make a small contribution to society which I intend to mass produce and see how many people are stupid enough to wear them.

Off to Bath to take Françoise to have a tooth removed, the one in the front top, and have it replaced. By some miracle I got her an appointment at very short notice at Wellsway Dental Practice in Bath.

Whilst she was in the surgery I went for a wander around and saw this leaflet which impressed me quite a lot. It shows me that the locals are looking after each other and have got themselves organised.

I went to get a coffee for the takeaway variety made a mistake as I discovered of asking for soya milk which according to a report by my digestive system contains some artificial chemicals. I will get it right one of these days.    I love Bath stone. I spotted a sign of Halloween in the window of an adjacent house.

Françoise emerged in a semi-anaesthetised state and found it very difficult to talk because she had a tooth in an unfamiliar position; she was told that it would take a few days for the new brain connections to be made.

Our weekly ZOOM meeting to discuss Covid went very well. We had 12 people. Evidently in Spain the conditions are far worse than here in the UK. Everyone without exception has to wear a mask in the street and police are going round with smug smiles equipped with guns and batons.  All this for a virus that stopped being dangerous about five months ago. Is there any limit to what the public will put up with?

Well, when I say trip I really mean scramble because although it looks very beautiful from a distance the gradient is very steep and when the ground is wet as it was today you have to be very careful not to slip and slide. It is 244m in height.

Cley Hill has lots of legends attached to it. There is a legend that the hill was formed by the devil, when he dropped a sack of earth with which he had planned to bury the town of Devizes. He had retrieved the earth from Somerset and was travelling to Devizes when he stopped to ask an old man the distance to the town. The man replied that he had been walking for years to reach Devizes, so the devil abandoned his plan.

The National Trust in their wisdom accepted it as a gift, and the 66-acre of chalk grassland was notified as a biological sites of special interest in 1975. It was gifted to the charity in 1954 by the six Marquess of Bath.

There is a connection between this place and my first child now deceased. His ashes were buried near this place.

To Mells for a lovely take away latte and sipped it whilst viewing an adjacent stream, swollen by the rain.

…and so to home for lunch. Françoise made a lovely colourful salad which I picture below.

Back home and into the ordinary routine, going to buy milk and other necessaries, sitting in front of computers hopefully getting wise with what we read. Françoise is having trouble with her teeth or rather a break in one of her teeth. She is due to see the dentist on Wednesday so we decided to cancel the visit by two friends from Thursday to Monday next week and the week afterwards. She is worried about the effect on her of the operation and I totally understand.

Today, I must write to all the allotment to ask them for rent for the forthcoming year. Yesterday I had a committee meeting with our local Council and agreed the way forward. We did it by ZOOM which I’m getting quite used to now, perhaps too used to it.

I went along to the printing place to collect some work. I do notice in people a sense of humour and this makes communication much easier. The lady on reception to the place I went to was without any scintilla of humour and I found it very difficult to talk to her. She had no feeling about a nuance of a statement. It was very much like talking to a robot. I think a sense of humour is essential to getting on with life and if you don’t, you made life very difficult for yourself.

It looks like there’s going to be very little gardening if any this year. I have a couple of regular jobs but that won’t do much. I decided to cut back a little bit and cancel my subscription to This Week. Most of it is a summary of what has gone on the past week and apart from the odd amusing article I think I can live without it. I should spend more time reading real books.

I always write my holiday accounts backward. We arrived back today at about 6 PM after taking the 1:30 PM bus from a semi-deserted Victoria coach Station. There were about 16 of us on the bus, carefully socially distanced. When we arrived at London Heathrow, a Korean man who had got off was looking perplexed. We discovered that someone had taken his case, almost identical to his own, which now sat forlornly on the forecourt.

It is a dilemma for the authorities whether to take charge of the case and wait for someone to claim it and hopefully return the other case but it is possible that they would not discover their mistake till they arrived at their destination. The authorities told the driver to put it on the coach and it would be dealt with like any other lost luggage query. That made us a bit late.

The second event was a chap who overslept and realised that his stopping point was in the rear view mirror so he begged the driver to let him off and fortunately there was a place where this could be done. The whole thing was quite good-natured though.

It is exciting to depart for a place but just as nice to come home again. It was such a relief in a way to get away from seeing so many people wearing masks as they were doing on the subway.

And so to bed.

We arrived yesterday Friday and had lunch with two very good friends in Waterloo followed by a traipse around London. The single most shocking thing was seeing everyone with masks, meekly submitting to a system about which they had no clue.

In the evening we went for a walk to the top of Primrose Hill and witnessed groups of lively students enjoying the setting sun.

We walked in Camden which is one of the more well heeled areas of London and enjoyed the high quality of street decoration of which this is an example

Saturday Morning

This morning, we are going to attend the rally in Trafalgar Square which is timed to commence at mid day.  We enjoyed going down by the bus and saw all sorts of excellent artworks on the way.

Indeed, the show must go on. Tell that to Boris.

We arrived at Trafalgar Square at about 11:30 and noticed there was some disarray with the sound system. The sound system seems to be fated because they are not powerful enough to reach everybody in the square and we could hardly hear what was being said.

There is no question that by going along you become part of an instant family and can talk to anyone and everyone which we did. The breadth of knowledge of people there is quite extraordinary. It is difficult to tell many people were there but I would guess about 10,000.  The speeches begun but I couldn’t get near enough to hear what was being said so I busied myself going around talking to people and looking at the placards.

There are too many images to place on this web site so I have put them on my sister site. See  some of the better ones.

Basically, the whole event went quite well until three o’clock and then the police started to close in and forcibly disperse the crowd because they decided they were offending the social distancing rule. They were doing this anyway but they waited till the end.

At about three o’clock we went along to the Mall Gallery and enjoy a wonderful selection of very high quality work, samples of which I give below.

Back to the lovely hotel what turned out to be very good nights sleep. It is worth bearing in mind that especially at this time if you don’t like your mum for any reason for example if you think it is noisy or badly positioned you can ask for another one.  Our first one overlooked the petrol station and I asked that it be changed for one overlooking the car park at the back. This is the Premier Ian, Hampstead.

There is nothing like getting your timing right and listening to inspiration. Inspiration has a timed element to it in other words if you get inspired to do something and you say to yourself that you will do it later, things do not work in the way you expect it to. I say, trust the universe.

I went on to People per hour.com last night at about 5pm to find someone to help me design a leaflet for the Trafalgar Square rally on Saturday. There are plenty of people out there particularly in India was prepared to do work for what we think is little money but actually for them is quite a lot.

I found a person called Sarita whose portfolio looked pretty good so I wrote to her last night at about 6 PM enclosing the rough proof of what I wanted. It came back about 2 PM today Tuesday, I sent her a couple of corrections and the final PDF arrived half an hour later. Tomorrow, I will send it off to my overnight printer and it will be at my hotel in London when I arrive.

Today is the autumn equinox and normally we go along to Glastonbury to celebrate this year. Due to you know what, there are no formal celebrations as such. Nevertheless, there were quite a number of people there and we sat round the chalice Well itself for some quietness and meditation. I managed about 5 minutes and then got restless.

It was then that I met a lady whom comprise my first meaningful communication. I saw that she had bought a pendulum. I knew she was a novice because I saw her holding it like a teabag and trying to make it swing. I being me went up to her and introduced myself as a dowser of 40 years. I did a reading using her pendulum finding out how she could best apply her talent and found that she was able to diagnose the atmospheres of buildings. I was very glad to be able to encourage her. Later on we met by coincidence in the centre of Glastonbury when I was with Françoise and I gave a further encouragement and gave my card.

It was very pleasant I must admit to be in Chalice Well Gardens with very few people because normally it is crowded. We paid £4.20 to get in; normally they let us in for nothing on special occasions. Knowing about the importance of grounding our energies we walked around in bare feet and spent some time wading in the paddling pool.

We decided to climb Glastonbury Tor and by the way it is climb for which you need to be physically fit. The way up and the way down is very much like a social club because everyone is on the same wavelength and you could more or less talk to anyone and be guaranteed a friendly greeting in return. Covid was a conversation piece with most people getting bored and desperate with it. I found that people who wore masks, one couple in particular, were alienating themselves from everybody else and if they don’t get mental stress problems I would be very surprised.
Sometimes, Cows are let out and they walk around the building at the top but on this occasion there were only a few sheep on the lower pastures. We met an African-American couple photographing each other and I got the impression that the male photographed his female companion many times so I made a joke saying that if I had 50 p for every time he photographed his friend would I be rich and he laughed knowingly saying yes.

Outside the alas closed Womens Centre a wonderful miniature apple tree full of fruit.

Under the mild threat of a rain shower or two we went down to the town and I decided that the best thing for me was a pint of local cider so we went to the King Arthur pub, a wonderful traditional pub just built for Glastonbury and had the most wonderful local cider, fairly sweet, and Françoise had some alcohol free ginger beer. I remember I used to make ginger beer when I was young. Once the top of the bottle blew off under pressure and the whole thing shattered pieces and some of the glass embedded itself into the shelves above and beneath.

There are arcades of the Main Street that are most interesting to tourists who of course had been decimated in recent months. Invention and creativity is the order of the day. You could almost think you were in Greece looking at the picture below.And so back home. Now the evenings will start to draw in.  On the way back, we got in supplies of coal which I note has increased in price. We paid £23 for 60 kg of house coal. We burn a combination of coal and wood so that should last us a bit.

Françoise just had a chat with someone who lives in London. They told her that journeys by bus can take longer because they are changing the architecture of the streets to accommodate more social distancing, all this is based on a lie, how can the government get out of this I wonder.

On Friday I went to see someone who wanted their garden done. Pensioner who met me seemed a little bit fraught but he was grateful enough to see us. It was quite plain that his wife ruled the roost. I gave a quote for the garden but said that the cost of removing the rubbish could not be determined as we were not sure about the volume. On Saturday morning he rang at 8:30 telling us that we should not come and start the work because he wanted the final estimate for the cost of taking away. I told him that I thought it would be between £50 and £100 but could not be certain because we have not started the job. Even got very short with me and started making personal comments about my competence, track record etc and ended up by putting the phone down. It’s not very often that this happens to me but I have a rule that if something starts badly it will go on badly and I never do work for such people even go in loss of income.

I have a feeling that my new vicar, Rev Adam, and I are not on the same wavelength. no one has mentioned COVID and I would like to discuss it is only to give added help and support to those people who have found themselves on their own. At the ZOOM  meetings I cannot focus on the topic and cannot really make a meaningful connection which means that for the most part like a zombie just watching. This is not helpful for me, and it must be confusing for the few other people who attend the meeting. Unless something happens, and I’m not saying it will or it won’t, I doubt if I will be an enthusiastic member of the church for much longer.

With Covid, certainly in the UK, the number of videos of people criticising the government is increasing and I think it’s only a matter of time before their position becomes unstable. The government are quite determined that a second wave is going to happen and are simply ignoring the public in pursuit of their own goals which are anti-aesthetic with the economic health of this country the United Kingdom. Does the whole place have to actually collapse before they see the error of their ways?

My stomach is under control largely because I have decided to limit myself to 2 meals a day, not eat after 6 PM, take an allopathic pill for my Barrett’s oesophagus every other day, and be careful about drinking anything alcoholic in the evening. I know Barrett’s can develop into something more serious, for example cancer, but I think if I live a relaxed and healthy lifestyle that is quite unlikely.

I’m looking forward to attending the Trafalgar Square meeting next Saturday. The police are quite happy to let Black Lives Matter events go ahead but they are being aggressive towards anything 5G or Corona and some people in Trafalgar Square were being arrested for not having masks and given fines.

To Hartley’s for a light lunch. Francoise had a salmon sandwich and I had a latte and a cheese cake.  Paul the owner is always a pleasure to meet and in spite of the incessant pressure he finds time to talk to his customers.

To our magically valley just north of Wells. Whereas a few months ago it was a wonder to walk in, now it was an impenetrable jungle of weeds. We then struggled a few hundred yards. Francoise was getting so many nettle stings that we decided to retrace our tracks.

There is a wood to the south of the cathedral gardens. We had never been there so a chance to find some blackberries, elder berries and rose hips. Little luck with the first, no luck with the second and good luck with the third. Elder berries are to be found in August.   Blackberries – it depends on the position and the variety.

Françoise has continued to enjoy the wild swimming in Vobster . I am figuring out the culture of swimmers and divers.   Françoise finds that the fellow swimmers, normally female, are very friendly but I found that the divers are a special breed. it must cost a fortune to kit yourself out with the required gear. I can imagine people getting hooked on it.

It seems that the facility is open almost 365 days a year. The staff are focused and very conscious of the rules and regulations especially of the safety kind that a facility has to observe.

This facility is for experienced swimmers only and you are supposed to be able to swim 750 m before being allowed in.

From time to time, I need a reality check when I see person after person wearing a mask when all the evidence points to the fact that it is unhealthy,  impedes the outflow of carbon dioxide and also the ingress of oxygen plus providing an ideal breeding ground for germs. Who washes a mask every time they use one. I do have a small group of people that I can have a winge with.

We have an ZOOM the meeting every Wednesday at 530pm with those more interested in looking at the long-term implications of COVID gather together. there are more than a dozen of us and we have got to know each other quite well, admittedly virtually, but communication is pleasant and we have settled as a group. It does provide nutrition. I don’t think we are a clique but it is a little bit awkward for new people to come along and feel accepted although I can tell them verbally that they are.

Tomorrow, I’m going to advertise in the newly launched local paper for my gardening skills. I have a feeling that I’m not going to get many takers because people have been traumatised so much that this extends to those who might visit the home never mind if there is no contact. It is a tragic and dreadful thing to behold. The wearing of a mask only reinforces the anonymity that people feel. I hope I get sufficient work to take me through the winter.

“The Fear of Freedom” is a seminal book by Eric Fromm and made a great impact on me. Many people are too frightened to be themselves and thus claim a passport but essentially to an acting role. Nowadays with this current Covid, people are just plain and simple frightened. As I said before, the deliberate Government campaign creates frightened and confused people. It is softening them up to be willing recipients of a vaccine which alas has the potential to take the human out of the human being.   I realised today what a pleasure it is to be free of fear. It is rather like flying above the clouds, above the 10,000 foot mark; you see the clear blue sky.

Today, we went berry picking including rosehips. Françoise wants to freeze them and use them at a later time. We walked along the old rail track from Radstock to Frome.

This morning, Françoise signed up to join the Vobster swimming and diving club. This is an exceedingly deep – 150 m at the greatest point – wild swimming pool and very popular especially as the local swimming baths have been closed. People come from miles around and looking at the quality I’m not surprised. There was the usual Covid nonsense with one or two people wearing masks and a slightly officious and bossy staff member who wanted someone to sit away from the space reserved for divers when in fact there were no divers around at the time.

“The masses of Carboniferous Limestone around Upper Vobster were worked for aggregate but closed in the 1950s. One of the quarries, Vobster Quay is now flooded and is used as an inland diving centre”.

TripAdvisor reviews here

I went to Wetherspoons for breakfast and now anyone who enters the establishment will be asked to write their phone number for track and trace details. This is basically a surveillance system about which I want nothing to do so I refused and sat at my table. An enthusiastic young assistant bought me a track and trace form with a pencil and asked me to fill it in, and then reminded me. Having done his duty, he left me alone. I ignored it and left without filling anything in.

Today is as good a day as any for a visit to Wells, wherein lies the famous cathedral and the ancient market. We were glad to find a goodly number of people at the market that the number of stands allowed one less than normal. About 60% of people were not masked by people who still responding to the so-called government guidelines of masking up in the shop irrespective of what is on sale there. Having said that, most people are laid back on the matter because I think customers are more important than sticking to the lesson of the law.

After buying a selection of beautifully fresh vegetables at the market we went on to the bishops gardens; we were given two months extra credit because the garden had been closed for two months.

Whilst we were having our coffee in the aforementioned cafe we met a very interesting local lady who told us that there was a reduced annual fee of £15 a year for going around the Bishops Gardens. They wanted to encourage people to visit the town frequently and of course spend money when they were there.

We also discussed the Whole Food cafe, which earlier in the day we had found to be virtually empty. Evidently, at the height of the lockdown, the proprietor insisted that there were only two people in the establishment at any one time and that others had to wait on the pavement. She thought that this had been a major off put to the customers who seemed to have deserted in droves.

Boris Johnson wanting to spend a hundred billion pounds on daily testing, or any sum come to that, when the test is one of the most unreliable ever for COVID sends me into something of a spin. Do see my huge weight of evidence in my website

I had a very pleasant ZOOM meeting with a group of Christian men from Frome this evening. We did not have a formal agenda but I find that if there is a reasonable correspondence of people’s spirits, conversation are soon found and meaningful threads follow.

This afternoon we went for a walk in some woods. It is very exciting to be in a place that has not been touched for hundreds of years, typically land that cannot be used for agriculture. The rest of this diary will be a pictorial diary

We collected a supply of logs from Longleat – 180 kg for about £33. We reckon to keep us going for the winter we shall need about £75 worth with coal after the fire has started.

It takes a lot to remove the charisma from Frome. There were limited people wandering around but a lovely warm atmosphere. I wanted to go up to the mask wearers and shake them.

I have decided to organise myself better by carrying around a small notebook and writing down all the little things that I need to do. Since my mind is active, some would say over active, quite a list can be made in a short time.

This morning I went to Wetherspoons for breakfast. They have decided to continue the half price offer Mondays to Wednesdays until November. There were not many people when I attended at 9:15 AM but the atmosphere was good as was the service provided by the young staff. I moved tables because of a very noisy child who came in to the stall next to mine; I did not want to be blasted by intermittent screams.

Off to the allotment to do something that I have been putting off which is to restore a rather untidy end to my allotment and remove unproductive fruit bushes. For some reason, I woke up this morning saying ‘today is the day’ and we did it in a couple of hours. I find that if you get your timing right, the task is not exhausting.

We have a problem with deer encroaching on our allotment. They have a special taste for sweetcorn. It is quite difficult to see where they come from as they are very clever at jumping.

I have decided to start advertising in the recently relaunched Midsomer Norton Journal. Response to my gardening advertisements this year has been very poor in fact I can say non-existent so let us hope that I will actually get some customers.

We have recently put a grounding sheet on the bed and I find that my sleep has improved and the normal need to go out to have a pee has declined.

I must admit I’m not too keen on going to church this morning so we decided as a very unspiritual alternative to go along to the car boot sale at Cheddar about which I have written many times. There were quite a few people there but not many people buying and I heard three or four stallholders complaining of lack of business. I don’t think people are in the mood.

We went to the side of the cider barn and I saw the ever hard-working Jason, the owner, presiding over the opening up of a large marquee, presumably introduced to increase space especially for bands which have a habit of playing on Sunday. He looked exhausted but I know he loves his job. I also met his very supportive wife.  For the first time in months I had some local cider (all the cider is local) and it is of the most wonderful quality and gives no side-effects. We also had pizza and left well satisfied after an hour or so.

*****

At home, Françoise is busily processing all the produce from our garden. Our kitchen is always overfull with miscellaneous items and we do need an extra room to function as a larder. Maybe we will decide to build something in the garden.

I am content because I’ve made a breakthrough in my stomach problem that has been troubling me for so many years. I decided that most alcoholic drinks contain additives that are not good for the digestion. When I do have a drink for example rose wine, I just have a sip of it, the same amount that would be contained in an egg cup, and I feel quite satisfied. That combined with not drinking at all in the evening and having smaller amounts of food seems to work and the amount of acidity and bloating is decreasing. I also spend more time ‘grounding’ outside in the garden and that does have a good effect. Grounding means standing in bare feet and connecting with the Earth

We are coming to the time when the year of the allotment rentals comes to an end and people need to renew. I have had five or six people wanting allotments – goodness knows where they came from because we have a long period when no one was interested – but I must somehow accommodate them if I possibly can and I must tactfully look round for allotment spaces where people have become too busy or inform to continue. We have two vacant plots and six people.

Francoise bought me a present of an owl that I named Oscar on my recent vacation. We found it as a very unpretentious market in front of the library in Much Wenlock. First of all I was attracted to the woman who made it who seemed to put her whole heart and soul into these objects and also in various items of clothing. I found that the owl radiated something. It was certainly unique and personal. She charged the grand sum of twelve pounds which I thought was good value bearing in mind that it was also an artwork.  Oscar will join George who is a hedgehog who looks after our house and also our deer, stuffed admittedly, who keeps watch out for intruders.

*****

Gardening jobs are rare these days not because nature has gone on strike but because people are frightened of any contact and have really changed their habits. It was a great pleasure to do the gardening job today for an elderly couple, one was 91 years of age and the other was 89. The wife had lived in the same house on Waldergrave terrace, Radstock,  since she was born. We were treated to a talk on local history, particularly which collieries existed in the area. It was interesting that the couple were both very bright and I think their sense of humour and companionship kept their brains going. our daughter said that “she had all her buttons”. I remember being slightly amused that this was we say “she had all her marbles”

The garden was basically a sloping field which had once been tended but was now consisting of grass. Perhaps a better description would be a meadow. It was about 50 m in length and on a 25° slope I estimate. You only notice the weight of a mower when you have to push it uphill so if you need to estimate the cost in energy and time mowing on a hill take your figures are multiply by two.

The garden was very much a memorial place because in the old days they had a small orchard, and Lorna, and that’s where vegetables grew so we had full respect for this. It took us 3 1/2 hours to mow and weed. When I work for people who appreciate what I do I get invigorated but I have to say on this occasion the combination of the sun and pushing a heavy object uphill did exhaust me so I had to pause from time to time for a rest. At 76 years of age I am entitled to take things a bit easy though I was positively junior compared with my customers.

To maskland, for my latest eye injection.  The corridors always entertain me with their art workothers, more glorious,  gave delight.

Monument Valley – The Milky Way seen over Monument Valley in Arizona, USA.

We no longer have access to a consultant. We are evaluated on the basis of an image of the eye made each time and the decision to have another injection after one or two months is made behind the scenes.

Our host ended our visit by a short walk which encompassed a fast flowing river. There is plenty of water in the north-west of England which was a very useful facility for all the manufacturers of wool when Manchester was the world centre of production for many items requiring power.

The journey from Glossop in the hills just below Manchester to my home south of Bath unavoidably goes through the very busy Midlands motorway interchange with huge amounts of traffic including many lorries, roadworks, narrow lanes, general overcrowding, 50 mile an hour speed limit, four lanes with no hard shoulder. All these add up to a journey that is more unpleasant and stressful than it should be.

I drove about 130 miles non-stop until we reached the Gloucester services, in my view a cut above the rest with its own farm shop. We were again greeted by everyone masking up. In the hills it was refreshing to see everyone with almost no masks at all. Here it was depressing and embarrassing. I had an overpriced coffee, decent chicken pie, and a large chocolate biscuit made of oats for which I paid £9.25.

We sat outside resting and I was able to enjoy the very splendid view of the clouds reflected in the pool.

We arrived home at 5 PM. The last few miles were the longest. Overall the Volvo proved its worth for long journeys. We did a total of 444 miles for which the price of the petrol was about £64.

Before the next stage of the fake pandemic which will likely happen in October or November, we have decided to make the most of September and go out and about so let’s hope for an Indian summer.

The famous crash site near Glossop. A B – 29 plane crashed on its way to deliver wages of soldiers but due to fog and a lack of radar, a miscalculation was made and it went to meet its maker.   You can read all about it on this trip advisor review.

we had a lovely walk down the top of the hill through an area that never really gets dry and you can be ambushed by a stream or ravine when such features are not obvious when you start your walk.A most delightful recipe for the soul. We then continued our journey to a place called Mam Tor, where through a series of slippages throughout the decade the road through the mountain had been reduced to rubble on more than one occasion.Back home for tea, spending our last evening together with our friend. It is a pity that such holidays are so short because I could have spent a week walking around and not getting tired.