Month: February 2020

We are getting the tail end of the amazing storm that has covered the whole of the United Kingdom with equal degrees of ferocity.  No, that's not quite true - it is Ireland, the North of Scotland and the south coast of England that has taken the brunt of things but many towns in the Yorkshire Dales have taken a battering. We had some hail this morning and the rain absolutely lashed it down but...

One of the wettest places in Europe is Bergen in Norway with an annual rainfall of 2250 mm. By contrast our nearest big city Bristol has about 819 mm of precipitation per year.  It comes in fits and starts.  Today we have both fits and starts. The wind itself is only about 35 miles an hour but when you combine that with driving rain, it's not a pleasant environment to be out in.  I went to the...

I went to the butcher this morning to buy some locally produced meat, in this case pork.  I find that supermarket meat is immature and tasteless not to mention full of chemicals. I will fill you in later with my saga about the Volvo car but I knew that one of the assistants in the butchers, who is also called Brian, is doing up his old Volvo, F registration, and it will be available for sale.  F...

We went to a meeting with one of the Midsomer Norton councillors who by chance rents a house from the Duchy of Cornwall.  They evidently own about 350 houses in the area. The tenant had the occasion to ring up because the boiler had ceased to function properly.  A cylinder head had evidently blown.  A firm hired by the Duchy came along and spent four days renewing the entire central heating...

This morning I went to the doctor to be tested for the propensity for blood clots. Thankfully, the test was negative.  I enjoy meeting my Doctor. He is always full of beans and positive. He tries to involve me with his decision-making as much as possible. He has given up persuading me to take statins which I will only do if I absolutely have to. In the afternoon I went for a two-hour session to...

A lovely sunny morning, and off to Wells this time by bus to see the movie 1917. Before that, we went on a tour of the ever beautiful bishops gardens and herewith follows a pictorial springlike photo gallery. First we enjoyed the lively bird life  around the moat. Swans think they own the place and other birds defer to them. The allotments in the gardens  must be one of the most sought-after...