A Special Day

Saturday was a special day - after many years of working on his thesis, and having a successful viva voce, F received his doctorate.



We made a family day of the occasion, travelling to his college for the ceremony.

The college hall and grounds were bedecked with beautiful floral arrangements.

 

The sun was shining all day.

  

Pancake Day

One of Andrew’s favourite days of the year – over the years I must have made hundreds of plain thin pancakes to be smothered with sugar and lemon juice - and of course they had to be made one at a time – no advance preparation of pancakes to be kept warm or reheated.

Yesterday I helped out with Rock Club at church.  Rock club is an after-school club for Key Stage Two children and yesterday one of the activities was to make and eat pancakes so extra help was needed - one to one for cooking and tossing the pancakes.  The children made traditional pancakes and Scotch pancakes.  

Scotch pancakes require the use of a griddle, one piece of kitchen equipment I have never used.  The griddle was the persona l property of C who leads the group.  I told her that I thought I would invest in a griddle as it produced such good results.  She explained that she had obtained her griddle from a charity shop and she considered that it has been one of her best buys.  So now I am going to be scouring the local charity shops to see if they have any griddles for sale.  It must be a traditional cast iron one.  If they haven’t any griddles for sale I shall use Amazon – they have just the sort I want. 

Pancakes at home

F was out at an evening meeting and B didn’t finish her shift until 8pm so we ate late last night and I cheated on the pancakes.  I bought ready-made pancakes from the local supermarket which just needed a quick reheat in the microwave and then filled them with apple and blackberry fruit pie filling. Then they were served with good quality vanilla ice-cream.

Quick, easy, delicious – but not very healthy – so perhaps once a year is often enough.

A touch of culture

On Sunday we (F, G and B) went to see Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes at a nearby cinema. The performance was relayed from the London Coliseum and the opera company was the English National Opera.  Though the story plot is quite bleak the director managed to put some humour in his interpretation of the different scenes and characters.  The quality of the singing and the orchestral playing was what you would expect from a national company.  Between acts there was commentary and interviews with the director and some of the lead singers.  This has been our first experience of seeing opera as a cinema relay broadcast, but we would go to more such performances on the strength of this experience.

On the downside, you did not get the same atmosphere as you would in a theatre, and we missed being able to order drinks for the interval.  On a positive note the close-ups of singers and the focus on the orchestral players when they were playing the overture and the music to set the scene for each act was better than using opera glasses (if you had them). Another positive – the cost for all three seats was less than we would have paid for one of the cheaper seats at a performance at the theatre.

Windy Weather

Last Saturday dinnertime we received a telephone call to let us know that one of the five, mature oak trees that grow at the front of our holiday chalet had been brought down by the gales in the middle of the week.  The farmer had employed a tree surgeon to cut away the branches that were brushing against the sides and roof of the structure and the remains of the tree would be cleared away when the tree surgeon had more time.  He has been very busy during the last few weeks making safe trees that had been brought down in the successive gale force winds.  F decided that we needed to go to Wales and check out the situation for ourselves and as Sunday was already fully booked we needed to set out on Saturday, getting there while there was still daylight.

Hasty packing and a focussed journey meant that we arrived three and a half hours later, at five o’clock – just enough time to inspect the chalet and its surroundings in the daylight.  During the journey I noticed the scenery while F concentrated on the driving.  The journey from our home is along narrow country lanes for at least half of the way and it is not possible or safe to overtake in quite a few places.  Fortunately, we did not get stuck behind tractors or towed caravans – the wrong time of year for holiday jaunts.  There was plenty of evidence of the damage caused by the weeks of torrential rain and the windy conditions that have plagued the UK, especially in the south and western side of the country.  At the road sides there were many freshly cut tree stumps where damaged trees had had to be removed so that the roads were passable. The fields had pools of water lying in them and in places, the hillsides had gaps were swathes of trees had been brought down, though not yet cleared away.

Inspection of the chalet showed that very little damage was caused by the falling tree.  The trunk had obligingly fallen to the side of the chalet and the branches had fallen to the front and the side of the structure.  Some finer branches had struck the roof, but not with enough force to cause severe damage.  A nearby resident on the chalet park said our oak tree had fallen in slow motion.  She informed us that at the other end of the park some chalet owners had lost the waterproof felting from their roofs and damage for them had been quite extensive and expensive.  The trees which surround our chalet afforded some shelter from the direct force of the wind.  Though now of course we have only four trees standing.  In the summer I expect we will notice the gap that was once filled with the fifth tree.

 

Every cloud has a silver lining!  We had not eaten since breakfast so we stopped for a meal at a pub on the journey home.  When we arrived at the four-star inn we felt conspicuous because we were obviously not dressed for an evening out, but the landlady said it did not matter and we could go into the restaurant.  We ordered an all-day breakfast which comes with tea or coffee included in the price and settled down to enjoy our meal.  The prices are very reasonable – we are not quite sure how they manage to stay in business.

The décor is very special for a rural pub. There was a linen tablecloth on the table and the linen napkins were folded in an origami shape.  There were fresh flowers on the table, resting in coloured water and strands of ‘pearls’ resting on top of the blooms. There were lit candles on the table and in the corner of the room was a blazing log fire.  The building is a typical old Welsh stone building and the timbers look original, though the windows have been replaced with modern double-glazed units. In the bathroom, individual terry towels were provided.  This would have been a special venue for a much grander occasion.

After our meal we needed to travel a further 90 miles before we reached home but we arrived home by ten o’clock – we had completed our ‘adventure’ in less than ten hours.

A Day for Remembering

The 13^th February was Andrew’s birthday, a very special day for us, and we planned to spend the day remembering him by doing the things that he enjoyed.

The day started with a surprise delivery of flowers from two of F’s colleagues - remembering that Andrew’s birthday would be a difficult day for us, they sent a bouquet of roses and oriental lilies with their love.

Next we placed a bird bath in Andrew’s garden patch.  We spotted the bird bath on a florist’s stall at Cannock Market a few days ago and though it was not a thing we had planned it seemed appropriate to buy it. We chose to do this because Andrew was so caring for birds and animals and we knew he would be delighted to have this bird bath placed in his garden.

The UK weather has been dismal for the last few weeks with much rain and wind and floods. Checking ahead for the weather on the 13th, the forecasts were predicting a 90% chance of rain and gale force winds so we planned an indoor destination - to go to the Motorbike Museum which we knew Andrew had enjoyed last time he was in the UK, and then to go on to the Little Chef for food, a place he much enjoyed when he was younger.

As Thursday started dry and sunny we checked the weather forecast for the day and a short break from the rain and wind was forecast.  So we changed our indoor plans and headed for the Roaches where we were able to walk over the hills. This was another place much enjoyed by Andrew.  Though it was cold we walked for about two hours and soon got warm.  

We left the Roaches as the Sun started to set and drove to the nearest Little Chef, an hour’s drive away.  We ordered pancakes, an Andrew favourite, and drank a toast to him with our cups of tea and an orange juice.

On Friday the weather was back to heavy rain and gale force winds.  The break in the weather was timed perfectly to coincide with our remembering day. 

We were pleased to remember Andrew in the day’s activities – an enjoyable day, but tinged with much sadness.

 

Healthy Exercise

Whenever we go to the doctors for well-being check-ups we feel very virtuous until the subject of exercise arises.  We know that exercise is good for us and we keep promising ourselves to do something about it but another month goes by and we haven’t made any more progress – except for an occasional walk when the weather beckons. 

F and I used to go to Gymophobics, a gym especially for those who were not brave enough to go to a ‘real’ gym.  For five years we used these facilities, not as frequently as we should, but it did make a difference to our fitness.  Then they changed to a ‘ladies only’ facility and F’s membership was cancelled so in sympathy I cancelled my subscription as well.  The trouble with stopping exercise is that you soon lose fitness but don’t notice straightaway. 

So on Wednesday we turned up at Stafford Leisure Centre and enrolled for a year’s use of the facilities. The centre is recently built and houses a wide range of sporting facilities, including two pools and a gymnasium. It also runs dozens of fitness classes every week.  It opens from early morning, 6.30 a.m., till 9.00 p.m., so no excuses.

F and B and G went through an induction on Wednesday and today we went for our first exercise session.  We stuck together mainly so that we could remind ourselves of how the equipment works and to compare the settings we used.  B definitely has youth on her side.

We now need to make sure we use the facilities regularly.

A Walk on the Chase

The weather forecast for the weekend promised a mild, dry, sunny Saturday across most of the UK and it turned out to be correct.  So, since B had a day off work we decided to make the most of this break from the gale force winds and torrential rain.

We drove to Cannock Chase and parked by the Katyn Memorial then walked for a couple of hours.  Although there were plenty of other people around, walking, horse riding, cycling, it did not feel crowded.  

We walked quite a way and spotted Rugeley Power Station in the distance through the trees.

 

I think we shall be walking on the Chase more often as the days get longer and the weather gets milder.