Mild Achilles-tendinitis has been niggling for the past few weeks. It’s very mild but stubbornly persistent, no treatment yet, but I may use ibuprofen before I ride today.
Rode: only did 35 miles and feel rather tired. Something’s not right. The rain didn’t come, had to hose the garden instead.
Looking into the future and the past. The Future, holds a day resting, I shall paint window ledges and bake a rhubarb crumble. This one will have apples and I quite fancy some grated ginger.
The past contains a week of tiring workload, late nights and an unforgettable concert in Manchester. My tutor group did their last day at school yesterday. I made them a leaving card with a portrait on the front. They went down well enough , I suspect that they were better drawings than last time.
The recent past is recorded in some quite nice photos in the woods: May at its best.:
That crappy little Fuji camera can redeem itself under favourable conditions.
Deaf Institute concert: The Books in a very groovy venue. Maybe tell you later if you are good, I now have some serious drawing to do.
We had travelled back in time to the 1970s. That decade looked better then I remembered; all earthy colours, apart from the purple nylon-flock wallpaper. Most of the blokes wore beards; the girls were under thinner layers of make-up than most of the impasto-caricatures that walk these streets. The Deaf Institute had a cafe on the first floor with the dance-hall upstairs. The only problem was the impressive looking domed roof with skylights- that meant the band couldn’t start until 21.45 when the light had faded enough for us to see their light-show.
I enjoyed the show thoroughly, despite the sound which was poorer than at Warwick a few years ago- it sounded a bit muffled and some speech was hard to follow. We struggled to think of a venue as stylish as this in the Midlands- maybe the Glee Club. I don’t know.
Scrapped the Sunday bike ride; doing all the things I’d normally do on a Saturday instead: window ledges, varnished; back-door, painted; slab, dug out. Got some energy, but not enough to ride.
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Had a lie-in ’till 7am. What a treat, except it’s not. It’s not a nice thing to do, but I am with cold.
For FSX, Olenyek.
Woke puzzled: why feel all this staring emptiness?
Later it became apparent that I merely have a cold. Back to the slow kind of country then for me.
Two astounding plants
..
Angelica (above) & Artemesia Ludovicia, below
They’re shooting up like something from jack-in-the-beanstalk, flashing out massive paddle like leaves as they go. They make me smile these two. What will they do next (don’t tell me, I await the surprise)?
The Moelwyns And Yr Widdfa.
Saturday: wandered about the Moelwynnions, visiting ponds & small lakes on the hills south of Snowdon. The Rain threatened but didn’t carry it out until I was most of the way down. Then we walked through a dense forest which was good shelter.
Sunday: From Llyn Gwynant towards Pen-y-pass (but cut north to the Moner’s track & make Snowdon. It was horrible, I have never seen it so crowded. We pushed through the masses and found a quieter place on the Rhyd Ddu path. Met some nice people on that route, who I caught up with again after climbing Yr Aran. Beautiful day but cold in the strong wind-chill.
Today ( Monday): Drove home through the Arenigs, I’d love to camp there next time. Endless rolling grasslands which should offer some peace and solitude. There are few official campsites there.
There is another way.
This needs some research. Marina Tsvetaeva:
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Walk the dogs in this wood to take my mind off dark times at work.
I’m going to bed, just bury today.
British Govt. have apologised for a joke press release suggesting the Pope branded condoms. I think it’s appalling too, the marketing men will really struggle to sell "Holy Condoms". The upside of the story is that has been demonstrated that a large organisation can apologise for a mistake when it’s still fresh. The Catholic Church could learn from this- they waited fifty years to apologise for their part in the Holocaust. There are numerous other apologies that were either too late, or not been issued yet (Crusades, Inquisition, death threats against Galileo when he discovered moons around Jupiter). Presumably there are thousands of other death threats issued by the Catholic Church that have not been mentioned yet, never mind the millions of actual killings they have sanctioned over the centuries. Did anyone mention child abuse?
Pyracanthus & Ceanothus. bought, planted and settling in.
On the walk home, spotted these growing under a hedge of conifers. What are they?
It looks like a very small horse-tail grass. Hold on, I will go to look it up.
See how dry it is, we’ve had no rain for three weeks. What we’d give to have three dry weeks during the summer holidays.
Today has been a hammock day.
Found it: Common horsetail: Equisetum Arvense. The book I have doesn’t make it clear whether it’s a plant, or a lichen/fungus. I will assume it’s a plant, though it looks like a relatively primitive one. This is going to be one to watch as it grows by a fence at a nearby school.
Man parks on grass:
It’s been a very long winter, at last the grass is growing, all bright green and a bit vulnerable, then this guy parks his 4×4 car on the grass verge opposite some empty parking bays. A passing pedestrian and I raise this with him, his excuse? He can’t fit his car in the bays because the back would stick out. My response- my car is the same length as yours and it fitted in just fine. Anyway, the argument became a little heated though not out of control. He agreed that he was bloody minded and arrogant and will park where-ever he likes.
The photo above shows him shouting at me that it’s illegal to take a photo of someone without asking permission first. I said “nonsense, there is no such law” and then took another photo. He said: how would you like it if I took photos of you? A: Doesn’t matter, I’m in a public place etc.
By now I was annoyed, I really scraped the bottom of the barrel and accusingly “are you a Daily Mail reader? (Yes it got that bad).
He didn’t deny it.
I still wonder where that idea about permissions comes from- it certainly doesn’t come from British law.
Micycle 