Sunny days and warm nights

 

We enjoyed al fresco fish'n'chips last night, in the company of our friends Rae and Malcolm. The local pub is not serving meals at present, but they are accommodating take-aways, so they were ordered by phone and picked up from the bar. It is surprising how quickly time passes in the company of friends, and we ended in full darkness, picking out stars and constellations from between the passing clouds. Rae and Malcolm usually go to France each year for their break, but not this year. Everything is so uncertain, they will not risk booking the travel and will holiday in the UK.

On Sunday, we don't get the paper delivered, so following my Sunday routine I drove to Clare early before the heat got up to walk the dogs the long round behind the Swan. I went across to the paper shop, donning my mask as I went, and bought the Times.  I know the Sunday Times is a broadsheet, but this was a tabloid size, so I wondered if they had switched over to the new format.

It was still well before nine o'clock when I got home, so I got a bowl of cereal and took the paper to read on the patio. To my surprise, there was a Telegraph delivered on the mat and I wondered if the paper shop had suddenly started Sunday deliveries. I picked it up and noted it said in bold letters, "Saturday". I looked at the Times then, and noted it too said "Saturday". I must be getting a little dopey - somehow I was a whole day out. At least we ended up with two crosswords to complete.

Clearing out rubbish

We have started to reduce some of our excess rubbish and unwanted things. As I mentioned in my previous blog, this began last week with a trip to the tip to get rid of the old dishwasher and barbecue, but with Covid it is no longer a straightforward business of just turning up with ones rubbish. We had to make an appointment nearly two weeks ago, and we got a ten minute slot to unload everything. Only one person is allowed out at a time, and we had to wear gloves and a mask, so Ann stayed in the car. With half an ear missing, I have trouble keeping my mask on. I was struggling up the steps with the heavy old barbecue in both hands when the mask suddenly slipped off round my missing lobe, and was hanging from the other ear by its elastic. I had to continue up the steps till I could  dump the barbecue, with my head tilted wildly to the other side hoping the mask would not blow away.

Then at the weekend, I tried to get rid of two of the four old bikes cluttering the garage. I had put them up for sale on Gumtree for £20 each, but had no takers even when I reduced them to £10 each! So I took two of them out to lean against the tree by the road, and made a large notice saying "FREE BIKES" which I glued to stiff cardboard. They both went within the hour, and whoever took them even took my notice, so if I want to try the same with the better of the other two bikes, I'll have to make a new sign. The other bike is quite rusty, so will probably end up at the tip on my next trip.

Our first barbecue of the year

Lucus cooks the barbecue

On Friday, we got to the tip after making an appointment two weeks ago. We had a 10 minute slot, and only I was permitted to get out wearing gloves and a mask. But we finally got rid of the old dishwasher, and our old barbecue which had rusted up. The stores are now very low on barbecues (it is well into the season), but we managed to find a good one in the sale at HomeBase with a double grill to segregate the meat from our vegetarian dishes,  and we finally had our big barbecue yesterday.

Andre takes a turn with the barbecue

I am not permitted to cook them, as I've previously mentioned, since on my only two attempts I poisoned everyone badly, so we can only hold them if we can persuade a visitor to do the cooking. This time, we were fortunate that our visitors were Edwin and Andre, plus two of their friends, Brenda and her husband Lucas, also from Brazil. Lucas used to work with Andre but now works for ARM and is the barbecue expert. He and Brenda moved here in January and rented a house in Cambridge, but were immediately faced with our cold wet winters and lockdown, so they couldn't go out and meet anyone. Even worse, all their furniture was in a container ship unable to dock in the UK, so for over three months they had only a mattress on the floor, two chairs and a small table they'd bought from a local shop. They are quite gregarious, so were glad when they could finally escape the confines of their rooms. 

Brenda holds a degree in law, but is here wanting to learn English, and  hopes to apply to Anglia Ruskin to take a further degree in psychology. In the meantime, she is working as a volunteer in Cambridge, helping it to raise money to protect unwanted animals. They have a dog in Brazil, but have been unable to bring it over yet, and it will have to be quarantined when it arrives, so she was delighted to meet our two animals. After the barbeque, but before desert, they took them for an ultra long walk of one and a half hours. Bronte was exhausted on her return and retired to the bedroom; she wouldn't even come down for a treat!

Edwin, Brenda, Ann, Andre and Lucus

The death of a fly

Ann has an aversion to flies: they're dirty, unpleasant creatures that love to visit the filth before coming in to feast off our food. We bought one of those modern fly killers, an ultraviolet lamp array set behind a grid of high voltage wires, so if one of the devils goes to the light, it should be zapped and fried, but so far not a single fly has fallen for the temptation of basking in the sun. Since becoming vegetarian we have seen far fewer, as they no longer breed on the decaying meat in the bin, but still a few get in from somewhere.  So today on the hottest day of the year, the doors and windows remain firmly closed, Unfortunately, one still got into the kitchen as I was eating lunch. Suddenly, I leapt back in mid-mouthful. Ann had leaned across the table and whacked me hard on the arm with a thick bundle of paper, saying "got it!"  "Yes," I said, "it's lying on the table. It nearly went in my soup!" Ann of course just laughed, thinking it very funny to make me jump while managing to kill a fly at the first blow.

Ann was invited to visit M-A today for a "girlie" afternoon to watch Mama Mia. M-A had four fans blowing to try and keep them cool, but she is does not like entertaining. The food provided was some popcorn, and one of the drinks Ann had taken round for the girls. However, she has been a godsend during the lockdown, bringing shopping and prescriptions and running other errands, so like most people, there are many pluses. 

As with humans, pigeons mate throughout the year and we currently have a breeding pair just outside our kitchen in the forsythia bush. They used to nest in the trees lining our garden, but since their recent desecration (see weird-omens) the birds are nesting where they can, so this one is at eye level just two feet from where we can stand looking at it. We watched as the eggs were incubated and hatched, and now as the chicks grow, for the mother leaves them regularly to feed from seed dropped on the grass by sparrows, clumsily trying to mimic the coal tits on the bird feeders. So today the chicks were looking back at us in record-breaking heat, quite large now and overhanging the nest, wondering if we had food for them.

 

Completing another portrait.

Matthew; acrylic on card

The portrait of Matthew is now finished. He and Rosie are coming over in a couple of weeks, so I will present it to him then. I'm gradually progressing through all the children, and hope to do one of Ben next. He too has said he will come over when Matthew's here to meet up, but I'm not a very fast worker, so not sure if it will get finished before then.

Everyone gets junk email and scam mail, usually from a poor widow in Nigeria who want help in repatriating her dear dead husband's unclaimed millions, but for the first time, I've been sent the same time of scam request, but as a letter. The weird thing was, there have been almost 40 identical letters addressed to me, but each with a different street number, though the name and postcode remained the same. Whoever sent them clearly doesn't appreciate that the houses on our road only go up to number five, and number 4 wasn't built anyway, so the larger number of the addresses on the letters don't even exist. The first batch came yesterday, but today another batch of 14 arrived. The postman just thrust them into Ann's hand and said, "more letters from your mysterious friend!"

I have started to reread my Terry Pratchett books. When we ran the antique shop unit, I bought a whole box full of first editions, some of which were signed and are now of some value. There are a few gaps, but I want to start from the earliest volumes with "The Colour of Magic" which is missing. I have sent for it from Abbe Books. A first edition is hugely expensive,  but even a second hand hard cover is costing about £14, but I like the feel of the large hard backs, so I shall splash out rather than just buy a cheap paperback version.

I have spent the afternoon assembling a new barbeque. The only times I've cooked a barbeque, guests were badly poisoned on both occassions, but the boys are coming over on Saturday with two friends and they will cook this one. I dragged out our old barbeque which has been stored outside for many years but it was very rusty, hence the new one.

A first oil portrait

We continue emerging from lockdown, with a few visits to local pubs, and lunch in a restaurant on our return from Sheringham. We only went in for a soup or a jacket potato, but they had only a fixed-price menu with a choice of 2 or 3 courses. We opted for the 2 courses, sharing starter and desert.

Colin Buckland - oil on canvas

I have completed my picture first oil on canvas portrait of my old friend, Colin. Many mistakes were made, but oils can be very forgiving, and everyone says at least you can recognise who it is. In the eulogy delivered by his son, Tom, he said, "While conducting he was said to be able to bring in the sopranos with his left eyebrow while keeping the lid on the basses by glowering at them with his right – all the while keeping perfect time with his hands." Certainly, Colin's eyebrows were expressive and I wanted to capture them in the portrait, along with his look as though he was smiling at the world from some secret knowledge. I am currently painting a portrait of Matthew, and hope to capture all the children and grandchildren, completing one of Ben next.

We continue to have minor disagreements with our new neighbours. Their new sheds are built very closely to our new boundary fence, and I requested that they ensure the guttering won't overlap our fence. They responded by sending a copy of a land registry map with their property outlined in red, and a strong letter advising that if we had any dispute about where the boundary lay, we should take it up with the land registry office. Now he is working on his shed roof, he looks straight down through our patio window to my chair, so I'm having to keep the curtain closed in the day, or else sit in a different chair, as I am sensitive about being stared at.

Autumnal things seem very early this year. Walking the circuit in Clare behind the Swan, I found ripe blackberries already, and some of the chestnut trees are already browning. The shortening days seem cooler already, though it is not yet August.

Days out under the new normal

Pub grub new normal style

Our first break away post-lockdown saw us heading for Norfolk. Unsure what we'd find, we stopped for lunch at a suitable looking pub just before Fakenham, The Crown, that boasted "meals served now" on the board outside. No lights were on and the front door was locked, but they had set out tables at the rear with marquee covers, and a mobile canteen was set up in the carpark serving nachos and burgers, with orders taken at the table. The waitress, who was also the owner, was doing everything on her own. She took the orders, cooked and served the food, and went into the backdoor of the pub to get the drinks. I guess the rest of her staff were still on furlough, but the whole thing seemed to work very well.

We came to Sherrington without high expectations, and were not disappointed. The town is typical small British seaside, with few redeeming features. In its favour, they are managing the new separation rules well, with clear arrows dictating one-way flow for pedestrian traffic on either pavement, and clearly marked queuing areas for the shops that people seemed to follow fairly well. But those same pavements were crowded, the pubs were bursting, the beach busy. High groins of stone blocks break up the beach so it is difficult to stroll along it, with only occasional steep steps down for access, and we were glad to get away again. Instead, we drove round the coast towards Yarmouth, stopping at a wonderful pub near Hickling Broad for lunch.

The pub itself was not taking diners, but the gardens were quintessentially English, with deep-set varieties of flowers and shrubs round the borders and nooks and alcoves set with hidden tables. It was a hot day, but I'd done another silly - leaving the dog leads in the house after my morning walk with them, so we couldn't bring them into the garden. All we could do was leave the car windows open while having a quick drink and a plate of chips, while drooling over the most tempting menu.

We made up for it in Yarmouth where we headed for our favourite ice-cream van for soft creamy Italian ices. He is there everyday, including the worst winter days, parked on a verge outside the town near the docks. Most day-trippers might not know he was there, yet there was a long queue which moved quickly, and the women behind me told me they drove miles just for this ice-cream, as we did.

Today we visited the shrine at Walsingham. That too is very different. A nun at the door was regulating admissions to one person/couple at a time. Candles cannot be lit there, but the nun offered to light them on our behalf.