Friday 9th August 2013

Thursday evening after picking up Jools, we head home to feed the cats and then head back out up to Foxhill Down to hunt for Chalkhill Blues. Now, once upon a time, every time we saw a blue butterfly, we would think it was a Chalkhill, and then we began to look into things and it seems there is more than one sort of Blue. In fact there are lots. Some Blues in fact appear as browns, some Blues are green. Some Browns are white too.



So, Chalkhills like to live on chalk downlands. Now, just to confuse locals, what we call downs are in fact hills. It does not confuse the Chalkhills, they just live on the hills flittering about. And near the white cliffs, there are very fine chalk downlands. The easiest way to get to them, is the park at the NT’s place and walk up. Despite it feeling like a still day, there was a brezze blowing up on the down, but it was easy enough to find spots out of the wind, and there Chalkhills were everywhere, either settled on plants feeding on nectar or flying inbetween.



In the end, the best way to snap them was to get down on my belly and kind of crawl up to them. In this way I got very close to a couple of Blues, and they seemed happy enough.



Back home and time for dinner: I had already made a huge pan of pasta salad, enough it seems for everone on the street. Anyway, the badgers will probably eat it. Probably. And then I prepared and cooked pan fried breaded aubergine. And very nice it was too; one of my favourite meals and one that is just as good cold the next day as it was the day it was made. Which is just as well, really…..

And Scotland is pregnant and expecting its first panda baby. Probably, which means a good time to post his from Who Dares Wins.



They'd better be careful with a baby Panda in scotland, if its seen, it'll be battered and fried!

Thursday 8th August 2013

So, I decided that I feel little better having spent the last two days around the house with my feet up, I may as well go to work today. And so I did. Although it was tough getting up and running this morning. But, I dropped Jools off and then headed to Ramsgate.

I have drugs and can get up every hour for a walk round. And I suppose things are no worse.

From time to time, it is good to look back to see how far you’ve come, as it can seem that we haven’t travelled at all. I say this because one sunny afternoon four years ago, Norwich (yes, its about football) played their first game for forty nine years in the 3rd division. The day has long passed into legend as being the very lowest point of our journey from our relegation in 2005 from the Prem to our return two years ago. Losing 7-1 to Colchester was as loud a wake up call as a club gets, and credit to them, they acted. I do wonder what would have happened had we lost just 3-1; would change have happened? It’s a moot point I know, but on such things tides and fortunes change. Here’s what I wrote at the time:

Before the game:

Tomorrow, no tonight, sees the beginning of the new football season; with each fan full of renewed hope for the year ahead. For most of us, that hope will quickly fade, as money will be what counts and which players that money can buy.

What this does mean for sure, is this is the beginning of 22 months of almost continuous football, with next summer being the world cup in South Africa with the new season beginning almost as that finishes.

So, draw a deep breath and cease firing, we're going in.

As for my team, we begin a season in the third tier of the league ladder for the first time in 50 years; some seem to think we're favourites to go up. I wish I were as confidant of that.

Anyway, Norwich has 12 new players and what should be a straightforward season, and maybe one of many victories and a promotion party to look forward to.

Here's hoping.

And after:

And so the football season began, and like all fans I was full of unbridled enthusiasm. At least for 40 minutes.

We were driving back from Dover station, I turned on the radio to hear the scores, near half time as it was. Only to find that my team, the 5 year ago premiership team, Norwich City, and found out they were 5-0 down to the not so mighty Colchester United.

It got worse!

It finished 7-1; at least we scored. So the 12 players we brought in over the summer either all got stage fright or were all rubbish.

It's going to be a long, long season.

The rest, as they say, is history. Paul Lambert joined six days later as manager, and by Christmas we were top of the league. Promoted on a hot sunny day in April in Charlton. Promoted again at Fratton Park a year later whilst I was on holiday in Germany, and for the last two seasons, survival in the Premier League. Last year things were not so peachy as a 12th finish seems to suggest: with two games to go, I was certain we would go down, but two wins and instead of relegation mid-table security. It is a funny old game, eh Greavsie?

As for this season: anything could happen, and probably will. I’m hoping for something like 12th and maybe ten points clear of the relegation zone.

Wednesday 7th August 2013

It would seem that there was more to my achy breaky leg last week ore than a couple of falls. What I mean is, the falls might have both been accidental, the pain I felt in my left shin was not imagined. On Monday the swelling in my leg that I had been putting down to hot weather and the reddening of said shin were both so bad I could barely get on a shoe and not stop itching.

So, I decided to book an appointment with the doctor and see what was happening. So, I struggled through the day, getting up every hour for walks, and that really didn't work in stopping the swelling.

So, I drove to St Margaret's to the surgery, and waited for my appointment. I saw the locum, and she took one look at leg and ankle and said that I had two things: something like celulitus and an infection. I was prescribed two lts of pills, and bed rest as my ankle needs to be raised. So, no work for a couple of days at least, and stuck at home.

So, for the past two days I have been home, laying in bed or on the sofa. I have caught up on my reading, watched some old Time Team episodes. The swelling seems to be less today, but the infection is still raging and my leg feels like it is running a high temperature. So that is my life right now. I will see in the morning if things are better, if not I will have to go to A&E for a closer look at what is going on.

More to follow....

Monday 5th July 2013

I guess that Sunday could best be described as a very low profile kind of day. In the world of cats, Bowie has threatened and scared ur three resident moggies off, to the extent they don’t much come into the house. Mulder does, but then nothing fazes him. Molly on the other had had not been seen for three days, and Jools said she wanted to stay around the house in case he came back.



After breakfast, I put on my walking shoes and headed out to see what could be seen in our neighbourhood. My main aim was butterflies, as now summer has kicked in there has been a mass hatching and the air is full of them. So, along the lane in the glade, there were dozens of Painted Ladies, Large Whites, Peacocks, Small and Essex Skippers: so I went around trying to get shots. I got two fine shots of the Painted Ladies, and a half good one of a peacock, so thought I could stop by and get some more on the way home.



Down the lane to the spot of last weekend’s ‘accident’ and all mud has now been replaced by dust, and no chance of falling down. From here I saw a combine harvester working away, so I set off hoping to get some shots. Sure enough, Made my way up the other side of the valley, along the cycle path and to the huge field which stretched from there to the cliffs. A single harvester was making short work of the field of wheat, and after waiting for ten minutes waiting for it to come over the brow of a hill, I found the driver had taken a short cut and was back over the other side of the field.



I waited for that row to be completed, and he turned back towards me, and so I got the head on shot I wanted with the sea in the background. I walked up to ‘butterfly alley’ to see what was about: Meadow Browns, Ringlets and more Large Whites, and a couple of Peacocks that allowed me to get close and so snap them.

I had been out for over two hours, and so passed on the chance to go to the cliffs and turned for home, only for me to be waylaid by a couple of walkers with whom I stuck up conversations with, thus further delaying my return home. I did make it at half twelve, and a quick lunch of olive bread with fig preserve washed down by a huge mug of tea quickly followed.

No sign of Molly by afternoon, and so Jools went out whilst I stayed on watch and did some chores around the house. She did turn up for dinner at five but was gone again. We made her welcome, stroked her, but clearly she does not want to share a house with Bowie. A thought we are beginning to share.

And so another weekend flies by and the working week beckons…..

Sunday 4th August 2013

Saturday.

For some reason I was awake at half four in the morning, so after laying in bed listening to the blackbird outside the window sounding so happy about things, I got up, went downstairs and made a pot of coffee and went online to see what was happening in the world. usual stuff as it happens, and the start of a new football season. In the Football League at least, the 125th anniversary of the fist games back in 1888. The Premier League still has two weeks before it starts, so the 'big' clubs can play meaningless friendlies all round the world so to further their 'brand image.'

At half seven we head to Tesco, and sweep round the aisles as quick as we can so we can get the heck out of there as quick as we can again.

We did buy croissants, so breakfast was more fresh coffee in which to dunk said croissants. It's the French way, or at least our french friend's way....

Jools had a beading cass in Folkestone at 11, so we head off at just gone ten, and I drops her off outside the gaff and then have 90 minutes to kill before the main course of the day. I head up to Folkestone Downs, because:

1. I like it up there

2. It overlooks the tunnel

3. Its a butterfly rich site

Only on Saturday the wind did blow. Off the sea. And up the down. To the extent it was like sitting in a wind tunnel. No butterflies, and only a few brave bees out trying to gather pollon. So, I make do with looking at the coings and goings in the terminal below, and to watch a Kestral flying hither and thither searching for food, hovering over some unsuspecting bunny and dropping on it like a stone.



I headed back to the car, and then down to the harbour to see if there was anything happening. People going into the sea to swim was about the most of it, so I took a few shots of the water lift and head back to pick Jools up.



We then head off for Ebbsfleet station to pick up another Flickr contact, as I had said we would take him to see the fort at Grain. Grain is a place in Kent. As is Bridge. As is River. I don't make these things up you know. Anyway, Grain is on the Isle of Grain, right on the Thames estuary, and is an odd place. It had a huge container port, gas storage facilities, a power station, and a large tower some half a mile of the shore, which at low tide you can walk to across the mud flats.



We arrive at the station and Andy was already there, so after shaking hands and introducing him to Jools we set off. Now despite this being the first time we had all met, we knew quite a lot about each other through our shots, which I guess is the modern way.

In Grain we stop off at a pub for a drink, and we are given the stranger's stare as we walk in, but we are left along and their 40th birthday party continued.

We drove down the High Street and found a space in the car park near what was signposted as the seafront, but in reality was the seawall. anyway, good enough for us.

So, we walk half a mile to the beginning of the causeway, and we ask do we want to do this? I had chacked the tides and we were there dead on low tide. So we set out. Mud had covered a lot of the causeway, and we walked out keeping our eye straight ahead knowing that the causeway was under the mud. except where the tide had washed some bricks away. I tirned round to see jools knee deep in mud. It did not look good. Turned out she though the mud look firm enough to walk on and as it had begun to dry out.

She managed to walk one pace, get her shoe from the mud. Walk another step and get her other shoe, then walk with quick steps to the causeway. She had mud to her knees and elbow. Oh dear. I walked with her back to the shore and she tried to clean up, and i then went to join Andy and a few locals who had walked out. I got nearly to the tower, through the mud, over the bits where five feet of causeway was missing. And I got to the point where my feet we soaked, mud to my ankles, and I thought, I don't need to go any further.

So, I turned back and went to join Jools on the sea wall, taking in the scene and chatting to folks who walked past. It was nice enough. Andy came back in due course, he had climbed the fort almost to the top, and he has great shots, but I am happy with my decision to turn back.

We dropped andy back off at the station and then headed back down the A2 to Dover. It was beer and pizza for dinner. Quick and great.

Top day again.

Friday August 2nd 2013

Thursday evening, we decided the gooseberries in our garden were ready for picking, and so I said i would do the prickly task of picking them. I put on my slippers, got a bowl and by the time i had cleared half the bush I thought there was enough for a crumble for the two of us.

I am not sure what happened next, but as I stepped fro the garden onto the patio, I did not have ful balance, and I felt myself falling. Faling sideways onto the rows of raspberry canes, over the rockery and onto the ground. Laying there, waiting for my legs to report in, it became clear that I had caught the same leg I hurt on Sunday whith the mud incident. Ow, that smarts.

I managed to get up, hobble to the chair on the patio and raise my leg. First thoughts were whether there was some underlying reason for the two fals and if it was signs of something more serious. I don't think so. But the swelling on my left leg that had gone down, came back with avengance by bedtime, and I could hardly walk.

Friday, my only options were to either walk on it, or lay in bed with the leg raised on a tower of pillows. Sitting at the table or a desk for work was out of the questions. i took drugs and waited for something to happen. At times my leg has felt like an over-inflated balloon, sometimes near normal. I guess it is a combination of the heat and the two falls that have done it.

What I do know is that I have suffered with slight swelling this summer, especially when i sit for long periods. Which is most work days if I'm honest. So, I have to get up every hour to walk for five minutes. What does do it good is regular exercise, which means that working out on the cross trainer is more iportant than ever, and I have done three sessions this week. Last night after about nine minutes I could feel the pressure in my foot dropping and something akin to normality returning.

I guess it shows that none of us are getting younger, and we have to take our health ever more seriously. So, less booze and more exercise for me from now on I think. Lets see how a fairly active weekend makes things....

On the upside, the gooseberry crumble was wonderful.....

Wednesday 31st July 2013

Tuesday.

And settling back into the old routine of working at Ramsgate. Always amazed at the dreadful state of the driving abilities of drivers round here. It is always a relief to turn down the road to the harbour, as there are no ferries running from Ramsgate now, I am usually on the road on my own.

Anyway, so work goes on.

At the end of day, I went back to dover, picked up Jools and whilst she got ready for yoga, I got ready and went back on the cross trainer. I selected a good choice of music and drew a big deep breath and climbed on. Phew. The first session over, I could head outside to cool down, sorrounded by various cats to draw breath, and get ready for Jools' return laden, as she would be, with fish and chips.

Wednesday.

Today marked the start of the new phase in my working life. I can't go into too many details about the meeting, as it has commercial implications, but the huge responsibilities I will be taking on came home into the vast empty spaces between my ears. Oh yes, it is big, expensive and scary. And I am in charge. Be scared. Very scared.

After work, I went to pick up Jools from work and then we went to the National Trust's place on the white cliffs to look for some Chalkhill Blues. We dodged the French and Belgian tourists who were getting to grips with the narrow parking spaces, we headed to the top car park, and set out for butterflies.



We did see many fying about, and in the breeze and weak sunshine, many were sunning themselves, almost perfect conditions to snap butterflies. So, I got my shots, although there were none mating. It was good to get shots of them from all angles.



We went back home, and then, I girded my loins and went on the cross trainer again. Another session, this one much hotter than the day before. But, I did it, and went back outside to cool down again, although in the weak sunshine it wasn't that cool.

I spent the evening writing the Kentish churches we have visited over the past four years into a notebook, as we have now done so many, future visits will have to be planned like a military operation, although with less collateral damage one hopes.

See you next month.....