YnysMon

That’s very good news! Good for the village!

Well, I obviously touched a point of mutual concern. Very envious of you guys who cut your own hair. Mine has got to the point where I can’t see what I’m doing when on the allotment, or when it’s breezy. (like today) Tried wearing a cap but my hair is so mad that my cap keeps falling off. Like Jean (SwanR) my hair doesn’t grow gracefully downward but outwards. Have nicked Graham’s buff and made a beanie of it. I know I look really silly in it, but at least I can see where I’m going!

The Secret Gardens at How Hill must be coming up to their best just now, approached through the bluebell wood and stashed with so many rhododendrons and azelias. Wish I could visit.

Just watched this vlog from a couple of narrow boat live aboards in lockdown. They are fortunate enough to have moored at a point where couple of moorhens are constructing a nest on the opposite bank. Love the little clip of one of the moorhens bringing back home a super large piece of reed. The moorhens bit is a little way in, the first part of the vlog dedicated to their attempts to keep dogs from jumping onto their boat. How outrageous! Fancy allowing your dog to jump onto someone’s home!

Thanks Jean, much appreciated, just what’s needed just now when we can’t get to the Broads. Part 3 brought back happy memories for me, especially the clip of the Hunter’s boats along the St Benet’s stretch and the on where view is from the bank side below Burgh Castle. I still think that clip of the line of boats behaving themselves behind a BA launch is hilarious. Last time I was at that spot was the day of storm Ciara, with the wind doing its best to flatten the reeds. February now seems a very long time ago. A different world.

Hmm, I think I've made a mistake in sowing beans so early as they are growing super fast and I'm not supposed to plant them out until after the risk of frost has passed (mid-May). This is what they look like this morning...(just compare them with the second photo I posted yesterday!). Beans (half French beans half runner beans). Oh dear!

There you go again! Lie in...5.45? My Sunday morning lie in is more like 8, but then I wasn’t a commuter before lockdown. I did communte into central London for a couple of years in the 80s when I worked for BR, but as I worked shifts I never got into a routine. It’s not fun catching a train just after 5am to get into work, but the job was an interesting one. I was working in the international ticket office at Victoria Station. A great job interacting daily with people of all different nationalities. Loved the job, absolute hated commuting. Travelling back late evening after my shift ended at 10pm wasn’t nice either. I felt very vulnerable as there would be hardly anyone left on train from Euston by the time it got to MK.

Mudweighted in the middle of the outer South Walsham Broad shortly after a spectacular thunderstorm with wonderful double rainbow to follow. I’m nostalgic for mudweighting...can’t do that with a collie on board (not without a dinghy anyway).

Anyone else fed up with the state of their hair, now that we can’t get a hair cut? I’m not someone that loves going to the hairdresser/being pampered (in fact I hate all that) but my hair is really getting out of hand. I usually like my hair short in the spring /summer. Just wish I’d had a hair cut before lockdown. It’s starting to flop over my eyes. Graham has offered to give me a ‘buzz cut’...somehow that doesn’t sound that inviting.

Wow, Grendel having a lazy day. Mind boggles! I’m not being sarcastic or anything, I just don’t know how Grendel packs in so much, and still manages to keep up with the shenanigans on the forum.

Hi Sue, I keep thinking how difficult it must be just now for people who live in flats with no outside space of their own. Must be awful.

I also sowed some seed mid-March. The peas were ready to plant out earlier this week. I have two types, 'Boddington's Tall Soup Pea', the row at the back, and the row at the front are 'Golden Sweet' Mangetout. The soup pea is supposed to grow to about 6', so they should grow pretty quickly.

This is the first year that I've sown so many different types of seed, and now that they are starting to sprout I'm finding it quite exciting to see how they are developing day by day, so I thought I'd share some piccies. This lot on my windowsill were sown Easter day. Sweetcorn, beans, various squashes etc. Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app

Hard won rights? Yes, that’s for another time. Just read what Jay posted. We are not talking about rights but people’s lives. For goodness sake!

I’m just glad they’ve clarified that working on an allotment is okay. I’ve been spending rather a lot of time on ours and feeling vaguely guilty about it, even though it’s a brilliant place to ensure social distancing. We do see neighbouring plot holders but we each maintain plenty of distance, and there’s no queuing up for the water point. Transplanted some seedlings this morning too. Celeriac in the foreground (absolutely weeny seedlings...really fiddly) and parsley to the rear.

Well, good news for us today. Cottages.com have confirmed that we have successfully postponed our annual ‘cousins holiday’ from 8th May this year to 14th May next year. That’s a relief. I know in the larger scale of things that booked holidays aren’t important, but having already paid quite a bit for our holiday (a rather nice four bedroom thatched cottage) it was a concern for us and we feel we are very lucky to have had such a good outcome. It will also work out better for me and Graham as, had the lockdown not occurred, we were anticipating having to cut short our allocated Moonlight Shadow 2019 May holiday, which was due to start the first Saturday in May to get to Minehead for the following Friday (we had booked the cottage holiday before joining the syndicate, so the allocated weeks didn’t quite work out for us). I’m not yet counting my chickens though. Got to get through this Covid thing first. We all need luck with that.

Green waste collection stopped in MK last week. I was a bit shocked on Easter Monday to hear the bin lorry in the neighbouring street. Caught on the hop, we had a bit of a rush to get our rubbish out.

Hi Paul. Hope Breydon will be okay, and also you and the rest of your family.

My Mam worked for British Rail/Sealink (well, so did I for a while) and she used to say something similar (she said that some of her colleagues were busy killing the golden egg). With BR I found there were some really lazy managers, and there were some people below them who were just exploiting that. But, on the other hand I worked with a lot of people ‘on the coal face’ that loved the industry and gave it their all. I believe that British Rail in the early 80s was still a fairly caring organisation. When I left Uni and was struggling to find work I got offered a temporary job and so did a friend of mine, at a time when there weren’t that many jobs available (Holyhead got badged the most economically depressed place in the UK). The common thread is that both of us had lost our Dads when we were children through industrial accidents with BR. Nowadays, equal opps would rule out that type of preferment. Incidentally, that’s how we ended up in Milton Keynes. Graham got a teaching job in Bletchley, having looked for jobs near the railway network, so that I could apply for transfer. For the first few years of our marriage I worked in Bletchley Station ticket office.

I should have added that Alec decided on the old fashioned way of making a cake. It’s just as well that he’s always struggled to decide whether he’s left or right handed. Comes in handy when doing that much cake mix beating. I had also planned to roast a leg of lamb for this evening, but Alec has a regular DnD (I know it’s a game of sorts) fixture with his Uni friends on Monday evenings so the lamb has been put off until tomorrow. I’m cool with that. Have enjoyed a fairly chilled day today (it was chilly too...outside), having totally overdone things on the allotment Saturday and Sunday, compounded with trying to do too much cooking. Yesterday evening I felt totally exhausted. Stupidly combined lots of allotmenteering on Saturday with doing a ‘real’ pizza (dough, pizza sauce from scratch). Yesterday morning I helped Graham cut down tree branches that were shading our plot (it needed careful planning and judicious use of ropes to prevent the timber from falling onto our neighbour’s plot), then we had a lunchtime BBQ, followed by loads of seed sowing in modules/seed trays, and later a steak supper to celebrate Alec’s birthday. Phew! Its nice to feel we’ve achieved quite a lot over the weekend, though we now have a lot of felled timber to cut up.

Assembled cake! Icing is a bit runny, but hey ho.

Spent a pleasant time this afternoon teaching my younger son (not that young...27 yesterday) how to make a Victoria Sponge. He was given a choice of doing it the modern way (all in one in a mixer) or the old fashioned way (a bowl, wooden spoon and elbow grease, and done step by step...cream the marg and sugar etc.). His Dad likes Bakewell Tart, so we added almond essence. The cakes are now cooling...seem to have risen okay. To be filled with cherry jam once cooled and the top lightly iced. Yum!

I always look forward to our next trip. I start out by checking the tides and then plan out several ‘tours’. Actually, we hardly ever stick to any of my plans. I just get endless fun beforehand imagining where we might visit. It also gives me a good sense of what the tides are doing. Hope June works out for you. I’ve given up hope for our early May allocation. Strangely reconciled to it now though.

Thanks!

When we drove down to Bournemouth last Saturday to pick up our Alec from Uni Graham insisted on putting our Satnav on to warn us of potential hold ups. Given how quiet the M1 was I queried why he thought it would be necessary. Apparently, just the day before a few lanes had been closed due to a pile up. I’m pretty sure that drivers either think they can now treat the motorway like a race track or just think they can relax and be less vigilant. There were a couple instances where cars whizzed at speed passing us on an outside lane only the cut across suddenly in front to get off the road/motorway to a parking bay/services. Why? Other than us there was hardly any traffic. Mad!