days off ahead

Whew thank goodness for a few days off! funny story first though, working away on Monday (A Bank Holiday and a little tedious) when i'm approached by a lady who says "Puff Pastry", I take her along to the butter isle with husband and daughter in tow.  Show them the options and then mention that we also have puff pastry in the freezer section.   "We couldn't see it down there" she says.  I tell her to wait there and i will go and get some to show her the various options.  Trot down there pick up a couple of lumps and note the price go back and give her the details.  "Whats the difference between the frozen one and the unfrozen one! she says.  Dead pan reply, "Well the frozen ones a lot colder"  They all see the funny side of it!

Well tomorrow i must go up and burn off the branches from last years felling I didnt do it the other day as it looked as i it was going to rain almost all day.  Tomorrow is predicted to be fine so I will pop up and raise a fire or 2.

I must take up some bags as well and start filling some for Debs at work.  I decided rather than deliver it she could have a few bags everytime shes at work until she has enough or i run out of spare stuff.

Just another Tuesday

A day off and its looks likely that it might not rain so i will be going up to our "logging camp" later to burn all the cuttings off the trees I felled last year.  I tried a couple of times last autumn but they were still to green.  Once thats done there's only one job to do up there before the winter.  I should really fell a few old hawthorn but i might leave it till next year.  lets just see how the next few weeks of September pan out.

Friendship - - - a strange thing isnt it you put up with peoples ignorance, arrogance, rudeness and downright intolerance of anything other than their own self gratification just to remain friends with them - - - or do you?

Status quo

Very busy day at the shop with usual train of people not finding what they want, 90% are easy just the normal bits and bobs.  The one that took ages was a little old lady not knowing really what she had bought previously.  We (a nice black girl on BWS) finally asked her to bring in the carton and we would try and find her another!!

My friend debs seems to have come back to earth having completely lost the plot the yesterday.  Not sure whats going on but hey ho if you cant shout at your mates who can you shout at.

Our wonderful friend Sharon living in Canada is getting all excited at her imminent visit.  They (Canadians) dont seem to have pubs as meeting places like we do and i think its one of the things she misses most.  Well we can ensure she will see a few when she comes.

Sally is off to see her Big sister on Sunday as well as her uncle Peter and Heather who are over from Spain where they live.  I don't really communicate with  Peter much now as he once called me a "stupid idiot" when i suggested a few years ago woman were serving with front line units and were "to be" in the front line on future conflicts.  hey ho pillock!!

So a busy day ahead in the fun factory!!

Onwards and upwards

Fickle females! and all that

The cramp in my right leg seems to have sorted itself out after a day at work so I'm hoping it does not return.

Rather a strange encounter with my friend Debs at work today. In the blog of yesterday I mentioned not being able to see her facebook page, still not sure whats happening.

I noticed she looked a little tired and later rather angry when I approached her and mentioned this she said nothing was wrong. I said "are you sure?", in return I was told "Don't you start today!"  It seems to confirm then my thought that she has failed her Module 1 bike test again. lol.

I can understand the anger bit but I'm totally bemused by the facebook bit During the to-ing and fro-ing of the day we bumped into each other a number of times and from her stony demeanour something is wrong - - - I wonder?

Must get the guttering fitted to the new porch as the water coming off it wet all the steps this morning - - - ever practical!

Final day off before back to work

I bought all the items to do the porch yesterday and started the job rather than paint the front porch as rain was forecasted.  I only need to put the roof on to finish the job today.

I must clean the filter sponges in the pond filter today as the water is a little murky, its almost time to hoover out all the gunge from the bottom before autumn gets firmly set in.

I'm a little concerned about my friend Debs from work, I think she took her Module 1 bike test again yesterday and have not had any news from her as to the result so can only think its not a pass.  Also her facebook page was not accessible yesterday I could see her profile picture but nothing else. no doubt all will be revealed at work tomorrow.

I have a very strange pain in my right leg this morning.  I woke up in the night with a cramp in the inside of my thigh on my left leg.  That cleared ok but the right leg then cramped in the same area.  It then was painful as if it was about to cramp all the time.  At the moment i have a heat pad on the site of the pain but its not helping at all.  I will try mobilising it and hope it eases off.

Prepare for Autumn

There are a number of DIY jobs that I like to get done in the summer before the wet autumn weather arrives.  This mainly consists of painting the wooden window frame to the kitchen and the wooden porch at the front of the house.  Both look in good condition until you start poking at them and realise that there's a bit of rotted wood here and there.
The kitchen window frame job has been completed with only minor repairs required and the porch will get done hopefully tomorrow if the rain holds off.
A new project is to replace the cover over the steps leading to the back door.  I had erected a polycarbon sheet some years ago but the design and efficiency was restricted by 2 windows in the next cottage.  These have been bricked up by the current owner so its time to make a more permanent structure.
There is a need to make it a stronger structure due to the incredible amount of snow we had in one period last year.  I fully expected it to collapse and hurried to add a couple of props to stop it doing so.

The cover is just below the small window in the picture and in danger of feeling the full force of the snow about to fall from the roof.
So I'm off today to get the wood that will form the frame and will start the job on my next week off.

2011-08-19 Snowden Horseshoe

I completed the Snowden Horseshoe on the 19th and what a cracking walk.  I managed to start at 0500 so didnt see a soul until I was the quarters round it.  The start is up the Pyg track as if you are going all the way to the summit.  You then swing off the main track and go up onto Crib Goch which has the grade 1 scramble shown in the following pic.

The sun had just come up and I got some good pics of the edge and the route in front right up to Snowden summit.
The second half of the walk was spoiled a little by my own stupidy.  In the thick mist that had enveloped Snowden Summit I came off the summit in the right direction but made a directional error going down the scree that is the top of the Watkin Path.  This error wasted at least 20 minutes and meant I climbed more than was necessary to regain the correct route.  I intend to go back in a few weeks and try it again.

All in all though a fantastic walk with really good weather on the first half.  I am having a go at the Welsh 15 next year with some of the group that completed the 3 Peaks this June.  This walk is the 3rd of the 3 day challenge!!

The link below will take anyone to the picassa web album of the trip.
https://picasaweb.google.com/hakuraman/20110819SnowdenHorseshoe?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCM-ulJrf34uMwAE&feat=directlink

To The Hills!!

I shall be driving over to the Llanberis pass this evening in preparation for a 5:00am start on the Snowden Horseshoe tomorrow morning. So a bit of packing up the truck to sleep in and getting all the gear ready, reading the various route descriptions on the net and charging up the cameras.

The weeks shifts in the shop were ok and I noticed that there were quite a number of Londoners around.  I talked to a lady yesterday who had the family in tow asking for pancakes which unfortunately we don't stock at the moment.  She was waxing lyrical at how the local Fish and Chip shop had absolutely no idea what a Savaloy was and how plentiful they were ddaan saaf.  One of her children then interrupted and said "do you have toilets here?" I smiled and said no we just do it in the river!  much sniggering from the whole family!!

Met a couple of old gremlins from the past this week not a completely enjoyable experience but a walk across kinder sent them back to their lair.  The heather is in flower and looks magnificent just now.  The little white squares are Bee Hives placed especially so the Bees get the nectar and taste of the heather flowers.

I had a look at the new re-cycling facility Wednesday and it wasn't too busy i guess the weekend will be the tester for how busy it can get.  I'm intending to try it this morning just to see what you can dump/recycle.

Deborah bless her has been keeping me up to speed on what she, the 2 children and parents have been up to in Whitby.  She has sent a couple of pics and in 1 on Tuesday she looked quite tired.  They are all back home Saturday and no doubt she will be washing and ironing for a couple of days to get over the holiday!  Must take her out for a Chatsworth garden picnic before it gets too cold.  She's taking her Motorcycle Module 1 test again next week, fingers crossed even harder this time.

We are off to Saltburn by The Sea on Saturday to visit Sally's ex for a birthday barbecue should be a hoot from some of the stories she tells of past events.  Pics next week!

Just feeding the wild birds at the top of the garden and noticed how cool it is this morning, there are also some plums and apples on the ground.  Is Autumn just around the corner?

Ok, To horse and get on with the chores!

Sunday "a day of rest"

A really busy day in the yesterday shop was begun with a thing we call the "count".  The hand held computer instructs each department to "count" so many items every morning.  It seems the number is determined by how good the departments admin is before the count is generated.  Normally there's between 6 and 20 in the shop and half that amount in the warehouse. I normally check first thing how many there are so i can determine when to do the count as it has to be completed by 0930.  So I looked yesterday morning and it was 50 in the shop and 25 in the warehouse!  hey ho took me forever and then you have the knock on effect of trying to catch up all your shift.

Here's hoping it wont be a big one today -  - - .  We seem to have adopted a pigeon around the back of the terrace.  It appeared about 5 days ago and its a racing pigeon with 2 rings on.  I shooed it away so that Tom (the cat) wouldn't get it only to be told by our next door neighbour that he had been feeding it.   It followed him into number 1 into which he's fitting a kitchen.  He locked it in overnight only to find it made a mess everywhere to repay his kindness.  It was wandering around yesterday evening as we sat by the fish pond having a sundowner and even Tom has started to ignore it.  If poor old Grumpy was still with us it would have been dinner on its first day in residence!

Deborah is away in Whitby and having a good time as described in a flurry of texts yesterday, all excited at seeing a fly past by a spitfire and hurricane, and looking forward today to seeing the Red Arrows at 3 this afternoon.   I shall rib her by text about entering a fun run that's scheduled for 10 this morning.  She was off to bed by 9.30 last night so the sea air and itinerary of yesterday wore her out!

So off to the fun factory!
1730 Ooooops red arrows tomorrow not today

Back to the fun factory

Ok back to work today and i'm starting half an hour earlier than usual as a trial.  My first job is putting out the bread and one bakery used to deliver around 10:30 so there was no point in starting before 7:00.  Now the 3 bakeries deliver early so for a week i'm starting at 6:30.

The weather seems to have turned into its pre Autumn stage with a bout of persistent rain, hey ho good for the garden

The sciatic nerve problem in my right leg seems to be subsiding, i have been stretching it and it just calmed down yesterday afternoon.  A good test will be work today.  Here's hoping it will be completely gone before my Snowden Horseshoe attempt in 1 weeks time.

My friend Deborah from work failed her Module 1 motorbike test yesterday.  After an initial text expressing her dissatisfaction she went to ground all day only putting a couple of comments on facebook (but not about the test) in the evening.  She's off to the coast for a week with the kids so will have time to get over it.

And so on to Tuesday

I managed to get the damaged garden wall put back together yesterday and increase the height a little.  So i just need to get some top soil from the top of the garden to fill in the extra space that has been created.

There's a bit of shopping to do, when I can also check if my colleague Julie is back at work after her weeks sick, wonder what was wrong.
I will pop up to the logging site and cover up the pile of wood I mentioned yesterday and try to make time to go for a training walk this afternoon.

Its only a matter of 10 days before I have a go at The Snowden Horseshoe, and I have been having a slight problem with the sciatic nerve in my right leg.  Here's hoping i can walk off the problem rather than aggravate it.

My friend Deborah has her Module 1 motorcycle test tomorrow and is very nervous at present.  Lets hope there's a happy outcome as she's cant wait to get a motorbike.












1400 log pile covered now for the walk.

1700 a 2 hour round trip up to the stone circle known as 9 ladies leaves my leg rather much the same as it was.  Must keep stretching as I think thats the answer rather then resting it

Recycling! the possibilities are endless

It seems like years ago and it probably is that there was a hint of a recycling centre being built just up the road from us.  "Never happen, to close to the Peak Park" was the first thing that people thought.  However, close as it is, only 40ft from the Park boundary it opens on Friday 12th August.

So all the cymbal bashing and nimby's protests have been put down, the local flora and fauna howls of protest have been calmed with a pond for the frogs and piles of the trees they cut down for the bugs to live in.  A group of  council officials can tick a box or 2 to prove they are allowing us to contribute to "saving the world".

I shall sleep more soundly & secure knowing this.

Monday monday

Quite a good weekend even though on Sally's return from the "works do" she had to have a bit of a sleep.  Gone are the days when she could party all night and then carry on as if etc etc.  Sunday was nice easy day and we met our friends at the Church pub where on the first Sunday in the month you can even get a haircut for £5.

Here I Am "In the hot seat" Our friend Lisa has been doing this for along time now and hopes to continue with the new tenants.  They hve already got rid of the pool table and are having the kitchen re-furbed this week so it looks as if they might start doing food on a permanent basis.  Time will tell.

I had an e mail from Matthew at Travis Perkins where I was trying to get a spare for our kitchen monobloc tap.  It seems I can get the bit i need from the manufacturers and he even sent me their telephone number.  Customer service or what!

The weather is a bit hit and miss today but I have managed to weed our bottom terrace and had to remove a well established thorn bush which was cracking the wall.  I will need to build up the wall again to repair it.  Strange how a 30 minute weeding session will finish up being a half day job!

Time to put a cover on our wood pile so i reckon that will be this afternoons job as long as the rain holds off.
1300hrs a light rain is falling and tomorrow is forecasted to be better so I will leave covering the wood until then .

Dull Saturday

Bit of a dull old start to today, brightened by some bizarre texts left by Sally obviously after her evening at the works do!

Had to have a go at the sink in the bathroom yesterday as one of the large screws that anchor it to the wall seemed to have come loose.  Just thought it would be a case of tightening it up but finished up with the whole thing off the wall and thoughts of having to fill in the hole and re drill the thing.  John from next door came to the rescue with an extra long bolt which did the job with a bit of plastic water pipe as a washer.

I must nip over to Wicks this morning and get a replacement tap bit for the kitchen sink as its developed a leak dripping from the cold tap.  From looking at the net some of the replacements parts cost nearly as much as the taps do!

The tap thing is more complicated than first thought as there are a myriad of sizes and combinations.  The manager at Travis Perkins who actually own Wickes is trying to source the bits i need.

The steam railway buffs over the road have been having a 1940's themed period and this wonderful Spitfire came beating up the event earlier

Blustery Friday

Quite warm this morning but with some serious low cloud and a breezy north wind.

I had a good walk yesterday although I'm having a few problems with a pulling hamstring in my right leg.  It all started to tighten up while i was at work the other day and I failed to stretch it and am now suffering the consequences.  Hope its all sorted for my Snowden Horseshoe attempt in 2 weeks time!

This pic is of the tranquil river Derwent yesterday just across from the house

This one is on the way back on the walk and is looking west towards Bakewell from the fields above Rowsley. If you click on this image you can see the traffic on the A6 streaming along to the Bakewell show.

Sally's off to the works do today hope it all go's well.  I'm on a lunch date with one of the girls from work, Deborah a charming challenge as most women are! no such thing as a free lunch so I'm hoping she enjoys a walk from the car park to the hunting tower in Chatsworth before hand.

Update 8:00pm A sunny afternoon topped off with a short walk in Chatsworth with my lunch date Deborah we sank a bottle of red up at the Shooting Tower before having lunch at the Sprout & Carrot.  The pic is of Debs sending her sister a pic of her drinking the wine while her sister is hard at work!!!

A nice afternoon with nice company!

Thursday at last

Its been a hot set of shifts down at the old shop but i'm not complaining.  We have been promised rain every day this week but it has always just missed us, none more spectacularly than yesterday.  I was sitting in the garden watching the world go by about 1600 and could see the developing rain away to the north west and west.  It must have been 2030 by the time a set of clouds rolled past away to the north with lightning and lots of thunder.  However having gone to bed with the hope of a soaking today dawns with a heavy dew some mist in the valley but still dry. having said that i have just been outside and a few drops of rain have fallen!

Some development at the shop with one of the old dears on the check outs dying.   She apparently fell and broke her hip and in the convalescing it was realised she had breast cancer.  A week later she died.  The shop has these "themed" days quite often where the idea is for the staff to dress up and the old girl always threw herself into these days with much gusto.  One of her more memorable costumes was as a pearly queen and there's a touching memorial picture of her on our notice board.

Sally is abandoning me tomorrow to go to her works do at the "Belfry".  Its always quite a big do as they (CCSMedia) have offices over the country  and this is obviously the annual get together.

We had a skype video conversation with our friend Sharon in Canada yesterday Temperatures in the 30+s over there just not comfortable at all.  Shes looking forward to coming over here in September it will be nice to see her again.

Right then today i must finish off my scribbled list of jobs from last week and go for a walk hopefully in the cooling rain.  I will post a pic or 2 later......