An Anniversary

A year ago today (14 March 2020), I stepped out of Bertie's door just across the road from the beach at Castellón and set out for a run with every expectation that when I returned, and after we'd had breakfast, we would tootle up the coast to Peñiscola and book into a campsite. We had decided that a campsite would be a good place to be whilst we observed what the next development would be with this virus that was sweeping across the world.

Things developed in Spain with remarkable rapidity, and by the time we pulled out of Bertie's parking spot after breakfast it wasn't towards Peñiscola that we headed, but to the UK. As we drove across Spain the country announced a strict lockdown. We reached France that day and by the time we boarded our Eurotunnel shuttle on the Tuesday morning, the start of their own lockdown was a couple of hours away. We arrived home later that same day. 

Twelve whole months have now passed. The weeks within those months have generally gone fast, yet some of the days have passed excruciatingly slowly. I think we can safely say that few people foresaw how these twelve months would look.

Bertie is, of course, still sitting patiently waiting to take us somewhere on an adventure, as is Erica. Hopefully it's not going to be too long now before one of them gets their wish. 

 

 

Snippets from February - Part 2

Here we go with the occurrences of the second half of February, most of which were entirely mundane and feature much repetition from my last three posts, although (as I alluded to in my last post) there was a novel occurrence on 26 February.

16 February

The water in the ponds had continued to rise, whilst it was falling everywhere else locally. On 4 February it had been lapping the very front of the litter bin. Twelve days later the bin was in the water. It wasn't done with rising yet either.

17 February

Just another local view. I think I took this one not just because of the blue in the sky, but to show how the field was greening up again for the new season.

21 February

Gosh, four days without a photo. That's unusual! On this day we were up with Ma-in-Law again and grabbed the rare lawful/Government-approved opportunity to get some ascent and descent into our lives, by conducting a 12-mile circuit around Oxenhope and Ovenden Moors. At the top of the moor, on a road that exhibited the worse display of fly-tipping and general littering that I've seen since we walked through Kent in 2010 (and possibly even worse than we encountered then), we suffered a biting wind, but otherwise the weather was overcast but benign.

23 February

The water level in the local pond peaked. Remember back in early January when the water was well behind the post that holds two signs (one half way up its shaft, one at the top)? Now the lower sign on that post was almost completely covered and the water had encroached on the car park (which has been closed ever since). I've seen the water covering the path before, but never high enough to reach the car park. Definitely a wet start to the year!

25 February

A dental appointment in the morning (attempt 2 at the filling I'd had replaced the previous week but had broken again within hours) caused me to have a late run that day. I recall some prolonged dithering over where to go, so as to avoid the people who would be out and about in the more popular places on a lovely sunny afternoon. Apparently I opted for a circuit involving a track and the canal, with an out-and-back down a tiny dead-end lane that doesn't see much traffic.

26 February

On my way between dentist and car the previous day, I'd popped into Wilko to pick up a couple of things. Whilst there I got sidetracked by hair dye. Last spring I'd said that if there was ever a time to dye my hair blue, then lockdown was it. With lockdown now threatening to come to a final end, it was time to bite the bullet. Arriving home with the box of dye, Mick expressed surprise and didn't seem to be entirely on-board with my proposed change of appearance. Nevertheless, he gamely helped me with the dying process and was undoubtedly happy with the end result:

During

After

What a disappointment! Not even a hint of granny's blue rinse, never mind the vibrant blue that was promised on the box. This is not the end of this story, but Phase 2 of Project Go Blue didn't occur until the calendar rolled over to March.

27 February

A frosty and misty start to my run, accompanied by Mick until the second bridge on the canal, whereupon he peeled off homewards and I continued on. The mist slowly burnt off, leaving me with a gorgeous (if still cold) day. 

28 February

Another Sunday, another walk with Mick, this time a 7.5-mile circuit that I only did once (didn't want to overdo it after my 15-mile run the day before), but Mick did twice, nipping home with me between laps, where he stood on the door mat to slam down a sandwich and a glass of water before heading off again.

Snippets from February - Part 1

Let's have a tootle through the events of February. I bet no-one can guess what's coming on 26 February...

1 February

Some considerable time after asking my friend Vic for the recipe, I finally made my first ever batch of Welsh Cakes. I decided early last year (with a batch she'd made for me) that they make an excellent food substance to take on long runs. I didn't quite get the pan temperature right in the cooking (hence some were a bit dark) but I've practised again since.

3 February

We finally finished the Harvey's map jigsaw of the Peak District, a couple of years after it was started, albeit it did spend around 23 months of that time sitting under our bed:

4 February

In 'Snippets from January - Part 1', for 7 January, I posted this snap:

See how the water is sitting well behind the sign post (almost out of shot on the far right), which has two signs attached to it - one half way up its shaft and one at the top? Even though water levels had in general dropped by early February, our local ponds were still filling such that on this day the water had reached part way up the lower sign, and was just lapping against the litter bin:

6 February

For this day's run, mud ruled out any off-road routes (including the canal) and fog ruled out roads without pavements. The resultant route was made up as I went and took me along roads I'd not before visited, in a nearby village. As a bonus, the road that took me there (which does have a narrow pavement along one side) was closed to traffic, so I was able to puddle-dodge by running down the middle of the road. 

Road closure, but being a weekend there was no-one working

River level had fallen significantly from the preceding weeks, but still relatively high and muddy

10 February

A gloriously sunny day, but slippery underfoot conditions with another fresh sprinkling of snow lying.

11 February

What a lovely sky we had again on this day, but my goodness, that easterly wind was biting on the return leg of that morning's run!

13 February

In December I joined Carla Molinaro's on-line Strength, Yoga and Conditioning for Runner's group and in February she set us the Challenge of running to the points that lay 2 miles north, south, east and west of where we lived. There was no need to do all 4 points in one go, but I chose to do so.

It was a memorable run for the fact that I lost the feeling in my hands after 10 miles. I'd turned east, into the wind, at that point and when I got home and looked at the weather I found that it had been -4 degrees with a -12 windchill, so perhaps it's no surprise that I never got warm (and I was bundled up, including gloves). Impressively (I thought), my Smelly Helly base layer, which are renowned for stinking if you so much as think of breaking into a sweat, smelt as fresh at the end as it had when I'd gone out. 

The other benefit of the temperature was that all mud was frozen solid. 'Thistle Field' was in a hideous state of frozen ruts, across which I had to pick my way slowly, but it was still an improvement on wet ruts! 

This is 'South'. The other points were all roads.

Gloriously frozen mud

(This is not 'Thistle Field' which is far worse than this patch, having been churned up by cattle and tractors rather than feet)

14 February

Mick and I went for a walk! A 10.8-mile route, pretty much the same as the S, W and N compass points of yesterday's run, in weather that was similar but a bit warmer (+1, I seem to recall), but still with a brutal windchill. Even wearing my buffalo mitts (and positively marching the route, without pause) at no point did I have warm hands and the previous day's base layer still didn't have a whiff even after 25 miles of strenuous use - that's surely a record for a Smelly Helly?!

It's a pity I didn't get a snap of myself as I realised mid-walk that I was dressed for 2005, wearing a baselayer, fleece, jacket and mitts that have all been in my possession for over 15 years. Must have been good purchases! (I have re-lined the buffalo mitts, but it's still the original outers, so I don't think it counts as a Trigger's Broom sort of a claim.)

Bertie and Erica have a Lockdown Outing!

With Bertie's MoT being due in early February, we booked him in to be tested on 26 January and, with it not being appealing either to hang around in a waiting room or to go for a walk (the world was an ice rink again on this day), we decided to take our own waiting room, in the shape of Erica. 

Thus for the first time since the end of September last year, Bertie's tyres hit tarmac. He tootled into town and after being handed over Mick came and joined me for coffee and a crossword in Erica, where I had the heating running on high. We thus sat snug and warm whilst Bertie submitted to his examination. Even in the absence of overnight trips, she's a handy vehicle is Erica!

It was only later in the day that I realised that we had erred in our arrangements. Erica's MoT was due on 27 February, and if we'd waited one more day, we could have booked both in together and used each as a waiting room whilst the other was being done. With Bertie only being road legal due to being driven to and from a pre-booked MoT, taking him out again wasn't an option which meant that when Erica was done one of us was going to have to loiter outside.

Just over a week later we were driving up to Halifax and Mick asked me what date Erica's MoT was due. I answered with confidence: "27 February" before having a wobble and saying "or maybe 17th, but it's one or the other; why don't you look in the glovebox and see if the last certificate is in there?". Being a few weeks hence, Mick didn't feel the need to check.

The following afternoon, we were driving back from Halifax and this time Mick was at the wheel, so I thought I'd just double-check that MoT date. It turned out that Erica's was due on 6 February.

There was no time to kick myself about the fact that she could have been done at the same time as Bertie after all, as I had immediately flown into a panic. This was late afternoon of Friday 5 February. My grandmother's funeral was on the morning of Tuesday 9th and I had to be there (aside from anything else, I was delivering the Eulogy). That gave us just Monday to get an MoT carried out and Erica had no option but to pass. Panic! Panic! 

After a few phone calls I managed to find somewhere that had a spare test slot at 4pm on Monday afternoon, which gave no time to fix anything if she failed. Fingers were crossed, not just for Erica's state of health, but also that the forecast snow wouldn't amount to much.

The snow, which fell most of that day, didn't prove to be an impediment and Mick got her over to the garage in question. There the owner looked at Erica and said "Has your wife got a YouTube channel about doing this conversion?". It turned out he had been searching for some information about fitting rear seats, had stumbled across Erica and then recognised her in person. How funny! 

An hour later Erica had the required certificate and the following day she took us to my gran's funeral (it snowed the whole of that day too and never got above -1; I'm so glad I'd been able to borrow a black coat from Ma-in-Law, even if it was a few sizes too big. It was far too cold to go coatless and my only winter coat is bright red.).

I'm pretty sure the date of her MoT is now indelibly fixed in my mind. 

Snippets from January - Part 2

The theme for the second half of January was snow, rain and flooding. I cannot tell you how much I would have preferred to have been in southern Spain! 

16 January

I finally finished the jumper I started knitting in the middle of last year. Being distracted by Erica caused the delay. It's remarkably similar (i.e. same colour and pattern) as the jumper I finished in Germany in the summer of 2019. The only differences are: 1) this one is made with pure wool (c£32 vs £4 for the original cheapy acrylic/wool mix); and 2) I made it too small. Given point 1, point 2 is somewhat annoying. I'm yet to wash it to see how much I can reshape it to a bigger size.

As much as I enjoy cables, once I'd finished this one I was ready for some plain knitting for a while!

17 January

I must have taken a long run on this day, because these snaps were taken a good few miles away from home. A lovely day for it, but there was a lot of water around. Believe it or not, the second snap shows a public road, not a farm track!

21 January

Every couple of weeks we've been nipping up to Mick's mum in Halifax, to take her shopping and help her out with anything she needs doing (she's approaching 96, still living completely independently and, understandably has been rather fed up with being so confined to the house), and throughout late December and January all of our trips seemed to coincide with snow. On this day the snow was accompanied by high winds, and I hadn't taken any sunglasses with me, which meant that the first half of my run (during which this photo was snapped) was carried out with awful posture, as I kept my head down and my eyes scrunched into slits against the conditions. 

22 January

Whilst it had been snowing in Halifax it had been raining at home. A lot, and for days. On this lovely sunny day I ran down to the canal to see how flooded it was. Gosh! I've never seen the water that high! The lake you see in the first snap covers the slightly-flooded fields shown in my photo from 1 January. The second snap shows the stile used to access the tow-path (which on this day was underwater). The third snap, if you look carefully, shows a car up to its doors in water on the other side of the canal. As I returned to the road, Postie stopped me to ask if he would be able to access the moorings; I described the conditions and he decided against.

24 January

A sub-zero morning with ice-rink streets, so surely the mudfest of the estate would be frozen? It started with promise as the open ground was solid. However, the muddy sections are protected by trees and were just vaguely crispy rather than having reached the level of solidity for which I'd hoped.

Then, in the afternoon, it snowed and accumulated with rapidity that's unusual in these parts. 

I distracted myself by improving my crumpet making skills:

25 January

I went for a run in a winter wonderland. And got abused by a dog walker for having the temerity to ask (politely!) if she could call her dog off. Then I baked some banana muffins because the boiler was being serviced the next day and I can't have the boiler chap around and not give him cake. 

26 January

There was excitement in the morning when both Erica and Bertie went for a drive (and all perfectly legally, even though Bertie was untaxed). I think I'll tell that tale in a separate post. 

By late afternoon the temperature had risen above freezing and rain had washed much of the snow away, so I nipped out for a little jogette, splashing my way through slushy snow and getting cold wet feet almost as soon as I'd set off.  

28 January

It had rained quite a bit overnight, but even so it was unexpected to find part of that morning's running route cut off by a deep flood. I've never seen that area flooded before and it wasn't apparent to me how it had come about. I'd run speed reps along this road the day before, and there'd been no hint of a drainage issue then. 

29 January

We'll finish the month (because I didn't take any photos on 30th or 31st) with the contents of another good £1.50 veg box!

Snippets from January - Part 1

Whilst I wasn't naive enough to think that on the stroke of midnight on 31 December Coronavirus would go away and all freedoms would be restored, but I did have some optimism as to the year ahead. On 4 January, with the announcement of another prolonged lockdown, the wind was whipped out of my sails and, in combination with the cold weather, I found myself lacking any motivation to do anything other than a bit of daily exercise. Excessive amounts of sitting in a chair have ensued ever since. I thus felt there was nothing to witter about. At the same time, I know that in the future I'll be happy to be able to look back on what was going on at this time, so rather belatedly I'm going to tap out a few posts by way of the briefest catch-up I can muster.

What follows is all based on photos snapped on my phone. You can read the word 'apparently' into most of the accompanying statements, as I've deduced what I did based on the photo, not based on a precise memory!

1 January

I ran along the canal and found it not to be as flooded as I'd expected:

(I'll be referring back to this snap on 22 January)

2 January

Another run along the canal. Must have been sub-zero because I wouldn't have been on this section if the mud hadn't been frozen!

3 January

A coffee and crossword date in Bertie. We'd plugged him in and put a heater on a few hours earlier, but such was the temperature that we still needed to wrap up warm.

4 January

After spending the previous evening reading not just the government guidance but also the Covid legislation, I decided that we could justify driving to Cannock Chase, so as to get some hills into our exercise (a run for me; a walk for Mick). As the snow had thawed at home and Cannock Chase isn't that far away, I'd not expected to find huge swathes of the tracks doing impressive impressions of ice rinks. The photos are deceptive; snow had been compressed, then thawed, then frozen again. I had a great time, but did a lot of tippy-toeing and arm-waving.

As we left the Chase and headed homewards our intention had been to return weekly. A few hours later the government announcement of a lockdown that was going to last until at least early March put paid to that intention. 

7 January

Another run in cold weather. Here's one of the local ponds, frozen over. (I also have two canal photos from this day and it took me a worryingly long time of staring at them to place them; they're taken from a bridge on what has lately been my most repeated route - it seems I don't usually look left or right as I cross that bridge!)

9 January

I remember this one! I set out before sunrise and in clear weather that wasn't as cold as forecast. It got colder and foggier as I went, such that when I got home the pavement, which had been ice-free when I'd gone out, had become a veritable slip-hazard.

13 January

We had pizza for lunch! This is not unusual (indeed, we had pizza today as well), so not sure why I took this snap.

(edit: I've remembered. It was because we used Stinking Bishop cheese. The snap was for the gifter of that cheese.) 

15 January

Every day Lidl sells off a handful of boxes of fruit and veg for £1.50 each. They contain a random selection of stuff, some of which will be on its last legs (or slightly beyond) and others will be perfectly fresh but victims of split packaging. We've had lots of these boxes since last summer, but the box contents in this snap win the 'best yet' award. 

Yep, all of this for £1.50!

As much as I love these veg boxes, they always present a challenge as to how to use all of the contents before they go off (I often spend the morning the box is bought 'processing' and freezing stuff). As you can see, on this day the haul included eight packets of asparagus ... and we managed to eat all of it in the space of five days. 

I'll be back soon with Part 2 of January...