Friday 26 June – Random Witterings from Home #24

Sunday
After all of those weeks of sunshine, we had rain. Somehow, I failed to think about the effect of several days of rain and the result was a really poor route choice for last Sunday’s run:

Just before I took these two snaps I’d had to duck under wet foliage that had drooped low over the path.

I’ve really enjoyed exploring so many of our local roads and lanes over the last three months, but now have the problem that increased levels of traffic make some of those roads undesirable places to be on foot. This cross-country route was designed to avoid one particular lane; it achieved that aim, but at the cost of being a horribly slip-slidey mudfest in places. I came out on the road at the other end with thoroughly wet feet.

Tuesday

A couple of days later my route choice gave me a much better surprise: the tow path has been mowed, broadening it considerably.

Wednesday

This year’s first yield of produce from the garden! They went from bush to jam jar in half an hour.

I’m expecting to do a lot of preserving this year, so have an unusually large collection of jars sitting waiting. I could thus have taken my pick of more appropriately sized jars.

More produce in the making. Photos taken 3 days apart.

Thursday

I spent a good chunk of yesterday peering into one of Bertie’s lockers* and sitting in his cab contemplating the accessibility, for wiring purposes, of various bit of facia. Another chunk of time was spent understanding the wiring of his Electroblock (the thing shown in the photo) and researching the connectors I would need (and where I could source them) to tap into one of its spare fuses.

The result is that, after three and a half years, I think I may finally get around to buying the gubbins required and fitting a few USB sockets, meaning that when we want to charge something we won’t have to open the TV cabinet and furtle around in its depths to plug an adaptor into the only cigar-lighter-style 12v socket that runs off his leisure battery.

Today

The white shoes somewhat ruined the ensemble

I’ve been splashing the cash on unnecessary indulgences again and was ridiculously excited when the package containing my new running skirt came through the door on Wednesday. This morning it had its first outing. Jolly, isn’t it?

<sup>(* On a Bertie-related tangent: Sometime in February, whilst pootling around Spain, we lost a tea towel. How we’d managed it was a mystery, but a search of all probable, and some improbable, storage locations didn’t turn it up.

Four months later (and probably some three and a half months since I forgot about the mystery), it was finally solved. After another coffee & crossword date in Bertie and I finally remembered that there was a set of bedding stowed in one of his least accessible cubby-holes. And there was the tea towel, folded neatly between two pillow cases.)</sup>

Wednesday 17 June - Random Witterings from Home #23

After sitting on the floor on Sunday with three different yarns and three different patterns in front of me, I decided that my next knitting cast-on would be the replication of the jumper I made in Germany last summer:

Modelled in the Stellplatz in Bad Durkheim whilst Bertie sat incapable of movement due to a faulty battery.

I love how this jumper looks, but I made it out of cheap yarn (the whole thing came in at under £4.25!) and know that with wear it will look tatty quickly. I’ve therefore only worn it a couple of times, although I do sometimes take it out of the wardrobe just to lay it out and admire it for a while (yep, really, I do).

On Sunday I cast on with some pure wool, and I rattled through the ribbing for the body. Last night’s attempt on the subsequent stitch-increase round, then the first pattern round, didn’t go entirely smoothly. The key here is the word ‘round’ as this pattern is written for flat knitting. I must be getting too cocky in my ability to translate patterns from flat to circular, because I decided I could achieve this without spending time writing out the translation in advance. As a result, I found myself unknitting a couple of half-rounds when it turned out I hadn’t thought things through properly.

The real issue, however, came at the ‘now change to larger needles’ bit. Except for socks, which I generally knit on mini fixed circular needles…

tiny fixed circulars – these are 25cm long from tip to tip

My interchangeable set – various tip diameters get screwed onto various cable lengths, giving a very compact way of carrying around enough needles to cover most things I’d ever want to knit

…I use interchangeable circular needles, so at this point I needed to unscrew the 4mm tips with which I’d completed the rib and screw in the 5mm tips. The latter are bright pink. And that’s where I had a wobble. I have no recollection of having knitted that jumper with pink tips. I would have sworn I knitted it with the blue ones, which would suggest I used 4.5mm.

I feel like I take so many photos of my life that the definitive answer must lie on my camera roll. A fun time was had reliving last years trip, but to no avail. I dug out Mick's old phone in case the evidence was on there, but the conclusion reached was that not a single shot was taken of that jumper in progress.

That led to the question: Why, oh why, oh why do I not write these things down?!

If I proceed with 5mm incorrectly then I may not have enough wool to finish. If I proceed with 4.5mm incorrectly, the jumper may not fit.

I think I’ll be belatedly knitting a couple of tension swatches to work out which way to go.

And, in future, I really ought* to write down such key information!

^{(*Unfortunately this is not a new revelation. I clearly remember when I started v1 of this jumper last year I revisited previous knits before deciding what needle size to use and kicked myself on the very same point.)}

 

 

Sunday 14 June - Random Witterings from Home #22

No longer a streaker…

My final statement in Random Witterings #19, two weeks ago today, was that I didn’t intend to run so far or so often in June. I’d said the same at the end of May, but not stuck to it, but this time I took the bull by the horns, and on 1 June I broke my 71-day run-streak.

During those 71 days I’d not felt so much as a niggle, so the last thing I expected, after a day off, was to suffer a big ‘ouch!’ in my adductor (inner top of thigh, left leg) 2.5 miles through a gentle run. I questioned whether rest days are seriously over-rated and resigned myself to a couple of weeks sitting on the sofa.

It felt like weeks that I sat around too, but in reality I went for an energetic walk through a patch of local forest (the lumpiest patch around here) the following morning and then had three days of flat walking before joining Mick for one of his rehab sessions (he’s staging a conservative return to running after his latest stubborn bout of achilles trouble, taking a physio’s advice of a run-walk programme). That proved to be pain-free and over the last week I’ve built the load back up to about a third of the distance I was at three weeks ago.

Having gone a few days without any hint of soreness in the adductor, when running or otherwise (crouching down, in the manner of using a dustpan and brush, weeding, or cutting out a pattern on the floor is when I usually feel this particular area) I felt confident that I was up to a longer run this morning.

Thankfully Mick was available to come and rescue me 4.5 miles through (why is it always at the furthest point from the start?!), but as I’d stopped as soon as it started niggling, I’m confident I’ve not caused more damage.

From my walk last week: the areas that are mudfests in mud-season have dried to a state of horrible ruttedness. The drying-out process must have happened quickly.

...but still a streaker

The Duolingo App tells me that I have now diligently studied Spanish for 122 consecutive days and this week I apparently hit the milestone of having learnt 1000 words. I wonder how many of those will lodge in my memory in the long term?

Creativity

So, what have I been doing with all the spare hours in which I’ve not been running? Making stuff, mainly!

I didn’t think to take any photos of most of my doings, but first on the agenda was a batch of 9 facemasks (not for us, but on request for someone). That’s reduced nicely the material in my pile of worn out clothes that are too good for rags. 

Also in the category of ‘successes’ is Ma-in-Law’s corona-cardi, which I started on 2 April and finished yesterday:

It doesn’t fit me particularly well, but hopefully it’ll fit Ma-in-Law. As it’s a surprise all measurements were guesswork, so there’s no guarantee. Not that it really matters: she’ll be chuffed to bits to receive something made specifically for her (she was a prolific knitter until her sight failed her), whether she wears it or not.

I was so pleased with my first attempt at an invisible seam … until I realised I’d seamed it on the wrong side and had to pull it back out. On attempt 2, I decided to go for a different seam type on the collar, which turned out to be a good choice in this location.

Not everything I’ve made in the last couple of weeks has been a success, including both the worst fish pie I’ve ever made and the worst meringues:

Technically there wasn’t anything wrong with the meringues themselves (surely it’s difficult to go too far wrong with two ingredients?), but I put them to bake on greaseproof paper, rather than baking paper. They’re two substances that look almost the same, but behave very differently (a fact of which I’m well aware having made the very same error a decade or more ago when dehydrating some food). The meringues thus completely adhered themselves to the paper and eating them has been challenging.

The only reason I have the greaseproof paper in the cupboard (and on reflection, maybe I should store it somewhere more appropriate?) is because I use it to trace sewing patterns or, as I did today, to create a pattern from scratch:

You can’t see all my calculations scrawled on the paper, but it took a bit of thinking about!

Today I was simply mocking up a recreation of one of my running skorts, using an old t-shirt as fabric, to see how successful it would be. The main conclusion I reached was that the mock-up fabric was unsuited to the purpose. I shall leave that experiment there for now.

Time then to cast on my next piece of knitting…

Wednesday 3 June – Random Witterings from Home #21

I did something today that I haven’t done since the first week of March: I went to a shop unnecessarily. It feels frivolous and a touch reckless!

Since our visit to Ikea in Murcia on 5 March, I have only been into shops to buy food* and since returning home those supermarket excursions have been far fewer than is our norm.

Today, however, I decided that I was going out for some compost and weedkiller (and a few other items that I ended up not buying, either because they didn’t have them in stock or because I was dithering too much over the purchase) none of which could be considered essential**.

Not wanting to involve myself in any queuing (although with today’s rain, I’m sure that many people were put off from venturing out into retail settings), I set out early and as it was before 8am when I was passing one of the main supermarkets on my way to my compost mission, I nipped in to see if I could get the things we’ve been managing without, that aren’t available in Lidl. I came out with a couple of bags of shopping (yeast was amongst the items available, although I noted that their flour shelves were in a sorry state of emptiness) and proceeded further up the road to B&Q.

The entire excursion turned out to be surprisingly stress-free. Both shops are so big and (due to hour of day and weather) were so quiet as to make movement around the store easy and the customers seemed mainly to be courteous and to have got the ‘keep distant’ message, unlike those I’m generally encountering in Lidl.

<sup>(*Mick shopped with me three times during our remaining time in Spain, but has not been in a supermarket in the UK since the beginning of January!

**Not essential, but I’m sure my seedlings that have now been thinned and transplanted are heaving a sigh of relief as a result of the compost purchase.)</sup>

Tuesday 2 June - Random Witterings from Home #20

I have to start today by sharing the latest Photoshop brilliance from Humphrey, for those who haven’t have seen the link in the comments on my last post. He asked, in relation to my chicken and mushroom pie, what was with the camel train:

If anyone has any tips for filling in camel footprints on a kitchen work-surface, please let me know!

I saw this and snorted. A call of “What is it?” came from Mick in the other room. I took my phone to show him. He joined me in my laughter, and we both uttered ‘brilliant’ again. Thank you Humphrey!

Mobile Data
For years I have been a Pay-As-You-Go mobile phone user, which has worked out to be cost effective (sometimes as low as £20 per year) by virtue of scant use. Then in September 2019 I was enticed by an offer on a Vodafone contract:  5GB data plus unlimited calls and texts for £6.66/month. It would give an all-in-one solution when away in Bertie (i.e. mobile phone for me, plus mobile internet for use in Bertie).

Part of the calculation in opting for the contract was how much use it would get but those calculations did not, of course, take into account the scenario in which we now find ourselves. Thus I find myself with 9 months through the contract period, having hammered the data allowance for 2.5 months, used it modestly for 1 month and having used it not at all the rest of the time. I suspect it will remain unused until I cancel it at the end of the initial contract period.

There are clearly far worse things that happen at sea, but what bad timing for me to have bought my first mobile contract in over 15 years!

Mobile Data Consumption
Tangentially related to the above, when I took out the contract 5GB of data per month seemed like a huge quantity when a 12GB internet-only Three SIM would previously last for a whole 12 months of use in Bertie. What I discovered in January this year is that when I think “I’ve got loads of data!” my usage increases accordingly. I’d expected it to be enough to download a few TV programmes a month as well as a newspaper each day; in reality I had to rein in what I was doing (travel related stuff and research has to take priority) and change some settings on my phone to stop myself going over my limit, and we never did use it to download a newspaper.

Misbehaving Technology
Whilst on the subject of my phone: last week it decided that it would stop podcasts from playing once my phone’s screen was locked. Podcasts are my entertainment/education of choice when I’m out running, so this was something of a disaster and the annoying thing was that I hadn’t touched any settings.

I duly checked the obvious culprit: the battery optimisation settings (and continued to check them a dozen times a day, just in case I’d overlooked something every other time); I consulted Google (“It’s your battery optimisation settings” was the universal answer); I uninstalled the App and reinstalled it; I established that Audible, BBC Sounds and Music would continue when the screen was locked; I downloaded a different Podcast App (also stopped when screen locked); I Googled some more; I seriously wondered whether crying would help; I dug my old phone out, switched my SIM over and resigned myself to having to take a technological step backwards for the time being. Finally yesterday yet another Google search turned up a post that didn’t directly apply to the operating system I’m running, but it gave me the idea that the problem wasn’t with the podcast App, but with some other App with which the podcast App interacts. I had no idea what that might be, but switched my battery optimisation settings to allow *EVERYTHING* to play in the background. Yay! Success! I did a happy dance.

The Tow Path
Martin commented on my last post about the narrowness of our canal tow-path. The photo in that post showed one of the wider bits on that section of canal; much of it is more like this:

There are better sections of path both to the north and south, but they are also nearer to civilisation and thus are busier (which translates to ‘too busy for current times’).

Sunday 31 May – Random Witterings From Home #19

Monday
I’ve started occasionally running along a short section of the canal tow-path again. I almost never used to encounter others there, but these days it’s a lot more popular. The cost of going that way is having to stop and step-off when anyone approaches, as it’s not a wide path and is currently bounded by tall grasses*.

It’s particularly attractive along the canal at the moment and the tow path, which is seasonally either a mudfest or horribly rutted, is currently worn into a friendly track (still need to be careful of roots, mind).

So green!

Ignoring my mug in this shot (not my best in-action selfie as I’d accidentally left a 10-second self-timer on!), what’s notable are the worn parallel lines behind me; neither Mick nor I have ever seen such wear before – testament to the increased footfall.

Tuesday
I only took one ‘photo’ on Tuesday: a screenshot of the most bizarre sentence that DuoLingo has given me to date:

As useful as being able to express that my hovercraft is full of eels?

Wednesday
I discovered that our favourite Thai restaurant had opened again, for take-aways. Somehow I failed to take a snap of any part of the resultant feast, but we thoroughly pigged out and enjoyed every mouthful. The ‘eating out’ portion of our monthly budget is looking (unsurprisingly) healthy at the moment, so I think there may be a repeat visit soon.

I thought the Thai was going to be the absolute highlight of the week…

Thursday
…but the highlight came unexpectedly in the middle of Thursday afternoon, when there was a knock at the door and I answered it to see Postie just running away. I quick look around revealed this just to the side of the door:

We weren’t expecting anything, but immediately on picking it up I knew what was in it, and the return address told me the rest:

Thanks go to Conrad for thinking of us, sourcing and sending.

Who would have thought at the turn of the year that receiving a gift of a bag of bread flour through the post would be so grin-inducing?

Friday
Friday’s parcel was expected:

White! I feel like I've slipped back in time by 15 years.

My running shoe collection is now such that I could wear a different pair every day of the week, but some of them are getting a bit long in the tooth (having covered more than double the manufacturers’ recommended mileage).

Completely unrelated to Thursday’s delivery (different type of flour involved), I also made Mick a rather good (even if I do say so myself!) chicken and mushroom pie:

I needed the room being taken up by the chicken carcass in the freezer and having boiled it up for stock was able to salvage plenty enough pickings of meat for a pie.

Saturday

Another mid-run snap

I’m getting a bit worried out the current run of weather. After such a prolonged dry spell, quite how much is it going to rain when it breaks?!

Sunday
That brings us to today, when I’ve not taken a single photo. I did however go for my 31st run of the month, bringing my mileage up to just over 151 – my third consecutive personal-record breaking month. I know I said the same last month, but I *really* don’t intend to run so many times, or so far in June.


^{(*a walker stopped for me the other day and I felt bad in case they thought I expected them to give way; I’d eyed up a place in between us where I could get off the path, but they acted before I reached it)}

Sunday 24 May – Random Witterings from Home #18

On 12 April, in one of my more random witterings, I talked about this lamp:

Mick wanted to remove it, but the end decision was that it had to stay because it was easier than trying to find out (in the absence of ever having found a switch) where the wires ran so as to disconnect it.

That position was changed by fate this week; or rather, by an electrical fault that tripped the breaker for the upstairs lighting circuit. I could, perhaps, have forgiven a single trip, but the fact that it tripped repeatedly told me it was an unignorable fault.

I didn’t much fancy the tedious process of trying to find the fault, but neither could we live without upstairs lights (although easier at this time of year than in winter!). After ruling out the most obvious (and also easiest) cause, further investigations* revealed a few things:

1)      Our ‘upstairs lighting’ breaker on the consumer unit also covers the utility room and the outside lights;

2)      Our bedside lights are not directly connected to the upstairs lighting circuit, but are wired via the utility room spur (particularly bizarre given those lights and the utility room lie at diagonally opposite corners of the house);

3)      The wires for all of the later additions to this breaker are connected via two stuffed-full junction boxes in a confined area of loft space;

4)      The switch for the outside lights was a light (not movement) sensor mounted on the roof;

5)      I’m now pretty sure that a small electrical box behind a radiator is where the armoured cable from the garden lamp meets the wiring from the house, however, we cannot access that box without removing the radiator.

I was rather proud that, having taken a guess as to what each wire was for, based on where it appeared to be headed, my further investigations proved me right in all cases. All of those wires are now numbered and my back-of-a-scrap-envelope sketch has now been written more neatly and lives up in the loft by those junction boxes so as to make any future maintenance easier.

As for the fault, it was the light sensor up on the roof. It is now disconnected and thus it would now be a straightforward job to either remove the offending lamppost or to install a switch so that we can use both of the outside lights, however, given that we’ve managed for eight years without those lights I think we can easily convince ourselves that they’re not needed.

Yep, more cakes. Coconut sponge this time. Far yummier than they look.

 

<sup>(*In my experience it’s best not to trace the wiring in your house as doing so tends to lead to the uncovering of things you’d rather not know about. There was an incident a few houses ago when, in removing plaster** to install a damp-proof course, I cut straight through the wire to the socket into which my SDS drill was plugged (yep, I’d marked the relevant channel in red and hatched it through to denote that I wasn’t to go near that area… then managed to overlook the markings). In putting it right I started by tracing all wires and creating a wiring diagram for the entire house and in so doing uncovered some absolute horrors of bad practice. Then there was a house we bought thinking it needed nothing doing to it and on the first day we were there I discovered that five sockets and three lights in an outbuilding had all been spurred from a single socket in the kitchen. I could go on…

**Mick knew nothing about this activity until he got home from work and found we had no plaster on the bottom 1m of the downstairs walls. He hadn't even known I'd been at home that day. The reason I was at home was a little ironic: two weeks previously a contractor had accidentally cut through the electric supply cable for the entire manufacturing site at which I was working; whilst discussions went on as to who was liable to put it right, the supply was re-routed; on the morning in question a different contractor accidentally cut through the rerouted supply; there wasn’t another supply cable so no further re-routing was possible thus the site got closed whilst an impressive number of industrial generators was brought in to provide temporary power pending restoration of the mains supply.)</sup>