Storm Eunice damage

Our house is in quite an exposed position being pretty much on the top of a hill with little to shelter it from the wind in any direction, but despite being on the edge of the Met Office’s “red” warning area we seem to have got off relatively lightly.

One of the greenhouses has developed a slight lean that will need sorting out when the weather warms up and the roof was ripped off the tree house, but the most awkward damage is a bit of the wrinkly tin on the workshop roof that ended up flapping about and now needs replacing, and this:

It’s tough to see, but there’s a dark patch just to the right of the chimney in the third course of tiles from the ridge, where a tile isn’t. It’s rather more obvious from inside.

The worst thing about this is that the tiles haven’t been made for decades, so they’re irreplaceable. By sheer chance however it must have slid down the roof and into a small hazel trees which broke it’s fall leaving it in one piece on the ground.

Because the house is built on sloping ground and the cellar is effectively above ground at the point below the missing tile, it must be about seven metres to the gutter and a further two to the hole. Way too scary for me to want to play with ladders. I’ve tried replacing the tile from the inside, but there’s too much danger of dislodging another so I’m going to have to talk to Baldrick and see if he has any cunning plans.

Posted in Environment | Tagged , | Leave a comment

No dig diary, 20th February 2022

More brutal weather today and lots of rain too. I was determined not to waste the day though, so I got out for a few minutes when the wind dropped for a short while and planted out my shallots (Golden Gourmet). That was pretty much all there was time for before everything kicked off again.

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged , | Leave a comment

No dig diary, 19th February 2022

It’s all been a bit crazy because of Storm Eunice, but I escaped to the greenhouse (which has developed a very slight lean over the last few days that I’ll have to fix in the summer) for a short while today and sowed many different kinds of lettuce, ten cells of each, three seeds to a cell (or thereabouts). I’ll thin them to a single plant once they have germinated.

These might go into the polytunnel, but could well make it out in the main vegetable plot if the weather is warm enough when they reach a suitable size.

I was also pleased to see that some of the seeds I sowed only a few days ago are already germinating. The onions are really kicking off.

The peas for shoots are starting to make an appearance.

and the radishes are on the go as well.

It’s so nice to see plants growing. It feels as though the year as now beginning.

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Swimming, 17th February 2022

I don’t know why, but today was just awful 🙁 I even had the fast lane to myself! Regardless, I just felt so tired and there was no power in my arms. One to walk away from and forget 🙁

Posted in Swimming | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Swimming, 16th February 2022

I was late booking my place in the lane today, but when I did so, less than an hour before it started, there was only one other person booked. I was quite surprised when five people turned up 🙁 Given that the weather is fairly wild at the moment perhaps a few triathlon competitors are trying to get some swimming time in. It did make things a little tricky and initially I struggled to find a rhythm, but after four or five reps I got into the groove and things went pretty well from there. I did have a couple of “fail” reps, but I didn’t count them as in both cases I’d not been able to turn properly because of another swimmer at the wall.

The 25m reps were fairly tough afterwards and I did have one failure on rep 14, but that was the only one.

Thursdays are rarely busy, so with a bit of luck perhaps I’ll get a clear session then.

Posted in Swimming | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Swimming drills — front crawl “slap”?!

Whilst I was getting my breath back after finishing my session today I was reading through the session written up on a white board for the triathlon training session immediately afterwards. Not only did it include lengths of pointless “catch up” drill, but also a new one on me, apparently called a “slap” drill.

I overheard the coach explaining to one of the swimmers that the idea was to slap the water with one’s hand at the entry position as either the feeling or the noise of the slap would help identify when the arm was properly extended.

Now I’m at a bit of a loss as to how one one is supposed to hear a slap on the water when in the pool with dozens of other swimmers, and to feel it surely means the arm has to be raised into a completely inappropriate position for the arm recovery. In fact the entire process means the arm and perhaps even the body has to be in a completely inappropriate position for the arm recovery which means that whatever is learnt from this drill, if anything, is not useful in terms of performing front crawl well. I don’t even know how I could manage such a drill given that during the recovery my hand is only just above the surface of the water and my body is rotating longitudinally at the same time. I’m not certainly going to try it, but I think it would completely unbalance my stroke. I also feel sure that those who do manage to perform it will not find that it has any influence on their usual hand entry position either. I know one Iron Man competitor whose right hand slaps the water on every single recovery, to the point where I can tell he is in the pool when it’s fairly empty, even from the changing room. His arm is never at full extension at that point and it has never appeared to prompt him to change his stroke.

So, I’m calling this one out as another useless drill.

Posted in Swimming | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Swimming, 14th February 2022

Another awkward day with slower swimmers in the fast lane, though not as bad as yesterday. I did however still have to abandon tumble turns on a number of occasions and that showed in the times. It’s a difficult call. The pool has six lanes and they’re being run as three double lanes (slow/medium/fast) which is actually reassuring from the point of view of safety when some swimmers have arms or legs all over the place, but it does mean there’s a huge variation on speeds that have to fit into three lanes, from people who quite possibly take a minute to complete a length to those who can do the same in under twenty seconds. If there’s a better solution, I’m not sure what it is.

Posted in Swimming | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Swimming, 13th February 2022

It was a bit of a nightmare session today 🙁

I think there were at least seven swimmers including myself in the fast lane, some of them not really going very fast at all and one swimming breaststroke with an incredibly wide wedge kick that almost caught me on the head twice as I tried to avoid them. I wasn’t able to tumble turn on quite a few reps because I had no idea if I was going to stamp on someone, so it was all a bit of a failure.

Tomorrow’s session is also often busy, but whilst the daylight hours are short I’d rather do the later sessions when it’s dark than use daylight time for things that don’t need it.

Posted in Swimming | Tagged , | Leave a comment

No dig diary, 13th February 2022

More sowing today. This time it’s aubergines, parsley and radishes, the latter sown six seeds to a module tray cell. The aubergines and parsley are in the propagator, the latter just because there happened to be room. Whilst I was moving things into the propagator I also put in all the trays of onion seeds that I sowed last week to try to get them going as soon as possible. If I need the space then I’ll move them out again.

The radishes will probably go in the main plot under fleece once they’ve germinated though if the weather is still quite unpleasant then I might try to find space for them in the polytunnel.

The aubergines are a new variety to me, called Black Beauty. They’re a non-F1 variety so in theory at least I can save the seed for next year. Looking at photos online however I’m not entirely certain that there is only one variety with that name.

The parsley (flat leaf and curly) will replace last year’s plants that I’m expecting to try to flower this year, though the ones out in the main plot may not I guess as they’ve been heavily “pruned” over the winter by visiting deer.

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

No dig diary, 12th February 2022

Today was pepper-sowing day, both sweet peppers and chiles. In the main they’re the same varieties that I sowed last year and am hoping will survive the winter in the polytunnel (jalapeno and cayenne chiles, yellow and red Corno di Toro sweet peppers) and so may never actually get used, but if I need replacements it will be too late to sow by the time I find out so I need to get it done now.

A couple of extras are a chocolate-coloured sweet pepper and a fair number of seeds I’ve collected from jars of Peppadew peppers (as I did last year, but this time I have more). I really don’t expect the Peppadew seeds to germinate given that they’ve been pickled, but getting just one plant would be a great start.

They’re all in the propagator now, so we’ll see what happens.

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged , , | Leave a comment