…at the back of a cupboard, the Casio fx-550 calculator that got me through my O- and A-Levels. I think this replaced a Texas Instruments TI-30 that eventually died.
I think it must be close to forty years old, though I’ve almost certainly not used it since I finished my degree. It still appears to power on, though it looks like a new battery might be required.
This photo was taken on 16th August, still summertime by all accounts. But late in the evening a thick fog settled in the valley below us and gradually crept up to envelope us. Surprising to think it can be so cold at that time of year.
This is a still from a video on the BBC News site about Ruth Bader Ginsberg lying in state.
Somehow I expected better of the BBC. I’m shocked that such poor English made it to the website without someone spotting that it was wrong.
I really struggled for energy today. Swimming felt so difficult and speed was very hard to find. I stuck with it though, and managed to improve on my result from Friday by swimming one extra rep before I had to skip one. After that finishing the session was easy.
Being able to swim the entire session without a break is now within sight, so hopefully I can achieve that at least once later this week.
Today I have transplanted my coriander, land cress, red chard and chervil into mushroom trays.
The remaining plants I put into what is going to be the “winter salad bed” in the polytunnel. I don’t think they’ll survive a hard frost in there if we have one and I may have to rethink how I’m going to distribute the rest of the plants that I want to go in it, but this is an experiment so for now they can just stay there and see how they get on.
Whilst I’m happy to have got this done, it wasn’t really the main plan for this weekend. I have twenty-one module trays (about 250 individual modules) of onions that need planting out, as well as a couple of trays each of spinach and corn salad and there’s still the garlic to plant. The garlic is hardly in the way, but the rest of it needs to be transplanted to make space for the remainder of my winter salads. The weather this weekend has been abominable however. Not only has it rained almost continuously, but we’ve also had strong winds. Had it only been rain I’d probably just have pegged out our old gazebo over the veggie beds so I could work without getting completely soaked. Still, next weekend looks somewhat better at the moment, so perhaps I can get it done then.
Before leaving the greenhouse I also thinned out the mustard and leaf radish seedlings. They’re looking a bit leggy, but I guess that’s only to be expected given the weather.
I’ve decided I’m really not happy with the module trays I’m using. It’s quite awkward to get the plants out (especially if the roots have grown through the drain holes in the base of each cell) without damaging either the plants or the tray. If the tray gets damaged it effectively becomes single use plastic and I’m not having that. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find anything better yet. I could attempt to cut a much bigger hole in the base of the cells to allow me to push the entire plug of compost out with a finger and see how that goes, but I’m also wondering if I could make my own modules in the kinds of numbers I’m likely to want that would do a better job. I’ve seen people use newspaper wrapped around a former, but I’m not convinced about the efficiency of that when I had something like 400 to 500 modules occupied at the start of this weekend and might well want more as we go into spring. Perhaps 3d-print something? Making my own might at least have the advantage of allowing me to remove the little nooks and crannies that slugs and snails find to hide in.
The hideous weather meant that I’ve mostly done indoors jobs today, but I did make time to get out to the greenhouse for a while. I evicted a number of snails (I think they’ve been getting in through the vents in the roof) and then planted some of the lettuces I’m keeping for winter salads. I used newspaper to line mushroom trays, filled them with compost and then planted six plants to a tray. After doing the first one I decided it was better to water the compost before putting the plants in. Perhaps I need a smaller watering can with a finer rose. There are red Little Gem and Webbs Wonderful:
and Lollo Rossa and a “frilly” green variety called Robinson that we’ve not grown before this year:
They’ll now stay in the greenhouse all winter.
I still have the coriander, chervil and mustards to plant the same way, but I’ll have another look at them tomorrow and decide if they’re really big enough to transplant yet.
[2nd October]
Had another pick of the chiles this afternoon. Some of the leaves on the plants are showing signs of turning yellow so I’m not sure how much more ripe the remaining ones will get. I’m hoping I’ll be able to pick everything that is left in a couple of weeks time and then see which plants I’d like to try to over-winter.
In the greenhouse, the lettuces I planted last weekend to put into the polytunnel are beginning to sprout. In a fit of optimism I also planted some radish seeds and they’re starting to show signs of life too, though I’ve no idea if they’ll actually grow into decent plants at this time of year.
Bonkers trip to the pool today. Driving through one of the local villages I discovered the road blocked by a Polish articulated lorry. I think the driver had stopped to try to find someone who could give him directions. I’d left a bit early so I could check if the bridge was still closed as there was a lot of traffic coming from that direction yesterday. It was still closed, so I headed for my usual route around it which turned out to have so much traffic heading in both directions that it was almost gridlocked 🙁 Mostly it’s about a car and a half wide, perhaps a tiny bit more, with very few passing places. I was stuck there for fifteen minutes whilst cars shuffled back and forth to allow one to pass at a time and eventually arrived at the pool a minute or two late. And a little further down this road there were signs up saying that they’re closing this road for two weeks from mid October. The obvious alternative is about eight miles down similar roads, so I’m going to have to start looking very closely at the maps to see if there’s anything better 🙁
The fast lane in the pool was busier than usual. There seemed to be quite a few triathlon types out to play. It appeared to work for me however, as I managed twenty-nine reps before having to skip one, and at a higher pace than I managed for twenty-eight yesterday. After that it was a relatively easy few more reps to the end of the session. I was a complete puddle of jelly when I finished though. My arms and legs were shaking badly and I had to just sit in the car for five minutes to recover before driving off. I think I can fairly say that I pushed myself as hard as was possible today 🙂
On the way home I had a fantastic view across the Vale of Taunton Deane. The cloud base was so low (barely scraping 120m and I was at about 100m) and so flat that it looked as though someone had put a lid on the world. Unfortunately there wasn’t really anywhere safe to stop to take a photo.
We had to stand outside the sports centre and wait until the posted start time of the session to be let in today. They’ve changed the arrangements slightly because they weren’t getting enough time to clean between sessions. I’m glad it wasn’t raining — perhaps the only time today that it hasn’t been. It does mean a couple of minutes lost at the start of the session whilst we get through reception and into the pool area though. Hey ho.
I was sharing the fast lane today with someone in his late teens I’d guess. No-one else turned up so he suggested taking a line line each and sticking to it rather than circulating up one and down the other. That didn’t bother me and in fact I discovered it’s very much easier to hit the wall in the tumble turn and push off down the same lane line again than it is to try to switch sides in the process. Because I’ve been doing it since the pool reopened I hadn’t really noticed how awkward it is to come off the wall at an angle to change sides.
Anyhow, I managed twenty-eight reps today before having to skip one, pretty much at the same pace as Tuesday except for a couple where I lost the plot a bit. On one rep I think I drifted off mentally a bit and didn’t realise the wall was coming until I got there, so messed up the turn. After the one skipped rep though it was quite easy to swim to the end of the session without another. I was absolutely shattered afterwards. Probably a good job that driving is done sitting down, as I’m not sure I’d have managed to stand up for any distance 😀
Had a narrow escape on the way to the pool today. I’d just emerged from the road I use to get around the closed bridge as a six-axle container truck passed me turning into it going the other way. That must have been a nightmare if anyone got caught as there really isn’t space for that kind of vehicle. What would happen if it met something similar coming the other way I can’t imagine.
Anyhow, I got to the pool on time for a change and managed to push myself to twenty-seven reps before needing to skip one, and at a higher pace than yesterday. Admittedly my twenty-seventh rep was hideously ragged, but they all count 🙂 I managed another six reps after that to get me to the end of the session without having to skip any more. I am slightly developing the sensation that I’m sitting on a bomb in that I will turn up one day and it will all go horribly wrong, but I’ll just keep plugging away at it.
