Mooch to the Coney Banks

 

So on this somewhat cloudy Off Friday, Tedster & I took a mooch along to the Coney Banks for some fresh air and to get some decent steps up on the Health App seeing as how I'm slowly putting on weight now I'm working from home and not walking to and from the office each day.

We set out around 10am, just the moby handy for any snapping and actually the Banks were more quiet and peaceful than I'd envisaged given it's the school holidays. A few dog walkers and kids playing footie and in the playground but other than that a really nice walk around the perimeter.

Saw a couple of council guys repainting the football pitch lines, whilst they were taking a break in their van I'd been wondering how easy it is to keep the lines straight... Very easy it seems as the machine is automatic (robotic maybe) and the guy didn't look like he'd got a remote controller as such because he wasn't really watching it much. The second guy was watching it even less as he relaxed against the van bonnet staring at his phone. It begged the question of why it needed two of them to be there? And the fact that it was hardly a job that required much in the way of physical effort, neither of them even had to walk the machine around. Talk about easy money!

Anyway having stopped for a snack I left there and walked via Churchill Avenue along to my Dad's where I stopped for a coffee and a chat.

Looks like tomorrow we're going to try and make the Steam Rally at the Weald of Kent in Woodchurch, postponed from last weekend when it chucked it down it should make a good day out snapping. I love that sort of thing, steam engines, classic cars, right up my street and a nod to the steam fests I have missed over the last year and a bit due to Covid-19.

Batteries for the M50 are charging as I write this 📸😊

Updating the website...

 

So taken a few moments to update some aspects of the website, see link below. It got an overhaul some time ago when Google changed how personal websites were created/hosted. Rather than bin mine off I took the opportunity to spring clean it.

In many respects this blog provides more of a regular connection if you like, a place to post my latest thoughts rather than always share them with Facebook. Some things just attract too much in the way of crap comments! So I post here where chances are very few people see it ;-)

Anyway here's the link...

My Website

New Rope Doorstop!

 

Bought this wonderful rope doorstop from https://www.beautifulropedecor.co.uk/ made by a guy called The Ropeman. All are made "using the same incredibly complicated nautical rope knots that were taught to sailors in Britain’s historic Navy". 

I opted for the Lighthouse Tall Doorstop, as you can see my kitchen door opens outwards into the yard with obviously the step down meaning that the door hangs quite a way up from the ground, rendering most normal doorstops as being totally useless.

Having looked into reclaimed wooden stops, concrete and marble, these were the only ones tall enough in the first instance and suitable for outdoor use, although it's recommended to bring them indoors in the wet and over the winter.

I went for the Sisal rope as the Manilla was out of stock due to the pandemic, wasn't fussed either way, both are au naturel in their colouring, the Sisal being a bit lighter.

In the photo it's sitting on an old dinner mat but since then Dad's brought me a spare roof tile so it's perched on that now, mainly to help keep the bugs out and because the ground there can have a tendency to be a bit damp.

Granted that these aren't cheap but then nothing that is hand-made ever is, especially items made by a craftsman. I'm sure it will give many years of service.

When Something Catches My Eye...

 

It's funny isn't it, how when doing the most mundane of things, sometimes, something just catches your eye? There I was washing up at the kitchen sink and suddenly the orange of this plant caught my attention against the darkness of the rainy weather. 

Grabbed the M50 and ran off a couple of shots, both focused on the plant itself and then for balance, on the rain drops on the window.

And here they are, run through LR, to remind me that at times it's the simplest of things that bring us pleasure!

Weekend Chores

 

So this weekend sees me doing the garden in between the showers on Friday. Having watched my neighbours able to get their lawns mowed during the nice sunny weather that I've been forced to look at through the dining room window as I've worked my way through the week, the weekend comes, along with my Off Friday and... it's wall to wall showers ☔

Did manage to get both lawns done though, plus some tidying up, albeit at the price of getting up at 7am and being outside gardening at 8:15am 😴 Not my favourite of chores but needs must and I like it to look at least presentable.

My girl and James also managed to get their 2nd jabs done on Friday evening at a Grab-a-Jab place in Leybourne, big shout out to my work colleague Joanne for suggesting it. Three weeks from now and they'll be fully covered, with some of the horror stories doing the rounds of younger people being quite ill I was keen for them to get fully jabbed up as soon as possible.

So it's been a quiet weekend of jobs around the house and garden, not nice enough, for long enough, to get out anywhere to do much. Let's hope next weekend is better weather, surely we deserve some decent, warmer and sunnier weather for August?? I've come pretty close to flicking the heating back on it's been so chilly 🥶 And I get fed up with my Off Fridays being crap weather when I've sat and watched the sunshine all week whilst working 😡

Still, I did do some photography, things beginning with M for the next famalam challenge...

Took this one from a short video as I couldn't strike the match AND operate the camera at the same time and get anything even half decent on screen. A bit of smoke was about all I managed! Quite like this and processed in LR using the Grandma's Lemonade preset for the first time in a while 😊