Oh dear

 It has been another stunning day on the South Coast. No cloud has dared show its face. It has been wall-to-wall blue skies (as it should be, here in Sussex).

The Sonning Crew turned up for elevenses. Coffee was provided, with biscuits. After a while, more coffee was provided, with more biscuits. Then some wine was provided. Then some more wine. Then some more wine, still. It was a very sociable middle to the day.

After the Crew had gone, we sat down for an hour before being summoned to see Urban-Cub and Ellie. A little gardening no-how was imparted and some flowerpots moved. Then we headed back home.

The Gorse Fox cocked up dinner. He had decided to try one of the spice mixes the he received for Christmas (or was it his birthday). Either way, he tried a "Durban" mix. tHis did not go down well with the Silver Vixen. It was much too hot and spicy for her. In the end, the Gorse Fox had to do her some toast and marmalade instead. Not his finest hour! (Though it was a nice curry).

A Touch of Normal

 The weather today has been outstanding. It has been warm, sunny, and clear blue skies since dawn. This is what we expect on the South Coast… none of this rain nonsense you see in Wales and up North. Rain is necessary, but should only fall at night!

As the title says, there was a touch of “normal” when we met up with the rest of the Sonning Crew for coffee in Lady Penelope and Old Bill’s garden this morning. It was so nice to all get together again and just shoot the breeze. The only problem was that much of their garden was in the shade in the morning… but as the time wore on, the sun swung round. We enjoyed it so much that we invited them back here for coffee tomorrow.

The Silver Vixen has spent the afternoon pottering in the garden, making sure everything was neat and tidy for tomorrow. The Gorse Fox popped to Sainsbury’s for biscuits (and wine) for tomorrow… and then started on dinner.

Another day of research

 The weather has been glorious today. There was no excuse for not being outside. Having said that, the Gorse Fox has spent the whole day inside.

The mornings's cousins Zoom went well and we had some great fun as more stories were unleashed. The Gorse Fox took the opportunity to provide an update on the family tree research and released another compilation of the book.

The rest of the day has been spent working on the "Law" book. It now runs to nearly 400 pages but there is a lot of information from some US cousins that could be enhanced and updated. A note has been sent! He also has two separate branches of UK cousins that, while featured, are almost a side-note, They too need more detail. Notes need to be sent.

There's not too much else to add. The research today has been very time-consuming and the results have not really been very enlightening.

Referee!

 Ellie woke at six, but after a quick wee, she settled back down until the light changed on her clock and she trundled in to us at six-thirty. She was quiet happy to lie between us and watch the tablet.

Urban-Cub arrived in time to walk, with the Gorse Fox, round to Dizzy Ducklings. She explained that she had had a really good shift until the last few minutes. Then she realised she had mislaid the keys and couldn't lock the shop up! Eventually, she tracked down a local member of staff who had a spare set and was able to shut up shop.

Back home, the Gorse Fox was sorting her wardrobe and the Gorse Fox retired to the study. An email had popped in from a cousin. He was updating the Gorse Fox on some of his data. After a preamble, going through his employment history, he explained that he was now a fully qualified football referee. He proceeded to prove this by sending some photos where he had misidentified his own daughters.

As we we're getting lunch, the Silver Vixen received a phone call from Dizzy Ducklings. Ellie was having real problems with her hay-fever. We went along to pick her up early and she has spent a quiet afternoon with us, inside, sheltering from the pollen. (The pollen is so bad, that you can actually see it collecting in kerbsides, like fluff).

Discoveries

 Thursday dawned bright and sunny. It remained beautiful all day. In fact the Gorse Fox has resorted to a T-shirt. He joined Urban-Cub early on to walk Ellie to Dizzy Ducklings, then it was back to the usual Thursday agenda of shopping and administration.

Once the regular tasks were complete, the Silver Vixen popped out the front to plant some geraniums, and the Gorse Fox retired to his study. He had been looking up some information on the village of Wimpole in Cambridge. In so doing he came across a website that mentioned a "Law" being remembered on their War Memorial. He dug down, after all Wimpole is very close to the village where his Law ancestors lived. Sure enough he was the son of one the Laws the Gorse Fox already knew of. Indeed he turns out to be the Gorse Fox's 3rd cousin twice removed.

The Gorse Fox then dug down further to try and find what had happened to him. Well, John William had been sent with his regiment to Singapore and was captured when Singapore fell in 1942. He was PoW for the next two years, but then the Japanese decided that his cohort would be shipped back to Japan. The unmarked ship (they were known as "Hell Ships") on which he travelled had engine trouble and pulled into Manila for a couple of months, while the engine was repaired. It then set out on the return journey to Japan. It was attacked by 100 aircraft from a US carrier group, and the ship was sunk. John William and about a thousand of his fellow prisoners were lost. Despite all the research the Gorse Fox has done across his and the Silver Vixen's families, this is the first casualty he has discovered from WWII (though he's found quite a few from WWI).

We have Ellie with us overnight tonight. She's in the bath at the moment, being monitored by the Silver Vixen.

Dazzled

 That's better. The weather today was much more like what we would expect. There was, predominantly, bright sunshine, it was warm, and there was a smattering of clouds to keep the sky interesting. We dropped Ellie off at Dizzy Ducklings then wandered home.

Being Wednesday, the Silver Vixen had Zoom Pilates and the Gorse Fox, football.

Football was a most enjoyable affair. We dropped the 3-touch rule that had been implemented with Covid. The idea being that it reduced contact. Well, today we just got on with it... and saw no noticeable increase in contact. As a defender it does make the football much more enjoyable, allowing the Gorse Fox to range forward with the ball. Unfortunately, his new boots were the source of a great deal of banter, and on several occasions when he mishit the ball, he blamed it on being dazzled by the brightness of his boots. He isn't sure they believed him.

Back home, the Gorse Fox got embroiled in the Joni Mitchell Project. He popped next door. Tinkerbell had been in touch with an old friend and managed to get some advice from her. Then he called our managing agents and asked about this secret cabal. Our managing agent provided the names, and expressed their fury at the whole ill-conceived idea. Very laudable, but it doesn't actually prevent anything. The Gorse Fox wrote to the neighbours to keep them in touch with progress so far.

New boots

 It was a fairly typical Tuesday. We took Ellie to Dizzy Duckling, meeting up with her friend Bonnie and her mum on the way. Then the Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing for his football.

Football was very enjoyable, as usual. The Gorse Fox was a little concerned that the new football boots would a) dazzle everyone, and b) rub. They are, after all, still quite tight. It turns out that they are quiet comfortable once you start to move about and run on them. The Gorse Fox’s team did well. We won’t the first game 3-0, drew the second game 1-1, and won the last game 2-0.

Back home the Gorse Fox grabbed some lunch then phoned the Sales Office for the development. This Joni Mitchell plan (“pave paradise and put in a parking lot”)needs more ammunition. Addresses of execs and indeed the MD were forthcoming and an email has been sent to the developer’s solicitor for some clarification.

We collected Ellie from pre-school and spent the rest of the afternoon looking after her, then took her home to await the return of Urban-Cub just before 8 pm.

Hail - Assisted Passage

 Ellie trotted in to our room at 6:45, snuggled in between us and asked for the Gorse Fox’s tablet. This seemed like a civilised way to wake up to the day. Tablet was duly fired up and handed over, and the Gorse Fox got up. 

The weather was bright and sunny (as you would expect here) but the forecast was threatening. In fact, by the time we had to take Ellie to pre-school, we saw a few raindrops. Discretion being the better part of valour, we took the car… and what a good job we did. The heavens opened as we made our way back from Dizzy Ducklings - we would have been soaked to the skin.  We had some incredible cloud bursts, some of hail, and all contra-indicating any idea of venturing out. The weather remained quite iffy all morning, but brightened up again in the afternoon.

The Gorse Fox made the most of the time to work on the family tree. He realised that one family member had been buried in Australia, but the Gorse Fox had no other information. That seemed like a suitable challenge. In the end, the Gorse Fox tracked down the ship on which he sailed (an assisted passage), the fact that he married out there, and the names of four of his children. He suspects with a bit more effort he could track down a lot more info, but he will leave it for now.

As it had brightened up this afternoon, we walked round to collect Ellie from pre-school. There was chilly breeze, but the sun was bright and that always makes you feel better. Urban-Cub finished work mid-afternoon and has just been along to collect Ellie.

Old Photos

 It's been a fairly bleak day. There has been rain, on and off and it has been quite windy. This must be what it's like to live in Wales during the summer. The Gorse Fox noticed today that, again, Bognor Regis has been recognised as the sunniest place in the UK over the last year.

Most of the day today has been spent wandering through the dense foliage of the family tree. 

A cousin in Suffolk had sent some updates, some ancillary research revealed some further updates, and a gentle wander through some old albums provided some photos that the Gorse Fox thought would illustrate the books very well. 

This photo is the Gorse Fox's Great-grandfather outside the farm he bought, at Chart Sutton, after passing his greengrocery business to his son (the Gorse Fox's grandfather).

No huge breakthroughs, but small enhancements all over the place.

Urban-Cub popped round just before 18:00. She dropped Ellie off as Urban-Cub has an early start in the morning. Ellie will stay with us overnight, and we will sort her out for school in the morning.

Outing

 The high winds of the last 24 hours have finally died down. The Gorse Fox had to collect our garden chairs from random locations round the garden and pick up a couple of our potted acres which had been blown over. There was no damage though.

The early morning call with the cousins went fairly well. Unfortunately, Sam, who runs the calls was with her mum and trying to teach her how to run the call in time for next week. Every time she pointed something out or explained something it would override the audio from other participants and it rather broke the flow of conversation.

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had an outing planned. We were meeting up with J&T in Chiddingfold for lunch. We pottered off across country and after a short diversion at Petworth (where the road was closed), were soon there. We had a lovely three hours or so, just chatting and generally catching up on each other’s news. The Gorse Fox had taken a copy of the book of the “Laws” to show them and elicit more input. Next time we see them, we will all be down in Cornwall for about a week. That’s only a few weeks away now.

Back home the Gorse Fox returned to the current issue regarding the fate of the formal gardens. Brochures were photocopied and he spent some time at the Sales Office talking to one of the long-term sales people. More data is still required, but things are certainly starting to align.

Lining up ducks

 The Gorse Fox may have mentioned that some self appointed  busy body has been looking at the possibility of altering the public gardens in front of our house, and turning them into a car park. It goes without saying, that the neighbours are not happy. 

The Gorse Fox always thinks that the best way to deal with issues like this is to do some research first... not to get to the bottom of the rumour - that would reveal that their plan had leaked. No, the idea is to try and find what planning conditions, covenants, sales conditions, and so forth exist and cover these gardens. To that end, the Gorse Fox has spent much of the day reading through the original planning conditions and restrictions (put in place by the Secretary of State, in 2006), reading sales literature, reading the Neighbourhood Plan, and re-reading our own contract and covenants. 

The Gorse Fox has asked for a meeting with Berkeleys (the developer) and will also take it up with our local Councillor. We will see where that takes us.

Coats

 Urban-Cub made contact first-thing. She was still unwell and asked if we would collect Ellie and take her to Dizzy Ducklings. We had expected as much and were both ready to spring into action. We popped round the corner and collected Ellie. She was not happy. It was cold and she did not want to wear a coat. We insisted. A tantrum followed and continued all the way to pre-school.

Back home we had the usual Ocado delivery before heading off to do our top-up shop.

After lunch, the Silver Vixen went with Urban-Cub (in the car) to collect Ellie and then to help her secure a couple of her plants ahead of the high winds that are forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

The Gorse Fox returned to the family tree, but was distracted and ended up have a long online chat with Agent Mulder in Connecticut.

Gorse Fox was impressed with Sports Direct. The replacement football boots arrived mid-afternoon. The Gorse Fox has tried them on, and whilst they are still a bit snug, he thinks they will stretch a bit once he has worn them a few times.

Just heard from Urban-Cub, it appears that she has managed to pour boiling water over her arm. The photo she has sent look as if it will be very sore, but at least it hasn't blistered.

Inspiration

 Ellie slept well again last night. She popped in to us at ten-to-seven and settled down between us with the Gorse Fox's tablet. We got her up and ready for school, and, because of the showers and threatening skies, we took her to Dizzy Ducklings in the car.

Back home the Gorse Fox got ready and headed off to Worthing for football. We had a somewhat unbalanced game with all the attackers playing all of the defenders. The attackers won. In fact the Gorse Fox thinks the score was about 6-2. It was fun to play, but the score was disappointing. The Gorse Fox had the pleasure of playing at the back alongside Ian, an ex-pro. It's always good to be with him as he is very sound, and gives clear instructions what he wants. Ian finished the game by approaching the Gorse Fox and saying he always enjoys playing alongside him "It's nice to play with a defender who knows what he's doing". Praise indeed.

On the way back, he filled his little car up with petrol for the first time this year. He was pleased to have achieved 49.9 mpg over the tankful. Try as he may, he just couldn't break the 50 mpg barrier.

Back home, showered and lunched, we went to collect Ellie. We dropped her straight round to Urban-Cub. She isn't feeling too well and was off-sick. We offered to have Ellie, but Urban-Cub said they would be fine.

Lat afternoon, the doorbell rand. It was an elderly neighbour. He had been round before to see our Orangery and decided he wanted something similar. That is nearly complete now. He was, however, now looking for a low maintenance garden - or what he described as courtyard garden. He asked if he could take another look at ours. Clearly we inspired him. It was, apparently, exactly what he wanted. We explained that we had designed it ourselves, then got people in to do the work. He was getting quotes, but they were astronomical. The Gorse Fox thinks they included the design work (which inflates the prices) and apparently they were not listening to what he was saying. Anyway, he went away inspired (and with some ideas of what it cost us).

Popular

 It was a fairly normal start for mid-week. Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off and we got her ready for school and then took her round Dizzy Ducklings.

As soon as we got back, the Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing for the football. This Tuesday session is getting very popular. We had 40 players today. Like last week, some were skimmed off to play in the 5-a-side cages, while the rest of us split into 4 teams and played a round robin. The Gorse Fox's team were quite good at moving the ball around and won the first game 5-2, then the second was 3-0. When we got to the third game, the Gorse Fox was asked  if he switch to another team to help make up the numbers after someone had gone off injured. This was the only game that he lost; 1-0.

Despite having been back playing for about 6 weeks, the Gorse Fox doesn't really feel as if he is getting any fitter, which is a bit frustrating.

Back home the Gorse Fox was pleased to see that his new football boots arrived early afternoon. These were an astounding orange-yellow colour. Unfortunately, they were also much too tight, so the Gorse Fox packaged them up and returned them for the next size up.

Ellie is with us again overnight tonight as Urban-Cub has a very early start again.

1 in 2048

It was a showery day, but dry first thing. Ellie slept through and popped in to see us just before 7:00. She asked for the Gorse Fox's iPad, then settled down in between us to watch YouTube Kids.

Having dropped her off at Dizzy Ducklings we set about the morning's tasks. The Silver Vixen had to go to the pharmacy and the Gorse Fox had to have another coffee. Then, collecting various forms and documents, he went round to the primary school where Ellie will go in September. (This is all of a 2 minute walk). They needed proof of entitlement and this had been complicated by the fact that the application was made from here, but Urban-Cub and Ellie have now moved round the corner. Everything was duly photocopied and the forms submitted. All should now be on track.

The Silver Vixen had a call with one of her girlfriends, then settled down with her sewing.

The Gorse Fox returned to the family tree. He had some nagging concerns regarding some research another cousin had performed without providing any corroboration. He dug into the archives and into the Parish Registers. Bit by bit he unpicked the story, working backwards from the last person about whom he was certain. Bit by bit the records were found, and in the end, the information proved to be correct. It is now, however, properly documented. As he was working, he did manage to find another generation. This pushed him back to 9th great grandfather, 1 in 2048 of his 9th great grandparents. (For Ellie that would be 1 in 8192)

Disgrace

 The scenes we have witnessed today in the Antisemitic marches and demonstrations in our big cities are appalling. Whatever your view of the conflict, terrorising the Jewish members of our own population is not a solution. They have nothing to do with what is happening in Israel.

As for the conflict in Israel, the Gorse Fox is solidly in support of the Israelis. Let him explain. If he has done something you do not like, you are not going to change his viewpoint if you decided to start indiscriminately hurling rockets at his family and his neighbours. He will protect himself and if it continues, then he will respond with vigour, or as Bush described it "shock and awe".

The problem we have is that cowardly terrorists are hiding among innocent civilians. Until those civilians, and the Israelis deal with these cowards, there will be no peace.

Unfortunately we have the appalling situation where the Labour Party and its followers are actively encouraging these anti-semitic activities by the their tacit acceptance of the huge number of their members who deny they are anti-semitic, yet expose anti-semitic memes day-in and day-out.

It is time to say ENOUGH. 

More of the same

 There's very little to comment on. It was a very wet morning, but it did dry up and brighten during the afternoon.

The Silver Vixen has spent the day on her sewing and the Gorse Fox has spent the day on the family tree and trying to get the "Law Book" to a state in which it could be sent out for some proof reading. Unfortunately, there are still branches of the family for which I have very little information.

Urban-Cub has a very early start in the morning. She is performing an inventory on another store, but that probably means a 4 a.m. start. As a result she has just dropped Ellie with us for the night.

Indiana Wants Me

 A very self-indulgent day. The forecast was for a lot of rain, but we have been spared, but for a few showers.

The Gorse Fox started his Saturday with the customary "cousins call". The Gorse Fox has to conclude after several weeks of these calls that he is related to a bunch of complete and utter nutcases! They are fun, however.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent working through the "Law" book. As he went the Gorse Fox checked details and added more data, where he could. Then he came to a couple of first cousins, once removed, who had emigrated to the USA. This became problematic. The information that the Gorse Fox had was sparse, and the records to which he had access were of limited help. What did Brian do? Who was his wife, Betty? Where did she come from? Did they have children? Then, what about cousin Sheila, her husband, and all of their descendants?

The Gorse Fox did what he could. Then he had an idea. He is a Face-ache friend with one of Sheila's daughters, in Indiana. He messaged her. She got back almost immediately and was able to fill in a couple of blanks. Now, it appears, the Gorse Fox has do some research in Newfoundland!

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks dreadful... the Gorse Fox can see another day in front of the keyboard on the cards.

Research

 With Urban-Cub having a day off, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox were not required to get Ellie ready and take her to Dizzy Ducklings. That being said, the Gorse Fox did go round the corner and escort them to pre-school. In general, however, it was a very quiet start to the day.

The Silver Vixen has spent most of the day on one of her sewing projects, and  the Gorse Fox among the boughs of the family tree. There were some cousins from and earlier generation about which the Gorse Fox had very little information. The objective, today, was to try and fill in a few more gaps. It was interesting and, at times, quite confusing. In the end he made sense of it all.

One tragic cousin, Arthur married in 1916 and had his first child at the start of November 1917. He was, however, killed on the 29th November without ever seeing his daughter.

Mid-day we had a knock at the door. It was a cluster of neighbours. Rumour is spreading that a troublemaker from another area of the development has set her sights on turning the gardens outside our house into a car park. The cluster was there to ask the Gorse Fox to get onto the rogue group and shut down the whole idea. The Gorse Fox really does not want to a) have the gardens turned into a car park, nor b) be a member of this secretive committee of self appointed managers for the development. He will, however, weigh-in if he has to.

On - Off

Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off just before 7:30. It was a fairly miserable start to the day, and whilst not actually raining, we took her round to Dizzy Ducklings in the car.

The morning was a fairly typical Thursday - Ocado, then the top-up shop, then the accounts.

Where things differed today was the need for intervention with our plumbing. We have these rather spiffing push-down, pop-up sink plugs. One, in our en suite, had started to leak. The Gorse Fox had stopped at Plumb Centre for a new washer and they just sent him away, saying they didn't stock it. Next he had to try and find the manufacturer. Looking through the "house pack" we received when we moved in, it wasn't clear. A call to the Sales Office on the development didn't really clarify matters. In the end the Gorse Fox decided it must be Hansgrohe and was part of the sink furniture that came with the mixer tap. He search the Hansgrohe website, but could not find a likely part. In the end, the Gorse Fox drove into Chichester and spoke to the nice man at Covers. He spent ages looking through brochures and calling the manufacturer. Eventually, he found a part number and placed an order. It'll be several days, but the Gorse Fox now has 3 spare washers on order. (Assuming they are the right part).

We had tickets for a show by one of the "Strictly" dancers. This was scheduled, ostensibly, for Monday 24th. The Gorse Fox was concerned that he had seen nothing about it, and it wasn't on their website. In the end a quick exchange of emails reveals that the show has been rescheduled to April 2022. Diary was changed accordingly, and table as Casa Ciro, booked yesterday, was cancelled.

The Gorse Fox did see that Simon Evans is back on tour and is scheduled to play in Bognor Regis at the beginning of November. He took no chances, and booked a couple of seats immediately.

Goals

 There had been rain overnight, but it was bright and sunny when we got up, and it remained like that for the rest of the day. Urban-cub dropped Ellie off just before 7:30 and we sorted her out with breakfast and got her washed and dressed for school. We walked her round to Dizzy Ducklings, as usual, and then strolled home.

The Silver Vixen was booked for Zoom Pilates, so the Gorse Fox left her to it and headed off to Worthing for football. We had a really good game, played in the spirit. The Gorse Fox had a couple of shots that scampered past the wrong side of the post, and one left-footed volley straight into the goal. Unfortunately, the Gorse Fox was deemed to have run too fast (as if he would!) to get the ball, so the goal was crossed off. Despite this, we still managed to win with a final score of about 6-0.

Back home we have collected Ellie from the Dizzy Ducklings, and the Gorse Fox has just entered this week's Ocado order.

Don't think so

Sometimes the quality of scams can be quite breathtaking... then again you could get a text like this one, received by the Gorse Fox:

"Order 4160894 is dye to be djlivered moday. Fur i current ETA click ....."

Don't think so, mush!

Keeper

 Despite the forecast, it has been a lovely day. We dropped Ellie off at Dizzy Ducklings and headed home. The Gorse Fox did a quick change and headed out for football.

Today was the first day of the new football regime. It worked pretty well. We had about 33 players… and 10 were carved off to play in the 5-a-side cages, while the rest of us were split into teams of 5 or 6. As it happens, the Gorse Fox was in the only team of 5. He wasn’t too worried. When he saw his teammates he was confident that we would give good account, even if outnumbered in every game. Two of the players the Gorse Fox had never met before. One, the goal keeper, was absolutely fantastic. Duncan, it turns out used to play for4 Horsham, and then for Bognor. He was certainly a class act, and was very good at telling the Gorse Fox what he wanted. We won the first game 3-0. The second game was tighter, but again we prevailed. This time it was 2-0. In the final game, we did concede a goal, but we still won, 3-1 (with the last goal scored by the Gorse Fox).

This afternoon we picked up Ellie and her friend Bonnie and they came back with us for the afternoon. Bonnie was no trouble, and it was nice to be able to help out her parents (who had an appointment).

Unlock

 It was good to hear today from the Prime Minister. Clearly, the vaccine and lockdowns have had the desired effect and we should see the next stage of unlocking next Monday.

This was good news for everyone, but particularly those in the hospitality industry. We already have a couple of "events" planned, with a lunch with J&T and an Anniversary dinner with Old Bill and Lady Penelope (not sure if Two Hats and Tinkerbell are coming).

Come to think of it, the Silver Vixen is also going to the Theatre to see one of the "Strictly" dancers in a couple of weeks.

Half day

 Ellie slept well. In fact we were both up and about before she stirred. She was rubbing her eyes a lot, but the pollen levels were very high today. We dosed her up and that seemed to help settle things. She was very eager to get to Dizzy Ducklings today, and raced round on her scooter - with us trying our best to keep up.

Back home, there were a few chores to clear but then we settled back down to our sewing patterns and the family tree.

The Gorse Fox has been struggling with an Aunt Lucy and her husbands. Her first husband was Benjamin. He had been married and widowed twice before. They married and ran a pub near Royston. When he died, she remarried. This time she married George (who had been previously married, and widowed). The complication in the records is that George and Benjamin were uncle and nephew, but both families shared common names. This means that unpicking them has been an interesting puzzle for the day. The Gorse Fox thinks he has it sorted out, now, but has some further corrections to make in their respective parents' generation.

Urban-Cub finished work early. (Well, she had started at about 5:00). We went to collect Ellie and as we started on the walk home, Urban-Cub was there, standing on the corner. She came back with us so that she could collect Ellie's things and then they went home, leaving the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox with and afternoon off.

Captions

 The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen have spent the day on their respective hobbies. The Silver Vixen has been in here sewing room, and the Gorse Fox in his study. We have taken it in turns to go and fetch cups of tea.

From the point of view of the Gorse Fox it has been a bit of a thankless slog. He has been working through  350 pages of a book of Law families. As he checked each the text on each person he then changed the default captions on each of the illustrations so that they a) appeared in chronological order, and b) they more accurately described the image. There were hundreds of them. Census records, baptism records, marriage records, burial records, probate information, and who knows what else. It's amazing what the Gorse Fox has dug up over the years.

In the end, the Gorse Fox got bored. He switched over and started to update the personal notes for various people in the tree. It was tedious, but progress was made.

Urban-Cub has just dropped Ellie with us. She is staying overnight as Urban-Cub has to open up the shop at 5:00 tomorrow. As the Gorse Fox writes this, the Silver Vixen is helping Ellie get washed and ready for bed.

Headline Placement

 The Gorse Fox was just reading some online news. He was somewhat startled at the unfortunate sequence of headlines:

“…music producer, 22, died in his sleep after undiagnosed condition”

Followed immediately by:

“That should be a wake up call”

A certain lack of sensitivity here, methinks.

Refined

 It was a very wet start to the day., but it didn't;t matter. There was nothing that either of us had planned that involved leaving the house.

The Gorse Fox had his customary Zoom call with the cousins. It was, as usual, good fun with lots of banter. It was interesting hearing about their time, as a family, living in Malta while their dad completed a Naval posting there.

Once the call was done, the Gorse Fox returned to Photoshop and attempt number two at creating a cover of the book. It took several hours, but he's a lot happier with 2.0 than 1.0. It could probably still do with some further refinement, but that can wait for another day.

The rest of the day has been a return to some of the more intractable problems of the genealogical research... e.g. the Silver Vixen's grandmother and the mystery of when and where she was born (and who her parents were); the other mystery was where the Gorse Fox's 3rd Great grandfather was born, who his parents were, and how he came to be in Glasgow. The issue with intractable problems is that they too easily remain intractable. So is the case. An afternoon of research and not one fresh item of data. 

Armed

It's been a lovely day. The sky has been blue (to reflect the election results) and it's been lovely and warm. The Gorse Fox wandered round to meet Urban-Cub and Ellie and escort them to Dizzy Ducklings. It was bit chaotic when the Gorse Fox arrived as they had only woken up 15 minutes earlier. Despite this, we managed to get Ellie to pre-school on time.

The morning was spent focussed on getting to grips with Photoshop. The Gorse Fox tried various ideas, and reviewed a number of YouTube videos. Slowly, he is managing to manipulate the images in the way that he had in mind. It will take a while, though, before it's finished.

Mid-morning the gif left the keyboard and drove into Bognor Regis. He had an appointment for his second  Covid-19 vaccination. He arrived early, and checked in, and joined the queue. There appeared to be a steady stream of people, but it was soon the turn of the Gorse Fox. After the usual preliminary questions, he was jabbed, then headed home with an armful. All done in a matter of minutes. Hopefully, in three weeks he should reach peak protection.

We picked Ellie up from Dizzy Ducklings (Urban-Cub had started work at lunchtime today). 

On the way back we stopped off for her to play on the carved tractor, then went up to the green where she met up with a friend and continued to play on there. 

Once home, we played some more before it was time for dinner, and almost as soon as she had finished, Pistol Pete arrived to take her for the week-end.

Blended and feathered

 It was a lazy start. Urban-Cub had the day off and she was taking Ellie to pre-school and then going straight onwards to the hairdresser. As she was taking the car, it was pretty pointless the Gorse Fox joining them.

Ocado turned up early. In fact, 30 minutes early. This wasn't a problem and it did get us off to quick start to the morning chores. As soon as the Ocado delivery was packed away we headed off to vote in the local elections and then complete the week's shopping at Lidl and Sainsbury's.

By 11 a.m. everything was done and the Silver Vixen could retire to her sewing room and the Gorse Fox to his study. He has spent the day learning and working with photoshop. He has created a first draft of a cover for the Empson book by blending about 8 or 10 separate photos in a number of layers. These allowed the Gorse Fox to fiddle with the transparency between the layers... but having now looked at the completed composite, there is clearly more work to do. The issue is that the transitions between the images (or portions of images) is too harsh. What the Gorse Fox is after is a more blended or feathered approach that completely disguises the transitions. Clearly, some more YouTubing and some more practice is required.

Mixed bag

 The weather was a bit of a mixed bag. It was bright and sunny throughout most of the morning, but the clouds swept in at lunchtime and we've had a few heavy showers during the afternoon. It's still quite bright, and warm, despite the showers.

Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off at 7:30 and we sorted her out, as usual. Having dropped her at Dizzy Ducklings, the Silver Vixen prepared for her Zoom Pilates, and the Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing for football.

Todays game was really rather good. There was some lovely passing, and everyone just got on with the game in the right spirit. The Gorse Fox even received an apology regarding last week's incident. At half-time, it was still 0-0, but during the second half, things opened up a bit. In the end the score was 3-3, and the Gorse Fox thinks everyone was satisfied with the outcome.

We took the car when it was time to collect Ellie. There had just been a downpour and it was looking likely that there would be another. Back home, it was an unusual afternoon inasmuch as Ellie, clearly tired, actually had a 25 minute nap just before dinner. The Silver Vixen made the most of the time to read a sewing book, and the Gorse Fox reviewed some articles and YouTube videos regarding how to blend photos in Photoshop. Now he needs to give it a try.

Urban-Cub has been round to collect Ellie.

Sweeper

 Well, the storm that pounded the South Coast with high winds all night, has hardly abated. Opening up, the Gorse Fox expected to find a degree of chaos. As it was, our only casualty was a garden chair which had blown over.

Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off, then went on to work. After giving her breakfast, and getting her washed and dressed, we took her to Dizzy Ducklings. This was more trouble than it warranted. She wanted to go - there was no debate over that. It was the mode of transport that caused the upset. She wanted us to take her round in the car. We said that she had the choice - walk, ride in the buggy, or take the scooter. She was adamant. So were we. Eventually, still complaining, she was in the buggy and we completed the delivery.

The Gorse Fox had football this morning. There is a bit of change to the arrangements for the Tuesday morning sessions from next week, but today was run along the old lines. We had three games and they were made much more interesting by the blustery winds which played havoc with the run of the ball. The Gorse Fox was in goal for the first game and disgraced himself by conceding 3 times. After that he played in his normal position of centre back or sweeper. This worked a lot better and the defence was much tighter. Last two games were both low scoring draws (though he can’t remember the actual numbers).

We collected Ellie from DD, then stopped to allow her to play with her friends in the play area. Once home she had a fairly quiet time and is currently watching YouTube kids while eating her dinner.

G-Force

 It’s Bank Holiday - this means a) the weather is a bit iffy, b) the schools and pre-schools are closed, and c) supermarkets are open and Urban-Cub is working. At 8:30 this morning, Urban-Cub dropped E~lie off with us for the day.

Ellie has been a joy, all day (so far). We have ended up playing with Paw Patrol figures on the floor, playing Play Dough at the table, playing a board game (that she soon became bored with), played hopscotch, spent some time colouring, spent some time with her crafty box, and fed her almost non-stop. She’s just had dinner and we will be having ours soon, before talking her home and waiting for Urban-Cub to return.

The Gorse Fox and Ellie also popped in to Chichester to se Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit. We had some mail for her, and used it as an excuse to give the Silver Vixen a break.

Jibber jabber

 Late morning, the Gorse Fox got a text message from the local doctors' surgery. It was inviting the Gorse Fox to book his second COVID-19 vaccination. Within a nanosecond he clicked the link and booked his jab.

Next Friday, he will be fully covered by both jabs of the Oxford-AZ vaccine.

Cracked it

It has been another day where the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen could actually concentrate on their hobbies. The Silver Vixen has been buried under a mountain of patterns, fabrics, and sewing machines. The Gorse Fox has been flipping between the iMac (Condor) and the new Windows laptop (Merlin).

Work on the Empson book is making very good progress. The actual book compilation is done on Merlin, but the editing and manipulation of the media is done on Condor. The exercise, started yesterday, of categorising all of the media items has made all the difference. The Gorse Fox was able, at a stroke, to suppress items that added no value to the document (like pages of index entries from the General Register Office), and size items that required more space to read easily (such as Census entries). It took most of the day, but it is done. Most of the effort went into creating captions for the hundreds of media items included in the book.

While he was at it, he realised that, at some point, he had erased the notes that he had written regarding his own "story". This was rectified and he is now properly represented in the various documents.... though not the Empson Book (as he is the Gorse Fox, not an Empson). 

Books

 A day at the keyboard.

It started with the weekly call with the cousins. This is turning into a very pleasant interlude each week. This, in turn, switched the Gorse Fox's focus from the Book of Laws to the Book of Empsons. All of the rest of the day has been spent working through the latest draft of the book, and tidying up unnecessary images of boring indexes, and ensuring the more interesting census records and Parish Registers printed at a size that was legible.

On the way, the Gorse Fox rechecked the data for each individual and, needless to say, managed to find more details and in some cases more Empsons to add to the book. He is getting quite close to the current generation now, so should soon be finished on this pass. He suspects the next task will be to develop some form of graphic for the cover, and then send out the latest draft for review (knowing that some of the cousins have not, as yet, contributed their bits).