Sawdust

 It dawned bright and sunny. Though clouds scudded across the sky, it remained warm and bright. We had a leisurely start.

The Gorse Fox had his customary call with the cousins. It was good to hear from Chris, the eldest, that the area of Turkey where he lives is not affected by the wildfires that are threatening so much of the country. It was also interesting to hear from Tim, the youngest, of the battles that are going on within his village over the proposed development of a solar farm. He reminds the Gorse Fox of himself in his ability to listen to NIMBY bull for so long before having to stand up and intervene. Clearly, the residents of Lullington need a slap round the head and a significant increase in IQ points.

The Silver Vixen has been back in her sewing room, working on her latest project. The Gorse Fox retired to the workshop in order to create more piles of sawdust and off-cuts. In terms of progress, much has been made and he now has a very impressive collection of sawdust spread across the workshop floor and the workbench and an ever-increasing stack of off-cuts.

A change

 A change, they say, can be as good as a rest. The weather forecast was cast as a "yellow weather warning" for high winds and rain as Storm Evert batters the south coast. It was a day for indoor pursuits.

The Silver Vixen started on a new sewing project. This involved adjusting her tailor's dummy - which was actually more difficult than it should be. We did, however, succeed eventually.

The Gorse Fox hasn't done any woodwork for a while. He retired to the garage (now transformed into its workshop configuration). A lot of time was spent sucking on a pencil as the Gorse Fox decided on the best way to construct a heavy garden frame (that needs to be disassembled at some point, then reassembled). He decided on large dovetails. When he says large, the wood in question is 94mm x 47mm x 1500mm and is remarkable heavy. Having finally decided on the approach, he then spent the morning creating some jigs that would allow him to make repeatable joints. Like most things, the preparation is what took the time. With the jigs built, he tried a couple tests with some offcuts. They fitted perfectly.

After a bite of lunch, the Gorse Fox returned to the workshop. It was time to use the jigs for real. They worked well, but the sheer weight of the timber did make manoeuvring the lengths difficult while cutting them on the bandsaw. Eventually, it was done and the first part of the frame has now gone together without any mechanical fixings. That is the result he was after.

DIsambiguation

 It was still quite windy, but it was bright and sunny when we got up. It was set to be a fairly typical Thursday with shopping on the agenda. Sure enough, the nice man from Ocado turned up at the allotted time and delivered our weekly shopping. Later in the morning, we headed across to Sainsbury’s for the top-up shop.

In between we had been awaiting the fitter from the Orangery company. He needed to come and “make safe” and measure up from a replacement unit. He had called, early last week, and arranged to be here between 9 and 10, today. Now, could there have been a misunderstanding? Did he say Thursday and mean a different Thursday? Well, that might be feasible if he said Thursday in isolation. He didn’t. He specifically said Thursday the 29th. This is not ambiguous. Adding to Thursday “the 29th” is, what is known as, a disambiguation. This is what was written into our calendar. He, however, wrote Thursday 6th August into his diary. Morning wasted.

Brother-in-law reaches 60 in October and we have been invited to a celebration in Milton Keynes. The Gorse Fox spent an interesting hour selecting an hotel for the night. Some relied on public car parks, one had limited on-site parking on a first come first served basis, it was fairly easy to whittle the list down. In the end we chose the Doubletree and booked.   

Alarm

 The Gorse Fox set his alarm overnight. This was the first time in several days.  Urban-cub was dropping Ellie off with us on her way to work and the Pistol Pete would collect her at 10. This fitted quite well with our plans - football and Pilates.

Ellie turned up and charged into the kitchen. She was, predictably, wearing her new school uniform and her new school shoes. She had insisted that she wear this so that Grandpa could see it. She looked as cute as a button, and so grown up.

The Gorse Fox headed off for football. The forecast was a bit iffy but, as it worked out, things remained dry and sunny - if a little breezy. The sides were well matched today. It took a long time before there was any breakthrough and by halftime it was a very even 1-1. The pendulum swung back and forth and despite the competition, there was only one further breakthrough on each side. It finished off with a very fair 2-2.

It has been a pleasantly quiet afternoon. The Gorse Fox used some of this to sharpen his wood chisels. This is a skill he has failed to master but can now perform with a fair degree of confidence thanks to a snazzy little device he purchased over the web. Most of the motor-driven devices are too flimsy and get very poor reviews. The device the Gorse Fox chose was an exercise in simplicity. A small carrier holds the chisel while it is moved back and forth across a diamond gritstone. A simple slider sets the correct angle for the chisel in question. Simples.

Threatening

 The weather looked a little threatening when we got up. The Gorse Fox had football scheduled and expected to get wet. The Silver Vixen had a morning with Urban-cub and Ellie in the plan.

The Gorse Fox headed off first and checked in with the lads at Worthing. There were 34 of us today. Ten peeled off to play on the 5-a-side pitch and the rest of us split into 6-a-side teams and played on the big pitches. The team on which the Gorse Fox played didn't look too strong but seemed adequate. We won the first game 3-2. It was only then that one of our team, Mark, admitted he used to be semi-professional in Germany. That explained quite a bit. Teams swapped round and we played our second game. Another win. This time it was 2-1. The final game went the same way. It was very satisfying. The only criticism that the Gorse Fox had was that his other full-back lacked discipline. As a result, he wandered all over the place and the Gorse Fox had to cover for him time and again. 

While this was going on, the Silver Vixen met up with Urban-cub and Ellie. It was time to go and select her school uniform. This was very exciting. Bundles of clothes were chosen for each house, and proper shoes were added to the pile. Skirts, polo shirts, t-shirts, cardigans, and gym shorts found their way into the bag. Ellie was very excited and provided a fashion show when she got back. The Gorse Fox would guess that the real problem will be preventing her from wearing them before school begins.

We have heard that Cousteau-cub has some dental problems at present and is in excruciating pain. She has been along to see a specialist and has some antibiotics to help clear the infection. Only then can they start to look at the root cause of the problem and come up with a plan.

Pottering

 There's little to report. The weather has been warm and sunny, but not as extreme as last week. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox have had a quiet day and just pottered.

The Gorse Fox did finish refining the SketchUp design he had worked on yesterday. He then spent some time trying to determine a sensible bill of materials. This meant trawling through B&Q, Wickes, and Travis Perkins websites. Having got a fairly good idea of what he needed, he then went on round to Wickes to take a look at the timber he had in mind. Would it do the job? Were there any better alternatives? Having got all the information he wanted, the Gorse Fox now has to decide whether or not to create some sacks of sawdust (which is the inevitable outcome of most of his projects). Time will tell.

The forecast for tomorrow seems to involve a lot of rain. The Gorse Fox expects he will get a bit wet playing football.

Hatching

 The Gorse Fox is hatching a new Condor. Delivery dates are now such that he has placed an order and can expect the new chick when we return from our holiday.

Design

It has been a very wet day. Fortunately, there was nothing that required us to leave the house. The Silver Vixen has been beavering away in her sewing room, and the Gorse Fox has been in the study.

The morning was spent delving through the family tree, looking for possible links with Steven. With judicious use of filters, the Gorse Fox has narrowed the possibilities to about 30 people. Whilst interesting, that is not really close enough to be exciting.

The rest of the day has been spent on SketchUp. Unfortunately, this has changed since the Gorse Fox last used it. Whereas it used to be an app on the MacBook and iMac, it is now just a website app, accessed through a browser. This seemed like a retrospective move and caused a fair bit of re-learning. In the end, the Gorse Fox got to the point that he could draw the basics, and that was all he needed to design something for his next DIY project. He now needs to do the estimations for the acquisition of materials.

DNA

This DNA thing can be a bit of a puzzle. Steven has made contact with the Gorse Fox and appears to be a "half 2nd cousin". He is trying to trace back-story as he only found out recently that the man he thought was his father (now deceased)... wasn't. He has two clear links to the Gorse Fox's tree and we are trying to nail down a likely ancestor. There are several problems with this, the most confusing is that he has the same relationship to the Gorse Fox's cousin Bernard - but Bernard is a generation before the Gorse Fox. So this means that he could be related through either a Gt-grandfather or Gt-gt-grandfather.

The Gorse Fox suspects this mystery will run on and on. 

Meeting up

 Well, that was a wet night. The rain hammered down for hours and thunder rattled across the skies. The Gorse Fox was amazed that Ellie slept through it all (he only wished he had). Ellie wandered into our room at 6:30 to tell the Gorse Fox that her light had turned orange and request the iPad. She snuggled down into bed between us and gave us another thirty minutes.

Urban-cub collected Ellie, and then we got ready to go out. We had arranged to meet up with Betty and Barney Rubble for the first time in about 18 months. We pottered off across the country. The roads were empty and we seemed to get there in no time.

It was nice to see them after so long. We settled down for some coffee and biscuits and an initial catch-up. As lunch approached we headed off to The Hoddington Arms at Upton Gray. They were still taking Covid precautions, which was comforting. We signed in and settled down with the menu. It was a little more limited than before but there was still a good choice, We all started with some lovely crispy chicken goujons. For the main dish, the Silver Vixen had beer-battered Cornish haddock and chips and the Gorse Fox had a "Hodd Cheese and Bacon Burger" (he likes burgers, but rarely gets the opportunity to have one). We had a lovely meal with plenty more catching up on all the family comings and goings.

Back at Betty and Barney's, we settled back down with some tea and several hours of chat. We are all up to date on the news, now. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we see them again.

We were home just before 8pm and it was clear that the weather had been significantly better at home than it was in the damp and drizzly Odiham. We opened up the Orangery to let some of the heat (and Jasper) out.

It had been a lovely day.

Apparent Success

 We slept well and had a lazy breakfast. We heard from Urban-cub. Ellie had gone to bed without any issues, slept through, and, on retrieval of the Urban-cub's iPad, went back to her own bed. This sounds like a resounding success. Let's just hope that it is maintained.

Ellie was dropped off with us at lunchtime and will be staying overnight. She was very chirpy and happy playing on her Kindle and her Leapfrog (an educational computer). After some lunch, and to give the Silver Vixen some respite, the Gorse Fox took Ellie to the park. 

We started at the par by the school. It's called the Village Green, but we refer to it as Barton's Park (as it is next to Barton's School). Having exhausted the apparatus there, we then went down to play on the carved tractor.

That didn't last long. The next stop was Lethaby Park where she bumped into a friend, Dylan, from Dizzy Duckling. She played with Dylan and his brother Oliver for ages while the Gorse Fox chatted to their mother.

Eventually, it was time to head back. Ellie was getting a little flushed in the heat and though the Gorse Fox had water with him, it would make more sense to back to the cool house.

The rest of the day has been quiet. Ellie is just getting ready for her bath and bed.

The weather is on the turn and we expect some heavy rain overnight.

Deconstruction

 Ellie was a little disturbed during the night, but despite a 6 am call, she did stay in bed until nearly 7:30. Urban-cub came along to collect her and take her home while the Silver Vixen went off to have coffee with a friend.

the Gorse Fox stayed put and handled the Ocado delivery, then grabbing some tools, he headed around the corner to Urban-cub. We had decided to cut Ellie's bed down to a normal height. Currently, it was more like a top bunk, with room beneath for a chest of drawers and a desk. She, however, doesn't seem to settle there, though she does here. The only noticeable difference is the bed height. We had consulted her first and she was eager that the bed was brought down to the same height as ours.

It didn't take too long. A few measurements, some cut lines with a set square, and a little elbow grease with a Japanese pull-saw and we had the bed at the correct height. The only outstanding issue was the small step-ladder that used to provide access. This was still wanted but clearly had to be cut down to size. This was a little more fiddly but was soon sorted and the steps re-fitted to the bed.

Job done.

The Gorse Fox has had a quiet afternoon at home, working on the family tree.

Goal

It was another super day. Temperatures were forecast around 30C. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. This is what summer should always be like (with overnight rain to keep the gardens watered and healthy).

The Gorse Fox pottered across to Worthing to meet up with the lads for a game of football. There were only 12-13 players today. This made it much more open and though the teams seemed a bit lop-sided, to begin with, it was actually quite close. The game started off at a very slow pace - probably because of the weather. It did, however, pick up as people got used to the heat. At half-time, it was 3-3, but they decided to swap goalkeepers. With Gary, the Powerhouse, out on the pitch, we expected a torrid time. It didn't work out like that. We started to stretch them with our passing and before long we had taken the lead. We conceded, then scored again. The Gorse Fox ventured across the halfway line and with some deft footwork on the edge of the penalty area he smacked the ball into the net. The final score was a  6-5 victory for us.

Urban-cub dropped Ellie off at lunchtime. She will be with us overnight tonight. It was patently clear that Ellie had been in full devil-mode and Urban-cub was struggling to stay calm. She's been pretty quiet most of the afternoon and is now winding herself up into a frenzy ready for bed.

Technician

 It was clear, when Urban-cub arrived, that Ellie had not been on her best behaviour. Once Urban-cub had gone, it took Ellie a little while to settle, but eventually, she did. The Gorse Fox popped out to get some shopping then, while the Silver Vixen got on with some ironing, the Gorse Fox kept Ellie busy with "Eye Spy" and "Hide and Seek".

After lunch, Ellie was eager to have her nails done. The Gorse Fox decided that it was only a fancy kind of painting. He could do this. (Ellie was less sure, but being desperate she played along.

So it was that he raided the Silver Vixen's bathroom cabinet and came down with three distinct colours. He painted one set of nails in a gel pink. The other hand was deep purple, and finally, the toes were pink. The Gorse Fox has clearly missed his calling. Maybe, in retirement, he should become a nail technician.

Later we played with phonics on the iPad. Ellie was very good and recognised many of the basic letters and their sounds. The app also encouraged her to trace her finger around the shape of the letter imprinted on the screen. Again, she was quite competent at this. Urban-cub finished a lot earlier than expected and collected Ellie before six o'clock.

Saving Grace

Worthing We had tickets for a concert. With the change to the lockdown rules this was actually our first opportunity to go out together for the evening and have a bit of fun.

We dropped Ellie off with a friend because Urban-Cub wasn’t finishing work until six. We grabbed some dinner and then headed off to Worthing for the evening. Parking in the multistorey, we wandered along the promenade to the pier. We were a little early for the show so we made the most of it and wandered out onto the pier to look at the artwork and look back across Worthing in the early evening sunshine.

Just after seven we made our way into the Pavilion Theatre and settle down ready for the concert. We noticed that only about 50% of the people who were there had followed the theatre’s requests to actually wear a face mask. We, quite obviously complied. The first part of the concert was an artist called Scott Matthews. He played for about 40 minutes. His music was essentially self-penned songs which he accompanied on a series of guitars. He had a wistful sound to his voice and reminded the Gorse Fox of Roy Orbison. 

There was a short intermission. The Gorse Fox had pre-ordered some drinks, and with our seats near the entrance to the bar, we didn’t have too queue for the refreshments. The Gorse Fox bumped into Kevin from Tuesday’s football while we were there. It occurred to the Gorse Fox that it was 50 years since he had last seen Robert Plant, live. The occasion then coincided with the Silver Vixen’s 18th Birthday Party - which the Gorse Fox missed having Led Zeppelin tickets for the Empire Pool, Wembley on the same night.

The main event started at nine o’clock. By now, the venue was full and the average age of the audience must have been at least 60. The concert was Robert Plant with Susie Dian and their three-piece backing band for a concert known as Saving Grace. Robert Plant explained that this was their first concert back on the road since the beginning of lockdown 19 months ago so we were very lucky to actually be there. It started with three haunting melodies based on traditional folk songs from the Welsh borders and then moved in to a number of songs that hailed from the great American folk tradition including songs from the Apalachian Mountains and some of bluegrass from Kentucky. It really was a brilliant show and you could see that they were really enjoying themselves as the songs followed on. We were so pleased that we spotted when the tickets went on sale and we’re able to get such good tickets only five rows from the front. The show went on for about an hour and three quarters including the encores and even then, one of the encores seem to come as a bit of a surprise to the rest of the band when Robert Plant charged off-stage went and got his harmonica and came back on and told them what to play and off they went again.

As always, good things come to an end and we filed our way out of the theatre and onto the pier. The sight of the moon glistening on the sea with the distant lights of the end of the pier was really quite magical. We made our way back to the car and drove home and we were in soon after 23:30 so it was a good evening overall.

Scorcher

 It's been a bit of a scorcher today, even here at the coast. We had a suitably lazy start to the day and then the Silver Vixen smothered herself in sun cream and headed out to potter in the garden. The Gorse Fox remained in the cool of the study and did some more work on the family tree for a while.

By late morning, the Gorse Fox joined the Silver Vixen in the garden and, mounting the stepladders, he went about dead-heading the climbing rose. There isn't much he's good at in the garden, but cutting into plants is a definitive skill.

We spent The next few hours sitting in the sun and reading. This was only interrupted by the cheerful sound of children playing nearby and a knock at the door that turned out to be Urban-cub, Ellie, the Princess and her children. It was nice to see them after so long... in fact, for the youngest, it was the first time we had seen her. They didn't stay long as Ellie was eager to take them to the park.

Just checking

 The Gorse Fox had the usual cousins' call this morning. It wasn't quite as chaotic as last week and was made fun by setting a theme for the call. Jokes. Each of the cousins on the call had to tell a joke that they particularly like. A vote was held and the best of the jokes was celebrated. The Gorse Fox will not repeat the winning joke here as it was a little close to the knuckle. The joke that the Gorse Fox told was:

I tried giving blood today. Never again! Too many stupid questions. "Who's blood is it? Where did you get it? Why is it in those buckets?"

With the call over, the Gorse Fox donned a hat and mounted the step ladder to pull down all the remaining glass. He was hoping to do it neatly and in a controlled fashion. That didn't work. Three or four minutes later the whole floor was again covered in shards of glass and it took the next forty-five minutes to clear it up.

We had planned a trip to John Lewis. Traffic was kind and the car park relatively empty (quite surprisingly). We needed to get some new covers for our bed and a new pillow. (The Gorse Fox has terrible trouble with pillows and wakes up with a stiff neck and headache if he doesn't get the pillow just right). With suitable selections made, they were locked in the car and the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen went back into the store to look at the iMac. Would it have a sufficient screen size to satisfy the Gorse Fox as a replacement for Condor? The answer was a definite "yes". Now he has made up his mind, he just needs to wait so that the order for the 16GB version can be delivered on our return from holiday. (At the moment the expected delivery date coincides with our trip to Exmouth).

We are just getting ready. We are off to Giggling Squid with the Sonning Crew this evening. This is a celebration of Tinkerbell's birthday (which was last month). We are really looking forward to it - and for Tinkerbell, it will be her first outing for 18 months.

Great start

 It wasn’t exactly a great start to the day. The Gorse Fox cam down to make the coffee and open up for Jasper. As he opened the blinds to the Orangery he realised there was glass on the floor. Tons of it. The floor was coated in small glass shards. One of the roof panels had shattered overnight.

Fortunately it is only the inner panel, so we are still watertight. Other than making the coffee, the first half an hour were spent, with the Silver Vixen, sweeping up the glass.

Graduation

 It was Ellie's last day at Dizzy Ducklings. She was a little bit apprehensive when we set off for school, but was looking forward to the picnic which was scheduled at lunchtime for all of the leavers. 

It had been very well organised with the parents turning up and joining with the children in the little play-park by the school. The Silver Vixen and Urban-cub went along to support Ellie. (The Gorse Fox had agreed to stay behind to take in delivery of the Silver VIxen's new sewing machine). Everyone got on really well and phone numbers were exchanged so that playdates could be arranged for the summer. 

Each of the children was called up for their "graduation" and given a book with key moments from their time at Dizzy Ducklings. That was a lovely touch and though the book was flashed in front of the Gorse Fox, he hasn't had a chance to look through it as yet.

Retirement

 Today is Ellie's last full day at Dizzy Ducklings. Tomorrow, she retires from the said institution and prepares, over the summer, to commence proper school. The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen are not sure she quite understands the significance of this. At present, however, she is very excited by the prospect and, as we pass children from her new school on the development, she points to them and explains that they are her school friends.

The Urban-cub had a bit of a day of it yesterday. She had staff self-isolating, another (fresh back from holiday) who said she wasn't feeling up to it and was sent home, and was at, or below, 50% of her staffing numbers. By the evening, there were just two of them running the whole store. On top of this, they had the big mid-week change around to handle, an alarm going off in the toilets that turned out (once they had forced their way in) to be a woman who had collapsed and was unconscious on the floor and needed an ambulance (which turned up 90 minutes later); and a safe which had a fault in the lock mechanism and couldn't be opened for the day's takings. This last problem required a specialised engineer - who couldn't solve the problem - and eventually several levels of escalation to the head of Lidl in the UK. It was nearly 3 a.m. before Urban-cub got home.

Arms Race

 There is an arms race underway in our house. 

Whilst the Gorse Fox has still to decide on his replacement for Condor (probably a 24in iMac), the Silver Vixen has made her decision regarding the new sewing machine that she has had under consideration. The order is has been placed and a dispatch notification has already been received. Expecting incoming technology tomorrow.

Rescue

 The Gorse Fox has just been called to the rescue. A large spider was marching up and down in the shower where Ellie was about to go. The Gorse Fox had to dispose of it (out the front window) but at least he was able to remove its hobnail boots on the way.

Park life

It was a lovely, lazy start to the day. The sun was shining, and the Gorse Fox had slept particularly well.  Being Wednesday, the Silver Vixen had her Pilates scheduled, and the Gorse Fox was off to football.

Football was less enjoyable today. There seemed to be a lot of niggling arguments going on, and, frankly, the Gorse Fox was fed up with it. As he packed his kit at the end of the match he said he was heading back to the pre-school where he could play with 4 year-olds who knew how to play together better than this lot. We did lose 4-1, but that wasn't an issue - the Gorse Fox is happy to lose when people play nicely and we all try to play good football.

Narked, he returned home and, at the appointed hour, went to collect Ellie. He left the Siver Vixen at home - giving her that extra hour of peace before the 4-year old tornado sweeps in. Ellie was collected and we went across to the park. She played there with her friends for a good half an hour before asking if we could go on home. Off we went, but as we passed another park near Barton's School, she again stopped to play. We finally left the park and headed home to the Silver Vixen.

Draws

The day started bright and sunny. A few clouds decorated the sky, but they were high and puffy white. The Urban-cub dropped Ellie round to us just before 8:30 and we walked her round to Dizzy Ducklings. This is her last week there before the summer holiday and the commencement of proper school.

Once home, the Gorse Fox got ready then headed out for football. When he arrived, he was greeted by the news that one of our Tuesday regulars had tested positive for Covid after last week's game. The Gorse Fox was quite relieved that he didn't play last Tuesday and thus could not have been exposed.  

Today's games were tight. Partially because it was 9-a-side (too many in the Gorse Fox's opinion), and partially because the teams were well-matched. The Gorse Fox settled into his customary position at centre back and marshalled the defence. The first game finished with a 0-0 draw.

The second game was a little more lively. Goals went in at both ends and we finished up with a fair 3-3 draw. The final game looked to be the hardest. We stood firm and again finished with a 0-0 draw. It was immensely enjoyable today (at least it was when we ditched the 3-touch rule).

Back home we collected Ellie and stopped off so she could play in the park. Once home, Ellie seemed to be looking for trouble but we managed to keep things on an even keel until Urban-cub returned to collect her.

Appalling

 The Gorse Fox finds it appalling that abuse has been directed at the three young lads who failed to score their penalties last night. Not so much over their failure to score, but over the colour of their skin. This  is ridiculous and exposes a nasty underclass of racist thugs who inhabit the social media platforms. Interestingly, some of these were clearly launched from abroad, and some seem to be troll-bots.

It is high time the social media platforms took responsibility for their platforms and had investigators who can find the identities of their users and pass them on to the authorities when required. The cowardice of Facebook and Twitter is a lesson on how their greed completely overrides their moral responsibility.

The Gorse Fox thinks that enough is enough and it now time to legislate that they are publishers and are responsible for the content on their platforms.

Penalty

 Well, that was rather disappointing. England lost the Euro finals to Italy on penalties. We have been told that they practice penalties every day. If that is the case, why do some players still think their best bet is to trick the goalie and dink the ball into the net. If you assume that a good professional footballer can hit the ball at up to 80mph, then it only takes half of a second for the ball to cross the goal line. It is likely to take a goalkeeper 6/10ths of a second to get from the centre of the goal to either post. The science says don't dink the ball about - just hit it hard and on target.

(To extend this, most goalkeepers decide early which way they will dive in order to give themselves a chance. Blasting the ball straight down the middle is often the best strategy as the goalie will vacate that spot as he dives).

Finally, if a penalty is saved then you did not miss a penalty. It was saved. If you miss the target, then it is your fault and it is a miss. We only missed one penalty last night... but did have two saved.

Prep

 It has been interesting thinking through the possible replacement of Condor. Newer iMacs have smaller SSDs than the hard drives in the old iMac (unless the Gorse Fox is willing to pay huge sums of money). So he has been asking himself which apps he really needs and whether any can be dropped. Also, which files can be supported on an external drive, instead of the built-in drive. Slowly, a workable plan is coming together. 

Fortunately, the demise of Condor may have been terminal, but the SSD from which the system ran was actually an external drive. It survived and is perfectly accessible. The Gorse Fox also has all of his other backups so is satisfied that nothing will be lost.

Close call

 The Gorse Fox just had a close call. He nearly, accidentally (?) ordered a replacement for Condor. He's wondering if it really is worth waiting for the big-screen iMac replacement, or whether the existing 24inch version would be adequate.

He will think about it some more and try not to accidentally order a new machine until he is convinced. (There's a wait for delivery until mid-August anyway).

Zilch

 It’s been a gloriously lazy day. After a bit of breakfast the Gorse Fox had his customary cousins’ zoom call. This was little chaotic as one had her grandchildren with her and they were intent on showing off, meanwhile her husband tried to open a second zoom device and that started a feedback loop. Hopefully, things will be a little more normal next week.

After that, the Gorse Fox retired to the study and the family tree while the Silver Vixen retired to her sewing room. She is, apparently, researching a possible addition to her stable of thoroughbred sewing machines. The Gorse Fox will leave her to make the decision, but she makes so much use of them that he can see that it would be a good addition.

Back at the family tree the Gorse Fox is trying to find out more information about a cousin who married a Canadian airman, started a family, went to Canada, grew the family, and was unfortunately killed in a road traffic incident. The Gorse Fox has finally found a sliver of new information. He now knows that she went to Canada as part of the Civilian Repatriation programme in 1946 and settled in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Gorse Fox thought this was a major breakthrough and would open up lots more areas of research. Wrong. Despite hours of trawling through records, census returns, and archives he hasn’t found a single additional morsel of data.

In desperation, the Gorse Fox has written to Agent Mulder. He has a vague recollection that he knew one of the family members and may be able to provide a link.

Pinged

 The Gorse Fox woke up to a message from his little sister. "Have you been asked to self-isolate?" Well, no. It appears that they had got up early to meet with some friends and head to the Goodwood Festival of Speed but just as they approached their friends' house they saw they had been pinged by the NHS Covid App and told to isolate for 5 days. That was the end of their trip to Goodwood... but the question was, where was the potential exposure? As we had not been pinged, the assumption had to be that it was the wedding they attended after leaving the hotel last week. (Which was a relief for us).

The Gorse Fox is feeling a bit better today. His appetite is returning and now he just feels as if he has a bit of a cold. Despite this, we contacted Betty and Barney Rubble who we were meant to visit tomorrow and postponed the visit for a couple of weeks.

We did a quick top-up shop this morning, then pottered around at home. At midday, the Red Arrows put on their display over Goodwood, some of which we were able to see from the upstairs windows. Apparently, Ellie and her chums from Dizzy Ducklings were taken out to watch the display. Talking of which, she finished early today at 1 o'clock due to staff sickness. We went along to collect her and gave her some time to let off steam in the park. Pistol Pete will be coming along to collect her later, once the Gorse Fox has given her dinner.

Indefinable

Well, that's a turn up for the book. Last night the England football team beat the Denmark team in the semi-finals of the Euro championship. This put us through to the final and is the first time since 1966 that the England team has got through to a final in a major championship. The impact it has on the country is indefinable. There was a huge outpouring of joy and elation across the country and, best of all, it was a good game (not the usual fare of back passes and lack of ambition). The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were delighted... though the Gorse Fox was still feeling quite rough and found it hard to get over-excited. (Though that could also be sour grapes because he didn't get called up to join the squad).

Talking of feeling rough, he had a dreadful night interrupted by chills, sweats, the odd bought of coughing, and pains in his hips and knees. He checked his watch. In fact, he checked his watch every 15 minutes through the night. The conclusion was that he should take a Covid-19 test. The Silver Vixen had to go to the pharmacy for her tablets so picked up a couple of packs of Lateral Flow Tests.

The Gorse Fox followed the instruction in the YouTube video, and also the enclosed pamphlet. The process was followed to the letter. Thirty minutes later the test was complete. All clear. That was a huge relief. It doesn't get to the bottom of whatever is ailing him but at least it's not Covid-19.

He is still feeling a bit achy and lethargic, so he has had a very quiet day. 

Back in Action

 It was a little damp this morning, but there was no real rain. The Gorse Fox took some stuff round to Urban-cub but as she was taking Ellie by car, he dropped the stuff off and headed home. As he came back he was accosted by a neighbour who wanted to thank him for the defense of the Italian Garden. We had a short chat. He had spoken to one of the protagonists and suggested that the green space at the entrance to the development (outside her house) would make a far better car park. She stormed off in a huff and has not spoken to him since.

The Gorse Fox had football this morning. In a fashion to which he has become accustomed, he found himself on a team that looked destined to be massacred. In fact, he commented that once the opponents had got to 10-0 we should shuffle the personnel. Our yellow team decided to defend resolutely but pass the ball around as much as possible. We scored the first goal, but then the oranges started to get a rhythm and drew ahead. We kept at it and by half-time were only one goal behind. In the second half, our passing was making a difference and a number of timely interventions at the back stopped them from rebuilding their lead. Eventually, we evened things up then pulled ahead. At the final whistle, we were 2 goals ahead. Very satisfactory.

Back home the Gorse Fox has been feeling a little under the weather. In fact, he made dinner for Ellie (who is staying with us overnight) and the Silver Vixen but just limited himself to some toast and honey. Hopefully, he will feel better in the morning. He certainly feels pretty naff at the moment.

Benched

 It was a very wet night. Unexpectedly, we had Ellie with us. She had been unwell yesterday evening and wouldn't settle at home. In the end, she demanded that she should come and sleep with us. She soon settled and other than a couple of trips to the loo during the night, she slept well.

Ellie woke us at about 6:20 but snuggled down in our bed with the iPad. It was still very wet when it was time for Dizzy Ducklings, so we took her round in the car. The rest of the morning was a case of split tasks. The Silver Vixen continued with the washing and started on the ironing. The Gorse Fox prepared a shopping list and headed off to Sainsbury's to fulfill our needs until Ocado deliver on Thursday. (This, of course, meant that the Gorse Fox didn't go to football today. He was, metaphorically, benched by other priorities.)

Once the main chores were cleared he retired to the study. He has received a copy of a remote cousin's obituary from a newspaper in Tacoma, Washington. This was ordered a few weeks ago and turned up while we were away. The Gorse Fox also had to back up all of the photos taken while we were on holiday. This is usually a very quick process that starts with a manual running of a program, then the automatic backup systems take over. With the demise of Condor, this needed some attention. The first part "photofiler" had to be refactored for the MacBook and became "photoharrier".  That is now complete and working rather well as the images are deposited in the new photo library. The Gorse Fox now needs to extend the backup regime he produced a couple of weeks ago to back up the new master photo library to the other NAS devices.

72

 The Gorse Fox should announce that his brother-in-law, Trev, is trying to raise money for Prostate Cancer. (Well, strictly speaking, for research into a cure). In order to raise as much as possible, he and three other nutters are trying to complete 72 holes of golf today... starting at 05:30 this morning and probably playing on until 10:00 tonight.

If you feel able to contribute, then please do go to https://www.justgiving.com/team/BillingbearBallBashers

Catching up

 Toda has been a fairly typical "first day back". Well, let's be clear, it's not like the first day back at work after a holiday where you have to wade through 450 emails to find the one that actually useful or informative. Nor is it a matter of catching up on meaningless teleconferences. No, it's none of these. It's just a matter of sorting out the washing, which the Silver Vixen has done so ably, and catching up on the accounts to assess the hit they took during the trip.

The day did start nicely. It was bright and sunny if a little cool. The Gorse Fox wandered round to meet up with Urban-cub and walk Ellie to Dizzy Ducklings. She was a very chirpy soul this morning. Once back home, we had to go and collect Jasper from his Spa. He had clearly enjoyed his break as he appears to have put on a little weight (but then, haven't we all).

The rest of the day has just been spent pottering.

Seven

 Today it is seven year since the Gorse Fox retired. How much does he miss it? Surely, you are joking!

Home

 We woke up to heavy rain. It was forecast, but even still, it came as a bit of a surprise. We went down to breakfast early, then returned to finish our packing. The Gorse Fox made numerous trips up and down to the car to get it loaded. By the time we left the rain had eased slightly.

We joined the A30 near Bodmin and headed east. The rain came back with vengeance. At times it seemed as if we were driving through a waterfall. We were encouraged by the fact that there were no hold-ups and we were soon slipping onto the M5 and then back onto the A30 towards Honiton. The Gorse Fox had to make a decision before we got to Honiton. Stay on the a A30 and join the A303, of turn off and join the A35 along the Jurassic route. He decided on the latter and as we pulled off we could see a solid queue of stationary traffic on the road we had just left.

The Jurassic route does not lend itself to high speed, but was trouble-free until we approached Bridport where, for no apparent reason, there was a tailback. We cleared it, but then hit a further tail-back at Dorchester. Out ETA had slipped from 1:30 to 2:30. We drove on and approaching Wareham, the SatNav redirected us to avoid what was showing as miles of stationary traffic. We slid onto the detour and missed the problem by driving through Poole, Bournemouth, and Ferndown. It was slow, but steady. Unfortunately, we then caught up with the problems as we approached the A31 and the ETA slipped further. We crawled all the way to the bottom of the M3 but the M27 then opened up a bit. There was a further delay at Portsmouth, and again at Chichester, In the it was 3:15 before we got home. That was 5:38h journey time for 229 miles. Not the best or journeys!

Urban-Cub had prepared a roast for us, so we unloaded the car walked round to her house. We had a lovely lunch and waited until Ellie got back with with Pistol Pete. We were back home just after 6, and than just crashed for the evening

Exploring

With a somewhat iffy weather forecast we decided to do a little touring. We have never visited the area south of St Mawes, St Anthony. We made our way across country, but as we so often find, there was little to see during the journey as the tiny sunken roads were bounded by high hedges.

We arrived at Portscatho, which was the nearest village to St Anthony. We parked up and went for a coffee. Now concentrate, the Gorse Fox is going to tell you a story.

Years ago, the Gorse Fox used to work with Old Father Time and he would tell stories of holidays that he would take down on the Roseland Peninsula at somewhere called Place Manor. He claimed it wasn’t shown on the maps as it was a haunt of Henry VIII who decreed it should remain secret. He would tell of lots of legends involving the location… but the Gorse Fox never managed to find out more. (Though it didn’t help that he had remembered it as Pace Manor).

Leaping forward to this morning the Gorse Fox asked the lady in the coffee shop if she knew of the place. “Oh yes, dear” but she couldn’t answer any questions. “Hold on, I’ll ask” she said. Off she trotted to an elderly workman at the counter. He strolled back and explained “I used to be the maintenance man at Place Manor” and so we had an intriguing 15 minute chat with him, including a recommendation for a book on the subject. This made the Gorse Fox’s day. Finally, he had some corroboration for some of the story that Old Father Time would tell. Later, back at the hotel he found a 45 page pamphlet on a genealogy site which recounted the history of Place stretching back to the Phoenecian tin trade in about 4000BC. It was riveting… and deserves another read.

We finished our coffee and went for a walk around the village and down to the little harbour.

Leaving Portscatho we set the SatNav for Mevagissey. This is another village that we haven’t visited for about 40 years. We managed to pull into the car park despite the crowds. We then wandered through the village and onto the harbour front. We wandered round taking in the views and stopping for a pasty (it has to be done at least once!). As we walked back the promised rain began to fall as a fine mist. It didn’t last, but we did shelter in the car while eating.

Back the the hotel a wedding is in progress. We are avoiding the melee by sitting at the bar near the spa. The Silver Vixen has become engrossed in the tennis (apparently her sister and Beck have tickets for Centre Court today - Gorse Fox suspects she is actually watching for them rather than the tennis).

Play Misty for Me

 It was a very misty start to the day. When we opened the curtains, we couldn’t even see the sea. It’s lifted now, and we can see out to the horizon. The forecast says it will rain all day, but the Gorse Fox suspects that to be wrong. No immediate plans, but may have a drive round to some of our old haunts.

(J&T had a dreadful journey home yesterday so the Gorse Fox is pleased that we decided on Sunday checkout - hopefully it won’t be quite so manic).

Eden

It was a bright start but there was more cloud about. The forecast suggested that it would be overcast all day and the temperatures would not venture above 17C.

We met J&T over breakfast. They were heading home today as they have a wedding to attend tomorrow. We debated possible routes and consulted Google. Being Friday, it was unlikely that any route would be trouble free. It would just be a case of making a decision and remaining patient. We said our goodbyes and headed off to the Eden Project. Our last visit was in 2009 so it would be interesting to see how much it had changed.

The first change was in the parking arrangements. In previous visits we were bussed down from the car park to the visitors’ centre. Not anymore. Now, you walk down a series of zig-zag pathways (and more to the point, walk back up them at the end of your visit). We had a timed entry and were some 30 minutes early, but there was no delay, we were just waved through.

The route from the visitors’ centre weaves across the back of the site and then down through various themed areas. The views and the planting are just super. The Gorse Fox’s camera was clicking away all the way down. When we got to the bottom of the site, we stopped off in the cafe for a coffee before entering the biomes.

The route through the biomes seems to have changed, and is strictly one-way. As you would expect, masks were mandatory, and the visitors seemed to adhere to social distancing and frequently stopped at the sanitisation stations. Whilst recognising that it is 11 years since our last visit, the Gorse Fox was still astounded by how much things had grown in that time. As before, it is the tropical biome that is his favourite.

We crossed the link into the Mediterranean biome and wove our way back and forth. It was the bougainvilleas and the South African grasses that really caught the eye.

A separate company has set up an attraction whereby you can fly over the site on a zip wire. This looked fun and the Gorse Fox was tempted. It was a little pricey, but more importantly you had to pre-book. This is something to keep in mind for our next visit. The Gorse Fox would love to have a go.

We headed back to the hotel. It had clouded over, but we thought we’d sit out on the lawn and read. As we arrived at our sun loungers, an helicopter swept by, turned, and made its way to the landing pad at the back of the hotel. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen watched as it landed, and then as the pilot powered it down. The passengers had no visible luggage so was probably just here for golf or lunch. (How the other half live, eh?).

It got a bit chilly so we headed inside. Soon after, Urban-Cub called so we could chat with Ellie.

Good News

 The Gorse Fox has just heard from our neighbours that the Joni Mitchell project is now dead in the water. Our developer has decided to retain the leasehold for all of the green areas on the development and will prevent any change of use. They can no longer “pave paradise to put up a parking lot”.

What was once lost

There was a slightly overcast start, but it was warm and the forecast was good. We had decided that we would visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan. It was November 2004 when we last visited (right at the start of this blog). It would be interesting to see how they had changed over the years.

We headed off in convoy. The SatNav in the Skoda seemed to be in a mood for pranks and obfuscation. It started by directing us down a dead-end road and at the bottom told us to do a U-turn. That was a good start. It then took us down some tiny lanes as we found the most obscure way to get to the Gardens. (The Gorse Fox hadn’t realised that was one of the settings for navigation; maybe it was having difficulty with finding something said to be Lost).

The car park was already very busy, but we went through to the gardens and despite the numbers, it seemed almost empty. We began by taking the woodland walk round the perimeter of the property. The strange heads and bodies formed in the ground have now matured, but still catch your eye as you go past. We looped back along the Butler’s Walk, but due to warnings of the steep paths, we didn’t venture down to the Jungle Walk.

The tree canopy was lush and some of the views were glorious as we peered across deep valleys and across open meadows. It was a perfect walk for refreshing the soul.

As we looped back, we stopped for a coffee at the Steward’s House. For Covid they had adopted a double-queue system. First you queued to place your order and pay, then you dropped to the back of the collection queue to await the arrival of your order (in strict sequence). It was a good idea but didn’t really work very efficiently, mainly because there were insufficient people helping in the small kitchen.

We moved on to the walled gardens and the greenhouses, then on to the Italian Garden.

This was fairly busy, but remained quite tranquil. Finally, we arrived at the gift shop. This is where we parted company with J&T as they had to get back for some spa treatments. 

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox stayed put and examined the wares available in the gift shop (including a £50 bottle rum - yes , that’s £50 for 50cl of rum). Now, we like rum. We don’t, however, wish to purchase the distillery. The bottle remained on the shelf.  

Escaping the shop we settled down in the restaurant for a cream tea before returning to the hotel.

We have spent the afternoon soaking up the sun on the lawns. It was much quieter today as the Duchess of Edgbaston was obviously out and about tormenting other people.  A waiter wandered back and forth with pots of tea, glasses of rum, and glasses of phillistine and tonic(*).

(*) The Gorse Fox likes a gin and tonic, particularly on hot days (keeps the malaria at bay, don’t you know!). He is not, however, a connoisseur and has never really got into these trendy new gins. When ordering he admitted to being a phillistine, and just wanted an ordinary Gordon’s or the like. Over the week, this has now just become known as phillistine and tonic.

Stitch Witch

 Some of you may remember the Gorse Fox speaking of the Stitch Witch and her recent accident whereby she fell off her broomstick and broke her ankle. It may equally have puzzled you as to how such an innocuous mode of transport could cause such an accident. The Gorse Fox would like to enter into evidence a photo, taken today, of a Witches Broomstick.

As you can see, this is a top-of-the-range model, but a fall would be quite serious. The showroom brochure for this is attached below.