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.