Between the Grind

Ah the short break in-between ‘the grind’s’ shifts, how time crawls by whilst awaiting it and how the damn thing flies by once arrived. Sometimes it goes by in a blink of an eye with me feeling that I have achieved nothing in it’s short span but I’m doing my best now to continue down this trail I’ve chosen and part of this is to use every available minute to improve the way we do things with the intention of leading that simpler, less harmful lifestyle that I want.

Yesterday is usually write off day for me, having got home at 7am after the last 12hr shift of the rota I’m up at 10am and woe betide anyone who thinks that they’ll receive a cordial answer from this sore headed bear (Clare’s words, not mine). But this time I pushed my aching bones and fuzzy head and made the effort. Deliberately leaving the fun cruisers keys upon the rack I gathered up Lucy and headed out for a suburban walk. We headed out of suburbia to the closest fields with a serviceable path around them, this route takes you past one of Buckley’s lovely landmarks, the sewage works, oh the sweet perfume that just fills your nostrils here, almost chewable!.

But that’s not really fare; the walk through the suburban surrounded fields was far from devoid of life with many plants coming into their own along the uncultivated edges and was far richer in animal sign that I would have thought possible (even if some of it was slightly dead).

The walk did the trick raising my pulse and my spirit, the rest of the afternoon was taken up with harvesting some of our home grown vegetables, yep that’s right in amongst some of the gardening disasters, through mainly a grease monkey’s ignorance, there were some tasty bits and pieces to be had, which has increased our determination to learn more and grow more next year (still some things to try this year as well). As well as this I carried out the weekly maintenance upon our aquarium and cooked a rather splendid supper of gammon n pineapple accompanied by our potatoes and runner beans. I don’t know but the taste of that home grown produce was way better than shop bought, call me smug but I think that’s one up for the simple life.

So onto today, having cleared my list of chores (yes Rob, Clare’s still the boss) it was hiking time. The trials were far cooler than usual with the last few days given us the equivalent of a months rainfall the trails were wet n sloppy, now I wonder if any of you could hazard a guess as to what ‘she who swims with bugs’ made of the conditions underfoot?

Mmmmm no surprises there then, the recent rain has transformed the edges of the trails with all the flora doing it’s damndest to be part of the high summer display.

There also sign that the fauna has become more active with the recent deluge, from sign of a kill, possibly stoat with the way the feathers appeared bitten off rather than stripped out to silver fir cones (I think) been set upon by grey squirrel.

We return home to couple of deliveries that should enhance the food growing in the future, a couple of unwanted composters and two industrial barrels now to become water butts (free to a good home), the larger of which I plumbed in to the shed guttering.

With time running along I gave in to the modern life (curse my weakness), and slipped out for a takeaway, and on returning was greeted by one more delivery; a well received gift from good neighbours upon their return from holidaying down south.

To round off the day I started listing again on e-bay to obtain some much needed readies so that further projects can be financed (The dinghy is high on that list) and wrote this post. Tomorrow? I hear you enquire with your breath held, well that’s simple; cutting paving slabs for ‘Old string vest’ and then an afternoon of fishing at The Mount, sometimes life can smile on me.

Oh and the evening has not yet come to an end just yet, there several cans of fridge cooled Boddingtons draught bitter to be consumed (sell by date is up next year so best not take any chances eh?). It just gets better and better....

Thank you for reading thus far,

Your friend,

John.

Footnote; for those of you who may be a tad worried that I have a slight drink problem I do:- one mouth and two hands (come on think about it), other than that I drink, I become drunk and then I fall down, honestly it’s no problem – cheers

Footnote 2; just popped to the kitchen for a refill (please children do not drink and type) and Clare is on the phone to a work colleague who’s enquiring if we would like to take on an unwanted dog – watch this space, you just don’t know what’s around the corner!

A step on the right path..

Afternoon all, just a quick post to show you that mine and Clare’s humble attempts at fishing are improving with each attempt. As mentioned in an earlier post we joined Warrington AA whilst visiting the Cheshire show last month. The advantage of joining Warrington AA for us was that it offered us a secure local place to fish. Within the spirit of my previous post I’m trying to change the path that I’m walking in this life and with this in mind I’ve been trying to source waters to fish within walking or cycling distance to home, rather than use the fun cruiser, so lessoning its impact (however little). Basically speaking within this ‘no fun cruiser’ distance there are four fishable areas which consist of; ‘The Trap’- an over fished and expensive place to do so, ‘The Common’- free fishing slap in the middle of Buckley where your more likely to suffer alcoholic fuelled abuse and aggression than catch fish, ‘The Globe’ – free and on the out skirts of town but overfished to a massive degree and more the preserve of carp anglers and their quest for ‘the big one’ and that leaves us with ‘The Mount’- a long disused quarry consisting of three pools offering three completely different fishing adventures. ‘The Mount’ is fenced off and access is only by being a member of Warrington AA and then obtaining the necessary key for the gates. 

We’ve used the fun cruiser for the first couple of visits, one a look see after first joining and the second to actually fish there. The out come of having two lots of fishing gear is that now I’m required to fashion a trailer to tow behind my bike (this looks like the rotund Welshman may not be rotund for much longer!).

And so to the fishing, we decided to fish one of the smaller pools upon the advice of an angler we met whilst surveying the pools. The large lake being the ex quarry with a sharp drop off to very deep water. This would possibly be beyond our skills at the moment so we followed his advice and set up on the smaller water. First thing to say is discovering such an oasis for wildlife right in on our doorstep (ok so our doorstep is two miles long!) is remarkable, you just would not know that the area is surrounded by suburbia.

And the fishing was not two bad either; here are just a few pictures of the fish that graced our nets.

Highlight though was the young Robin using my ledger rod as a perch from which to steal maggots and a hen Blackbird constantly coming back and forth to Clare’s peg, obviously with a late clutch to feed.

So when all’s said and done I’ve managed to still go fishing and at the same time made the tiniest step on the new trial that I’m hoping to stick to.

Take care for now, your friend,

John

The trail ahead.....

It has been what only can be described as a dark time for me lately; my thoughts have been tinged with the morose and with an enveloping sense of uselessness. As I gazed at and took stock of my time on this living sphere that we humans call earth I doubted that the last forty five years has made any difference to, well to anything. The world still seems to be slowly spinning to its death with all its life strangled and bled away by the parasite that is the human race. What you think that I exaggerate? just take a look at two pictures, taken twenty years apart, of the dark side of the earth and tell me that spread of ‘civilisation’ shown by the lights of human occupation is not very similar to the spread of bacteria in a laboratory phial! I let these thoughts cloud my vision, making me retreat into a shell of inactivity thinking what’s the point? After all I go to work, the grind, to earn enough money to buy food and material goods with no idea from whence they come or the effect of their production has on mother earth, after all everyone else does the same don’t they? So why should I be any different? Why should I care? What differences can one, slightly rotund, individual make? So what’s the bleedin point? Oh sure I’ve still functioned; work, eat, sleep, take Lucy out, say ‘I love you’ to Clare and then back to work yep I’ve functioned, hell fire what more could you want from me? I’m just doing the same as always, the same as everybody else, just waiting to die after living an average life and using the life and spirit of mother earth to fuel it without the scantest regard of what I leave behind me, hey the earth gets me body back in a box don’t it? So we must be even hey?

BOLLOCKS

I’ve gazed back on the first forty five years of my life and I’ll be damned if I’ll let anybody tell me that there has been no point to it. Sure I’ve done my share of hurt to mother earth, yes I’ve caused pain and suffering to people, some who love me, some who despise me, some who don’t even know me and others who couldn’t care less, yes I’ve killed fellow animals and snuffed their life out not for the table but for the hell of it and now this fact hurts me more that the pain I cause any human! Yes the list of shit against me is a big one but I can say one thing and that is at least I’ve learnt from my past mistakes. Don’t get me wrong I ain’t asking for a pat on the head and to be told ‘well that’s ok then’, bugger that, I’m just saying that in the past I have done some (oh ok a lot of) bad things but at least I understand now the effects upon everything around me that they have had. Yes I work and grind in a factory to buy my and mine lives; food, clothes etc without appreciating the effects of where this stuff comes from, but I’ve provided a life for me and mine using the best tools available to me so don’t you go telling me that I’ve been wrong, the only thing that I’ve been wrong about is the fact that I can’t make a difference or change mother earths decline. All the mistakes and some good decisions (well I’m not a total idiot) in my life have made me who I am and when I look at myself without the gloom I’m not a bad person, just one whose followed the status quo of the pack and not brave enough to challenge it.

From what I can see the earth would be a far better place without humans so option one would be to shoot everyone. Then again that might not be the most practical solution after all, have you seen the price of ammunition these days? Then there’s airfares to consider, accommodation arrangements, passport control, toilet facilities, booking time off work (though I could take a couple of sick days I suppose) oh the list’s just is never ending! Seriously though, there are so many changes that I can make; from work to what I eat, from how I travel to well to many aspects of my life. It’s just a matter of taking the first, small, steps that will challenge the status quo and make the smallest of differences and then taking bigger steps to more change and hoping that others will follow in some small way. It’ll not be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is (oh ok cleaning Lucy after a walk ain’t too hard). I just don’t want the next forty five years to cause me as much doubt as the last lot has. Well I’ll step down off me pedestal now and thank you for your indulgence in at least reading this far. I won’t blame anyone who are thinking that I’m becoming a little up my self in my postings lately and knocking off that ‘follow’ button, but sometimes, no all the time, I find it far easier writing my feelings down as I have extreme problems in actually just sitting down and having a discussion which leads to many issues unresolved (just ask Clare), so for me this blogging is a revelation where I can put shape and form to my feelings. I hope that you’ll indulge me in the future and also help and teach me upon the trail that I’m trying to follow from now on. There are some, via their cyber scribing, that already have hung the lights showing me part of the trail ahead and to those I thank you. A trail that I hope will lead me to a much simpler life and one that will go a little way in repairing the damage done thus far, by myself and by my fellow humans. My postings may well change to accommodate this new trail, but hell hopefully it’ll still keep you entertained and raise a smile to your lips when you’re feeling low.

There’s little else to be said for the moment except a thanks to Casey who’s fast becoming a firm friend for life and a couple of words to Clare, my wife and soul mate;- I love you more than you’ll ever know.

Thank you all for your indulgence, your friend,

John

Time

Good afternoon all,
Just the quickest of posting to let you know that I'll probably not be commenting or posting within the next week or so. So please don't think that I'm neglecting my blogging duties or that I've forgotten you all. It's just that things have been a tad hectic around here with one thing and another and I'm just taking some time out to reassess some aspects of my life. Nothing to serious or dramatic (I Hope) but it's just something that requires doing. I'll pop in a couple of times (hopefully) and soon (within a week a so) it'll back to full steam ahead. Till then take care.
Your friend,
John

Pompous git? My arse!

Now I was going to call this post something deep and eloquent along the lines of ‘after the rain has passed’ or ‘the woodland thirsts no more’ you know the sort of thing, something that draws the reader towards my carefully crafted words desperate to know more and quench their thirst for knowledge and to be able to dwell upon deep, sweeping and evocative paragraphs of joyous reading coupled with wildlife pictures beyond compare. And then I took the bog monster out for a walk, bugger!

It started off o so well, Clare woke me up as she was readying herself for work with a steaming mug of tea as I lay in that blissful state between dreams and wakefulness. I really had no need or urgency to stir, but the crisp, cool scents that wafted through open bedroom windows told me that the last couple of weeks of baking sun had been alleviated by rainfall during the night. I meandered from the bedroom to be greeted by a very excited Lucy, you’d have thought that time had rolled back and I had a mere pup to take to the forest such was the way her whole body twisted from side to side with every sweep of her frantically wagging tail. I took time to prepare myself a complex and nutritious breakfast (cornflakes, sugar and hot milk) and perused some blogs whilst I downed my second mug of tea, as you know by know this is necessary for me to function upon all cylinders. Then we were off, the windows of the fun cruiser fully open allowing the rush of rain freshened air to lift our spirits and soak our senses, I just love rain and the air following after a long, hot and dry spell.

We arrived at the trail head nice and early with the dawn chorus just petering out, and I strode out full of expectation for the wildlife that I would see and photograph for this evenings posting, hell I’d even thought of the blog title. Oh it was going to be so good; instead of just the flora of the woods I was going to bring you pictures of the vast and interesting fauna which had eluded my shaky camera work so far, it was indeed going to be a posting beyond compare. Er did I happen to mention that Lucy was along for the ride? I did? Bugger.

We’d looped around the trig point and were heading back down towards the dark canopy of old pines trees, Lucy had rushed on ahead obviously hoping that one of her favourite pits had been replenished by the evening’s rain, when movement from left to right across the trial’s floor caught my eye. I slowed my paced and edged closer to the small mammal carefully sniffing its way across, a common shrew! Not that bleedin common as this was the first live one that I’d seen in many years. I crept on further  lowering myself down as I neared the beast (oh come on some poetic licence can be allowed), he paused as he neared the beginning of his tunnel like run into the undergrowth, I raised the camera and slowly depressed the shutter button. Now depressed is the key word here, for as I activated the camera at the precise same point in space and time the bog monster pushes past me intent on finding out why her master (yeah right o) was teetering on the edge of the undergrowth. Now if you look very carefully at the resultant picture’s lower half you can see the backside of mister shrew as he bolts hell for leather down his tunnel, bugger.

Mmmm never mind, so we strolled on awhile edging the forest hoping for a shot of one of the buzzards that I know use this tree line to spy out the more open ground.

 As I glanced down the trail a noticed a butterfly alight in one of the morning’s rare patches of sunlight, managed to take a rather shaky shot of what turns out to be a Red Admiral.

As I was just starting to feel better about the day the hound of the mire steamed passed me covering me and camera with splattering of what I can only hope was just mud. The damn thing is, as I shut down the little photographic device to gently clean away the alien substance a buzzard, not three yards down the trail swept upward and away off the trial floor, its wings making a powerful wumpimg noise (it’s the best word I could think of) as it fought to gain altitude. A truly impressive sight, equally impressive was the speed with which Lucy turned tail and headed for perceived safety behind my legs! Did I mention that I was cleaning Lucy’s detritus off my camera at this point? I did? Bugger.

So with a slightly cheated feeling I turned into the canopy of pines trees with the feeling that this was perhaps not going to be a national geographic prize winning piece of literature after all! We wound our way through the woods besieged upon all sides by the fresh smells that only long awaited rainfall can bring, also everything looked fresher, more vibrant and my grumblings at the bog monster were soon wafted away.

From the corner of my eye I spotted a large, and I mean large, moth alight upon the trunk of a nearby pine. As soon as it had landed it vanished, its camouflaged wings so perfect that unless I’d seen it land there would not have been a snowball’s chance in hell of me spotting it. Keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the landing spot I edged towards the tree and when I got to a couple of yards away the outline of the moth could be seen, I raised the camera and decided to move to within a couple of feet knowing that the moth would not budge, confident in its own invisibility. Being this close I think that the moth is one called a Red Poplar Underwing (though it might have been Eric) as a tiny slither of red from its secondary wings could just be made out. I raised the camera but then had to reset it to macro mode as I was now within touching distance of the moth, I raised the camera once more…. Thwack or similar loud noises when your beloved pet runs behind you, large stick in mouth smashing it precisely into the bend behind your knees, I hit the ground like a sack of spuds, dropping the camera and uttering oaths and expletives that I’d not use in the work place let alone here on my blog for you sensitive readers to be aghast at, bugger. I dragged myself from the bracken, checked the camera was ok and then glanced about with retribution in my mind for the one from the bog. I didn’t have to look far (‘bout 2 feet) to be greeted by Lucy looking up at me in such a way I could only laugh, laugh at my own pompousness and laugh because that’s what friends do together.

I pounced upon her, rubbing her flanks, pulling her tail and just generally messing her up, in return she happily slobbered all over me and licked my ears. If anyone had seen us that have probably called for the men in white coats, me and Lucy? well we just carried on playing and laughing. We tramped on through the rest of the walked pausing frequently to chase each other or play fight with Lucy launching herself at me with ever increasing run ups.

We took some time out so that I could take some arty type pictures, trying to catch how fresh the day felt, but I’m not arty nor am I a great writer but nor am I a fool nor pompous and  one thing I am not when out there with loopy Lucy, I’m not alone.

Thanks if you read my ramblings to the end.

Your friend,

John