Selina is back from Liverpool having finished her third and final year at Liverpool.
Category Archives: Buckinghamshire
Laying stepping stones
This weekend was wonderfully warm, so much so we were able to sit out in the garden late Sunday evening eating our barbequed Herrings and sausages. The sunset was magnificent, so much so I ran to the house to get the camera and photo the sun as it dipped below the horizon.
Spent much at Bloomes and Homebase buying bits for the garden, and then mowing the lawn, and laying stepping-stones to the hot tub. We have at last removed the atrocious pallets we laid around the hot tub as temporary decking. It is now back to grass and stepping-stones to gain access.
Several drinks in the Plough and Anchor with friends on the Friday and Saturday.
Bird song day
A three-day holiday, but what horrible weather. Rained all day on Saturday, Rosemary went to visit her parents, I did Tescos and installed a wireless link at the neighbours so they could access the internet through our broadband. The took us our for a meal at the Pheasant in Brill.
Ah Saturday, up at 3:45 to meet up with some other lunatics at Finemere wood to hear the dawn chorus. I have never heard so much noise from a group of people trying to keep quiet. People should not wear all those expensive Gortex jackets. Hey a quite fleece was all that was needed on this rainless warm early morning. We heard some birds, (too numerous for me to name) and then had a walk around in the light to see the bluebells. Finished off with a bacon roll and then back to the house by 8.00 for the rest of the day. This was organised by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. Finemere wood is about two miles from us. Though we have never walked through it, we have often visited the pond near by.
A little git of gardening in the afternoon while the weather was fine.
Sunday started off wet and miserable, so a day in front of the PC I think. Maybe a quick visit to the P&A in the evening to sort out the Tug of War.
A warm weekend
The whole of the weekend was warm and sunny and windless. Not a paragliding weekend. Spent most of the time the time gardening, mowing the lawn and burning a lot of old hedging.
Rosemary spent Saturday on a pond-dipping course organised by Bucks CC as part of their “Ponds, Pools and Puddles” survey . She met experts on Dragonflies, Amphibians, Caddis flies, Hover flies and other horrible things, which lurk in ponds.
Broadband has arrived
We are now broadband enabled. Today we plugged the computer into the fast lane. What a difference in speed. No long waits while Peters emails with pictures download. Not having to dial up to connect. I can now download large files and not be that much older when they have finished downloading.
I am just going up the road to take down our campaing boards and thermometer.
I signed up with a company called Plusnet. The install was easy, their website showed where the current status of the install was. Click and the image below and get a broadband connection with Plusnet. You know it makes sense.
Broadband Date
Grendon Underwood has a Ready For Service Date set for Broadband of March 24th. So at last we can join the Internet Revolution
Pond survey
In the morning we set off to survey some of the ponds in the Grendon Underwood parish. This is part of council run biodiversity initiative. We planned to visit five ponds on a walk to the highest and furthest point of the parish, Finemere Hill. All the ponds, bar one were now overgrown and contained mature trees. It was obvious they had been ponds, but were no longer ponds. At Finemere Hill there was a very nice pond, about 20 meters in size. It had been used by cattle for water, as there was a slope down into the pond for that purpose.
Afterwards it was back home for a BBQ and wine in the Garden.
Kingswood and Wotton Tug of War
Monday we had the tug of war over Tetchwick Brook between Wotton Underwood and Kingswood. We had lovely weather and a good turn out for the match.
Kingswood men won their match winning 2 pulls to Wotton’s 0.
Kingswood women lost to Wotton, despite their win on the first pull, which was disqualified when a count shouted 12 Kingswood women and only 8 Wotton women.
Kingswood Juniors won their match 2 pulls to 1.
Wotton provided an endless BBQ of burgers and sausages, which never seemed to stop. Kingswood provided the bar of Hook Norton beer, wine and various other liquids.
Thanks to all the people who organised this event: George Stanton for getting the beer & for organizing the Aunt Sally; Austin Lovell for umpiring the tug of war; Annie Stanton, Graham and Fran for running the bar; the wonderful work put in by the Wotton team on the BBQ and the two field owners who valiantly lent their fields and moved the livestock out.There was a free for all Welly Wanging match, while Austin organised a race for the children across the Brook, round a tree on the far-side and back. The children all arrived back unbelievably muddy and wet, some of the small ones were still scrambling up the sides of the opposite bank when they were overtaken by triumphant returning competitors.
Afterwards we had a buffet supper of cold display plus Thai chicken curry in The Plough and Anchor provided by landlord Paul Ring. A lovely end to a great Bank Holiday.
The Bank Holiday Weekend
This weekend and Bank holiday we basically stayed at home.
The Sunday was the return of the Welsh, (St Brides Major) clay shoot. They arrived at 11.30 and shot the 80 bird layout. After the shoot, there was lunch and much beer and wine. The result, we beat them on the day, but they won the whole overall shoot by six shots. When you think each of us need only have scored half a shot more to win, then you can see how close it was.
The Monday we ran a shoot for the Grendon Underwood football team. There was a lot of set-up and clearing up at the end. I had to show most of the shooters how to handle and shoot with a shotgun. They, never having shot before.
Kingswood Clay and Rough Shoot Club BBQ
Saturday was the day for the KCRC BBQ. Had a clay shoot late afternoon. Rather pathetic score from me. Then a BBQ hosted by Pete Sherrif, of burgers, steak and sausages. Lots of beer and wine.
Afterwards a game of aunt sally and a large scale game of Jenga