John Turner's Ramblings

Gas Boiler

2009-06-30T22:52:00.009+01:00

We knew for some time that we had an inefficient Boiler, which was costing us dearly, especially during the winter months. We therefore decided to have it replaced with one that is over 90% efficient instead of around 75%. This is now fitted and we have had it boxed in so that, approximately, the units match. Three photos show the relative stages.

Old Boiler

New Boiler

New Boiler - Boxed

Jane McDonald

2009-06-12T07:55:00.013+01:00

Maria, Annette and I recently went to see Jane McDonald at the Hall for Cornwall. The show was excellent with plenty of songs, mixed up with some comedic stories including plenty of references to "Loose Women". As backing, there were a musical director/keyboard player, a brass section of three, two guitarists, a drummer and three backing singers so plenty of noise. The theatre was almost full with the only two empty seats that we could see being right next to us. Speaking of seats, I must remember not to buy seats less than 10 feet from the speakers! I know that I am old, but I still like to guard my hearing.
As asides, I have two little stories associated with the audience members. When we were passing through the ticket checks, an elderly woman, using a wheeled walking aid, arrived very slowly and asked the ticket check lady for assistance to reach her seat; this happened to be almost immediately in front of us. The front of house manager duly arrived and she was helped to her seat. Very good of the theatre to be so concerned you might think! The trouble was that towards the end of the performance, this same woman suddenly got out of her seat unaided and got down to the stage rail and promptly jigged around quite happily.
The second story is about the woman immediately in front of me. She was very noisy and was obviously a great fan of Jane. I am not sure what was in her water bottle but, by the time the second half came around, she was, to put it politely rather sozzled. So much so that, at one stage, she slumped in her seat, leaned her head back onto my knee and fell asleep briefly! Sorry, I cannot understand the wish to pay good money to see a live concert and then not know what is going on. As Sir Terry would say "Is it me?"
Never mind, we all enjoyed ourselves, would recommend the show and would go again if we had the chance.

June

2009-06-05T08:47:00.008+01:00

May is over and June has started with a blast of Summer weather that has seen us having more barbecues in a week than we had in the whole of last year.
The foxes seem to have left us now so here is a last photo of all of the cubs, taken with a borrowed 35mm camera.
We have been watching the weather forecast keenly over the last few days, waiting for the news that it is going to rain. Well today, Friday, was the appointed date and, as today is the middle day of the Royal Cornwall Show, it seemed reasonable to assume that the rain would duly arrive. For that reason, I spent five hours yesterday cutting grass so that the rain would refresh everything and I wouldn't cause the grass to burn to a straw colour. Guess what? Today has dawned bright and sunny and the latest weather forecast suggests that we may get a shower tomorrow or Sunday!

More Foxes

2009-05-17T14:17:00.006+01:00

The latest count is five cubs and they are certainly having a boisterous time in the field, although they do stay remarkably close to the boundary fence.
The following is a short video of them playing, well, four of them.

Fox Update

2009-05-15T15:15:00.005+01:00

After not seeing the foxes for the last 24 hours, mother and cubs came out to play today at about 13.00. They are too far away for really good photos but here are a couple taken after the mother had chased off one of the remaining rabbits!

New Wall - Build Complete

2009-05-15T07:40:00.006+01:00

The good news is that Chris has completed the building part of the new wall. The bad news is that our bank balance is a little smaller! Here are the before and after photos:

It is now up to me to do some tidying up, which includes the redistribution of the pile of earth that can be seen. I have a use for some of the rocks, but the rest will go at a later date as payment for the use of the digger that Chris borrowed.

13th May

2009-05-13T19:40:00.006+01:00

51 years ago today, I joined the Royal Air Force as an Air Electrical Apprentice in the 89th Entry at RAF Halton. How I came to join is a little story in itself so for anyone that doesn't know, here is the way it went.
I was in the Lower 6th at St Bede's Grammar School in Bradford, studying for my 'A' Level GCEs, having not done very well, but just well enough, in my 'O' Level GCE's. I was studying Maths, both Pure and Applied, and Physics. Unfortunately for me, I suffered Appendicitis just as the September Term started and spent 10 days in Bradford Royal Infirmary. This put me back in my studies and, coupled with wanting to spend more time with my girlfriend than doing homework, I never recovered. A secondary reason was the inability of my Maths teacher to be able to teach me. Mr Charlie O'Dowd was his name and he was undoubtedly a very clever man but somehow he could not get through to me. I put up with the situation until some time just after my birthday (I cannot remember exactly when) and then I decided to leave school. The problem was that I conveniently forgot to tell either the school or my poor parents. I simply went out of the door in the morning and came home at the appropriate time in the evening. The funny thing is that I cannot remember what I did all day or for how long I played truant. Eventually my parents found out and my Pop went to see the headmaster, Monsignor Sweeney, who told him that I had reached the level of schooling that I could attain.
So, now what to do? My Pop suggested that I might like to join the RAF, following in his footsteps, and, as that seemed like a reasonable idea, I went down to the RAF Careers Office in Bradford and told them that I wanted to join as an Apprentice (Pop, quite rightly, thought I should have a proper trade). The Careers Office staff thought that, as I was over 17, I should wait until September and then join in Men's Service and be paid the full rate; being an Apprentice did not seem a good idea to them. When I told this to Pop, he went ballistic and promptly wrote to someone in RAF recruiting, probably an Air Vice Marshall, which prompted a request for me to attend RAF Halton for a medical and interview. Having attended that, and obviously passed, I was required to attend again in May and consequently signed on 13th May 1958.

Fox Cubs

2009-05-12T19:51:00.007+01:00

Today has been an interesting day. I was busy doing some gardening and dog sitting. As Tia and I were walking back from a visit to the top field, I heard a rustling in the ground behind the hedge in the bottom field. As I walked across the field, thinking that I would see one of the local farmer's Jack Russells, two Fox Cubs appeared about twenty yards away. They didn't stay long before disappearing back into the wilds. I walked back to the house to get my camera and decided to get the dogs back in the house. As I got the dogs in, one of the Cubs appeared back in the field and Maria, Annette & I spent quite a long time watching him/her before he/she disappeared again, to be seen climbing up the hillside and playing with the second cub. I did get a photo of one in the field, but could really do with a real camera with a telephoto lens for this sort of work. Anyway, here is the long distance shot and a photo, taken a little later, of Tia on guard.

Top Garden Wall continued

2009-05-09T06:51:00.012+01:00

Work on the wall has progressed, albeit somewhat erratically. The May Bank Holiday, some bad weather, a collapsed drain and some plastering have all interrupted work, however the next week should see the completion. The main part is complete now, with just the short stretch below the new gate and above the rockery to be finished.

I should explain that the collapsed drain was not ours. It occurred on a Static Caravan Park in Newquay and Chris went off to do a couple of days digging and fixing. The plastering was a job that Chris knew about before he started here; it was just a case of finding a suitable time to do it.

End of Day 4 - New Gate Entrance

End of Day 5 - Field Side

End of Day 5 - Garden Side

End of Day 6 - Garden Side

End of Day 7 - Garden Side

End of Day 8 - Garden Side

End of Day 9 - Rockery

Top Garden Wall

2009-04-29T21:12:00.028+01:00

Ever since we moved into Roseveare House, the top garden has been a cause of concern to me in that it is very difficult to look after properly. As can be seen in the previous Post, the lower section is starting to take shape but the top end, which is virtually all grass and Griselinia hedge, remains a shambles. There are three fruit trees, which would appear to have little or no chance of ever bearing a decent crop so I need to make a decision on them in the near future.
One of the main problems, however, has been access. To cut the grass, I have to lift the mower or make a ramp up the wall; to get rid of garden refuse I have had to lift it and throw it over the "Cornish Hedge" into the trailer. The "Cornish Hedge" itself has partly collapsed and is very difficult to keep looking tidy. For these reasons, we decided to have the wall rebuilt properly and a 4 ft gate put in between the lawn and the field. That work has now been going on, in between showers, for about six days now so I thought that it was about time to show the world what has been done.
The first two photos show the wall as it was and the succeeding ones show the progress.

I mentioned, in a previous Post, a Gorse Bush, well, these photos show where it was; unfortunately it had to go although the roots remain so there is a possibility that we will get some new growth in the future.

End of Day One

End of Day Two

One of the problem rocks that Chris had to deal with - compare it with the size of the wheelbarrow!

End of Day Three

That's all for now; more pictures later.

Conifer Area

2009-04-26T09:36:00.013+01:00

Our long term plan, as has been said before, is to make our garden as easy to maintain as possible. I quite like cutting grass; I find it therapeutic for some reason and like to view the results. Maria particularly likes "stripes" on the front lawn. The grassed area to the top of the drive contains a variety of conifers of differing sizes and to cut around them is a nightmare. One of the tasks I set myself after returning from holiday, was to make this area easier to look after and so I have cut a border next to the wall and around all the conifers. I had considered another area of chippings similar to that in the front lawn but Maria wants to try it this way. The photographic evidence is not easy to see but the following two photos do give some idea of what I have done so far.

Before

After

If you look carefully, you will see a couple of newly planted Rhododendrons; the hole for one of those I had to dig using a clump hammer and wrecker bar! The sub-soil around here is fierce stuff and if the house is built on this, then there is little chance of it ever falling down!

Roseveare in Bloom

2009-04-26T07:34:00.021+01:00

As anyone who has ever visited us here in Gothers will know, our garden is usually a collection of different shades of green. The garden was planted with a large variety of different shrubs with a view to ease of maintenance. During the Spring, however, we do get some colour from the daffodils and various other plants so I thought that I would just show a few pictures that I have taken over the last couple of weeks.

Forsythia

Tulips, Azalea & Berberis in the rockery

Tulips & Primula

Tulips in front of Pieris

Azalea

Gorse

I have a particular reason for including this last photo, which will become apparent in a future Blog.

The Buzzard, the Magpie & the Bunny

2009-04-11T09:15:00.006+01:00

Sometimes, living in the country reminds us that not all is pretty and comfortable. Last year I made comment on the Magpie that was busily destroying the life of a Greenfinch on our front lawn. Yesterday morning as I pulled back the bedroom curtain, something caught my eye on the ground at the bottom of the field; it turned out to be a baby rabbit struggling in the talon of a large Buzzard whilst, bizarrely, a Magpie chased around at the back of the Buzzard trying to have his/her chunk out of the rabbit. I am not a great fan of rabbits but it was a sad sight to see one so young lose its life. As I rushed around trying to find the camera, the Buzzard obviously caught sight of me and relinguished the now deceased Bunny and flew off into the distance. After a Crow and the Magpie had a go at the carcase, the Buzzard eventually returned, picked up the body and once again disappeared into the distance leaving only a load of fur to identify what had been there.

Post Holiday Report

2009-04-07T17:01:00.024+01:00

Ah well, back to the real world after two weeks in the sun (well - not quite) of Tenerife. We had a splendid time, especially the first week when the weather was much better than the second. We also had the pleasure of the company of Beryl & Ian whom we met last year. This came about when Maria & Beryl were talking on the phone a week or so before we went. Beryl was envious so Maria told her to come along as we have enough room in the apartment even if we do have to share a bathroom. Some rapid changing of work shifts and a quick flight booking and everything was fixed. If you read this Beryl, many thanks for your splendid company although I am not sure about all that encouragement that you gave Maria to go shopping.

Very kindly, Beryl & Ian treated us to a meal on the Thursday before they went home and we chose to go to the Hollywood Mirage where we had a splendid meal and listened to a very entertaining Beatles tribute band. Thanks folks.

The weather for the second week turned on the Saturday and we did not manage to get any sunbathing in for four days. This resulted in lots of walking and more shopping!! However the sun finally came back again and we had a couple of pleasant days around the pool at the Beverly Hills Heights with Victor, the Lifeguard, to look after us. What a great job he does.

Maria relaxing during a hard day's shopping

A Sunny spell but note the sky in the background!

Now that we are home, I have managed to tidy up the borders around the bottom of the garden as well as cut the grass, including the bottom of the lower field. I have also erected Andrew & Amy's birthday present, which is a new bird feeder. I haven't seen the birds using it yet but I expect that they will get used to it soon. After a winter of being missing, we have seen a pair of Goldfinches back with us. No Greenfinches yet and only one Chaffinch, which is disappointing.

One of our bird feeding stations with the latest addition

During the late Autumn, I planted about 200 mixed daffodil bulbs and about 40 Hyacinths, the latter coming from Annette's contacts at Newquay Hospital. The results have been splendid for a first year and hopefully next year they will be fully established..

Visitors - Nick, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor

2009-03-19T11:23:00.013Z

Nick and his three children came to visit for the February Half-Term holiday, leaving Karen at home to look after the new kittens!!

The weather stayed fairly good for most of the week allowing everyone to get out on quite a few day trips. These included lots of Geo-Caching with Annette and Clive and even me on one day. The photo below was taken on the Goss Moor Trail where we must have walked about five miles to find just two caches. If you study the photo carefully, you might notice some very muddy boots and trousers. We decided, perhaps unwisely as it turned out, to follow the Fritillary Trail, which turned out to be ankle deep in mud in some places. Perhaps we should have stuck to the road, however that would not have been so interesting. You might notice that Charlotte is not in the photo; this was because she had hurt her back and spent this particular day resting at home. Fortunately the day of rest seemed to work very well. Oh to be young again with the powers of rapid recuperation.!

On another day we all went up to Trevone where we played cricket and clambered around on the rocks. The photo shows me with the two boys; I have no idea why we looked so miserable!

Nick decided to take everyone out for a meal one night so we decided on a local "Award Winning" Fish and Chip shop. Not sure what the award was for! To be fair, it was 18:30 on a Friday evening during the week of half term so we expected it to be busy. We found a table for seven easy enough, which was good; after that things went gradually downhill. I asked what the "Fish of the Day" was, as two of us qualified for the Senior Citizens Special , and was told that it was Haddock, which suited us fine until the waitress came back and said that there was no Haddock! No Senior Special then. The adults ordered the set meal, with Cod, and the children had a variety from the children's menu. When the meal came, we asked where the Bread & Butter was, to be told that they had run out of bread! Anyway the rest of the meal was OK, even if there was no sign of a deduction for lack of bread. The children wanted to have some Ice Cream for sweet, so Nick went and ordered. After 40 minutes of waiting, we decided to cancel the order and leave. we came home and had our own Ice Cream, which was £15.00 cheaper on Nick's wallet. We probably shall not be rushing back there in a hurry.

On the whole however, I think that they all had a good time and we look forward to their next visit, whenever that might be.

Hot Flush

2009-03-16T07:36:00.004Z

Maria, Annette and I had a recent trip out to the Hall for Cornwall to see Hot Flush starring a cast of four women and one man in a very naughty, but extremely funny, musical about women and the problems of the menopause. Lesley Joseph stars along with Sam Kane, who plays about 20 different male characters brilliantly. All the cast however contributed something different to the overall performance.
The theatre has a capacity of 969, if my addition is correct, and I suppose that there were about 850 in the audience, of which I was probably one of less than 50 men, so suitably outnumbered, however even from a man's point of view, it was an extremely entertaining show and well worth seeing.

March Update

2009-03-15T06:40:00.026Z

OK, so I am way behind with the Blog. This, for the most part, is because, as far as the computer is concerned, I have concentrated on producing a Family History of my HILLS/HILL family in book form. This has turned into a marathon task as I have some 1300 descendants of Matthew HILLS, who died in 1644. I have documents, letters and research information from all over the world that need to be indexed and collected into a logical order. Of course, as soon as I started the process, I found anomalies and further discoveries that sent me down different tracks. I also had to learn how to produce PDF Files and how my OCR software worked, all of which proved interesting to say the least. Then there are the photos that have been sent to me by various people. They are stored electronically, but not necessarily in the ideal order or size.

Horace William HILLS - taken about 1885.

In February, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor came to stay for a week and, when I have sorted out the photos, I will make a separate post to give some idea of what they got up to.

Earlier in the year, I was asked if our top field could be used for grazing for horses. I thought that this would be a good idea to keep the grass under control - what a mistake! The field now resembles a bog around the entrance gate and I have now stopped that arrangement as I would rather have the problem of cutting the paths once a week rather than having to look at the mess and not being able to use the field for anything else. Of course, the month that the horses were there coincided with the wettest weather we have had since we moved in here. The photo gives some idea of the problem.

I have had several appointments with specialists for both my heart valve and shoulder. The left shoulder, which was operated on in 2002, is causing me a lot of concern since I damaged it again whilst moving stone for the wall back in November. A visit to the surgeon who operated and another one for a scan have not yet produced a definitive result. The heart valve seems to still be working the same without any further deterioration. I have also had 24 hour heart and blood pressure checks so am feeling a bit like the proverbial Guinea Pig at the moment. One of these days I might get some results!

That is enough for now, more detail later.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2009-02-04T11:21:00.005Z

As the title says, what a difference a day makes. The following two photos were taken 24 hours apart at approximately the same place:

03 February 2009

04 February 2009

More Snow

2009-02-03T20:50:00.007Z

Although no-one should have noticed the difference, this Blog has changed location and is now at http://johnturnersramblings.blogspot.com/. This accounts for the slightly changed layout and the fact that the archive page index looks neater; at least I think that it does.

Much snow has fallen in various parts of the country and Cornwall is no different. Thank goodness that we don't have to go out to work. We did go out for a walk today and I dragged Maria up the "mountain". It was a beautiful day and I hope that the following photos give some idea of what our surroundings looked like.

Early Sunlight over the Rhododendrons

John up the "Mountain"

Maria walking through the Woods

Maria at the Entrance to Roseveare House

P.S. No more Mice - hooray!

Australia

2009-01-20T20:45:00.004Z

On Monday night we went to the cinema, with Annette & Clive, to see "Australia", a film that seems to have divided critics. It didn't seem to appeal to the filmgoers of Wadebridge as there were only about a dozen of us altogether. We happened to enjoy it and although nearly three hours long, the time went quickly. To my disgust, I did not know of the Japanese attacks inflicted on Australia. Well I do now; there is a good deal of information on the internet and this link is just one of them.

Bradford Visit

2009-01-20T19:59:00.019Z

Last week we paid a visit to Bradford to see my Pop in order to help him sort out his Christmas Card list. He was very concerned that he had not felt well enough to send any cards, not surprising since he spent 11 days in hospital over Christmas. Prior to that visit I must just mention that we finally relocated a total of nine mice. We haven't had any more for over a week now so hopefully they are gone for a year or so.
On Wednesday 14 Jan we had an uneventful journey to Bradford; traffic was comparatively light and there were no accidents to hold us up. The only slow part of the journey was on the M1 because there are miles of roadworks with a 50 mph speed limit. We started the job of replying to Christmas Cards on the Wednesday evening and spent all day Thursday doing the same, finally finishing off on Friday. As a result of all that work, I now have a list of all the people, and their addresses, to whom Pop sends cards. This means that I can contact people more easily should he not feel up to sending cards on future occasions.
As well as doing that we spent hours sorting out piles of mail, mostly begging letters, and "returning to sender" those that I felt were definitely not wanted. We also sorted all the bills and sent off a claim for his time in hospital.
Maria spent hours sorting out cupboards and wardrobes and did several loads of washing so that when we left on Sunday, almost everything was up to date, beds changed etc.
We managed to take him out to lunch at Asa Nicholson's on Friday where he proved that he has a superb appetite. On the other days, Joan at the Friendly Cafe brought lunch to him. This is a tremendous help to him and a very generous task, most willingly done. Thanks are due to Joan and her staff.
On Saturday afternoon Maria and I went out to lunch at Murgatroyd's with Maria's brother Paul and his wife Bev. We had a lovely time and sincerely hope that the plans for their business are completed very soon. Good luck with that folks.

We took our leave on Sunday morning at about 10:15 and got into our house at about 16:30, having stopped briefly twice. It was a lovely dry and sunny day with no hold ups apart from the M1 road works. The sun was a bit of a problem since it was in my eyes virtually the whole way. South of Exeter we ran into some rain but, fortunately, it never amounted to much.

That's all for now.

Twelfth Night

2009-01-06T19:37:00.006Z

Last night, being Twelfth Night, all the Christmas Lights and Decorations were taken down and now, although we did not have all that many up, the place does look a little barren. Anyway, everything is back in the attic until next December.
The weather has been cold (-3 in the garage this morning) but beautiful during the day, so much so that Maria and I went for a walk up to the top of the quarry path this afternoon.
I released our sixth mouse this morning, or is it the same one six times? Perhaps they are getting back to the house before me!
On the bird front, a few days ago Clive saw some Long Tailed Tits on one of the feeders, birds that I had never noticed before. Well a couple of days ago we had a flock of eight of them and today six so perhaps the very cold weather has brought them out looking for food. I had to use a hammer and chisel to unfreeze the bird baths after breaking a garden trowel first! They will be frozen over again by now.
Oh well, back to the Family History and photograph sorting. Still a long way to go.

New Year - 2009

2009-01-03T15:39:00.012Z

Whilst preparing for having the wall built, and tidying it up after it was completed, Clive and I moved a lot of foliage, turf and miscellaneous items into the lower field; this was done as a temporary measure because the ground was very soft and muddy and therefore difficult to use my little tractor to move anything. Now however, we have not had any rain since goodness knows when and the temperature has dropped, making the ground fairly hard, so I decided to shift the rubbish to its final resting place in the top field. I took this photo just after I started:

About ten trailer loads of earth, turf and foliage later and the removal of a bicycle wheel, several bottles, some unidentifiable metal, a couple of concrete posts and several large and smaller rocks, the field now looked much tidier and my shoulders ached!

Mouse update:

One more mouse has been relocated from the garage but there is at least one more because this morning I found the trap empty and on its side so they are getting cleverer by the day.

Christmas

2008-12-30T08:00:00.024Z

I started to write this to be published on Christmas Day, however, somehow I was sidetracked and it has taken me until now to catch up.
Christmas Day was reasonably quiet; Annette, Clive & the dogs have been staying with us for the whole of the holiday although Clive had to spend a lot of time at work as was the case on Christmas morning. Having opened presents, Clive went off to work for the morning and the rest of us went to Watergate Bay for some fresh air and to exercise the dogs. Here we are posing for the obligatory photo:

Clive finished work in time for dinner to be served at about 5 pm after which we spent a quiet evening relaxing in front of the TV.

Mice
During the preparations for Christmas Dinner, Maria noticed that some of the potatoes, which are kept in the garage, had large chunks missing. On closer investigation, we discovered mouse droppings and holes in various items of dog food and old paint sheets. We decided to set our traps (humane) that we bought last year and one that Clive came home with. The mice seemed to be able to pinch the bait without tripping the trap until we found one comfortably ensconced in Clive's trap. The following video will only be relevant if you can move it on frame by frame and even then the mouse is a blur as he/she makes a dash for freedom in the brambles in the top field.

Since this release, we have caught and relocated another one. This was in one of the smaller traps and it was so fat that it had to be shaken out; it then ran around my back pursued by Tia. It safely made the brambles eventually.

The weather has been cold and dry with a good amount of sun so we have taken the opportunity to climb our local mountain a couple of times so that we could pose with the recently erected (Christmas Day) Cornish Flag. A couple of photos show us up there being blown about by the wind:

Twice in One Year - Snow Joke brings up the 100

2008-12-14T10:03:00.010Z

After a rather late night watching X Factor etc, and perhaps consuming one Grouse too many, I woke up late this morning and, on opening up the black-out blind, I was met with the following scene:

Now snow doesn't usually last very long in Cornwall so there I was outside in slippers, tracksuit bottoms and a sweater to record our second fall of snow in one year, the last being in April.

It is quite pretty as long as you don't have to travel in it; I wonder what the person making the following tracks thought about it?

Just in case you haven't thought about the title, this is post number 100, so I am up there with Amy again!