4 July 2024
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Patio Cleaning

I got my vote cast early this morning. Since my local polling station is in the car park of the nearby Lidl supermarket, that also gave a convenient chance to pop in and do a bit of grocery shopping. Poll don’t close until 10pm and the media is banned from commenting on election day so I’ll wait until tomorrow morning to check on the results.

Meanwhile, one thing I have done today is get the pressure washer out and give the patio a blast. I wasn’t sure how much difference it was making. A couple of the slabs showed clear improvement but the rest were harder to judge and I am wary about blasting away so much they begin to disintegrate! However, as the sun dried them I was quite pleased with the results.

This was with water only. Chemical cleaners might improve the results further but, with no obvious drain to direct the run off too and lots of plants in the ground, I decided that I didn’t want to add harsh solutions even if they might have given more of a ‘like new’ appearance at the end. Cleaner than they were will do for me.

3 July 2024
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General Election 2024

Tomorrow sees the UK heading to the polls for a long anticipated General Election. The most disappointing result of all would be a low turnout, with people simply not bothering to exercise their democratic duty to get out and vote. Don’t forget your photo ID, which is now required.

Most polls predict that a strong Labour majority is the most likely outcome and I’m inclined to think that is the best option overall. Is the present Labour party the best for a long-term UK government? I’m not sure on that one but I think a parliamentary term of Labour in charge would be good for the nation if they can come anywhere close to what the previous Labour government managed in their first term after 1997.

We’ll see but I am hopeful that the Conservatives will get a good part of the drubbing the deserve, although I don’t think I’ll stay up to listen to the results coming in.

2 July 2024
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A Good Week’s Work

The main task this week has been to get our next home insurance policy sorted out. Last year I took my eye off the ball and it got auto-renewed at a much inflated price. After the fact, I stopped it automatically taking another payment later this month but the quoted price was still a significant rise. We’ve brought inflation down, says Mr Sunak, but I don’t think he has been paying attention to the insurance market.

I did have a rep from Utility Warehouse round this morning, who I thought was going to help me with home insurance and thus also get a good deal on broadband. It turned out she couldn’t help with the insurance (despite my specific request in advance) and was mainly interested in upselling me onto other products so that was a waste of time. However, a bit of time on price comparison sites, starting with advice from the Money Saving Expert site yielded a price less than half the original quote – or about what I would have earned in a week in my worship pastor role.

So, I think I can count today as a good week’s work!

1 July 2024
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One Last Song

I’m now officially finished in my role at ASTAD but I’ve got one more session with the toddlers’ group to do, which was one of my voluntary activities. Next term they will be carrying on with their “numbers” theme but I won’t be around to provide music so I’ve put together one last song video for them to use:

Listen carefully and you’ll hear a bit of tuba – my first recording on that instrument and an ideal tone to work into a song like this.

30 June 2024
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End of Term Rehearsal

CSWO (Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra) has its end of term rehearsal tonight. This one will be an “open rehearsal”, meaning that some of those who are playing with Charnwood Concert Band (the intermediate group) will come and join us although, since there is already a lot of crossover in membership and CSWO’s conductor has been filling in with CCB for the past couple of weeks, it probably won’t feel that different!

Anyway, time to pack up the bass and get moving.

29 June 2024
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Sing-around – 29 June 2024

Just two songs led by me at today’s sing-around session, both on double bass. My first offering was a jazz blues interpretation of Deep Purple’s Black Night and, when my turn came round again, I went more gospel blues with the bluegrass classic Wayfaring Stranger. There was plenty of chance to join with others as well, both playing by ear and a number of tunes I’d worked on with other people in advance: Driftwood by Travis, Teardrops by Massive Attack, Corcovado by Jobim and Close to You by Bacharach / David.

28 June 2024
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Spanish Style Pilaf

Not long after moving up to Loughborough, we purchased a microwave oven. It wasn’t our first but it was the first one we’d had for quite a while and so I scoured the local library looking for books on microwave cooking. Alas, that was to no avail. We’ve still got the same microwave but it mainly gets used for reheating and defrosting duties.

Recently though, I spotted Ping! by Justine Pattison, which was just the kind of tome I had been looking for. I checked it out and tried one of the recipes last night – the “Spanish-style Vegetable Pilaf” (p. 125). You start by cooking chopped onion (1 medium) and garlic (2 cloves) in tbsp olive oil in a large covered dish on high for 4 minutes (assuming a 1000W oven), stirring halfway through. Next, you stir in 200g basmati rice along with paprika, saffron, salt and pepper, topping off with 500ml stock, ensuring the rice is submerged. On the top, you add further vegetables. The recipe has 175g chargrilled artichokes, 175g roasted peppers and 85g pitted kalamata olives; I used a couple of capsicum peppers, some broad beans and some black olives as that was what I had. That gets covered and cooked for 10 minutes. I’m not sure how you check the rice is tender while leaving covered for a further 5 minutes so I just relied on seeing that there wasn’t much liquid left sloshing around. Finally it is served up with optional additions of lemon and parsley.

It did well for last night’s meal and, with the addition of some prawns, for tonight as well. It is a pretty easy method for making a pretty decent meal and one that I’ll certainly try again. I might also see if I can try out some of the other recipes before it goes back.

27 June 2024
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Looking Down on the Back Garden – June 2024

I’ve been wanting to take another photo surveying the back garden for a few days now but had to wait until this morning for it to be a little bit overcast. Bright sun is wonderful but the camera can’t cope with the contrast between light and shade that it produces. Even here, half an hour earlier, with a more uniform grey sky and before the clouds started to pull apart would have been easier.

As far as the contents of the garden go, ox-eyed daisies are in their element although there are other plants blooming as well. In the past couple of years, I’ve missed the June photo so it is a bit hard to tell if the daisies are likely to decline soon of their own accord or if I need to give them a helping hand to make room for the next round of contenders.

26 June 2024
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Gaillardia

Most of the seeds I’ve sown so far this year have been vegetables. Even the nasturtiums (edible leaves, flowers and seeds) partially count under that heading. One that (as far as I’m aware) is purely ornamental is Gaillardia pulchella ‘Red Plume’. I’ve never grown it before but I think the picture caught my eye when I was purchasing some other seeds.

I sowed it back in early March and have been nursing the plants through various stages of repotting. One of the reasons I don’t sow many flowers is that our garden is already quite full and it can be hard to work out where to shoehorn them in. However, with a feeling that if I didn’t put them out soon I’d be likely to lose them, I found a couple of patches and so now all six plants are out in two sets of three.

No flowers yet but the flower heads are developing. Hopefully getting their feet in the ground won’t be too much of a shock and I’m looking forward to seeing them come into bloom.

25 June 2024
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Sweltering

It has been sweltering weather so far this week. Even at night we’ve had temperatures that would be counted pleasantly warm during the day at other times in the year or even many summers in this part of the UK. It has been nice to have a taste of what might be termed ‘proper summer’ but I’ll be glad when it drops back to more normal temperatures later this week.

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