Thursday 30 July:

Decided NOT to go dawn walking this morning (despite beautiful weather) as I would be meeting up with Tom at Ashton Court later (up at the golf course end – so quite a lengthy walk!).

Discovered two things: firstly, that ‘blogger’ had changed the ‘rules’ – which seem to have made it far more difficult to share blogposts (or at least to share accompanying images) and, secondly, my DNA Heritage results! Somewhat predictably, I’m VERY English!! English 86.4%; Scandinavian 10.5%; North+Western European 2.1%; Middle Eastern 1.0%.

Collected fruit+veg boxes from Hugo (always makes me happy!)(when we spoke with Gail+Ian later, Gail admitted that her results revealed she was 97% English!!).

Moira and I had morning coffee in the garden.

Met up with Tom at Ashton Court immediately after lunch… next to the ‘upper’ car park café by the golf course. Lovely walk through Leigh Woods and we ended up sitting on a grass bank with lovely views to the horizon. Very good to get together… and we had a lovely natter.

After supper, we had a lovely zoom ‘conversation’ with Gail+Ian and Cara+Carolyn… after which we both felt quite whacked and both had early nights.

Image: oh deerie me (Ashton Court Red Deer – he has 16 ‘points’ which, I think, makes him a monarch stag)!

Wednesday 29 July:

Beautiful morning and more beautiful skies. Usual dawn walk… and spent some time at the marina, just staring at the sky and the water.

Moira and I had morning coffee in the garden… somewhat frustratingly, I’ve only noticed one or two balloons so far this year/lockdown – although there have been various references to people seeing them (eg. this morning!).

Spent part of the morning trying to put stuff together for my Blurb book and also reading ‘A Year In Provence’ (first read 19 years ago).

Completed my Drawing Group sketch – a Venetian façade (albeit froma photograph!) – and also endeavoured to find a suitable viewing location for the urban sketching trip to Hong Kong on Saturday.

The plumber came and completed fixing the hot water system (and Moira duly celebrated by having a bath!). I also received my new oclock watch in the post (ridiculous how much I’ve missed being without a watch over the past few days)!

Watched a documentary on Botham (summer of ’81 etc)… which brought back a lot of memories.

Image: yet another Marina view (same view, but I particularly waited for the pigeons to come into view, so I’m quite pleased with the resulting photograph).

Tuesday 28 July:

In contrast to yesterday, fine weather for today’s harbourside walk (extended around Bathurst Basin).

Moira and I had morning coffee inside.

Finished my crime thriller (mixed feelings – entertaining and readable, but not brilliant?).

Listened to some cricket on the radio – England duly won the final Test Match (and thereby won the series 2-1).

Did some sketching, briefly (Drawing Group’s weekly theme is ‘architecture’!).

Bloke from Bristol Boilers came round in the afternoon to check out our hot water system… and it seems to be good news: the ball cock had seized up (and needs replacing). He hadn’t got the right size with him, so hopes to come back tomorrow. Feeling a mixture of relief (we’d feared it might be quite complicated and expensive) and slightly silly that we hadn’t try to get it fixed before now. Hey ho!

Image: this morning’s pink dawn sky from the bathroom window.

Monday 27 July:

A pretty miserable Monday morning weather-wise. I went for my usual harbour walk in steady rain and under leaden skies… saw one person (who ignored me). Actually, I enjoyed the walk – suitably dressed, walking in the rain suits me well on occasions.

Given the weather, morning coffee with Moira was inside!

Set up the urban sketching event on the facebook page.

Also, at long last, following a request for plumbing recommendations on our local neighbourhood facebook site, I’ve managed to get Bristol Boilers to come and look at our hot water system on Wednesday!

Rain washed out the 4^th day’s play in the Test Match.

Sketched briefly and read more some more of my ‘crime thriller’.

Had a lovely two hour zoom chat with Alan in the evening (together with the odd glass of red)… wide-ranging, very enjoyable discussion.

Image: wet walk (actually not taken this morning… but similar!).

Sunday 26 July:

Just as Moira and I set out for our Sunday morning walk, it started to rain… but we persisted (brief walk down through Bathurst Basin/harbourside/Gaol Ferry Steps), before returning home for pre-church coffee.

Streamed church (led by Maria, with talk from Adrian) seemed to be attended by only a few – perhaps 17-18 people?

Listened to Fleetwood Mac music via Spotify (Peter Green had died the previous day) while catching up with various bits and pieces.

‘Explored’ potential Hong Kong ‘virtual’ locations (thanks to Gary’s suggestions) in advance of Saturday’s forthcoming urban sketching ‘trip’… and ended up starting a (complicated) sketch of some shops and apartments.

Listened to a fair amount of cricket on the radio (3^rd day of Third Test v West Indies) and also endeavoured to keep track of the latest football scores via the BBC website… all very tense! Villa drew 1-1 against West Ham – which was enough for them to avoid relegation by ONE point (image from the Villa website)!!

Saturday 25 July:

One of those rather sleepless nights… woke up just after midnight and, apart from a few snatched minutes, that was it! Had hoped to see some balloons in the sky (it being Saturday etc), but nothing spotted – perhaps a little too windy/drizzly?

Tried to have a proper bath/wash hair… but no chance, hot water ceased after maybe 20 seconds (our HW system needs sorting!)... so cold shower it was then… oh, and my watchstrap broke (I ordered a replacement watch online)! Hey ho!

Pretty gloomy day (and no walking) – and rain for much of it. Spent time reading (finishing my excellent Evaristo book) and starting my Brookmyre detective story… and keeping up with the Test Match.

Watched  a fascinating 'Imagine' programme about poet Lemn Sissay and another ‘Young Mantalbino’ episode in the evening.

Image: BLM and coloured houses window decoration, Merrywood Road.

Friday 24 July:

Rosa is Eleven!!

Usual dawn harbourside walk… cloudy, overcast start to the morning but quite a dramatic sky as I watched the emerging sun at the marina… an hour later, it started to drizzle (briefly).

Read briefly before Moira and I had coffee inside.

Sketched some harbourside boats – from one of my photographs (don’t enjoy working from photographs, but I’m still not feeling particularly confident about people keeping their distance) – and listened to music.

Went round to Ruth+Stu’s to help celebrate Rosa’s birthday over burger+chips+drinks in the garden (before moving into the house when it started to rain!)… R+S had bought her a new ukulele and we’d bought her a new dress (+some books)… and Iris had made the most wonderful, delicious chocolate ukulele birthday cake! It was a really lovely time and we felt very fortunate that Rosa had decided (given the lockdown circumstances) that she wanted to celebrate her birthday with grandparents (Wells in the morning; Bristol in the afternoon).

Image: Rosa+ukulele+dress!