I like the use of defunct household items you see on farms. Baths are near the top of the list, all farms have an old bath somewhere to be used as a drinking trough for horses. Who needs a hot tub?
Monthly Archives: January 2014
View from a high point
I am staying in St Breward which declares itself to be Cornwall’s highest village. Given that Cornwall is hardly mountainous this is akin to me naming myself best iceskater in my household. Still, there are some nice views towards the coast.
Took Pip out for a very muddy walk today but we turned back when we encountered 30 or so stubborn cows blocking our path. Cows are killers.
Horizons near and far
Looking over a dry stone wall towards the horizon in Bodmin.
1st full day of writing on my retreat. Struggled through a chapter on MOOCs today, some bits were slow going, but rough draft of Chapter 5 now complete.
Peek-a-boo
I am writing a book called “The Battle for Open”, and I’ve set myself quite a tight deadline for it. In order to complete it on time I’ve come away to a cottage in the middle of Bodmin Moor, with just Pip for company. Ok, it’s also that fantasy of being a writer and taking yourself off somewhere secluded to write the Great American Novel. Mine is not American, a novel, or great, but hey, it should be nice for a week.
Odd one out
There is an impostor in our wine/beer rack
The Road
I took the dogs over some forests just past [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwaelod-y-Garth]Gwaelod y Garth[/url] today. I hadn’t been there before, so followed the forestry track. They’ve been felling trees, and it had been raining heavily (I sank up to my knees in mud), so I can’t say it was a pleasant walk. On a gloomy day, this scene as I crested the hill was all a bit post-apocalyptic and could’ve come straight from Cormac McCarthy’s bleak book The Road. Luckily I wasn’t attacked, or eaten, so that’s nice.
The value of a cuppa
Yesterday some OU colleagues released interim findings for their [url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/enduringlove/files/enduringlove/file/ecms/web-content/Enduring-Love-Interim-Survey-Report.pdf]Enduring Love project[/url], looking at long-lasting relationships. It’s a very interesting report that doesn’t come at the subject with any agenda, but rather tries to find out what life is like for couples now. A couple of interesting findings: “Heterosexual parents are the group least likely to be there for each other, to make ‘couple time’, to pursue shared interests, to say ‘I love you’ and to talk openly to one another.”
And the one the press liked: “Surprise gifts and small acts of kindness were valued highly, with ‘a cup of tea’ being singled out as a significant sign of their partner’s appreciation”.
My wife doesn’t like tea (I know!) but I do make her coffee. I don’t often use a tea-pot but had run out of tea-bags so today had to go for loose leaves. I’m not sure it is vastly superior as tea purists like to believe.
Gravestone lichen
Up at the OU today, so went around the old church. Who doesn’t like looking round a graveyard eh? (and no jokes about the OU being a graveyard for academics).
There are some very old gravestones in here, often unkept and overgrown. Some lichen that may be older than me was on this one.
Three bears cave
This is up in the Fforest Fawr woods. I don’t watch Sherlock, but I think it was used in [url=http://www.sherlockology.com/locations/dewers-hollow]an episode[/url]. The woods up here are used quite a lot in BBC Wales productions because a) they’re quite old b) they look quite mystical and c) they’re only 10 minutes drive from the BBC offices. It’s an old tin mine apparently.
I may get a few more shots of it during the year, I couldn’t get down to it today as the steep slope was too slippery. It’s fenced off but I risked life to get you this shot, because I’m a warzone kinda photographer.
A new room
We spent the weekend redecorating my daughter’s bedroom, including painting, assembling an Ikea chest of drawers (manfully) & clearing out ten tons of rubbish. Much accumulated childhood rubbish went to the bin, but a number of mementos found new homes, including these two VW moneyboxes (we have a VW California).
