If this blog has been delayed, it is because we had our super fibre cable installed this afternoon and, guess what, but I am now left without internet access. The installer told me to get onto my Internet provider to supply a router and when I got through to them, I was told that we were scheduled for delivery of a router but it might take anything up to five working days to arrive through the post. In the meanwhile, we were told that our ‘normal’ broadband would function as normal but of course it does not. Hence I am writing a text version of this blog which will be transferred into WordPress as soon as (or if) I get internet access back again. Thinking that the installer was due this morning, Meg and I delayed our walk down into the park but when I checked my notes, I discovered that the installation was scheduled for between 1.00pm and 6.00pm and in the event, the installer turned up just after 1.00pm and was with us for about an an hour and a half. The new cable had to be dragged from the GPO access point near the street and then we needed a hole drilling in the wall so that the necessary gubbins could be fixed internally and externally. Quite a neat and tidy job was done and now we await our router. I begged the long length of thick string that had been used to drag the cable from its access point and as this would just have been thrown away anyway, I thought I could make use of it to tie up some errant rose bushes.
This morning, Meg and I went by car to the park. It was a beautiful day and well worthy of a walk but we had been a bit delayed waiting around for the BT installer to call around this morning before we realised it was actually this afternoon. In the park, we met with our Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was making progress, according to the ‘app’ on this phone, somewhere in Japan. He had managed about 8,000 of the 12,000 steps he had scheduled for the day and after a chat with us was soon on his way for another circuit of the park. So we progressed back home, knowing that we would have to have a fairly early lunch so we could devote some time if needed to the installer this afternoon. After he had left, we decided that it would be quite a good idea to immediately make use of some of the thick string we had been given and the first priority was to get it around a tall and straggling standard rose. This was not an easy job as the branches were somewhat straggly and the thorns incredibly sharp but I got several lengths wrapped around its torso so that when the high winds and rain come along, its overall shape will be preserved. Thursday is the day when each fortnight our paper bin and our garden waste get emptied. Accordingly, every other Wednesday is a good opportunity to get rid of some of the holly leaves that get swept off the path each day into an adjacent gully. Once this was done, I pulled our own bins into their collection point and then did the same for our immediate neighbours and also for the vacant bungalow across the communal green area.
When our friend came to stay last week, she gave us a pot of winter flowering jasmine which ought to give is a splash of colour in the autumn and early winter when the rest of the garden might be looking a little bare. So I managed to replant this plant in a pot with some good compost and then put it into position at the edge of a bed such that it can use a drainpipe for some support although I do not know if it is a very ‘clingy’ plant. But it was good to see that the mature sweet pea plant that I planted the other day and kept well watered was now starting to flower so I hope that if we keep this well tended, it will keep on flowering right throughout the summer.
A day or so ago, I FaceTimed my sister in Yorkshire and had a chat with her and with one of my nieces who happened to be calling by. I established a time in late July when we might make a flying visit up to Yorkshire and the last week in July seems to be quite a good time for all of us. So later, I had a trawl through the internet and the hotel in the centre of Harrogate in which we stayed last autumn was offering quite a decent rate. I made sure that the room offer included breakfast and then got an even better rate by aceepting the offer to book in through an agency I have used before. So we have booked into this hotel for three nights in late July and are looking forward tremendously to our visit in about a month’s time.
© Mike Hart [2022]