30 January 2022

Rio the cat was very naughty catching a pigeon. Not bad for a cat who is nearly 18 years old though!

28 January 2022

We needed a fill up today. Handy that we have a refill shop in the village.

27 January 2022

This is currently top of my reading list. The Nutmeg's Curse by Amitav Ghosh is an excellent book about climate change, covid and colonialism. It looks back to wars and our colonial past and how terraforming, destruction of habitats and genocide have been hardwired into Western culture. That may sound depressing but these are issues we need to be aware of and contemplate - its how we got where we are now. Highly recommended.

26 January 2022

Today it was over to the park for a Tai Chi and mindfulness session. The exercise is calming and good or my creaky joints.

Afterwards I went for a walk by the river Dane into the town centre. The meanders of the Dane are quite spectacular. 

The park

River Dane

Local artwork

25 January 2022

Feeling chuffed today because I've nailed it! Went down to the river at the same time and in the same place was the Kingfisher. This time I had my camera with me 😎

24 January 2022

No photos yesterday because I was too hungover but today was special - we saw a Kingfisher on the Weaver near where we live! I only had my mobile which has a poor zoom but trust me if you've got good enough eyesight you'll see it. It's right in the middle of the pic.

22 January 2022

It's my birthday! Well actually it's my birthday tomorrow but I'm celebrating it today with friends coming over. Adrian is coming in the morning and Pete and Anthea will be joining us in the evening. 

In the afternoon I had another trip to Old Pale with Adrian followed by a pint in the Farmers Arms but alas the view was even poorer than when Simon visited 😦

In the evening we had a great 'party' with an excellent curry and dessert. I was too drunk to take many photos.

20 January 2022

I haven't been publishing posts for every day so far because of a lack of decent photos but today I hit the jackpot with a great sunset on Eaton Lane.

19 January 2022

Interesting developments in the #PartyGate scandal that involves the numerous parties which took place at No. 10 Downing Street while the country was in Covid lockdown or restrictions in the past couple of years. Boris Johnson has been under pressure to resign for a few weeks and today in the House of Commons Tory MP David Davis called on Johnson to resign saying: "In the name of God go", and the Tory MP for Bury South Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, branding Johnson's conduct "disgraceful" - see my blog for further details.

In other news here's a photo of some leaves from today's walk.

17 January 2022

Met up with Peter for a really good walk. We parked up in Disley and had a pint in the White Horse and then set off up the Gritstone Trail to Lyme Park. There were plenty of Red deer around and we finished our walk at The Cage and then headed back. Lovely day with good views and decent beer.

16 January 2022

Lovely sunny day with blue skies and a great view of the Moon but you can't see it very well in this photo. It's there just below the bottom wire, near the bird.

14 January 2020

A walk in the woods by the Weaver.

13 January 2022

Great day! Met up with cousin Simon who came over and we went for a walk up Old Pale. It was a lovely sunny winter's day. Alas, when we got to the top a mist prevented us from seeing Manchester and Liverpool but the view was still pretty good. We finished off with a crafty pint in The Farmers Arms in Kelsall.

11 January 2022

Quiet day. I am battling to get my two books published but I've made little progress so far which is very frustrating. Popped out to the supermarket which is near to the marina.

In covid news there were 379 deaths today and the official death toll has passed 150,000 - but the ONS figure is 173,000.

10 January 2022

We are still in the middle of the Omicron surge and there is an ongoing row about Boris Johnson and parties held at  No. 10 during the lockdown in 2020. Lots of lies and blustering from Bozo but will it end his premiership?

In other news looks like I have busted my exercise bike. I'm really annoyed about this because I was just really beginning to get back into using it again. 

Went for a walk by the river. Cool but sunny.

9 January 2022

Nice, sunny day. We traveled to Holmes Chapel to meet Pete and Anthea and went for a walk by the River Dane. It was an enjoyable trip apart from the mud!

The green building is a hydroelectric generator. We need many more of these.

8 January 2022

Bit of a pong locally as the muck spreading starts at the nearby farm. Sunny day and went for a walk down the lane. The lump at the top of the field is a pile of poo.

7 January 2022

Still colder and tonight I've been trying to take a photo of the crescent Moon. Not very successful but I managed it - through the branches of a nearby tree.

6 January 2022

After a week or so of fairly mild weather, it's gone much colder. Peter and I went out for our first walk of the year today. We met up near the Boars Head in Higher Poynton and walked south along the Macclesfield canal straight into driving snow! After about a mile and a half, we took refuge in a pub near the canal called the Miner's Arms. We sat for an hour nursing our pints and waiting for the driving snow to cease. Then we walked back up the Middlewood Way to the Boars Head. We were only out for 3 hours and we spent over an hour of that in two pubs! But then we did manage to get freezing cold and half soaked!

In the Miner's Arms

On the old station platform near the Boars Head

On the Middlewood Way near the Boars Head

1st January 2022

Well, another year has gone by and we are still in the grip of Covid19. Now we've moved on to the omicron variant which is more transmissible than delta was. Many people are now doubled-jabbed and have had a booster jab. I had my booster on 13 November 2021. Omicron appears to not be as harmful as Delta but the number of infections is rocketing, and most of the people needing critical care are unvaccinated. The NHS is still under huge pressure and, predictably, the government has done nothing to support staff in the NHS and education sectors. Many people avoided NYE celebrations and the hospitality industry is suffering again with paltry support from Rishi Sunak. 

The government stupidly announced 'freedom day' in July 2021, and has since been reluctant to re-introduce any restrictions. It doesn't help that there are plenty of headbanging anti-maskers on the Tory backbenches, but we are now again in a situation where masks must be worn in shops and on public transport. Due to the surge in cases, there is now a shortage of lateral flow tests, and it's difficult to get a PCR test. The government is clearly hoping that this is the end of the pandemic so that they can get us all back to 'normal' - putting the economy before people. Here's my blog post from last month.

In local news, our next-door neighbours Geoff and Margery had to abandon Xmas when Geoff tested positive on Xmas eve, and our neighbour Jane and her husband have been unwell with omicron. We have always tested negative so far - fingers crossed! 

So, what did we do on NYE? We had a lovely takeaway curry and then had a facetime with our friends in Leith Paul and Janet to bring in the New Year. We even got to see some of the Leith fireworks! 

And on New Year's day which was fine and fairly mild, we went for a walk down the river by the old boatyard.

The old boatyard

Lagoon off the River Weaver

25 December 2021

This blog is about the year 2022 but I had to start by recording Xmas day 2021 which Suzie and I spent in the New Forest visiting my stepmother Carol. Carol was 86 a week before Xmas. We had an excellent Xmas lunch made by my step-sister Rachael.

At Carol's

Xmas lunch at Rachael's house