Heading Into 2025

January 13, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

My memories of Christmas are beginning to dissolve into a blur of having felt very good about the convivial familial get together. It was great to have our close family in our house – the only exception being Youngest Son’s wife who had to dog-sit in Belfast. It was, once again, amusing and interesting to see the two grandchildren in close proximity and to compare and contrast their current, very different characters. Jane ran the kitchen with help from all and we ate and drank well. But now we head into 2025 with the promise of new challenges and entertainments.

The cold snap has brough some frosty and icy conditions underfoot but some beautiful clear air and skies. My physiotherapist has advised me to continue walking despite my uncomfortable knee and so I have limped around to keep it mobile. I think that continued walking, and the daily exercises I’ve been given, are helping my knee although they have also strained other parts of my hips and legs so health sometimes feels like a running battle.

I’ve been thinking about New Year resolutions as I always do at this time of year (but, usually, not so much thereafter). I will maintain my ongoing targets for drink free days, limiting alcohol unit intake, weight and walking steps. However, I also want to be more proactive generally about the various health niggles that I suppose are inevitable at this time of life.

*^{More Cold Walking On The Way To Town}*

I’m also keen to do better on a resolution I made this time last year: to be more creative and do more creative things. I made some progress early last year with visible sock darning, devising and running a darts competition in the local pub, and creating a few treasure hunts for First Grandchild. But my creativity petered out and, for example, the Kintsugi kit remains untouched and making sourdough bread is on hold. I must do better.

I also need to read more books and not just newspapers and magazines given that I enjoy fiction so much. I have resolved to read more during the day since, currently, I never manage more than a few pages each night in bed just before nodding off. Currently a 500-page book takes me almost 6 months to get through even when it’s a good read (as I think Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is).

My ability to find that daytime reading space is related to a resolution to nap less after lunch. I love our very comfortable sofa adjacent to the kitchen with its view out into the garden and nearby copse so I just have to avoid sitting on it after lunch!

Our local Talk Club for men sharing how they feel and what they are going to do about improving their mental health, has restarted after a 6-month hiatus. At the first meeting of the year, held in a new location above the village pub, I realised once again that my only real anxieties at the moment are rooted in health – which I need to take a bit more control of where I can – and world events. So, another resolution is to reduce use of social media (I have already left the increasingly toxic ‘X’) and continue last year’s resolution and listen to the news on the radio even less. I’m not sure if that will help but Talk Club is a good mechanism to ensure that I think about how world news affects my well-being and if increased abstention from hearing about it makes any difference.

The year has, apart from the ongoing health irritants, started well. Following the family-oriented period over Christmas, I have resumed visits to the village pub and contacts with friends and acquaintances in the village. It is clear from talking to them that I, and Jane, have been fortunate to avoid flu so far this winter.

*^{Promising Sunrise Viewed From Our House}*

Also, Jane has gone off for a week-long sewing retreat at Merchant & Mills, her favourite sewing pattern manufacturer and textile sales room in Rye. That has been a nice change for us both; she has enjoyed the retreat and learnt some new sewing skills while I have fended for myself successfully and have got to watch some streamed series in the television that Jane has no interest in (Series 3 of Industry on BBC iPlayer is, again, remarkable).

Next, we have an innovative trip to Edinburgh – innovative in the sense that it is a month-long stay rather than just a long weekend. We are both excited about how it will feel to be on holiday for so long (with the logistics helped a little by the likelihood of a bit of house sitting by some family members while we are away). We are looking forward to seeing the Edinburgh branch of the family in a different context and over a longer period than usual and to getting to know Edinburgh even better. The icing on the mid-winter break cake is that we are accommodating the Bristol and Belfast branches of the family on a couple of weekends while we are there. It’s a stimulating start to 2025.

Resolutions And Houghton Hall

July 26, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I have made patchy progress in adhering to my 2024 New Year resolutions during the first half of this year. I’m ok with alcohol targets and weight management. As planned, I’m spending more quality time reading books and I’m listening to less (largely agitating or depressing) news on the radio and television. However, I’m not doing enough back exercises despite grumbling about a stiff back. Also, my resolve to step up my creative activity has been weak since my visible darning of a load of socks and my devising of an Easter treasure hunt for First Grandchild.

Additionally, since a good start early in the year, Jane and I have not been consistent in addressing our joint aim of embarking on more short trips away from home. We set this target with the intention of responding to periods of good weather and our relatively flexible diaries to see bits of the UK we are not familiar with. In part that has been because the abnormally cool, wet weather hasn’t been particularly conducive to such thinking. Also, my diary has been less flexible since I took up a new commitment on Wednesday afternoons to listen to children read as part of the local ‘Read With Me’ scheme.

We have done much better as the weather has improved and the school term drew to a close. We have followed up our trip to Sissinghurst, Rye and Lewes with another lengthy excursion to Houghton Hall and Gardens in north Norfolk, and then on to visit friends in north Suffolk. On all these travels this month, we were blessed with very good weather.

Houghton Hall was impressive, the gardens-cum-sculpture park there were interesting and it was great to see our longstanding friends again.

^{Houghton Hall West Wing (From The Cafe)}

We left early with the intention of arriving at the Houghton Hall at opening time but, after encountering tedious traffic jams around Kings Lynn, arrived a little after midday. The car park was already extending into the overflow area but the grounds of the house are so huge that, once we got into them past the café and exhibitions (including a truly remarkable exhibition of the Cholmondeley Collection of Model Soldiers) in the splendid West Wing, the crowds seemed to melt away.

^{The Remarkable Model Soldier Collection of the 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley Spanning Two Densely Packed Rooms}

The gardens double up as a sculpture park and, immediately, we could see Antony Gormley statues dotting the acres of lawn. Jane explained that the 100 statues comprising his work called ‘Time Horizon’ had been installed so that they were all standing at the same height above sea level. Given the undulating land of the gardens, this concept meant that some statues barely were barely visible – with just their heads showing – while others were on tall plinths. We have seen the multiple statues (of himself) several times before in a variety of settings but this idea of consistent altitude was a new and amusing one for me.

^{Antony Gormley Statues – All At The Same Height Above Sea Level – At Houghton Hall Gardens}

In the South Wing there was a small, temporary exhibition of Magdalene Odundo’s work called ‘Metamorphosis and Transformation’, an installation of blown glass vessels apparently based on an ancient Egyptian ear stud found. That was impressive although I found some of her other work set out in the main house elegant but a little distracting in its contrast with the heavy furnishings and wall art there.

*^{Metamorphosis and Transformation (2011) By Magdalene Odundo}*

Elsewhere in the gardens, we saw sculpture by other artists we have encountered before such as Richard Long, Sean Scully and Rachel Whiteread, plus several others I wasn’t familiar with. I particularly enjoyed ‘Sybil Hedge’ by Anya Gallaccio. This was an unusual ‘sculpture’ made from a large, winding beech hedge that worked well in the large scale of the garden.

*^{A Section Of ‘Sybil Hedge’ By Anya Gallaccio At Houghton Hall Gardens}*

The Palladian style house was bathed in sun but, inside, the rooms were dark to preserve the furnishings, tapestries and artworks. As Jane remarked, despite the size of the rooms, they felt almost claustrophobic after the expanses of the grounds. The tapestries that adorned many of the walls contributed to that feeling but they were remarkably well preserved and had interesting content. The sumptuous rooms, with their blurry views out onto the lawns and deer park though original, handmade glass, were well worth the extra visit fee.

The highlight of the visit for me was the Walled Garden. This was beautiful at every turn and a riot of colour. An interesting twist was that vegetables were grown between the flowers and, here too, Gormley’s statues (on plinths here because of the lower altitude) were watching over us. It was clear that the volunteers and gardeners that manage the garden are not blighted by the multitude of slugs and snails as we are back at home; everything looked vibrant and healthy.

From Houghton Hall we drove south to Eye in Suffolk. By this time, we needed to charge up the car. We have noticed a huge improvement in the availability of electric vehicle charging points during our last few trips around the United Kingdom. Certainly, both our charge ups on this trip were very quick and easy.

*^{Another of Gormley’s Statues, This Time In Houghton Hall Looking Out At Others (Incredibly, Given The Amount Of Work Involved In Setting It Up, The Installation Is Only Until October 2024)}*

We arrived at our friend’s house in time for drinks in the sunshine. There was also time for an evening tour of their garden, the private allotments adjoining the garden which they own and manage, and the entrance to the woodland/wetlands beyond the allotments that are now owned by our friends and others in the community. The various types of land they look after are lovely slices of nature. They are also a labour of love although one task not needed is slug management – their chickens prodding around in the allotments seem to deal with that!

The excellent and copious hospitality we were given in terms of food and drink put my New Year resolution targets for weight and alcohol consumption under pressure but, as ever, it was great to catch up with old friends. Plus, our target to have more days away from home exploring the UK was helped along.

Darn It!

January 28, 2024January 28, 2024 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

One of my New Year resolutions was to do more creative things. I think I have met that challenge, albeit rather mundanely this month, by darning several pairs of socks. I had bought the materials to do this some time ago but had left them languishing in a drawer. I got them out again and followed a YouTube video showing me how to bring a bunch of socks back to life. I admit that the holes were quite small and the finished products are not works of art, but I was proud of myself for doing it rather than just throwing the socks away and buying new ones.

^{Not Beautiful But Newly Functional}

My wife Jane has also been darning and even went on a workshop to facilitate more complex darning processes than I had attempted. Her main output was a repaired soft toy – called ‘Robert’ apparently – that my late mother had knitted for our Middle Son (MS) and which he still remembers adoring as a small child. MS and his fiancé are expecting a baby in March and, touchingly, MS wanted the baby to have a smartened up ‘Robert’ for his or her nursery. As with my socks, the repairs are, fashionably I’m told, very visible. Hopefully, both socks and ‘Robert’ will have a new lease of life.

*^{‘Robert’. 30 Years Old And Going Strong. Thanks Mum!}*

Most of my other New Year Resolutions have started well. I’ve been walking a lot, watching my weight and my alcohol intake, and have countered my fear of average, lukewarm coffee by going to a cafe with Jane when she has requested (only once so far). I’ve reduced my intake of the miserable world news a bit. I’ve also remembered to do my back exercises on most days and although they are limited, they are also pain free. While doing them, I have enjoyed remembering that these exercises weren’t really possible a year ago after I put my back out with an unexpected, untimely and big sneeze; that’s good progress.

Only the gardening resolution is untouched but, so far in January, the weather has been either too cold and frosty (lovely to walk in), too windy or too rainy. Climate chaos certainly seems to be producing very varied winter weather and convenient excuses not to get out working in the garden.

^{Frosty Mornings On The Way Into Town}

In the last two or three weeks, there has been plenty of cloudless sky in between the storms. Jane and I had a lovely walk through some woods on the other side of the Stroud Five Valleys from our home. Lack of parking places forced us to alter our plans slightly but it is always rewarding to find new places to stroll through and the Five Valleys are blessed with a vast network of well-tended footpaths.

*^{Striding Through Sunlit Oldhills Woods On The Chalford Biodiversity Trail}*

I have revisited some of the long walks around our village for the first time for months. I’ve loved these sunny walks, their views and their solitariness and the time they give me to think (but not about very much). The frozen ground meant there were no worries about the mud and the mix of bright sun and deep frost everywhere has been spectacular at times.

*^{I Love This Old Barn Complex. I Hadn’t Been Past It For Ages}*

Some of the recent winter sunrises have been spectacular too.

Spring is on its way. I often find upcoming February is the toughest month to negotiate; I get impatient for the ever longer days and daunted by the amount of work there is to do to prepare the garden for planting. Darn it, perhaps I should have focused a little less on mending socks in recent days, and a little more on gardening so as to have got ahead of tasks on the vegetable patch and in the field. Even in retirement, time is too short.

Resolutions, Resolutions

January 3, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Jane and I celebrated New Year Eve in our local pub but, I’m afraid to say, were in bed by 10.30pm. Despite not lasting out the end of year festivities, the turn of the year does always seem to me to be a highlight and a chance to think afresh about the world, and our actions within it. What better time is there to check on past personal resolutions, set some new ones and think as hopefully as possible about what lies ahead.

My New Year resolutions have largely been the same from year to year and have revolved primarily around walking more, drinking less alcohol and managing my weight. I’ve done ok in hitting targets in these areas and am not inclined to tighten the targets here. I walk enough, my weight is stable and I enjoy drinking beer, wine and whiskey too much to reduce my intake to, for example, the “UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) low risk drinking guidelines, based on up-to-date scientific evidence”. I may regret that one day, but not yet.

_{Beyond My Normal Walking Routes – An Old Cemetery in Woodchester, Near Stroud}

Another of the New Year’s resolutions last year was to do more day tripping with Jane. The idea was to capitalise on the flexibility of my retirement and her limited working hours to decide at short notice, when the weather forecast was positive, to go on a short excursion. We did manage that a few times – a big success, for example, was our day trip very early in 2023 to Clevedon. But our joint resolve petered out so this New Year we have renewed it.

*^{The Severn Estuary – A Totally Different Landscape To That We Are Used To}*

Once again, we have started well. Already we have made it to Frampton on Severn, embarked on a walk along part of the Severn Estuary in squally weather, and dropped into The Bell at Frampton on Severn for a drink in a previously unvisited (by me at least) pub. Now we have to keep that up and I’m definitely counting our trip to Edinburgh this weekend in the tally.

*^{The Gloucester And Sharpness Canal, Frampton On Severn}*

As targeted, I did manage to read one more book in 2023 than the paltry total I managed in 2022. I want to read more novels and will especially focus on easy-reading crime and historical thrillers. It is unfortunate for my resolution target that the book I have just started is a sprawling 560 page novel (by Philippa Gregory) with a tiny typeface. However, it is exactly the sort of historical novel I tend to enjoy so I hope to up my reading pace.

I have added a few more New Year Resolutions to the usual set. One is to watch, and listen to, less ‘news’. Its depressing, I tend to talk over it with my views and critique, and listening to it at breakfast, at lunch, before dinner and then again before bed is repetitive and needless: stop!

I really need to get out in the garden more. There is always so much to do and the build-up of gardening tasks is one of the things that causes me anxiety while, once I get out there, gardening is one of the things that really relaxes me. It is also good exercise despite being challenging to my back. To compensate, I have added a resolution to stop talking about doing my routine back exercises and just do them.

There are a couple of others that will be harder to track. I want to do something a bit more creative but need to think harder about what sorts of things that might entail (watch this space – maybe….). Finally, I want to do a better job of satisfying my wife Jane’s frequent desire to have a coffee in town on the days we walk in together. Being stuck in my ways, I always prefer the very hot, strong coffee we make at home but I know Jane likes the sense of occasion having a cup in a café for a change.

In the interests of transparency, here is the full set of resolutions with 2023 performance against those carried forward. The key will be to stay healthy so their achievement is possible and hope the world doesn’t go to hell in a handbasket in the meantime.

Into 2023 and Clevedon

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 / fgrtommo / 3 Comments

So, we are into 2023 and armed with our New Year resolutions, good intentions and hope that we can look forward to a good year for experiences and memories.

*^{Memories Of A Cold Mid-December 2022}*

So far, the remnants of a chesty cough picked up in mid-December and then a back problem triggered by coughing while in an awkward position have dampened my spirits a little. But all ailments are easing and, anyway, I have positivity in reserve following a momentous 2022 during which all our sons bought flats or houses, and then a great Christmas period with all of those sons, their partners and, of course, First Grandchild. We had a great time.

Going into 2023, I have renewed my vows meet my monthly and annual targets for my weight, my alcohol intake and continuing exercise through walking. Last year was a big ‘tick’ on those and I hope I can sustain that discipline in 2023.

An additional resolution is that my wife* and I intend to be more spontaneous about travel around the United Kingdom. This is a resolution that we made together a few years ago but failed to follow through for long, mainly due to the COVID lockdowns. Now, we plan to use our bigger car battery and judicious use of weather forecasts to slip off to places for day trips or overnight stays in sunny places we know and don’t know.

Already, we have visited Clevedon. This is a seaside town in North Somerset – no more than 40 miles from where we live but never visited by us before. It was an eye-opening day.

The first thing that struck me was the number and large size of so many of the Victorian houses. The town had clearly prospered during Victorian times as a seaside resort and presumably had benefited from money flowing from Bristol in the aftermath of the slavery trade. Clevedon is now a dormitory town for Bristol and most of the huge houses are converted into flats. However, the sheer number of well proportioned, well built and well maintained Victorian residences was a surprise.

*^{Pretty Much As Close As We Could Get To The Pier – Too Windy!}*

We walked down to the sea front where the wind was blasting spray up over the sea wall. We moved quickly past the pier – one of the earliest surviving Victorian piers in the country – up onto the adjoining cliff path and its views of the town and its rocky and pebbly beach. We walked along the coastal path – slightly gingerly in my case due to the unsteadiness of my back – and loved the unexpectedly clear views up and down the coast and across to Wales.

*^{Looking South West Along Clevedon Beach}*

Below us on the way was a brown churning sea; the drama and noise of the waves crashing onto Clevedon’s low cliffs was reminiscent of coastal walks in Devon or Cornwall and got us thinking that trips out in the future might see us venturing a little further west along the coast to even more dramatic coastlines.

*^{Coastal Walk North East Of Clevedon}*

We turned inland across fields and through the nicely named, and occasionally pretty, village of Walton in Gordano and then back to Clevedon’s Victorian streets. There we tucked into a pleasant pizza lunch at Scoozi Ristorante and then headed back home while it was still light, having had a very worthwhile day out. More to come!

New Year Resolution Trips

January 24, 2022 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Since retiring over 4 years ago, I have been pretty diligent at making and tracking progress against annual New Year resolutions. Progress this year was patchy. I met my alcohol-free days and alcohol unit reduction targets. I also exceeded my target of an average of 15,000 steps a day, and my weight has just about stayed within the target range. However, intentions to step up organisation of the vegetable garden and composting facilities have remained unfulfilled and I read a woefully small number of books this year.

This time last year, Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I made a new, joint resolution to travel around the UK more. Covid has, of course, restricted overseas trips and our sons are now living all around the UK – in Belfast, London and Edinburgh. So perhaps inevitably, we have done more travelling around the UK than in the past, culminating in our Christmas on Skye, Scotland.

Our joint New Year resolution this year is to step up and renew our familiarity with the UK even more. We have already started with a few trips this January and are lucky enough to have the prospect of many more this year.

*^{I Never Tire Of London And Views Of The Thames; This One At Dusk}*

We had to travel up to London briefly to prepare the Barbican flat for sale. There is another such trip later this week. London is always a pleasure for me; there is so much going on to see and do (even in a pandemic). This time, as well as seeing Middle Son and his partner for dinner at one of our long-time favourite restaurants (Moro), we went to exhibitions in the Barbican and in Tate Modern. Plus, I managed a couple of hours in the Imperial War Museum.

*^{Lubaina Himid Exhibition At Tate Modern}*

Lubaina Himid’s exhibition at Tate Modern was substantial and well done. The vibrant colours and range of work were impressive but I can’t say I was entirely convinced or entranced by the pieces on show. The pictures sometimes captured movement but didn’t generate dynamism for me and the sonic works, while interesting and atmospheric, weren’t arresting. However, we both liked the bright colours and thought it was an exhibition worth seeing – especially as LSW is a member so tickets were available and felt free.

*^{‘Old Boat/New Money’ (Accompanied By Sounds of Sea And Ships) By Lubaina Himid At Tate Modern}*

We both thought that the Isamu Noguchi exhibition at the Barbican was much more interesting. The Guardian newspaper review of the exhibition rather poo-pooed the exhibition as being more like a luxury lighting show room. Certainly there were a lot of lovely lighting exhibits on show but there was so much more. I enjoyed a lot of the sculptures, some of the ceramics and, especially, the way the exhibition juxtaposed these with the light-based works.

*^{Views Of The Noguchi Exhibition At The Barbican}*

As usual, too, the Barbican had put together a clear explanation of the progression of Noguchi’s ideas as they developed through his life. I thought it was an excellent exhibition.

*^{More Views Of The Noguchi Exhibition At The Barbican}*

A friend in our village recently recommended a visit to the London Imperial War Museum. So, when I found myself nearby, while LSW was shopping near Borough Market, I took myself off there to investigate the recently commissioned Holocaust Galleries. These build up a picture of the Second World War Holocaust through hundreds of photos and the telling of many stories of Jews and other minority groups persecuted by the Nazis in run up to the war and then during it.

This bottom up approach required time to absorb but had a layering and relentlessness to it that I found very powerful. The portrayal of the seemingly inexorable drive to horror, from before the First World War to the Final Solution, was well done and did not shy away from the relative indifference of the world until it was too late. The history is well known but, nonetheless, rather depressing and the exhibition’s intermingling of the stories of individuals with items indicating the sheer scale of the atrocities was as shocking as ever. My brief tour of some of the other sections of the museum showing uniforms, planes, tanks and rockets felt a bit trivial afterwards and I’ll have to revisit those another day.

Prior to our London trip we made our first visit of the year to The Newt Garden in East Somerset. As readers of this blog will know, we have been a few times before. We love it because it is already a spectacular garden and it is continuing to evolve so there always seems to be something new to see (this time, a Japanese Garden and a ‘Beezantium’ – an exhibition about bees). There is also a lovely restaurant.

*^{View Of The Newt Hotel From The Gardens}*

We are now members and to justify the cost of membership we will have to go a few more times this year – what a hardship!

Then, after London, we had a day out at Compton Verney which is an exhibition space and park that we had not visited before. LSW had seen a recommendation on one of the many social media connections she has. Specifically this was for two exhibitions that were coming to a close. One was of Grinling Gibbons, a master woodcarver (2021 was the 300^th anniversary of his death) the other was of paintings by John Nash (younger brother of the more famous wartime painter, Paul Nash).

*^{Sea Of Aconites In Front Of Compton Verney House}*

Both exhibitions were popular, a little crowded and worth seeing. Grinling Gibbons’s background (initially around the docks in Holland) and his drive to network and commercialise as he built up his business in England was described clearly and interestingly and the pieces on show were terrifically detailed and impressive. However, the full impact of his work would be best appreciated in the houses where his carvings still decorate walls today and I’d have liked to have found out more about how the work was done.

*^{Example Of The Detailed Carvings Of Grinling Gibbons}*

The John Nash exhibition was also well put together and illustrated carefully how his career developed through the First World War, through his love of the countryside, then as a War artist in the Second World war and finally as a retiree travelling the UK and settling in his rural surroundings (as, among other things, a seed catalog and gardening book illustrator). Unfortunately, apart from a few notable exceptions (see ‘Over The Top’ below), I didn’t like the paintings as much as I had hoped (or expected); insufficient liveliness of colour in too many of the works for my liking.

The house grounds, designed by Capability Brown, were lovely in the sun (though muddy underfoot) and the lunch in the restaurant was very reasonable. It was another good day out very much in line with our New Year resolution to get out of the house and our immediate locale rather more. Later this week: London and Edinburgh!

^{January Sunrise At Home. Trips Are Nice, But Home Is Too!}

Hope and Resolve in 2021

January 22, 2021 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Yesterday, Storm Christoph, which has been battering and flooding many parts of the UK, brought us a dramatic combination of rain, wind, thunder, lightning, snow, bright sunshine and then a great sunset. I suspect that we might see a similar drama in events and a variety of ups and downs in 2021 as we wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic, the impact of Brexit and the normal hurly-burly of life.

*Sunset Over The Garden After The Storm*

Currently, the rather boring but necessary lockdown continues and Winter life revolves around meals at home, shopping for them, walking the local lanes and fields, reading books, listening to the (voluminous and ever changing) news, watching TV dramas in front of the woodburner, and sleep. But the delivery of vaccines is providing some hope that, in a few months, we will be able to resume adventures around the UK and meet people normally again.

Yes, there are new variants of the virus and, yes, the death rate will rise yet further before it subsides, but there is expectation now that the current pandemic will pass (or, at least, become a lot less disruptive) during 2021. Of course, I am dearly hoping that is the case. However, I also hope that the Government does not hide behind an effective roll-out of the vaccines (assuming they manage that). We must learn, and make transparent, the lessons learnt from doing almost everything too little and too late to combat the virus. After all, this is hardly likely to be the last pandemic we need to deal with and we need to do far better next time.

Against the uncertain backdrop of pandemic and Brexit, it is hard to set concrete personal resolutions for the New Year. The lockdown has induced a gentle lethargy in me (I’m one of the lucky ones). I think it is going to take the fine Spring weather and an end of the lockdown to generate some proper enthusiasm to break that ennui. So my resolution process this year is really to just continue on the path set over the last couple of years.

For example, I will maintain my target of walking an average of over 15,000 steps a day. Apart from a bit of garden pottering, that is really my only substantive exercise these days. So, it’s good that I exceeded that target again in 2020 and I plan to do so once more in 2021. That should be achievable, and be thoroughly enjoyable to achieve in our lovely countryside, provided I stay healthy. Hopefully, many of those steps will be taken a little further afield than was possible in 2020.

The 2020 resolution achievements I proudest of in 2020 were those relating to increasing alcohol-free days and reducing average alcohol units per day. I beat my target of 40% alcohol free days by more than 10% – well over half or 2020 was alcohol free! I also thrashed my 10% reduction target of decreasing my alcohol unit intake. My tracking on the Drinkaware app has shown that I managed a 35% reduction in alcohol compared to 2019 and I now average 22 units/week.

That still leaves me well above the recommended limit of alcohol intake (14 units a week); so there is more to do. However, there is a balance to be struck here. Until I really can’t drink whiskey, wine or beer for precipitate health reasons, I need to weigh the benefit to my feelings and mental health with the physical risks of exceeding the rigour of what is recommended. So many pleasures have been curtailed during this pandemic, reducing further the pleasure I get from what is now a relatively occasional drink is not in my set of 2021 targets. I will just aim to at least repeat what I achieved in 2020 – that will involve will power sufficient to be challenging enough.

That, plus the continuation of walking, should help with my perennial objective of getting my weight below 11 stone. By the week before Christmas, I had managed that. However, for the second year in a row, the combination of mince pies, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, brandy butter and a major Christmas dinner – lovely as that all was – tipped me over the edge of the 11 stone marker just before year end and just as it did in 2019. My resolution this year is to reduce my weight to such a degree by mid-December that I can enjoy those Christmas excesses without jeopardising target achievement.

Other resolutions from last year have been a bit of a washout. I failed to listen to the news on the radio less and listen to music more. There was just so much news from the pandemic, to Trump, to Brexit, that I just couldn’t stop taking it in. Plus I failed to reach my target of reading 20 books (I managed only 13, a poor show given how much discretionary time I now have and how much I enjoy good fiction). I resolve to do better in 2021.

Long-Suffering Wife and I failed, for obvious reasons, to achieve our resolution to get out together around the UK more. We made it to Belfast for the first time but other holidays to Cornwall and Wales were planned then cancelled. This year, when the virus allows, we will revisit Belfast where Youngest Son is establishing himself, and visit Eldest Son in his new home in Edinburgh. We also have booked, rather ambitiously, a family Christmas on the west coast of Skye; if that comes off, the world really will have returned to something like normality.

*Memories Of Exploring The UK In 2020; Belfast Lough*

This time last year I said in these blogs: “I think that 2020 is going to be a far better year than 2019”. In some ways it was in that we had no sons in near fatal accidents. Now, I really do think 2021 will be far better than last year but who knows what it will throw at us. Good job my resolutions are not critical work targets that must be met; I can relax, be flexible, go with the flow and just be content with pushing myself just a tiny bit.

*Early Snowdrops – A Sign Of A Brighter Future?*

Books, Dreams and Leaves

December 1, 2020 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Autumn is finishing and Winter is beginning to close in. The sunny days of early and mid-November that highlighted the changing leaf colours have given way, in the last week especially, to grey murk, mist and damp. But, today is sunny and Christmas is coming and, beyond that, a chance to think about a new, hopefully less pandemic-ridden new year. I will have to start thinking about New Year resolutions and how well (or not) I did with 2020’s resolutions.

At the beginning of 2020 I set myself a target of reading 20 books in the year. To my disappointment and surprise, I am going to fall short of the target. Disappointment because I have consistently read 16 to 17 books a year since I retired and so reading 20 was only a small step up. Surprise because I enjoy reading a lot and would have expected to have found more time for reading in what has been a year of pandemic lockdown and, therefore, more time sitting around at home.

*Local Sunlight Through Mist (Photo Courtesy LSW)*

I would like to be able to say that the relatively slow pace at which I have finished books this year has been a function of those books’ complexity or length. But given that one was ‘How to Be a Footballer’ by Peter Crouch, I can’t get far with that argument. No; the real reason is that almost every time I pick up a book during the day – especially after lunch – I doze off.

A few weeks ago I cashed in a book voucher my mother in law had kindly given me for my birthday. As I carried the books home, I resolved to resist siesta time more determinedly. I have had partial success and am now embarking on the third of the books I bought. However, I think the only real solution is to when read standing up or while sitting stiffly at a table. I am still finding that trying to read on the sofa or in a comfy chair leads inexorably to a frittering away of retirement in a pleasant but wasteful snooze. I’m going to try harder.

The first of the new books I read was ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison. This is an intricate novel about, at its core, slavery and how ex-slaves and their offspring came to terms with their experience. It’s a brilliantly constructed book with fragments of the story, told by different protagonists, coming together gradually to create a whole. The presence of a ghost (as representation of guilt, memory or trauma – I’m not sure which) was a device I don’t normally warm to, but it worked here.

The next book in the new pile was ‘Always North’ by Vicki Jarrett. This was very different from Beloved. It is set in a dystopian near future, not the past, and is a fast paced climate emergency thriller. There are some parallels between the books though. They both describe a tragic environment and they both deal with the nature of memory and dreams. I thought that some of the ideas in Always North were only partly thought through. However, the excellent first section of the book describing a survey of the Arctic hooked me, the story unfolded quickly enough for me to forgive any logic holes, and I learnt a few things about likely climate change trigger points above the Arctic Circle.

*A Few Remnants Of Autumn Colour On The Walk To Town Through The Fisherie*s

The preoccupation of both books with memory and dreams links to some thoughts I have had about these recently. I have had a spate of dreams over the last few months that have had a corporate office work theme. There were people in the dreams from my previous work life. There were offices, deadlines, files and meetings.

I won’t relate what fragments I can remember of any of the dream sequences – I often think there is nothing more tedious than hearing about someone else’s dreams – but it is weird that they have cropped up over 3 years after my retirement. I read once that dreams are the brain’s way of flushing out information that is not needed anymore. Well perhaps my experience is bearing that out!

So, onwards into December… Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I are looking forward to Christmas despite the constraints on gatherings. I have issued a light and laughable survey to our sons asking them what sort of Christmas they want with us – what food, drink and activity for example – and that has helped to build up some excitement. Most of all, we are looking forward to some long chats around meals, during long walks and in front of the wood-burners, in advance of what should be a good and interesting 2021.

Already – and regardless of the pandemic – LSW and I can see the potential for big changes next year. The landscaping of the garden behind the house is nearly (and finally, belatedly) finished but will need planting and then we should decide what to do about the big crumbling stone wall in front of the house and the gently declining stables in the field. The Barbican flat in London is being vacated by Eldest Son and his girlfriend as they move to Edinburgh and so we have to decide whether to sell it. The tenancy of our Tin House in a neighbouring village is coming to an end so there needs to be some thinking about the future of that too.

Beyond the pandemic, there will no doubt be other opportunities and issues to confront. Not least we are keen to travel around the UK rather more – especially to Northern Ireland, now Youngest Son is settled there, and to Scotland, once Eldest Son and girlfriend have moved there. I will also visit my Mum and Dad again after a long break due to the lockdown.

The sun coming out today after four days of grimy, grey weather has made me feel optimistic again….. There is still some autumnal colour in the leaves on some trees, the woodland paths are gorgeously spongy with the recent leaf falls, fungi are thriving in the undergrowth and birds are still marking out their territories beautifully noisily. And a Covid-19 vaccine is coming….

*The Stream Just Beyond Our Field In Early Sunlight (Again, Photo Credited To LSW)*

There is much to appreciate and anticipate. Roll on Christmas and the New Year.

New Year Resolutions: Making Them And Breaking Them

January 2, 2020 / fgrtommo / 4 Comments

Happy New Year!

It’s that time for reviewing last year’s resolutions, checking progress and renewing the challenges for the coming year. Looking forward with vigour to the next year offsets the feeling of anti-climax now our sons have returned to their homes, the holiday season parties are over, and the leftovers from big festive, family meals are almost gone. So how did I do in my third retirement year and what should I be setting as targets for next year?

Christmas Lunch Set For 19 At Ours!

Well, the past year – the last six months, anyway – have been coloured by Middle Son’s accident and my Mum’s increasing debilitation that has led to her taking up residence in a home. It’s not been a great year and the time focused on these events has deflected me from some of the more challenging of my new year resolutions set this time last year. Excuses, excuses!

On the positive side, I have again exceeded my target of average number of steps per day (15,000). I have managed an average of 16,054 per day and exceeded a daily average of 15,000 steps almost every week during the year.

Views From Our New Year’s Day Walk

Unfortunately, this has become almost my only exercise as gardening has taken a back seat this year. My overall fitness has probably declined and my weight target of getting down to 11 stone (70kg) has again just been missed. I was on target to meet that weight target in November but Christmas excess put paid to achieving the objective. That’s annoying since disappointment here was avoidable and I will retain the weight target for 2020 while trying to step up other core-strength exercises.

Ruskin Mill Lake, On The Way To The Local Town – One Of My Favourite Local Places

My best achievement of the year was that I did exceed my target of no alcohol days. I beat the target of 140 by 4 and that made it my best year since measurement began (and, frankly, since I was a teenager). Also frankly, and a little embarrassingly, it felt like hard work achieving this.

14 Years Of Tracking No-Alcohol Days Per Year (With A Generous Trend Line in Red)

This year I have also been tracking the number of alcohol units I have each day using the Drinkaware app. I now have a baseline against I can record what I hope will be future reduction but it has been a scary exercise. I consume an average of 35 alcohol units per week. That is more than double the recommended weekly average. I must therefore look for a significant improvement next year – I’ll try an initial 10% – but know that also will be tough given habits that have built up over decades.

Tracking Of Alcoholic Units By Month In 2019

I did plan to create a plan for volunteering during this year. I haven’t really done that but I have stepped up involvement in the construction of the local Neighbourhood Plan and that did consume a lot of time at various times of the year. I am also a core member of the local Carbon Neutral Horsley group that is encouraging moves towards carbon neutrality by 2030 in the Parish. Both these local initiatives are going to be a continuing focus in 2020.

I failed on all my other 2019 resolutions despite the freedom and flexibility retirement offers. The compost bins near the vegetable patch are in reasonable shape but have not been redeveloped as planned. I’m dropping that resolution since it is replaced by a wider plan to decide on what to do with our nearby and gradually crumbling stables.

Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I also failed, after a bright start, to engineer significantly more trips out to see parts of the UK this year. We’ll carry that resolution forward though because we have enjoyed the trips we did make, such trips will be more climate-friendly than air trips abroad now we have our electric car, and I still feel that my knowledge of the UK countryside needs renewal.

Christmas Morning From Our House

I will also carry forward the resolution I had to listen to less news and more music. LSW and I both palpably failed on this. We listened to the BBC on the radio morning, noon and night as the Brexit and other debates unfolded. LSW and I both spent hours ranting at what we heard and my only comfort is that when I have stayed with my parents this year, I heard my Dad doing exactly the same; ranting at the radio must be a genetic trait!

One resolution I will add this year is to read more books. In 2018, I read a number of what I thought were excellent books: The Milkman by Anna Burns, Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves, Before The Fall by Noah Hawley, The Dry by Jane Harper (very relevant with Australia on fire at the moment) and, most of all, A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles.

During 2019, I didn’t read anything I considered as good as these. Nonetheless I loved the reading process, the thinking involved and the relaxation (sometimes too much, as I often slipped into ‘siesta’). Given my enjoyment of reading I really should find time for more. I plan to read at least 20 books this year thereby beating my record of 17 in 2018 and 16 in 2019. I hope to find some more great books among these.

So, onwards to 2020! I am rather despondent about several aspects of the world and the current political situation in the UK. However, I think that 2020 is going to be a far better year than 2019 and I’m going to aim to meet my resolutions for the new year with a spring in my step – all 192,648 of them!

Me Setting Off Into 2020!

Walking, Drinking And Bending at 63

May 9, 2019 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

I had a birthday last week and I’ve made it to 63 years of age. When I was in my twenties I didn’t believe I’d get so far and I’m sure some of the damage I did to my body around that time will catch up with me in due course. But not yet, it seems!

I do a lot of walking to maintain a modicum of fitness. My average number of steps per day has steadily increased in recent years and, especially since I retired nearly two years ago. Many of those steps are up and down the steep valley slopes near where I now live. They are therefore more testing than the pure statistics suggest. However, I do wonder if increasing walking just makes me better at walking rather than fit and I do need to ensure that I walk at a heart-exciting pace so that I do get a true health benefit.

Of course, walking is not just for fitness. I do need to get from A to B and, since we tend to shop daily for just what we need each day, this includes a daily walk into the local town (Nailsworth). There is a real pleasure in this which I have mentioned in these posts before, not least because of the variety of routes and the lovely countryside to view on the way.

Bluebell Woods Near Nailsworth, Gloucestershire (One Of The Few Places Not Yet Overrun By Wild Garlic)

I’m fortunate in that Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) has also developed a love of walking in recent years. That means we can venture out on walks for walking’s sake together while discussing the issues of family, friends and the wider world. We also encourage friends who visit to join us on some of the nicest walks near our home. Indeed, that is how we celebrated my birthday when my Best Man visited us. After a lovely, sunlit three hour traverse of several valleys we adjourned to the local pub (as you do).

Birthday Walk West Of Horsley, Gloucestershire To Owlpen And Back (Wild Garlic, Owlpen Manor And Rape Fields)

Nonetheless, much of the walking I do is alone and that too is calming and enjoyable. I don’t tend to think of matters of great import when walking alone. I watch nature around me, make mental to do lists, envisage great wins for Forest Green Rovers Football Club, play Pokemon Go, think about my next blog post and let my mind go near blank. The emptiness of mind as one simply puts one foot in front of the other amid beautiful countryside is what makes walking relaxing.

Sunlight Through Trees Near Owlpen, Gloucestershire

Reaching 63 has got me thinking about a couple of other aspects of health that I need to give more attention to. For about 15 years I have tracked the number of no-alcohol days that I manage. For the most part the trend has been steadily increasing – that is, improving. My current, (for me) aggressive target is to be alcohol-free 140 days in the year. I have only managed that once in the last 15 years and I’m not on track to meet it again but I am going to be more resolute, I promise.

I have also, for the last 6 months, been tracking my daily alcoholic unit intake using an application called Drinkaware. This is scarier since I am way over the safe limits health researchers have determined.

Part of my problem here is that in measuring only non-alcohol days, I have been only measuring my performance in one dimension. So, on a day when I might have one drink – to be sociable during a meeting with friends or to fill in time before a football match for example – I then think: ah, I’m not having a no-alcohol day, so why not have a few more drinks later. Dumb huh? I need to do better and will continue to track daily alcohol volume intake as well as no alcohol days. Just the action of tracking should encourage improvement.

The other health aspect that I need to work on is balance and flexibility. This is being underlined daily at the moment by a lower back pain I get after sitting down – something I do less of now I’m retired but which still occupies hours a day.

I’m also reminded of my failures in this area by the Instagram feeds that I see almost daily being posted by Youngest Son’s girlfriend. She is an osteopath and yoga teacher and has a great Instagram feed and blog (becthomaswellness.com) showing how to maintain core strength and flexibility. She recently posted a video specifically on how she keeps her spine supple and it was pretty inspiring.

Today I can’t physically do (at least not properly) 10% of the exercises she does but I need to do more than the 1% I currently do on some days. Just writing this down here feels like it is strengthening my resolve. But the important thing is action not words.

Let’s see how I am doing by the time I am 64. Meanwhile, I’ll build consuming one of my birthday presents into my strengthened fitness and health regime……

Tasty Birthday Present From Middle Son

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

New Year Resolutions