The Hog At Horsley

In my last post I mentioned the great value entertainment versus the effort input that I get from our visits to our local pub, The Hog At Horsley. We have visited on Friday evenings and most Sunday afternoons in August as per our normal routine and I have continued to attend men’s Talk Club there on Tuesday evenings. Our quiz team also won the monthly pub quiz this month despite the specialist round being cat breeds about which my knowledge has moved from minimal to something.

In addition, there have also been a couple of special events to enliven our mainly sunny August.

As last year, the landlord at our local pub, together with his recently married wife, organised a pub crawl for charity. The charity benefitting from our walking, drinking and fund raising this year was Alzheimer’s Research UK. Thanks to some exuberant charity bucket proffering by the landlord and his brother, over £1,500 was gathered – even more than last year.

Kicking Off The Charity Pub Crawl - 10.30am At The Hog — *^{Kicking Off The Charity Pub Crawl – 10.30am At The Hog}*

The event started and finished – for those who lasted the full distance – at The Hog and encompassed visits to 10 other pubs along a journey of about 11 miles. It was a hot, sunny day so we certainly needed the ‘hydration’ on the way but I know my limits and I ducked out after 8 stops.

Pub Crawl Vistas And A Walking (And Very Warm) Shark — Some Pubs On The Way

I certainly got my steps in for the day, met a few new acquaintances and had a few interesting chats. I even had a pint at Kings Head, in Kingscourt which I had never been to before. It was a full and fun day.

As I write, the August Bank Holiday Weekend Hogfest (one of two Hogfests each year) is in full swing. I have started to sample some of the 50 beers and ciders on offer. I don’t plan to work my way through the list but I’ll focus on my favourites like those from The Kernel Brewery and other IPAs. There’s music and pop-up food vendors on offer and plenty of conversation to be had with fellow locals; all good vibes although an unfortunately timed break in the long hot spell and a few prolonged, heavy showers will undoubtedly dampen the usual ebullience.

Running a rural pub in the face of rising taxes (business rates for The Hog doubled this year) and operational costs such as bar staff wages and power to keep the beer cool is a constant struggle. I therefore hope that Hogfest is a success despite the weather. The village needs a thriving pub. It’s a hub for the community, gossip and business contact. But we have to ‘use it or lose it!’

Other retiree preoccupations beyond the pub in August have been the start of the football season, preparing a planning application for solar panels on our ex-stables roof, and clearing our small field of cut grass.

The New Lawn, Forest Green Rovers' Current Stadium — *^{The New Lawn, Forest Green Rovers’ Current Stadium}*

Forest Green Rovers, the football team I support, have lost their last two games without scoring so we are clearly not going to be tearing up trees this season. Whatever the result, I enjoy the process of preparing for games, watching them and then talking about them. This process carries a lot of tension and frustration which sometimes feels a bit daft given it’s only a game, but it’s one of my great pleasures nonetheless.

Trying to get planning permission for solar panels on our stables roof has been a lot less fun! We now realise that we should have just gone ahead and installed them and faced any consequences later, but I wanted to follow due process and do the right thing. Now I’m caught up in all sorts of technicalities that are outside my comfort zone. Not engaging an expensive professional was probably another mistake I made given the hours I have probably wasted.

The Walk From The Local Planning Department - The Only Upside To The Planning Process — *^{The Walk Back From The Local Planning Department – The Only Upside To The Planning Process}*

Raking up cut hay, weeds and wildflowers in our field after having it cut by a professional has been more satisfying. It’s the sort of repetitive, lightly physical task that I like. There is a lot of mindlessness but also some relaxed thinking time. More than I would like of that time has been taken up with tortured thoughts about Forest Green Rovers’ recent, poor performances and my planning permission frustrations. Ultimately though, there is satisfaction in looking back at a cleared field with little stacks of hay. Now the only question is what to do with all of those – I need a new compost heap!

Our Cut Field — *^{Our Satisfyingly Cut And Raked Field}*

Summer has been pretty good. The need to water the vegetables during the drought was a minor downside to the weather. All else about the persistence of sunny and warm/hot days was fine by me. Hopefully, we are now looking forward to prolonging our summer with a trip to the French and Italian Riviera. I’ll miss our local pub while we are away but think our drinking habits might be a little more exotic for a while.

My life in retirement is one of pleasant routine interrupted – maybe I should even say disrupted – by occasional events. I get up at about the same time every day and have one of two breakfasts every morning; either fruit and yogurt with a bit of nut butter or, on days following the purchase of the best local sourdough (currently Leola in my opinion), bread or toast with homemade jam or Marmite. Lovely!

When at home, I have the same lunch every day; crunchy salad with feta and toasted seeds. Dinner is more varied since I only do about half the evening cooking and Jane, my wife, likes variety, but baked salmon filets or a two-day batch of dal are almost guaranteed by me each week.

*^{A View Near Ruskin Mill On The Walk To Nailsworth}*

After breakfast I do the 30 minute or so walk into the local town of Nailsworth for the day’s shopping and my, and a neighbour’s, newspaper. Jane can’t believe I’m happy to do this every day but there are about 8 different routes to take so this aspect of my routine does have variety.

*^{Another View On The Way To Nailsworth}*

There is also variety in the activities in late morning and the afternoon. These include regular but short periods of volunteering, gardening, administration of my simple affairs, more walking, reading about current affairs (and almost always snoozing for a bit during that) and, of course, occasionally writing this blog. Then at 5pm Jane and I, almost invariably, have tea and do the Guardian Quick Crossword together.

During the football season all this has to fit around Forest Green Rovers games (it’s so good to get back to proper football after the political and financial extravagances of the World Cup!)

After dinner, when there isn’t a Forest Green Rovers game, Jane and I watch streamed TV series. Usually, our mutual choice settles on European crime series in which there is a gory death in first few minutes (often followed by others) by a serial killer that needs to be found by a police man or woman with terrible personal issues. We are currently watching a Greek thriller of this ilk. At least the subtitles force us away from constantly looking at our mobile phones.

On Sunday’s and Friday evenings and on the monthly quiz night, we visit our local pub. (Incidentally, our Quiz Team insisted recently, and against my protests, on changing our longstanding team name to ‘Paul Hates Change’. Actually, I dislike the prospect of change rather than change itself but there was sufficient truth in the name that I couldn’t argue against the update.)

I think I’m gradually getting better at coping with the unexpected but I love sticking to all of my routine and our Friday evenings in the local pub are special. We go confident that there will be at least someone who we will meet and have a great conversation with; and the beer is great.

If We Don't To The Pub We Can Always Enjoy The View From Our Field's Seat — *^{If We Don’t Make It To The Pub, We Can Always Enjoy The View Of The Route To It}*

I bumped into one of my best local friends earlier this week to ask if, he was going to be in the pub on the coming Friday. He said yes and pointed out that of all the activities we undertake, going to the pub for the informal meeting of a few locals provides one of the best ratios in terms of effort input and value returned. I agreed and his summation got me thinking….

Over the last several years, Jane has made our garden wonderful. Despite the lack of rain over the last couple of months, it has matured and is still full of colour and insect wildlife. It is a pleasure to sit in with a glass of wine on sunny evenings. Of course, we lack the chat and gossip of pub-goers but Jane and I celebrated our 41^st wedding anniversary last week (rest assured that my daily routine was pretty much unchanged that day!) so we have plenty of shared history, offspring and other stuff to talk about. Perhaps this garden lounging is the lowest energy input activity matched against considerable value.

We recently went to the RHS Badminton Flower Show. It was great that such a prestigious flower show was just down the road from us this year. It was good too that we got there as it opened and before the most intense crowds of visitors.

*^{Flowers And Gardens At The RHS Badminton Flower Show}*

The gardens and the flower and plant tents were inspiring. This was especially true of the extensive show garden by Tom Stuart-Smith that was a reflection of the garden he had designed with Julia Rausing at Lasborough Park (which, in another outing and break from the routine, we had visited last month).

Tom Stuart-Smith's Garden At The RHS Flower Show — *^{Tom Stuart-Smith’s Garden At The RHS Flower Show}*

The show included a themed garden by a garden designer who lives in our village which made me feel good. But it was very hot and became increasingly crowded and, after a couple of hours, I’d had enough. It was a break from routine and I know I should do more to get variety into life. However, Jane’s garden feels as good as the individual show gardens at Badminton, its cheaper and easier to get to and a lot less crowded!

Jane's Recently Renovated Potting Shed — *^{Jane’s Recently Renovated Potting Shed}*

One other recent break from routine which was very enjoyable was to meet up with Youngest Son and his wife in Oxford. They had been over from Belfast to attend a wedding the previous day. We met up for coffee and then a very pleasant and sunny lunch on the roof of the Ashmolean Museum. We checked out the famous exhibition of Egyptian mummies and other relics in the museum and then had a good walk together through the Jericho area and along the Oxford Canal.

*^{Views Of Oxford: Bodleian Library, University Church And Divinity School}*

Next month we are having a more complete break from the norm. We are off on a rail trip to France and Italy. That will definitely be high effort and cost input but, of course, the pleasures promise to be huge in return.

I enjoy holidays more than I did when I had the pressure of work at either end of them. Nonetheless, I’m increasingly thinking about how I will cope out of my home comfort zone. Will the trains run on time? What about climate change and wildfires? Given we are staying in a series of hotels, will we have to eat out all the time? How many pairs of socks and other items of clothing will I need to take? Where will we do our laundry? Can I watch the Forest Green Games that I’ll be missing online?

It’ll be fine I’m sure but I’m already looking forward to the first Friday after we return and a reunion with local mates in the pub over a proper English beer.

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

Our Local Pub

Value: Home and Away