Steve our wonderful gardening friend came to start trimming our Crab Apple and tomorrow it is our Bramley. I was shredder man at a distance! Always amazed at how quickly things grow – it only seemed like yesterday when we last did them!

Apologies that I’ve forgotten to give a couple of blogs recently no title, maybe the isolation has got to me! Today I did the title before the blog to make sure It has a title!

Managed to get a ride in the first day for a while where I didn’t have to consider where ice might be on roads. Having said that it was mucky so will have to clean the bike yet again and oil it! Seem to be doing that a lot frequently!

Yesterday’s Quiz Answers on Doctors

a) Boris Pasternak wrote Dr. Zhivago   b) Dr. Victor Frankenstein was crated by Mary Shelley   c) Doctor Dolittle could speak to the animals  d) Doctor Jekyll had the split personality  e) Hippocrates is known as the Father of Medicine (think Hippocratic Oath)

Another Trees Quiz for today (I think they are all new questions!)

a) What is Dendrochronology ?   b) What is the alternative name for Rowan?  c) A giant sequoia located in Sequoia National Park California is by volume the largest known living single stem tree on Earth; is named after which American Civil War general?  d) Which rock band released the single A Thousand Trees  e) What was the tree in the Garden of Eden called?

A sombre day with the news that 100,000 people have died now with Covid. The one thing in all this is the admiration for all those wonderful people in the NHS, public services and support workers (sure I’ve forgotten others).

I managed to do a voluntary job today (on my own for obvious reasons) sorting out the area around some ponds. It was muddy and raining. Someone has to do it!

Yesterday’s Quiz answers on Snow and Ice

a) The music for the Snow Maiden was written by Rimsky Korsakov   b) George R. R. Martin wrote Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones)  c) Snow has to fall on the Met Office roof in London on the 25th December to be declared an official White Christmas  d) Torvill and Dean are the famous ice dancers  e) Ptarmigan is the bird that turns white in winter.

Today’s Quiz is on Doctors

a) Who wrote Doctor Zhivago?    b) He created a monster in Mary Shelley’s classic?    c) Which Doctor can talk to the animals?   d) Who had a “split personality” ? e) Who is the Greek Physician is  known as the “Father of Medicine?”

Well I think we all had some white stuff over the weekend some more than others! It was bitterly cold Sunday night here and the roads were dodgy this morning. I did do a tentative ride this afternoon virtually sticking to main roads which I normally avoid but I thought it was a safer option!

The cricket was a welcome tonic and Joe Root was superb as was the Sri Lankan left arm bowler. I think India will be a much tougher test but looking forward to it.

Football was disappointing yesterday and it didn’t help the ref made an awful mistake early on that hurt the Mighty Hatters. Still think the boys acquitted themselves well . We will now concentrate on the league!

Today’s Quiz is all vaguely connected with Ice and Snow!

a) Which composer wrote the music for the opera The Snow Maiden?   b) Who wrote the series of books Song of ice and Fire?   c) Where does snow have to fall for there to be an official declaration of a White Christmas?   d) Which British couple dominated the world of ice dancing in the 1980s?  e) Which bird turns white in Winter?

Today’s title refers to the distinctive throaty cry of the Raven. I heard it this afternoon at the reed bed near Splatt Bridge. I soon spotted the massive black bird with it’s distinctive wedge shaped tail. I always used to associate them with upland areas, I remember one time when climbing up through the mist on Cader Idris and visibility was poor and hearing that other worldly call resonating all around, that the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. It was just me in the mist on a mountain of legend and that unearthly sound! At that moment you could understand why they are bird of legend and mythology from different cultures!  I do  know many stories with the Raven in! One Arthurian legend has him not dying but being transformed into a Raven and of course Odin was accompanied by two Ravens.

Great birds and I know I mentioned upland areas is where you often see or hear them but we do hear and see them here in flat Frampton!

Look at those throat feathers! (not my picture)

Yesterday’s Quiz answers on a walking theme. (no quiz today)

a) Alfred Wainwright wrote Lakeland Fells and also a guide to walking the Pennine Way which everyone takes with them on the walk. I think I mentioned previously he talks about rain throughout the guide whereas when I walked it during the 76 drought I only had rain on the last day!  b) Helen Shapiro sang “Walking Back to Happiness”   c) Lou Reed sang “Walk on the Wild Side”   d) Pennine Way is 268 miles long  e) The Milford Track is the famous trail in New Zealand.

What a belter of a cold January day! We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world and literally just a few yards from our door and we are into countryside. So we went for regular walk around the lakes. It is a well worn track for us! It was a slow walk because we kept meeting people for socially distanced chats! Caught a glimpse of a Treecreeper and we had the snoozing Tawny Owl pointed out to us. We wait to see if we have the forecasted snow tomorrow!

Yesterday’s Quiz answers

a) A Hare’s home is called a Form    b) A Slug has 4 noses   c) There are 7 species of amphibians in UK 3 species of newt, two frogs and two toads   d) A Dipper is the aquatic song bird  e) There are 18 species of bat in Britain 17 breed here.

Today’s quiz on walks  of course!

(I will maybe write something tomorrow of the world famous trail we walked 17 years ago)

a) Who wrote the famous guide to the Lakeland Fells?    b) Who sang “Walking Back To Happiness?        c) Complete the Lou Reed song title  “Walk on………………..”     d) How long is the Pennine Way?        e) What is the name of the famous trail on New Zealand’s South Island through Fiord land?

Yesterday’s Quiz answers on Storms

a) a Tornado over water is a waterspout    b) Texas is the state that has the most tornados c) Thor is the god of thunder and I often tell stories from the Norse myths and of course Thor appears in quite a few!  d) St Elmo’s Fire is the electrical charge seen on aircraft  e) Tornados are funnel shaped.

Today’s quiz is all on British Wild Life

a) What is a Hare’s home called?    b) How many noses does a slug have?   c) How many species of amphibian in the British Isles?  d) What is the only aquatic song bird in the British Isles (I saw one today) ?  e) How many species of bat are found in the UK?

Just finished our latest quiz league match on zoom. It was a low scoring match but we scrapped a draw! last week we scored  a lot more but came second!  I am currently working on setting match questions for a few weeks time. Of course we now have to do it virtually so we miss having a pint together afterwards.

Good to have a decent day’s weather after yesterday’s storm. A busy day here doing jobs and errands.

The Town were unlucky last night, played some great football in the second half ironically much more fluent than we were on Saturday when we won!

Today’s Quiz is on a Storm Theme!

a) What do you call a tornado that is over water?    b) Which state in the USA has the most tornados per year?   c) Who was the Norse God of Thunder?   d) The special type of blue-green lightning clings to the wing tips of most aircraft is known as what?  e) What shape is a tornado?

Storm Christoph really hit today and meant apart from me going to collect somebody’s bike to repair being inside.

One hiccup today was going over the Two Severn Bores podcast that I’ve mentioned and discovered that a chunk was missing. So even though the website might be updated soon it may be a few days before the podcast goes on!

Just getting ready to watch football. We are at Brentford where last year was the worst defeat 0-7 I have seen -AGGGGGHHHHHHH! So not that optimistic but surely it can’t be that bad can it?

Yesterday’s G.K. quiz

a) Little Owl is the smallest owl in this country-  probably the bird I’ve photographed the most! One below!  b) The Mosquito aircraft  was the “Wooden Wonder” of WW2 !   c) The names were the fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream  d) 6 Apollo missions landed on the moon  e) The Bay of Pigs was the ill fated US invasion of Cuba-a beautiful place where I have been Bird Watching. No quiz tonight because of football. COYH!!!!!

Strange sort of day today as we knew the weather was going to deteriorate. We managed to get in a walk before the mizzle and later heavy rain came in. Tomorrow looks really wet and windy with the storm!   Think it might be a writing day tomorrow!

Web site is getting closer to being revamped, I need to think about the pictures-some will stay but there will be new ones including some book illustrations!

The Test Matches between Australia and India sounded good, would of been good to watch it!

Yesterday’s Quiz on Mondays

a) Solomon Grundy was married on a Wednesday   b) Garfield didn’t like Mondays  c) Monday’s Child is fair of face  d) Doctor Christiaan Barnard was the man who became world renowned. e) Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats sang “I Don’t Like Mondays!”

Today’s Quiz is General Knowledge

a) What is the smallest Owl in Britain?   b) Which WW2 aircraft was nicknamed “The Wooden Wonder”  c) Who are Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Moth?  d) How many Apollo missions landed on the moon?  e) The unsuccessful US invasion of Cuba in 1961 is known as what?

I read that today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year (I think it was a marketing ploy by a travel company!) Although it could be argued we have had many depressing days over the last year! Still the vaccine is going well, England won the Test Match and the days are getting longer!

I came across these old  pictures below. They are pictures of me with Luton players in 2018 and 2019 I had won successive competitions when I had hospitality as part of my season ticket. The first year I predicted the score correctly and the second year I predicted the crowd. One of the pictures was in the match day programme as well -FAME!!!!!

Today’s quiz on Mondays

a)    Solomon Grundy was born on a Monday, but which day was he married?    b) Which cartoon cat has a known disdain for Mondays?  c) If Tuesday’s child is Full of Grace what was Monday’s child?  d) Who said “On Saturday I was a surgeon in South Africa very little known and on Monday I was world renowned” ?  e) Who sang “I Don’t Like Mondays” ?