April 2023 – General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings

Saturday 29th April

A busy day

A bright, warm sunny day, so I put my working shorts on., getting my legs out in public for the first time this year. Off to the stable yard where extra work was needed, because the horses are moving to their summer paddocks.

It’s a bit early in the season, but a contractor had been booked to harrow and roll the winter paddocks in preparation for spraying to control ragwort in the near future. in previous years we have removed the weeds one by one.

The winter paddocks have water troughs fed from the mains supply, but in the summer paddocks we use large tubs filled daily from a water bag in a wheelbarrow. I had to scrub the troughs after their winter storage and set them up. Three barrow loads of water.

Chrissy’s horse Tristan has a new job. He is in his mid twenties and long retired, but as an experiment he is going to be a companion to an eleven month old foal who has recently moved in across the road from our yard.

While that was being sorted out I returned home to wash the caravan. Every tool I tried to connect to the hose seemed to spray me with more water than was applied to the ‘van, but I managed eventually. It’s looking a lot better now.

The front lawn was tackled next, after which I had a coffee while I wrote up this blog and then half=watched the horseracing on TV while painting the bases of my tiny Romans.

At 4 o’clock we took Sparky for a walk alongside the River Enborne. It’s not much more than a steep-banked stream where we live, but it’s called a river. we walked from X to Y on the map below and back again.

The access was through the corner of Inwood Copse which is just beginning to erupt with bluebells. The scent is wonderful.

Sparky, of course, was more intent on his normal activity…

He even wanted me to kick the ball across the footbridge. Not a sensible option. The bridge is a substantial affair with a tricky stile at the far end.

On the far side the land opens out into old pasture. Several trees have fallen across the stream as the banks have been worn away by floods.

It’s clear just how high the water level was by the debris caught in the fallen tree. This is higher than the banks of the river.

A little further we were warned.

But nothing could be further from the truth, as the area has been replanted with new willow.

This area is quite boggy and is adorned with what I was informed are marsh marigolds. very pretty, and frequented by unidentified butterflies, pale yellow with an orange front edge to the wing.

Returning from the walk we retrieved Tristan from his babysitting duty. Far from his “unable to stand up” status a couple of days ago he had been trotting and cantering around the field with the foal. I think it was a case of “Come on Grandad, let’s play.” He was well sweated up, and very tired.

But a good brushing smartened him up a bit, and we turned him out in his own quiet paddock until tomorrow.

Returning home, after dinner I based up my tiny Roman legion before attending an AA Zoom meeting.

Here are a couple of shots of the legion. This is my first attempt at painting 3mm models with acrylic pens. No photo’ can really show the detail, but the idea is that they look good enough en masse. My next attempt will be a Celtic warband.

Friday 28th April

An uneventful day but a big decision made.

To the stable yard early today so that I could be home by 10:00 in time for a Zoom meeting. Tristan is looking well and happy.

Having received some of the literature produced by SMART Recovery I tried one of their online meetings. I found it more appropriate to me than any of the AA meetings I have attended. It reminded me of the best sessions at Primrose Lodge.

I will continue attending AA meetings for a while in conjunction with SMART meetings, but I am tending towards the latter as a recovery system.

After lunch I continued clearing out the caravan in preparation for its service, which I hope will be happening soon. We keep too much stuff in the caravan! Before reloading it I will have a purge of unnecessary towing weight.

Then a bit of housework before a cup of tea and a couple of hours trying out fine point acrylic pens on my new 3 mm Romans.

I am disappointed that all the red paints in the three sets of pens are more like a dark pink. I will continue to search for a darker red. I will also research finer detail pens. These models are painted with 0.7 mm and 1 mm tips.

After dinner I read the rest of the SMART user guide and started on the handbook.

Catching up again.

Sunday 23rd April

Last Sunday morning we were lucky enough to get tickets to visit Nicky Henderson’s racing yard at Lambourn. We both own micro-shares in several horses with the Owners Group, which currently has seven horses in training with Nicky Henderson.

About 150 owners turned up to see the seven horses paraded on his oval sand track. They first walked around in procession, then spread out and cantered in both directions before each horse was presented to us close-up, while Nicky told us about each horse and it’s progress.

Despite having arrived home from Ayr racecourse at about 2 a.m. on Sunday and a backlog of over 100 telephone calls to make, Nicky spent a couple of hours with us fielding questions.

I was unable to get good photographs of the horses in action, the view being obstructed by the safety rails and the crowd, but managed some when the horses were closer to us. The first is The Carpenter, a hurdler who has been winning recently when the ground is soft enough.

M second horse is Glynn. I don’t think that Glynn has run a race in the last six months as he is always being nursed for injuries. Apparently he is much improved now.

In the afternoon we went to Chrissy’s yard to feed and rug-up the three horses there. Chrissy’s horse Tristan is cheeky and always looking for treats…

In the evening I joined an AA Zoom meeting with several alumni from Primrose Lodge, the rehabilitation centre I attended at the start of the month. I am celebrating one month without an alcoholic drink.

Monday 24th April

A day of bits and pieces. After the usual morning stint at the yard I tried to mow the lawn but it was too wet. I left it for the morning sun to dry it out and then tried again, but it began raining heavily. Ah well, maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile I attacked my pile of ironing, getting half-way through.

Around midday the electricIan arrived to find out why our boiler keeps tripping the electric switch on the main circuit board. He checked the boiler, then all the other appliances on the same circuit, then every circuit in the house and everything worked perfectly, and continued to do so for the rest of the day.

After lunch it was too wet to consider a country walk with Sparky so I did some outstanding paperwork. I wrote to the solicitor about the dispute over my late brother-in-law’s will. The other trustees are squabbling.

I played a couple of games of Scrabble against mystery on-line opponents. My best effort so far is:

Then I began filing the flash from the bases of my 3mm Roman army in preparation for painting until it was time for my weekly local AA meeting. When I returned home I caught the second half of the “We Have Ways of Making you Talk” livestream. And so to bed.

Tuesday 25th April

I walked Sparky in the local woods this morning and then finished filing the bases of my little Romans. They are now ready for an undercoat wash.

In the afternoon to Southampton Hospital for an eye check-up. The local traffic was horrendous, due to the car parks being full. Chrissy dropped me off and went to park at the local retail park.

After tests and a retinal scan and a two hour wait I met the doctor who told me that m left eye is looking almost normal now. I have been feeling the sight is more blurred lately but the swelling has gone and I can read two lines more on the eye chart than I could last month. Maybe I need another new prescription?

We got home in time to watch “my” horse Yeoman win at Wolverhampton. Yay!!

At 9:00 I joined an AA international Zoom meeting for newcomers. 34 days dry today.

An afternoon at the races.

The highlight of yesterday was the first flat season race day of the year at Newbury Racecourse.

There were eight races in all, but we only stayed for the first five because we have a limit on how long we wish to leave Sparky the dog at home on his own.

It was raining when we arrived so we headed to the members’ bar for lunch (Cumberland sausage and mash with green vegetables). We watched the first race on TV while we ate our lunch and then ventured out to see the horses in the paddock for the next race,

I had no luck for the first three races, including accidentally betting on the wrong horse in the second. He did better than my intended selection though.

In the first there were only five runners, so I placed a forecast bet on 1st and second places, and won. Here’s the winner about to cross the line.

I also picked the winner of the fifth race, resulting in a small profit for the day. I was actually 25% up, but only betting small stakes it did not pay for my lunch.

On the way to the car park we stopped at the Dubai Duty Free pavilion and played the wheel of fortune. Chrissy won an entry ticket for a £1m draw and I won this fine instant prize.

Better than a small chance of winning a million.

More racing this afternoon. I must start looking at the racecard to pick today’s winners.

Walks with my dog. Ewhurst Park

We started the walk at the path between Bushy Copse and Hollybush Farm at the top of the map. The first thing we encountered was this sign on the gate, explaining the planned activities at Ewhurst Park.

The view ahead was the proposed market garden in its early stages.

The footpath was a good wide metalled vehicle track from the gate as far as point 94. Here was another sign indicating a circular route around the new Market Garden, but I had planned to continuing south.

There was another sign explaining why the original track could not be used.

The “urgent repairs” notice is dated May 2021. Two years later it looks like the bridge needs more attention.

Turning left the track narrowed to a dirt footpath. To our right Boathouse Copse was thick, untended woodland with a lot of hazel growth. A few bluebells were beginning to appear both sides of the path.

At the point where the path forks on the corner of Lloyd’s Copse there is a kissing gate. Kissing seems to have gone out of fashion in favour of quick access around the side of the obstruction.

We took the right fork and soon reached the banks of Ewhurst Pond. On the far side were a couple of large tepees, indicative of “glamping”.

Sparky stopped for a drink and then we continued into an open rough grassy area with Skers wood to our left. There were several pale yellow butterflies flitting about and bizarrely a lone daffodil in the middle of the path. Scattered daffodils were struggling to survive in the brambles to our right, but this one had escaped.

Looking across the lake (it is more than a pond) I could see in the distance the main buildings of the Ewhurst Park estate, among which is the residence of top jockey Nico de Boinville.

At the end of the track we passed into woodland again and came to Lloyd’s Lane which connects Ramsdell village with the main Newbury to Basingstoke road. We retraced our steps.

On the way back I spotted a clump of trees that had been blown down long ago, possibly in the storm of 1987. One was laying flat but had continued to sport upwards into three or four more healthy chestnut trees.

Another had fallen into the crook of another tree and the two have fused together over the years.

These trees look like they have been marked for cutting back, although they do not interfere with the electricity cable that threads its way through the branches of much older trees. The orange paint appears to indicate the cutting point and angle.

Continuing back through the woods I spotted a couple of blue tits and the first Red Admiral butterfly this year, but was not quick enough with the camera to capture them.

A pleasant hour or so’s walk on a fine, sunny day.

Catching up.

I have missed my blog updates in the last couple of days, so here are some of the highlights (and lowlights?) of the last coup[le of days.

Wednesday 19th April

Our mains-powered smoke alarm decided at about 3:30 am that it needed a new back-up battery and would not stop reminding us. It was fitted by a builder, so of course we had no instructions for it. After finding online hints about how to dismantle it I had to go to the shed for the stepladder and a screwdriver. Luckily we had a couple of spare 9 volt batteries in store.

I had to switch off the electricity supply, so then I needed a torch and a magnifying glass to read the tiny instruction label about where to slot the screwdriver. A third hand would have been useful at this point. Anyway, by 5:00 it was fixed, but I was now wide awake and could not get back to sleep. Instead I did a couple of sudoku puzzles and a game of scrabble against my iPad before getting up.

The next issue was programming the new “universal” remote controller for our TV. The original one has decided to reprogramme itself so that the on/off button only mutes the volume and various other buttons do odd things.

I placed a small bet on one of my syndicate racehorses running at Cheltenham. he was the clear favourite but was later withdrawn because the ground was considered too hard for his hurdling.

I had as one hour session with my therapist, during which we spent about half the time talking about horses. I guess he learned a lot about me in that way.

I started to prepare for a wargame after a long hiatus. I don’t have enough of the necessary models so I looked at downloadable paper models and tokens before blighting the bullet and buying two small armies for a period I have not covered before. By small I mean in both numbers and size. The figures are 3mm tall.

While I was doing this a number of messages popped up on my ‘phone from members of UKAT Alumni, the post-therapy support group. It seems that many of my fellows are not coping with addiction recovery as well as I. I responded as well as I could to their pleas for help.

With my expected afternoon’s enjoyment of watching “my” horse race denied, I mowed the front lawn instead, which involved stopping every few paces to kick a ball for Sparky. It’s a Pavlovian dog thing: Grass-cutting toy means play ball.

In the evening I received a call from my cousin advising that my last surviving Uncle is in hospital and not expected to last more than a few days.

Thursday 20th April

Since I could not make any progress with my planned Romans vs Celts wargame until the new armies arrive I started to investigate the next game in the Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine. The fictitious“Battle of Dorking” from the novel of the same name. I have the book so I was interested. It involves Prussia invading England in the 1890s.

For this one I know I have some 6mm figures, some of them painted. It’s just a case of locating them! Alternately I may play this using my Red Army vs Blue Army system on my squared card table. To be decided.

I called my brother and sister to tell them of our uncle’s situation. My sister is on holiday, en route to Barnard Castle with her camper van. She said she thought it might be “a sight for sore eyes” (British political joke).

I then called my 90-year old aunt for a chat. ±She is about to become the last of her generation in our family, having already lost her older sister and two younger brothers. I cheered her up with my call.

It was a beautiful clear morning so I set to with more digging of the garden. There were two dead shrubs to dig out. One I have managed and the other I have cut down to ground level and will dig out later. The weed-killer that I applied around the paths and patio three days ago seems to have helped the weeds thrive!

In the afternoon I took Spark for a walk for an hour or so, but will blog about that separately in “Walks with my dog”.

Knowing we planned to go shopping this evening I tried to find an AA Zoom meeting in the afternoon. The 3:00 meeting listed on the AA site did not exist and the 3:30 alternative had an incorrect passcode published. The AA meeting finder is a useful site, but too much of the information is out of date. A few days ago I logged into a meeting. The host, without a word, muted me, switched off m,y video and closed the meeting. Not very welcoming for a newcomer!

In any case , the Memsahib arrived home early and we went to do the week’s grocery shopping. I had to drive home again for my wallet.

By the time we returned home and had dinner it was past 8:00pm, so I went to my trusty 9:00 international Zoom AA meeting, and thence to bed.

Today’s dog walk

With all the news about the gardening today I completely forgot about today’s dog walk. With no stable duties today, because the Memsahib has a 9:30 office meeting we took a walk in the local woods.

The woods are wide open in places, allowing for a good game of Fetch the Ball.

I took the “interesting” ball, which is not only not spherical, but has a smaller ball inside which makes it bounce erratically.

Other parts of the woods are favoured by youngsters with their BMX bikes.

Moving on from the woods we came to the recreation ground, also good for chasing a ball.

A couple of years ago some vandals lit a fire at the base of the tree, but it has survived and recovered.

And so home with a dog who refused to let me have the ball back when he got tired.

A spot of gardening

True to my plan presented to my fellows as part of my plan for recovery after leaving rehab. I started work on the back garden. Yesterday I top-cut the grass, using 4 batteries-worth of power for the mower. Today I started on the flower border, which was thickly overgrown with borage.

Borage has beautiful blue flowers (which are also edible) but it can spread and take over. It also has deep tap roots.

I found at the weekend that I don’t own, or can’t find, a garden fork, so I bought one of these (pic below).

A combination of spade and fork. It works!

When I started around 9:30 this morning (no stable duty today) the bed looked like this:

I worked on it until 11:00 and took a break for coffee and to reply to some messages from fellow alcoholics before attending an AA zoom meeting from 12:00 until 1:00. Returning to the garden I worked on until about 2:30 when I had to stop because our garden waste bin was full. They are collecting tomorrow so I can start filling it again. The border now looks like this.

Actually I have cleared as far as the red tulips in the foreground.

For the next half hour I potted some runner bean seeds that will eventually go into the back of this border against the fence. For now they are in a propagator.

A good day’s work which kept my body occupied. I kept the mind busy by listening to podcasts on my ‘phone while working.

A walk in the woods with Sparky

On the way to the garden centre a few days ago I spotted a signpost for a footpath and unusually space to pull the car off the road as well. So yesterday, returning from the council waste tip in Basingstoke I checked it out, this time armed with a compass as well as the map.

As it happened the map was useless. We parked at A and followed the path to B. It was simply an unadapted road at this point.

On reaching point B there was a gate and the path appeared to be the garden of a relatively new house. However there was a footpath heading north, following the white track on the map towards C. It led into the woods of Mariner’s Copse.

From here on there was a criss-cross network of small footpaths which bore no relationship to the paths and tracks on the map. We followed a couple of tracks through open woodland, noting landmarks, until reaching somewhere around D.

At this point holly bushes began to encroach on the path and it began to rain, so we returned to the car.

We will probably use this area for further exploration, maybe making my own map.

A walk in the woods with Sparky

As it happened the map was useless. We parked at A and followed the path to B. It was simply an unadapted road at this point.

At this point holly bushes began to encroach on the path and it began to rain, so we returned to the car.

We will probably use this area for further exploration, maybe making my own map.