Category: Uncategorised

from a selection of places like Swithland Wood, Watermead Park, North Weald Memorial Park and Epping Forest

September 2025

September has been a busy month for me. My (childless) Uncle died in July and I have promised my Mum that I will now visit ‘dahn sarf’ every other week. There is lots to do in sorting out his estate and Mum needs company. In visiting a place for him to rest, I visited my Dad, gone ten years now. They are both in North Weald which was a chance to see passing steam trains, Provost jet fighters and peacocks. I am, on my walks, encountering fungi which is multiplying and some are different from normal. A walk through Epping Forest beckons. Watermead Park was a delight to stroll through on a Monday morning with low light. This is how I start my week and now with the cessation of volunteering at Belgrave Hall, every Thursday morning also. This will help me in my weight loss journey, as I have had to say goodbye to Slimming World, which assisted me in a five stone loss during lockdown but has left me in a plateau for the last few years. It was sad to see Belgrave Hall close (Leicester City Council is hard up and may sell it, as well as putting all their resources in the newly opened Jewry Wall museum). Reggie has been funding dead things and I place a warning that Badger and Ratty feature in this picture roll. Last year’s rain has caused a glut of fruit this year, and friends have supplied me with some Quince Jelly and Jam as well as some poached in red wine, which were delish. The rain is being captured with the purchase of a 500 litre water butt. I attended a TfL event, invited back to sit on a panel for past chairs of the disability network group and compare the problems of the past with today’s challenges and, as predicted, nothing has changed. It was, however, nice to catch up with some colleagues from many moons ago. I met an old colleague in Stratford on Avon where we are systematically visiting all their Thai restaurants. On 27th September – the date of the Railway Bicentennial – I visited Glenfield Tunnel to see their miniature ride-on railway and catch up with their challenges and lunch with some old volunteering colleagues. A very nice month.

Leicester City Council, short on funds, has decided to pull all expenses out of Belgrave Hall and possibly sell the property. Volunteering in the beautiful gardens has come to an end. This video looks back at the last four years of my volunteering condensed into the four gardening seasons

Most of the month has been spent on family: the death of my only Uncle in July now makes our family a very small cousin-less unit, albeit each of my siblings and myself have a large population of in-laws, we are now closer than ever. So arranging readings and being left to sort out the contents of a home we didn’t know has had its toll on us all. It has also meant changing life’s priorities and addressing what is important. I passed my British Sign Language Level 1 and now look forward to Level 2 in October and see where I go from there, as this will be the biggest challenge- going from being able to sign to people, I now need to master understanding the language coming back to me and becoming ‘receptive’. Very few photos taken this month – who takes photos at a funeral? However, I have learned that every coffin is cremated (I thought there would be a stock for show and the cremation was just the person), it is very thin MDF and the handles are plastic. Also the ashes from a body are quite heavy – not the vessel I imagined of about the size of a pint, more like a large shoe box and weighing about 10lbs. Questions you don’t get to ask very often!

My Mum is now 92 and we took her out for her birthday to the  Ramsay’s River Restaurant at the Savoy. For once, no-one ordered the same as anyone else. A thoroughly enjoyable day, coupled with some London uniqueness and a long conversation with Ramsay’s right-hand man. We had a death in the family so I’ve been to see Mum twice this month and intend to, with the thought of mortality upon us, visit Mum twice a month from now on, so that the upheaval and break from routine doesn’t stress us out any longer. Whilst travelling through London the first time, I encountered a rail replacement service and attempted a time lapse of the bus route but sadly, Apple has let me down with their time lapse files by only allowing 30 seconds of video regardless of the length of recording. On the way back to London first time, someone dropped something that I was unable to place into lost property, a ‘consumable’ so I consumed it ;). Belgrave Hall is being prepped for sale so the gardening volunteering I have been doing since the end of the pandemic is coming to an end; the new role is not conducive to my travelling style. So we had a get together at one of our younger’s gardeners houses for a nice spread, chat and drinky-poos. I’ve started to get ahead of the allotment for this year, interspersed with my BSL practice and looking at the Elephants in Leicester. the weather has been interesting- a drought finally came to an end producing some interesting results on hot days with sudden downpours. What with enrolling for BSL Level 2, travelling to London more often and applying for a job, 2025/26 is going to be a lot of fun.

With the longest day in this month, many take pictures of the sunrise, but I’ve been watching some stunning sunsets also. The broad beans were flowering great at the beginning and harvested at the end of the month, blanched and frozen for later use. This year they were untouched by black fly (I am told) but it’s the first time I’ve grown them. The garden is coming long, lots of lovely colours but the tapestry, despite being just 10m long, is interwoven with lots of ingredients and thus is a piece of work taking time to develop. I attended a 95th birthday party in Beckenham and met some lovely people followed by an invite to do it again in another five years. My local park, Watermead, is showing signs of summer – an abundance of life, growth and littering. These city parks really do get a pounding. I’ve also followed a theme this month of capturing commutes and my fondness for art and especially the diverse subject of graffiti shows through, as well as people at height. There’s also some elephants for Susan. For myself, I’ve had to shed some things in my life which were causing me frustration and as good friend Steve put it, I must get out of the work ethic (I’ve been retired six years) of having to self-validate. I don’t need to prove anything to myself any more, I just need to relax doing the things I enjoy.

28FEB 25

My website went down some years ago. I discovered that the host had gone bust. Now courtesy of GreenStripeMedia I am back on!

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