Looks can be deceiving

Back to work today after a week or so off. I was sat in my office minding my own business. The sun was streaming through the windows so I had to shut the blinds. It looked, for all intent and purpose, like a lovely summer day.

At about 2pm I decided to go for my usual lunchtime walk around the hospital site. Firstly, I was slightly annoyed that my wireless headphones had run out of power so I wouldn’t be able to listen to a podcast whilst I was out walking. Never mind, this would give me a better chance of taking in the surroundings and the sounds of nature around me.

There’s a certain bird call that seems to resonate memories for me. The call of the collard dove reminds me of the #bellringing course. Every year, I’d spend time around the main gathering location, and the sound of this particular bird would make itself known as I either hung around, or walked between the base and the local church for a practical ringing session. Whenever I hear this call it reminds me of that. Especially when the sun is shining.

Anyway, committed to walking without catching up on the 100s of outstanding queued podcasts I have waiting, I ventured outside.

Blimey. What a shocker. It was bitingly chilly outside. The sun was shining and the birds were singing, but my cheeks were stinging and my eyes watering within moments. How cruel and deceptive mother nature was being.

Some sciencey nerds (and I use that as a term of affection), who won a Nobel Prize for it, discovered that our brain analyses what the eye sees in steps. Each neuron is responsible for a different part of the retinal image, colour, form, motion, texture etc. and then tries to piece it all together to make it make sense. Our brain is always trying to make predictions of what will happen next, presumably so that we can use our flight or fight responses for survival, but can sometimes be fooled by illusion. https://science.howstuffworks.com/optical-illusions.htm#:~:text=One%20theory%20that%20researchers%20have,our%20ability%20to%20perceive%20it.

If our brain is telling us its nice and sunny outside, therefore it is likely to be warm, we decide that we won’t need that jumper or coat because we’ll get too hot and have to carry it around, and that’s just a pain. Luckily, my brain was switched on enough this morning to register that its still early April, and that we had a snow flurry yesterday, and therefore it is still likely to be on the chilly side, so long sleeved top and thick jacket required. And I’m glad that I was paying that much attention.

I got round my 1.15 mile route in almost record time. By the time I returned to the office, my cheeks were rosy and stingy. My eyes water at the slightest thing anyway, so I was well on the way to looking like I’d been crying for ages. Then of course, when my eyes water a lot, it makes my nose run. Sometimes, it can seem like I’ve got a stinking cold or am really upset about something but it’s just my eyes being pathetic.

My office thermometer is telling me its 24 degrees Celsius indoors, but I suspect its nearer 5 or 6 outside in the wind.

Planning the week ahead

I have another week off work, to use up some annual leave. I’m writing reports, presentations, planning and attending #bellringing meetings, writing articles, and promoting #bellringing events. At some point there’s a bunch of household things that need doing, I would like to do some baking this week (I have chocolate orange hot cross buns, and chocolate easter cake to make), and I would like to spend some down time going for walks etc as the weather is supposed to be good this week. My to do list is quite lengthy.

C and I have just planned the week out based on what the weather forecast has in store. We have a lot of annual report deliveries to do and plan to splice that with some walks out along the coasts and picnics, so have made a plan based on what we need to deliver where and how many loads can we get rid of in as few journeys as possible.

We went to the wholesalers today, so there was a long shopping list of things to restock the freezer with. Along side that sat the list of reports that we could drop off en route. We dropped the Southern District ones off on our way.

Back home and it was unpacking the shopping and portioning it up into meal sized bags. Our freezer is well and truly stuffed now. We didn’t get home until nearly 3pm so lunch was a bit on the late side, meaning dinner will be even later today. For lunch I tried one of the pasties I made yesterday, they were quite tasty actually.

After lunch, a bit more promotional preparations ahead of tomorrow’s release, then I had a play on Ringing Room, now that I have Wheatley installed, I can ring on my own whilst it does the rest. I plugged in my e-bells and had a go at some plain hunt minor on each pair of bells. I finally got the hang of 3-4. Then I tried some plain bob minimus. After several goes I finally “saw” what I was doing with the 3,4 up dodge. Then I moved on to having a go at some plain hunt major. I found very quickly that I tuned into the rhythm and it sounded pretty good, even if I only did it from 1-2.

For some explicable reason I decided to get my weighted hula hooping out for the first time since 1st January. It took a few minutes to remember how to log exercise on my fitness watch. I did manage about 6 minutes on the first go. I could certainly tell my middle has gone soft.

Whilst C cooked dinner I did some preparations for a meeting that I have on Saturday so that I have everything I need to hand and can share my ideas with the rest of the group.

Only then did I sit down to read a book and watch tv, and fall asleep on the sofa. Until tomorrow’s adventure.

Oh, innit mild!

The age-old cry when its unseasonably warm.

Who’d have thought that by mid-February we’d be seeing temperatures in the mid-teens and we could go out without a coat on? Well, that’s exactly what happened today.

We decided to go out for a walk as it seemed to be nice and sunny. I had a jumper on and put on what I call my Spring/Autumn jacket i.e. one that isn’t too thick. We decided to rerun a route that we’d done in the first lockdown when our daughter R was staying with us. We’d gone up the main roads and across the fields. Last time we had to rescue a baby fox that was out in the blazing sun on its own, mewing and looking feeble. No such fun today.

However, there were sheep and the twittering of Great Tits and other birdages. Snowdrops and crocuses were out in abundance too. By about half way round the route, I was very warm indeed, and would have taken my jacket off, but for the fact that I’d have to carry it anyway so may as well carry it on my back.

We did have a bit of a sticky patch as we were walking parallel to the railway lines. It seems a small brook had over flowed and the pathway was a bit of a quagmire. We had to cling on to the trees to heave ourselves across as the path was so mucky we’d have lost our boots.

By the time we made it to the bridge over the railway, I was really warm. There was a nice breeze as you got to the top of the steps so I allowed myself a bit of cool air to circulate, before we continued.

The round trip was about 4.6 miles and took us just under 2 hours. We weren’t rushing, we were enjoying the walk and the sunshine.

Given that its still technically winter, it was a beautiful day. I’m glad I was on annual leave and able to make the most of it.