Friday 30 November 2012

Gigging Again!

We played at the Somerville Club in Bristol last night. This was Dr Simulacra playing a Chapman Stick) and the Sonics doing a version of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile". Note the patriotically decorated stage - possibly a legacy of the Olympics?
I don't know what impression Bob was trying to convey here but it looks distinctly creepy to me!
Frank being benign.We went down well last night, being asked to do a second spot to finish off the evening. I think we'll be back!  Also, we had a surprise request yesterday for us to play a short set at the UWE Computer Science & Creative Technologies Christmas Party - never really thought of ourselves as a Christmas act before!
This morning, the weather was once again cold and dry but without the blue skies of yesterday.
I fail to see the attraction of tagging a railing… 
It was definitely cold enough to crank up our stove, especially as we have a surfeit of logs to burn. 
Su is still ailing, so I went off to experience the joy of Morrison's. This was the view waiting to leave the car park and get home. 
Came home to take delivery of these gloves, which let me operate my iPhone (or any other capacitive touch-screen device) without getting cold hands. The fingertips are knitted with a special material which actually works, and they also kept my hands warm!
Finally tidied up the front garden and stocked up Overflow Woodstore Number Two before the rain comes back this weekend.
I was assisted in this task by Bella who kept bringing me her ball to throw in between carrying loads of wood through and stacking them in the shed.
Took Bella out for a late afternoon stroll, spotting these nice rose specimens on the way. 
Our way was blocked by a deep hole in the pavement. Bella seemed to understand the meaning of the arrow…
Twilight set in, but not so quickly that I didn't spot this abandoned blanket left draped over a hedge. 
This day a year ago, I took Bella on her first political demonstration (as far as we know) to march against changes to public sector pension schemes. It was a great turn out for Bath, and a nice day for a march through the City Centre.

Thursday 29 November 2012

Clear and Cold

I had thought that I was going to come down with Su's cold last night, but a long sleep seems to have sorted me out apart from having a fairly mild migraine this afternoon. This morning the skies were clear and blue - this isn't the Red Arrows doing a fly-past, but the reflection of blinds in the window.
Our solar powered nodding flower was going great guns. 
I went out to tackle the remaining pile of logs still left in our front garden, and realised just how cold it was when I looked at this bucket. Our first real frost of the winter - and more to come for a few days yet. This means we'll have sunny weather for a while as well.
Temporary Overflow Woodstore Number One - under the bench in the front garden.  There is still loads of wood left to accommodate, so tomorrow's mission is to move the rest into our shed in the back garden. The shed contents are temporarily under the kitchen until we have burned enough wood to relocate the contents of these temporary stores into the woodstore. They say wood warms you more than once - all this lugging it about certainly combats the cold!
Late on this afternoon, saw these unusual cloud formations.
Out with Bella on a cold and brisk walk, spotted this sticker on a lamp post. It was on a steep hill, so I guess that mountainboarding might be appropriate for there.
Looking all around Charlcombe Valley at the sunset cloud formations.
Further round our walk, spotted these white berries. 
And slightly further on, these clematis seed heads. My phone started crashing for no obvious reason just after that, so other photographic opportunities were missed - it seems to be behaving itself again now.
This day a year ago, I went over to Nailsea to play some music with Bob Lang. On the way back, I was so taken with this sunset that I pulled over to capture it for the blog.
Off out to Bristol tonight to the Somerville Club for an open mic night with Left At The Lights for the first time in well over a year.  There may be photos tomorrow...

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Active Day

Su's still been languishing with her cold today, so I was up and out with Bella this morning before going off down into Larkhall for my last Pilates class of the year. Came back and had breakfast before helping unload the lorry with our next load of logs for the stove.
Out in the back garden before carrying the logs through, I saw that our sedum is still hanging on.
The skies brightened up on and off throughout the rest of the afternoon.
 This was our mahonia sunbathing at the front of the house.
I carried through enough logs to untidily load our wood store - and there's still a lot more left at the front of the house. A very generous delivery this time.
I'm so unused to this much activity that I dozed off in front of the fire I lit after all this carrying of wood. Took Bella out for an afternoon stroll and found a pair of small person's gloves on a wall. 
Up at the churchyard, found this ID tag on a bench - not sure if this is the name of the pet or the owner 
 If it's the owner, what are the civil liberties implications of her being chipped?
Not a TV or a PC in the window, but a real fish tank glowing in the twilight gloom. 
Nice light in the sky as the day drew to a close. 
This day a year ago, we admired the first flush of flowers on our winter flowering cherry.


Tuesday 27 November 2012

Another day at UWE

A drizzly sort of morning, but punctuated by the promise of brighter skies. Unfortunately the promise didn't come to much.
The Surround Room at UWE, where Left At The Lights practice - today was another session, in preparation for  the open mic night at the Somerville Club in Bristol on Thursday night.
Another lift photograph - me in jobbing lecturer mode. Not many students attending in the 10th week of the Semester - they are all too busy working on their assignments to be handed in next week, apparently …
I always see these stick figures as dancing rather than walking on a path, whihc they are meant to indicate.
Waiting at traffic lights in Downend - managed to get home early enough to get parked close to the house so I could unload the van at my leisure.
This day a year ago, we went on the North Bristol Art Trail. Really liked this street art, which wasn't part of the trail (but better than some of the stuff we saw…)

Monday 26 November 2012

Yet more cover at UWE

A morning without rain although lots of cloud about, giving pastel colours to the skies.
Off to UWE again, this time covering for Left At The Light's bassist, Frank Maddix, to give a lecture on the module Multimedia Systems (which I though I had finished with 18 months ago!). Tomorrow, I will be impersonating Martyn Harries on Moving Image Technology for a couple of hours. Met up with Morris Williams for a coffee and a chat before coming home. Sat behind another car with an unusual registration - there seem to be quite a few about, or I am just noticing them for the first time.
Out with Bella for a ramble around the streets, rather than the marshy fields. A spooky light in the sky. 
These teazles are still looking good.
This will have been in heavy use over the last few days. 
The brooding sky threatened rain, which started just as we finished our walk.
Twilight. 
Our local superhero's van? 
This day a year ago, we walked down to town to the cinema, and took in the lights and the roundabout with Reggie the horse