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Another lovely walk at a nearby National Trust property. Snowdrops out in force, along with some early Camelias.

Taking advantage of the sunshine for a long stroll in the park with the puppy and my camera.

Afternoon stroll around a nearby copse, which is the remnants of an ancient wood which covered the area; the "Fayre Wood" after which the town is named.

Very quiet, just me, the puppy and plenty of birdsong.

This morning brought a sharp frost, still in evidence at 10am during a walk in the forest.

After that, we went to Kingston Lacy to see the start of the snowdrops and the hellebores.

Puppy had her first trip to the beach today, Avon Beach, in Christchurch, which she enjoyed immensely. For once it actually wasn't raining!

After the beach, we stopped off at a viewpoint which overlooked the floodplain of the river Avon; a very wet plain after all the recent rain.

Five days of not working weekdays have now passed. It's a very unfamiliar situation for me, as I have been lucky enough to have been continuously employed for over thirty years (in the same field - even more unusual nowadays, I'm told). However, this change was very much my decision; after a tough few years, including a breakdown earlier this year, I desperately needed some significant time and space to heal. Counselling has been a huge help and has given me a lot of tools to help with my anxiety and I believe I am no longer officially depressed, which is great. Just the anxiety then… Something had to give and the only thing it was easy/practical to remove was the day job, so I did. My employer was great and worked with me to expedite my departure. I have promised myself at least six months of not even thinking about working - and yes, I'm fully aware that I'm very lucky to be able to do that, as not many people are. I suppose I could have taken more sick leave, but underlying that is always the worry of going back to work, as well as that of feeling a bit like a fraud - I'm old enough to have the view that being off sick should mean in bed, unable to function completely, otherwise one struggles on.

Anyway, the decision was made and here I am at the end of the first week. Already I am more relaxed, although I know that my instinct is always to look for something to worry about, so I am making a conscious effort to be aware of that; I don't intend to replace work worries with fretting about when I go to the supermarket (yes, I do that - I did it last night, until I gave myself a mental slap). I have spent a couple of days being ridiculously tired, but then I have been surviving on an average of 5.5 hours sleep per night for the last five years.

I have set some goals for myself - only loose ones, no pressure.

I want to develop some of my artistic/crafty skills, which essentially gives me permission to draw, knit, crochet, paint, make cards, carve wood and anything else that takes my fancy. Ideally I'd stick at one thing and become very skilled at it, but I've always been a bit of a butterfly mind - good at most things I turn my hand to, but not brilliant at any one thing.

I want to increase the amount of piano/organ time I have - already I have made myself more available for Sunday services at the local parish church, so that's in progress. Add to that I'd quite like to improve my guitar/mandolin/ukulele playing, too.

I want to get fitter (and, hopefully, slimmer as a result). I'm walking more, because I'm not finishing work at the last minute before I go out, and because I have the time in the day to do so. I prefer to take specific walks, not least so that I can take my camera(s) and I have resolved to get out in the misty Autumn mornings, to see what I can photograph. How long the walking lasts when the winter chill arrives remains to be seen. Although, I won't have to fit my walks into weekends, or early morning/evening.

I want to learn something new (-ish), whether that be picking up some more Esperanto, or refreshing my last-century programming skills. At the moment I haven't decided what the new thing will be.

All very introspective and probably quite dull to the outside world, but I thought if I published this to my blog it might act as a kind of contract with myself and it also serves as a starting-line against which I can measure my progress.

Fountain pen ink, not a new tattoo (yet).

A new, brass, fountain pen, snapped up at a discount, naturally turned my mind to my brownish inks…

I have a few:-
Diamine Autumn Oak, Ochre and Chocolate Brown;
J Herbin Lie de Thé;
Waterman Absolute Brown;
Monteverde Canyon Rust, Scotch Brown and Brown Sugar and
Akkerman SBRE Brown.

As I chose an extra-fine nib I initially opted for Ochre, which looked fine, but, of course, I wasn't entirely satisfied.

I considered KWZ Honey, and some of the Robert Oster inks, but then my mind turned to L'Artisan Pastellier Califolio ink. I love their Andrinople, so I thought I'd give some of their others a go, and selected Inti and Heure Dorée. I thought the latter would be too pale in an EF nib, but I liked the look of it. It is now in the Namisu Nova, although Inti will get its turn. Very nice inks.

A little doodle done on Tomoe River paper:-

Handwritten/splodged sample:-

This morning I took some flowers over to the burial ground where my parents’ ashes are interred. It’s a beautiful setting, a woodland burial ground. This time I took the new camera and was very pleased to find a bank of wildflowers by the entrance. Yes, more photos of poppies…

Let's go for a walk, they said. In the morning, before it gets too hot, they said. The car told me the temperature, wherever it measures it from, was 91 F (32C). We decided on Kingston Lacy, a National Trust property about 20 minutes away; only problem was that the gardens don't open until 10am, by which time it was already pretty warm (for the UK). We did take the woodland path, which was nicely shaded, and managed to grab a table with a sunshade when we stopped for coffee. It was hot, though, so factor 50 and a Tilley hat were deployed. The light was almost too bright for photos, particularly with my fast lens, but of course I managed…

We passed a rather spectacular fallen tree, which had some beautiful, huge fungus on it.

At the end of the walk, we approached the house from a less-familiar angle.

The roses were out, some of which are the older ones, with a beautiful damask scent. Some weren't, but they still looked very pretty.

By the end, we were ready for some lemonade and a cheese scone - and the air-conditioning in the car on the drive home!

Well, I think this has been probably the easiest thing I have done on the internet.
I got a “.me.uk” domain based on my Twitter handle some years ago, as it was the only vaguely appropriate one available. Recently I had an email to say that the corresponding “.me” domain had come available: I resisted until yesterday.

I asked Jason, who runs the platform where this blog is hosted (10centuries.org) if it would be possible to move it to the new domain. Turns out it was very easy: I ran it through Cloudflare, changed where it pointed, let Jason know and moments later everything appeared on the .me version. I still have the other one, but I’ll probably not renew it, although that’s not due for some years yet. Still, I’m pleased to have another place on the web without too many sets of dots in the name.