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Winter is almost over. Summer time commences in four weeks time. I have an exam coming up in March as well as an allotment needing digging and a birthday. Lots to do and February makes a good reminder that the spring cleaning needs to start in preparation for the growing season. Onions have started and some seedlings planted, trying melons this year and growing my potatoes at home. I have seen Azuma trains passing through Syston and now I have seen one up close, though it was withdrawn from service due to faulty doors. There was another opportunity at St Pancras to board one, but alas, it was withdrawn from service due to faulty doors. I see a pattern emerging. When I visited Kenya in 1996 and 1999 I learnt about the long and the short rains – two distinct seasons of pre-Winter and mid-Summer. This seems to be the pattern we’re getting here, where winter is a long wet period, once cold enough to be snow and now just rain, though this year was a strong and unusually southerly jet stream which steered a succession of low‑pressure systems towards us. This has resulted in very wet ground but as yet – in Leicestershire – no major flooding, although we did have some pretty hairy frosts with temperatures as low as -8C. A visit to Buckhurst Hill resulted in my not favouring Waitrose anymore and thus no calling to the old place, but whilst in London I managed to check upon my Aunt & Uncle’s final resting place, and managed a visit to DLR Cyprus, to visit a cafe run by BSL speakers. The building is opposite city airport so you can watch planes taking off. The old NHS building in Thurmaston beside Watermead has been razed to the ground after being empty for many years. 

Remember the days of cheque guarantee cards and the process of putting them into the cheque imprinter? Then being told the cheque was dated January last year? Banks used to accept the previous year of cheques for three months. I heard news this month of an ex-colleague who used to like to thrown these at the wall to alleviate his stress and now, he’s no longer with us. This month’s synopsis is severely alliterative purely by accident.The Deaf centre has moved to a temporary location in an insalubrious part of town which may cause difficulties in the deaf community. Snow came in a storm which left a short smattering on the ground and provided some snapshots with long shadows. I saw a solar powered postbox for the first time with many more to follow. The snow turned into high river levels a few centimetres short of a flood and quickly brought ice and driving challenges. I did a short study of Leicester station for a video I’m making and had some short walks among snowdrops. London’s biweekly visit included visiting the most recent Step Free offering at Colindale – where through poor communications and the old scenario of press office not talking to operations – the station was declared accessible with a lift that was out of order. Today, 31st, was a warm Spring morning and now – at the time of writing, we are back to a two week forecast of rain. Roll on April!

Reggie, who will soon be celebrating his 6th birthday, has a glitch whereby he temporarily “loses” one ball and finds himself – in the parlance of bluetooth – unpairing from his chase ball and chew ball. There is a brief moment where he realises he has both balls and the pairing is refreshed. It is a delightful nuance of his idiosyncrasies that I love so much about him… The month has been a pleasurable one rather than the same ‘humbug’ Christmas as usual. Could this be because I joined a choir? The singing has massively improved my mental health during the darker nights and I am the only man in a group of approximately 40 women and we had a Christmas concert where one of the other chaps (from a different subset) joined me and about sixty girls to perform in front of 200 people. The choir wears orange so, being someone who likes a splash of colour now and then, I dyed my beard orange. Wouldn’t you? Also this month, sandwiched in between the practising for the choir event and creating a quiz for the family on Christmas & Boxing Day, I was well-prepared for my first exam for the second year of British Sign Language (BSL L2), where I reeled off a story about visiting friends in Glasgow and Edinburgh, my travel woes, the costs involved and the beautiful people I stayed with. Low light continues to offer some amazing photos, especially early evenings/ early morning. Despite having effectively resigned my services to the city as a volunteer, I have made time to meet up with my fellow workers, friends I have made, I believe, for life. I visit that London twice a month now, so there’s always photos of the unusual things in Leicester and the capital. Christmas was hosted by my brother Simon who made his own pate, cooked a Turkey Crown, and for those of us able, offered a Sticky Toffee Pudding to die for (I had two portions, so perhaps it might actually kill me). A nice surprise was waiting for me one evening after sign language in the form of Tornado at Leicester station.

Happy New Year!

Vegan friends be warned there are images and discussion here which you may wish to avoid. The beard continues – I can’t celebrate Movember so I have to improvise! The last glut of root vegetables from the allotment has been providing sustenance. A walk to my favourite place with friend Charlotte was most welcome, albeit somewhat, nippy having to sit outside with the hound. I had a lovely lunch at Chapter One in Locksbottom (Orpington) with Mum, Judy and Curly, who I may have spoken about in the past. Curly was at Hull University with my Dad and Curly is now 95. Mum, my brother Simon and I went to the Le Relais de Venise again for the steak experience, which was again, very nice. Lots of low light and even at half-past-two, it starts to feel like the sun is already setting! The last of the fungi are turning to mush as the last of the fruit falls from the trees. I have joined a choir where I am the only man and we had our first public performance for the town Christmas light up. I took a chance and called in at Belgrave Hall where sadly, it is looking sparse as all the pots, plants and people have been distributed elsewhere. It looks sad. As part of going through my Uncle’s belongings, I’ve found some pretty cigarette cards with lots of colour. The value is next to nothing but the artwork is lovely. Local charity Grow Give Live, who I occasionally give time to, had a breakfast meeting and it was nice to be indoors for a change. On a visit to Buckhurst Hill where I lived for 35 years and worked for four of those years, I found the old offices practically derelict and abandoned – very sad to see this considering the work put into its refurbishment in 1993. There weren’t floods this month but we had lots of rain and thankfully the water table absorbed most of it but paths and canals took the brunt. My brother Simon is hosting for Christmas this year so I have been tasked to compile the quizzes…

I’m growing a beard. I may look like Santa come Christmas Day. It’s turmoil in Epping, Essex as they come to completing the new leisure centre, with a multi-storey car park opposite which has been open for some time. It features it’s own launch pad, and at the rear is a horrible builders compound that Tubelines would have shut down way before it got this messy. There’s some lovely flowers in Epping, too. I’ve been doing a bit of travelling to and from the Capital and once visit was with Charlotte, showing her the Day sculptures at St Pancras. The change in seasons has been drastic, mostly due to the clock changes.This also affects one’s mental health as we are plunged into darkness, so bedtime arrangements need changing and dog walks get earlier. The season however has brought low light, dew, cobwebs and mist and delightful presentations of such are abound! A pile of tea chests, still smelling of tea was dumped locally but the smell was intoxicating. It’s on private land, off road. Abbey Park has been clearing some growth: suckers have been removed; the brush has been expanded leaving rats to find other places to go and squirrels remaining in the trees and there has sadly been some felling. A different RAT (The Rail Adhesion Train) was a rare treat for me, in the stock I used to go to school on, and another rare treat was a fish and chip shop with a choice! If any of my Leicester friends know of one with six fish options, let me know, but oop nahrth there is no Rock and I adore this fish. Known as Huss in Grimsby you may know it as dogfish.  We interred our Uncle’s and Aunt’s ashes into a subterranean blend in North Weald, just as a Dakota flew over head landing at North Weald Airfield. The same happened for my Dad’s interment. Ashes are not in the perceived ‘pot’ on the mantelpiece, they are 10-15kgs in weight and take up a lot of space. The Death Industry has left me fascinated of the processes one takes for granted. The long standing eyesore of the toilet block in Watermead (Syston end) has been demolished, its replacement having been installed some years ago. Leicester Museum has an exhibition on celebrating the work of David McKee (1935-2022) whose portfolio includes the delightfully narrated Mr Benn by Ray Brooks (1939-2025). British Sign Language Level 2 has commenced and each lesson we must fingerspell our new words to class. I have a whole group of deaf friends who can assist me in passing this level! Roll on November!

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.