A Variety of Wandering

I've just been trundling around today, with a swollen jaw that makes me look like David Coulthard, on a windy rainy day that saw me caught in a short sharp and somewhat minor storm while wandering around the park.

Good news from the park, I saw a kingfisher on the Devon, first one I've seen in a while. Also saw a pair of bullfinches, their white rumps prominent even from 50 metres away as they flew over boggy pasture.

There's been a Christmas market in town today, so the market place was very busy, and a woman's choir in santa hats were singing carols at the town hall steps. The double decker booze bus was back, but I didn't stay long in the crowds.

My fitness trackers tells me I've done another 10,000 steps day, but do I feel any fitter?

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.12.19

Well that was Pain Indeed

I had a wisdom tooth out today, a procedure that I was told would be relatively straightforward as these things go, and could be done under a local anaesthetic.

They were right in that sense. The actual removal of the tooth took barely ten minutes, I didn't even notice it had gone until I was told. Unfortunately it was the 35 minutes of trying to get enough anaesthetic into me to numb the site that was the issue.

You see, the nerve within the tooth had become hypser-sensitised, which was only discovered when after the initial 3 or 4 injections they began work to spilt the tooth to facilitate its removal, and I yelled out loud in pain and nearly ripped the arms off the dental chair.

In order to directly sedate the nerve, they had to dig around to expose it, and then inject it directly with novocaine, or whatever it is they use these days. This meant, they had to keep injecting me to numb a bit more of the pulp around the nerve to enable the exposure process to proceed, each injection producing a split second of incredible, sharp pain.

Finally, there was the final series of injections into the nerve, which again were absolutely blinding.

5 minutes later they were able to begin, with my jaw aching from holding it open, and my body tenser than a springing cat.

Ye gods, that was no fun. All has settled now, although it feels like there's a tangle of fishing line in there from the stitches and I feel like I've been punched in the jaw.

For pictures, well, there was a little sensory garden in Carlton along the road, with some charming little sculptures in it. That's the only nice thing that has happened in the last 24 hours.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.12.19

Beach Life in Winter

After visiting the friendly seals, we took in what was a bit of a nostalgia trip for my stepfather as we made our way along the coastal resorts of the Lincs coast on a bright but freezing day.

The beaches were huge, sandy and presumably because it was winter, clean. But the resorts are mainly awful, with horrific mock casinos polluting the seafronts as councils have let any idea of sensible planning and design fly out of the window. Mablethorpe and Chapel St Leonards are particularly horrific. Skegness, which always has a bad reputation, is actually a nice town where the amusement arcades are at least pleasant tat, and development much more restrained.

Even on a cold day, there were still enough people there to justify having the ice cream and doughnut stalls open.

Sutton on Sea beach, the one south of the actual resort by the golf course, was our family's favourite. Lots of beach anglers catching the odd whiting, and the welcome sight of a couple of tiny, white bellied sanderling skittering along the waters edge feeding.

Lines of shells marked various tide lines, some beauties amongst them, and lots of edible crab remains too for some reason.

We had a lovely day.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.12.19

The Seals of Donna Nook

When you go to a nature reserve in quest of a certain species, you expect it to be difficult. You expect to have to cover a lot of ground while being super stealthy in order to catch a glimpse of something a long way away, and produce a blurry "record shot" of the creature involved.

Donna Nook is completely counter intuitive to that. In order to find a seal, you merely park, ascend a short track over the dune, and the bloody things are literally sleeping right under your nose in their hundreds, making no attempt to move away from the crowds.

The pups are entirely unprotected by their parents, who seem to spend their time further away doing big belly slides on the mud while occasionally chasing after each other in a desultory fashion. Apparently they understand the fence, and what its for, and any human jumping over is subject to immediate attack, which I would not fancy being on the end of.

Amongst these huge inert bodies, there were lots of small brown wading birds that I couldn't identify, but these birds were not the reason why it was the busiest nature reserve I've ever been to.

No everyone was here to see the seals, the easiest wildlife experience possible, these largely immobile sacks of blubber in many colours.

Wonderful things.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.12.19

They Been Rowing

This is my first day off in 12, and oh boy am I tired. So tired in fact, that I spent the entire afternoon asleep and the few bits I wasn't asleep I was unable to move, almost as if I'd been drugged.

But I did get out at midday, had my haircut so I feel more human, and then went for a walk down the river and to the park.

There was a lot of traffic parked up on the Farndon Road for some reason, and as I got nearer the park I could see what was going off - a huge rowing regatta was being hosted at the town rowing club, and teams of muscley looking public school kids were lowering themselves into their skiffs and boats and navigating the final yards of the Devon before heading off racing on the Trent.

It's the first time I'd ever seen a spectacle like this in town, and I'm glad for them it was quite mild today, although a sinking wouldn't have been any fun out there.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Donna Nook to see the seals, which should be nice if the big flabby things are still there!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 07.12.19

More Gold

An unusual nice and unexpected thing happened to me today, when work gave me a little Fitbit fitness tracker for helping out over the Black Friday weekend. It is something I need, because I've become very unfit and flabby since mum died, too much comfort eating being done and not enough hard exercise that isn't the exercise bike.

So, I managed to get outside to try and take some more photos - if they look a little different (and hopefully higher res and better quality) I've now got a Moto G7 Plus instead of my dear old Huawei, whose battery was dying very rapidly and needed to be on permanent charge.

It's still only a budget phone, but we have got a 16mp camera on it, so we will see how it performs as time goes on.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.12.19

Golden Light

Sunrise or sunset, the skies have been beautiful when not blanked out by choking fog.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.12.19