A pain in the leg!!

I recently had the misfortune to fall from the train, not while it was moving I hasten to add, at Worcester Foregate St station. I felt a twinge in my leg but thought it would go away after a bit of flexing. Wrong!! The pain intensified over the next few days and reached critical on Sunday after I did a 3 mile walk round Pitchcroft. Basically, I have been told I have what is known as Shin Splints. This is where the tendon, connecting to the shin muscle is torn away, and the muscle attachment to the shin is damaged. The pain is like someone is kicking you in the shins non-stop. I have to rest it as much as possible and keep it strapped up. A bit of a problem when you consider that I walk to the train and the shop everyday. If it doesn't improve in a week I will have to have my lower leg put in plaster to restrict the movement. Great!! Just in time for Venice and the festies. I won't let it stop me though. It's more of a pain in the arse than anything!!

Oh F**k or let's forget the Uffington Horse

Following on from my post about the charms of quaint rural town and villages like Colwall, I have to report on the latest addition to the hills around Ledbury. We all know the Uffington horse carved in the chalk hillside, and the Cearn giant even more, but Ledbury was obviously feeling left out. So a kind farmer has carved the words "OH F**K" in the hillside as you come down from British Camp. You can just about see it from the road but the best viewpoint is from the hills or on the train. I have tried to capture a photo of it, but they all come out a bit blurry due to the movement of the train and the use of a zoom lens. To help see it better I have posted two photos of which one has the lettering overlaid to make it clearer. So, next time your bored on a weekend, take a trip to the hills and feel the warmth of a truly rural welcome.

Happy Eostre!!

What a day for getting up on the hills and experiencing Mother Nature at her best! It was so windy today I saw a sheep get blown over on the hillside and, trust me, sheep look very funny when they just keel over and just get right back up again. If this wind keeps up I will be out tomorrow hunting for the usual windfall of timber. As long as it doesn't snow too hard later, as I don't want to get stuck in the shop, I will go for a long walk down by the river. Apart from that, I am just busy as ever working towards the upcoming festies and shows. So not much to report really! The diet is going well and I have lost 2 stone and 3lbs in eleven weeks, with just one stone to go, and I have been stuffing my face as much as ever. Just shows what a little adjustment in diet and exercise can do. Tree has been doing okay on it as well. We've also been eating out 4 times in the last two weeks and still lost weight! Anyway, enough about that, here's an apt poem I remember from Spike Milligan.

Granny

Through every nook and every cranny

The wind blew in on poor old Granny

Around her knees, into each ear(And up nose as well, I fear)

All through the night the wind grew worse

It nearly made the vicar curse

The top had fallen off the steeple

Just missing him (and other people)

It blew on man, it blew on beast

It blew on nun, it blew on priest

It blew the wig off Auntie Fanny-

But most of all, it blew on Granny!

Welcome to Colwall. You'll never leave.

Ordinarily I would have posted this in the Prof's Wyrde World but thought it was better here. On my way to work on the train, I pass through the sleepy village of Colwall. Picturesque, with it's 16th century cottages, the majestic Malvern Hills, British Camp and bottled mineral water. But look closer and what do we see. Is that a bloody hand print on the station sign? Who's blood is that and, more importantly, where's the body? That's what I want to know. Hardly a good invitation to get off the train and see the rest of the village. "Come to Colwall and get stabbed" it should say on the tourist notice board!!