unironedman

Whoever handles the local branch of the World Instagram account seems to have overdone it a little on the filters. As a graphic designer in a previous life, I can put my hand up and admit there were times when I may have overdone it on the saturation, but this feels like the sliders have been pushed all the way to the right. I went out for a run on Sunday morning, and the Autumn colours were so vivid, it took me a few kilometres to adjust to this new reality. Gone mostly are the Summer greens of course – that’s to be expected – but in their place was a whole new palette of rich browns, ochre, copper, bronze and orange.

I suppose if I was out running a little more regularly, this seasonal decor may have been less of a visual shock to the system. But a welcome shock it is, despite proving once again that the world keeps spinning, even if we take our eye of the ball, so to speak.

Now you would imagine with all this talk of Autumnal glory that I would have taken the time to photograph some of this visual feast. Not so, dear reader. Not so. Instead, I have lots of photos from our recent return trip to Biarritz (not to mention these photogenic Highland Cattle in the park). It was only five days, but was most welcome. We were both a little under the weather, healthwise, but if you’re going to be a bit snuffly, there are worse places to be. I even got in for a few swims to help clear the head. On the Friday, we went for a long walk, taking in a pine forest, on our way to Bayonne. We ran out of steam and took a bus for the last 4k or so. Lovely spot, Bayonne. It was a brief trip; just enough time to stroll around the old part of the city and have a nice meal before getting a bus home.

I had had a few minor nosebleeds during the week but all seemed well. The flight home, however, triggered quite a nasty one after about half an hour into a two hour delayed flight, and despite bunging tissue up my right nostril, the blood kept oozing out. The medical term for a nosebleed is epistaxis, and if it last longer than twenty minutes, you need to seek help. This one was probably closer to an hour, and at one point, I wondered if I would have to be met at the airport by paramedics. It had stopped by the time we disembarked and before we reached passport control, S sat me down to clean me up a little. I tried to remove the bung from my nose but it wouldn’t shift, so S took over with her longer nails. She was able to grab it, tweezer-like, between two fingernails and slowly pull it out. It was quite the thing; a blood clot that looked all the world like an elongated leech slid somewhat reluctantly out of my nose, briefly into my peripheral vision, and then was gone, accompanied by an ‘urgh!’ from S. Understandably.

Back to the daily grind here. Planning on a second go at kettlebells class tomorrow, which may not be the wisest move, but my aim is to do sessions at home in the new workshop. I have all the stuff; just need to tweak a plan, and getting a few classes in will give me the pointers I need.

Here’s a tree…

And here are the doggos…

The eagle-eyed amongst may notice the book title. It’s The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane. It was time for a re-read. It’s from 2017, but what I like about it is that he talks about wild places in both the UK and Ireland, and visits each one and describes them in detail. It’s hardly a spoiler alert to reveal that his view on wild places changes as he completes his journey and journals his voyages of discovery. Lovely read, and a reminder that books are always there, and can be read at any time; no need to wait for a holiday break!