Victoria has been to Northern Ireland this week to see a teacher friend from school, Elma, she went with Amanda. Reggie has been hanging out with me, catching up on his Zzzz, as I’m not much fun when I’m working.

Monday and Tuesday were part of the end to the mini heatwave, although it did get a bit cooler on Tuesday and we even had a bit of rain in the morning, which made it humid in the afternoon. Several of the windows have been open and the curtains drawn, to try to encourage some draft and keep the house cooler. This needs some perspective because for a stone-built house with tall ceilings the house has not been hot, it hasn’t been unbearable as it probably has been in Twickenham.

The walks with Reggie this week have been around the field early morning and late evening, and a little way up Long Walk after lunch when Reggie tells me that it is time for his walk. He has needed some encouragement for the afternoon walk, when he realises he isn’t going to go around the field again, and when we reach the start of Long Walk he sits down shortly after I take the lead off, as if to say, that’s enough. But if I keep walking, he eventually realises it is better to join me than continue his sit-in alone.

Reggie goes mad when we walk around the field, bouncing up and down in the long grass to see if he can surprise a vole, mouse or rabbit, I guess. The grass is long enough that you can’t see him all the time, not until he bounces again and comes into view. He is also a little resistant to my calls, not until he realises that I am just about to open the gate that leads down to our new ponds.

As we have had a dry period, the valley paths, which are greening up nicely with the new grass, are firm enough to walk on. A couple of times I have made my way around the other side of the ponds crossing both timber bridges, and with my hand holding my shirt collar together, just in case a horsefly decides that will be a good place for a small bite. The grass on the other side of the ponds, which was the last area to be seeded, is doing well, the seed was laid on silt from the stream and so had been moist, and the warmth has made the seeds germinate.

Twice this week I have glimpsed deer in Spa Wood, they soon bound off when they hear noise. Alone I think you could walk down and get quite close without making a sound, no ferns to brush through now there are paths. On the Wednesday there were at least four deer of a reasonable size, but they were gone before I could see whether any of them were a stag. Not all the ground around the ponds is hard, and there is some evidence of a hoof print.

The ponds are maintaining their height, the stream hasn’t dried up in the heat, there is still a bit of a trickle. At one time I wondered whether the bottom pond had a leak, because there was an area which was still quite muddy. I’ve now concluded that the pond is probably OK, and the muddy area, was just that, muddy, due to the amount of mini-digger traffic and it being the lowest point. I do hope it dries out over time, because otherwise we’ll need to think of a way of getting across a muddy area of five paces. You can’t walk around, and hence would not be able to complete a circuit without creating more mud with your boots. On closer inspection of the ponds this week, they are becoming clearer. The sediment has settled, and you can now see the bottoms of the ponds.

On Thursday when Reggie went out for his walk around the field in the evening, he went bounding out through the garden gate and then came to a halt when he realised the change, Simon had been to top the field grass before the sheep come back, there was no longer any tall grass to bounce through. So, he went scurrying off to each field corner to see what he could find.

On the way back up the field we met our neighbours Jo and Paul in their garden, and I invited them in to see the transformation, the drystone wall boundary, the valley paths, and the ponds at the bottom. Paul who had seen it, just after it had been cleared in January said that he saw a big change, and with the post and rail fencing at the bottom the whole area seemed larger due to the boundary being defined, the ponds would have helped with the illusion as well. As we were all walking back up the hill a couple of buzzards flew low out of Spa Wood, and you could see how large a bird of prey they actually are. During the day, with the doors to the garden open, I had been aware of their cries.

Victoria arrived back early evening Friday, delayed by an hour, which is not too bad, but still an eight-hour trip door to door. Reggie got his fourth walk of the day, and the longest of these, a round trip from Long Walk back down the hill by the footpath to the road and back up past the village hall and school to home. The estate has not cleared the footpath of the fallen tree which came down in the storms a few months ago, so it is a bit of a scramble through the branches.

Victoria noticed an advisory on the MOT for her car that there was a nail in the offside rear tyre, and so it was down to Teapes Tyres first thing Saturday, and I got there just in time because several other vehicles turned up while I was waiting for the single bay to come free. I hadn’t realised that tyre punctures for cars could be fixed, but that is what they did, and it was all a lot cheaper than a new tyre, even one for a VW Polo.

It had to be fixed immediately because Victoria went back up to Twickenham in the afternoon as on Sunday she is going to tea with Polly at the Shard as part of her birthday present. Polly has now finished as a teacher, although she is doing some summer school before she starts her law course. She has now moved out of Bristol and into Phil’s flat in Kensington. The start of a new chapter in her life.

I’ve now published three videos on YouTube and have added subtitles, but not yet some captions which should be added to any slides where there is no dialogue, like the start of the intro, end of the outro, and the section breaks. I’ve also been reviewing my YouTube channel on different screens, phone, tablet, desktop, and the TV which is now wall mounted. All good so far, but there are a few more steps needed to complete the YouTube setup for the channel and each video. The Keynote for the fourth video is complete, and next week I hope to have published five videos and the associated podcasts in time for a launch on 1st August. I hope to get a mention during the MaximoWorld conference starting a week later.

I’ve been spending more time investigating where I will source music from. I’ve concluded that the group TrackTribe produce a great range of music that I could use, but I don’t know yet whether the music can be used in other settings outside of YouTube which would allow me to use the same music on the associated podcasts, and to publish the videos on IBM Expert TV. In the end, I wrote to TrackTribe to ask.

It is a lot of effort putting together a video, less so a podcast, but in either case you do not want to fall foul of the digital rights searches. Irrespective of copyright free or royalty free, I’ve decided that the right thing to do is always provide attribution to the music artist. We have a call on Monday to talk about the YouTube launch, and that is one point I will raise. The search for music and the search to see in what settings you can use the music that you have found is a bit of a nightmare, does everyone have the same difficulties?

I’ve now spent hours on this, especially over the weekend. I’ve decided on a way forward for both podcasts and videos and I am reasonably certain I’ll be playing within the digital rules, but I’m not 100%, and even if you give attribution, how do you do this so that the digital rights people pick it up, especially on a podcast where in audio it is rather difficult to provide a link. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that my endeavours to give attribution, even if attribution is not required for copyright free music, won’t end up with me receiving a digital strike.

Bridge on Tuesday started badly but we managed to climb to 3rd and 57% by the end of 14 boards. The online bridge on Tuesday really suits, it takes just an hour and a half, and there is no traveling, so it still gives time to get other things done in the same evening, which at the moment is something to do with my blog, podcasts or videos.

I used to play Bridge on Monday’s and Thursdays at Roundswell but haven’t done so on Thursday for several weeks. One of the people we play against on a Tuesday night plays chess in Barnstaple on Thursday and I am thinking that when autumn comes I might return to playing chess after an absence of 50 or more years. Dad was a good chess player, who played for Essex several times, and I used to accompany him to the Wickford Chess Club before I went to boarding school, where nobody would play with me, simply because I was a level or two above everyone else. So, I pretty much gave up at the age of 11, except for a few school holidays, but by then Dad had retired and taken up fishing, so I can’t remember playing much except the odd game here and there, not enough to even say there was an average of once per year. I did buy myself an electronic chess set, which no longer works, and a very nice Staunton chess set and board which collects dust behind the sofa. A couple years back it was a New Year’s resolution to start playing chess again, but I didn’t really enjoy playing it online against a robot, it was all too fast, and I prefer playing on a proper board and not an electronic one. So, I had promised myself that when I retire, I would seek out a chess club, and now I am thinking let’s take the opportunity now.

Sunday was a wash out day, in my search for answers to the music problems while it rained on and off. In late afternoon Peter and I did venture out in the rain for our regular round of golf as everyone came back in soaked and questioning our sanity for going out “in this!”. Down the first on the East my umbrella which was being used for the first time, I bought it more than two years ago, manage to get blown away, and then after being retrieved, blown inside out, but I think it has managed to scrape through unharmed.

The course which two weeks ago was looking great is now in really poor condition, not just brown, but visibly marked by buggies and trolleys which were damaging the grass on the hot days over the last week. You can see tramlines everywhere, including on tees, but fortunately not on the greens from what I could see. What were people doing dragging their trolleys across tees? The marks are so clear, that whoever did do this, the next time they go out they almost certainly will see the damage they caused, but will it change them in any way, I doubt it.

Anyway, apart from the 1st hole where the wind blew the straight ball into the ditch, the round, or more precisely 15 holes, were pretty good, 5 pars and a lot of bogeys, so consistent golf and no lost balls, always a bonus. Peter can’t fathom how I can play my best when I don’t play every week, I think it is just a coincidence, but we have been playing together for five years or more, so it is a consistent coincidence.