A warm month statistically with average sun and rainfall but overcast skies retaining warmth at night. Kathleen started to get useful medical advice on her continence issue and was planning clothes for son’s forthcoming wedding.
I was planning the rental of Heronshaw from next year and my new bandsaw shelter for the wood and making good use of it to mill and store timber but my time was dominated by having to control the growing bracken and complete my year end property and finance accounts. There was still time to flail the rides at Blackrow and lawns at Horning as well as do some chipping of branches and foliage.
We were enjoying the Outlander but efforts to replace the Range Rover with a Nissan electric car were delayed. We were engaging in more social activity with neighbours after lockdown, around the RHDRA AGM and Three Rivers event and at Hail Weston for a wedding and the Spiegeltent for an N&NFestival production.
Elsewhere, the UK government’s plans were overshadowed by sex scandals and their drinking and partying during Lockdown as graphically detailed by the Sue Grey report and they suffered at the local elections as a result. Under such pressure, the UK government finally conceded defeat and agreed to levy a one-off energy windfall tax to finance widespread energy subsidies HM The Queen’s health is deteriorating ahead of her Jubilee celebrations and Prince Charles has been standing in for her.
All this paled into insignificance compared with the carnage in Ukraine. Their Azovstal steelworks redoubt in Mariupol was eventually surrounded, isolate and overwhelmed, with nearly a thousand Ukrainian fighters from the Mariupol steelworks were taken to Russian-controlled territory. Whilst after Ukrainian forces had recaptured villages from Russian troops north and north-east of Kharkiv, pushing them back towards the border, in east Ukraine Luhansk saw fierce combat as Russian troops and separatist fighters sought to surround Ukrainian government positions.
Russia was trying to encircle the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas region. Boris Johnson signed security declarations with Sweden and Finland, pledging UK support should their militaries come under attack but Turkey said it would not approve Finland and Sweden's applications to join NATO. Western military experts say Russia has suffered heavy losses in the war but The US says that UK's dispute with the European Union over Northern Ireland trade risks undermining Western unity during the Ukraine war. I watched Norwich City lose badly at home to West Ham and then were well beaten 0-5 at Carrow Road by Spurs and were thus relegated.
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This warm month of May concluded the 5th warmest Spring since records began in 1884 and even had the highest average daily minimums ever despite the number of sunshine hours being below average! Regularly overcast skies contributes to this as rainfall was about average with some warmer sunny days with overnight rain but the weather was varied, cool and showery on some days and fine and sunny on others.
Kathleen got her doctor’s appointment in Wroxham, then got a consultant’s appointment and was starting to tackle her continence issues. She was falling out with the cockerel, being afraid of him after an attack, and so I donned protection to catch the culprit, trimmed his flight feathers and spur claws and then held him for a while to cease his attempted domination. She was enjoying the Outlander for shopping and visiting friends and had a social visit from her family and also collected her son and daughter in law from Norwich station and took them for a wedding cake tasting. I started one day by giving Kathleen a good ‘seeing to’ and took her to do some grocery shopping in Roy’s. Kathleen helped with her church produce sale and went out buying dresses for Joe and Lena’s forthcoming wedding with her sister Helen.
This was a big month for working on the wood as I was planning a shelter for me new Bandsaw mill and the bracken had started to grow rapidly again but there was also the incessant administration and paperwork that peaks for the new financial year. Apart from this journal, I was completing my property accounts for the end of my financial year, filing my VAT return, and then sending off an activation request for my Spreadsheet for the forthcoming year. Then there was always the reconciling and balancing of my accounts and generally keeping my finances in order. I met up with Richard of Riverside Lettings at Heronshaw to plan for its holiday rental from next year. and reviewing the prospect of getting a Nissan Leaf and trading in my old Range Rover to further my interest in using sustainable solar energy as fuel costs escalated. I was using our new Outlander to fill up with cheap petrol and exploit free electric charge. A major setback and distraction were the loss of a molar tooth after which I spent a day seeking an emergency dental appointment for my broken tooth and doing little else.
We had been engaging in more social activity after lockdown. We joined our neighbours for the RHDRA annual meeting and then socially in the evening and drove to Hail Weston House for a Smith family wedding. I took Kathleen to the N&N Festival Spiegeltent for a pizza and ‘circus’ show which made for a change and very enjoyable evening. We rushed over to see the Three Rivers Race start at Horning, meeting up with neighbours Gordon, Andy and families/friends and then followed the race to Acle and Potter Heigham where we saw them again.
However, this month’s man preoccupation was working with, and housing, my new bandsaw mill. I completed the construction and roofing of my log drying shed and, having milled lots of timber sections and profiles and reorganising my timber supply prior to the construction of my sawmill shelter. I learnt how to grind and tooth set my band mill saw blades as I became familiar with running the new mill. I ordered and took delivery of the metapost foundation supports and hammered them into place. I was designing the new sawmill shelter and then drafting my planning application to Broadland DC for this and finally completed and submitted it to await their 28-day review process. I drove to Norwich to see Panks about making up a winch cable for the sawmill As I used the sawmill, I was not only generating timber to store and dry but also sections good enough for firewood and then disposing of the remainder by chipping with my Timberwolf. There was far more branches that also needed chipping and these is did, surfacing more paths in the woods during the process.
The return of the bracken growth prompted the return to using the Ferris Flail and I cleared the area of H4 before it faltered with some fuel flow issues. I got behind as the bracken ran riot and then, as soon as Ben Burgess had serviced the flail, I collected it and spent many days and much effort regaining control. In the meantime, there was much strimming to do and David joined me one evening and we finally caught up. In the meantime, my riverside mooring land in Ropes Hill Horning had become overgrown and so another day had to spent there to make it ready for the boating season of my tenants. When time allowed, I was also renovating reclaimed tree shelters and then installing them on self-seeded saplings . I utilised Kathleen’s help to repair the guy rope on our green storage building.
Elsewhere, senior MPs called for a drastic overhaul of Westminster's culture, amid concerns over sexism and inappropriate behaviour by politicians. There had been arrests and resignations of sitting members as an unnamed Conservative MP has been arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault and was in custody over allegations dating back to between 2002 and 2009. After millions cast their ballots in elections across the UK, Boris Johnson admitted the local election results in some parts of England were "tough" for the Tory party, losing key London councils to Labour. Sinn Féin has won 27 seats in Northern Ireland's Assembly elections, and will be entitled to nominate a first minister, if the Unionists would ever let Stormont to reconvene.. Boris Johnson has been pictured drinking at an event in Downing Street during lockdown. Insiders who attended events at Downing Street during lockdown revealed parties going so late with dozens of staff crowded together. Senior civil servant Sue Gray's report highlights excessive drinking and partying in Downing Street during lock-down. Labour accused Boris Johnson of "watering down" standards in public life. The changes follow a review of the Ministerial Code as more Tory MP’s call for the PM’s resignation. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he would quit if given a fine by Durham police for breaking lockdown rules. Her Majesty The Queen has pulled out of this year's State Opening of Parliament because of "episodic mobility problems". Prince Charles stood in for the Queen and highlighted some of the 38 laws that ministers intend to pass in the coming year. I watched Norwich City lose badly at home to West Ham and then were well beaten 0-5 at Carrow Road by Spurs..
All of this news paled into insignificance compared with the carnage in Ukraine. The month started with up to 200 civilians, including at least 20 children, remaining trapped with troops inside bunkers in the Azovstal steel works, but first more than 100 evacuees - many who have escaped the Mariupol steelworks – were collected by a UN humanitarian convoy arrived in Ukrainian-held Zaporizhzhia but many more were sent to and detained in occupied Russian territory. Dozens of civilians have been evacuated from Mariupol to both Russia-controlled and Ukraine-controlled territory after weeks under siege. despite an evacuation operation led by the UN. 53 heavily injured fighters evacuated from Mariupol arrived in the nearby town of Novoazovsk Eventually Ukrainian officials confirmed that Russia has launched a major assault on the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol and hadve entered the site. After the defenders surrendered, nearly a thousand Ukrainian fighters from the Mariupol steelworks were taken to Russian-controlled territory. There was speculation that President Vladimir Putin would use the 9 May Victory Parade to announce an escalation of military action after Ukraine said its forces had recaptured villages from Russian troops north and north-east of Kharkiv, pushing them back towards the border but in east Ukraine Luhansk saw fierce combat as Russian troops and separatist fighters sought to surround Ukrainian government positions. Russia was trying to encircle the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas region. The cities sit either side of the Siversky Donets river. Ukraine's defence minister said he hoped to arm a million fighters as the country prepares for a "new, long phase of war". Around 60 people were killed after a bomb hit a school and The UN Human Rights Council has voted to set up an inquiry into allegations of abuses by Russian forces in Ukraine. The EU remained unable to agree on ending supplies of Russian oil and gas due to Turkish resistance but a compromise embargo was agreed in the end. A leak from the US Supreme Court suggests the national right to abortion could be shockingly overturned
Boris Johnson signed security declarations with Sweden and Finland, pledging UK support should their militaries come under attack as Finland's leaders have announced their intention to join the NATO defence alliance "without delay". Sweden and Finland formally announced they were seeking to be part of the NATO alliance despite Russian warnings but Turkey said it would not approve Finland and Sweden's applications to join NATO, accusing them of harbouring terrorists A Russian soldier accused of shooting dead a civilian has pleaded guilty in Ukraine's first war crimes trial The Ukrainian government says it will not agree a ceasefire deal with Russia that involves giving up territory. Andrei Kelin, Russia's ambassador in Britain, has said that he does not believe his country will use tactical nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine. They have also scrapped its age limit for professional soldiers, as Western military experts say Russia has suffered heavy losses in the war Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited troops in the Kharkiv region
Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not explicitly apologise to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after she criticised his handling of her six-year detention in Iran. Liverpool beat Chelsea on penalties after extra time in the FA Cup final this evening. Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest. News is of the aftermath of the Liverpool debacle in Paris and France has acknowledged difficulties in managing crowds at Saturday's Champions League final in Paris but blamed what it says was "industrial-scale" ticket fraud. The US says that UK's dispute with the European Union over Northern Ireland trade risks undermining Western unity during the Ukraine war Anthony Albanese, the Labor leader, ousted Scott Morrison as Prime Minister in the Australian general election. He is the only the fourth Labor leader since World War Two to oust a Liberal prime minister as he replaces Scott Morrison. Police made the "wrong decision" by failing to storm a primary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas, as a gunman killed 19 children inside.