THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Tea Room At Pooh Corner

I've found my people... just leave me here!

I can't believe it's been over three-and-a-half years since we've visited Pooh Corner.

It was supposed to have been a well-earned Spring Break for Rachel, but we'd gotten tangled up in a mess of time-sapping medical appointments.

Eventually, after a morning of medical check-ups for the both of us, and a couple of laps with Alice around the Tonbridge recreation ground, we decided to seize the day and head out to Hartfield, on the edge of the Ashdown Forest, for a Winnie The Pooh adventure.

Our first stop was Pooh Corner in Hartfield's High Street, where we managed to snag a parking spot right outside the front door (there's no car park there, so it's pot luck finding on-street parking).

Formerly the village sweet shop (and Christopher Robin's getaway from the pressure of being a young celebrity and the constant press intrusion in his life), the building has now been converted into an incredible tea room and Pooh'seum (a well-stocked museum chronicling the creation of the Pooh stories and everything that spun out of that).

Alice was a massive hit in the tea room, with the staff, owner, and other visitors. I can't remember a time when she's had so much attention from strangers. It was adorable to see both grown-ups and children lavishing affection on here.

Everything in the tea room is Winnie The Pooh-themed, from the plates and tea pots to the table numbers.

The food was incredible... and got the Knight Family seal of approval. We probably ate too much. But, so what? We were on holiday!

EVERYTHING was Pooh-themed!!!

After filling our tummies, Pooh-style, we hopped back in the car and drove into the forest (aka The Hundred Acre Wood), found a car park and then set off into the trees, following the signs to "Bridge".

Our goal was to see the legendary Pooh Sticks Bridge, probably one of the most iconic locations in children's literature.

It was quite a downhill hike and Rachel was concerned I might not be able to make it back up the hill afterwards, but I was driven both by the spirit of 'carpe diem' and a deep-seated desire to visit this iconic bridge for the first time in many, many decades.

There were plenty of people on the path, heading in both directions, and we were expecting the bridge to be rammed when got there.

But by some miracle once we arrived it was just us for about five or 10 minutes, so we had a chance to take pictures and explore.

The only real error we made was not bringing any 'Pooh sticks' as the area around the bridge was, unsurprisingly, barren of fallen twigs.

But to be honest that didn't matter. It was just magical to be walking in the footsteps of Christopher Robin, Winnie The Pooh, Roo, Kanga, Eeyore, Rabbit etc

As expected the journey back up the steep hill was harder and slower, but there are wooden seats along the way making for suitable rest stops and as long as we stayed in the shade (not always possible) it wasn't too hot.

From the company, the food, the adoration of Alice to walking in The Hundred Acre Wood and standing on Pooh Sticks Bridge, this was one of the best days out we'd had in ages, which is why I'm surprised we haven't gone back.

Sure the walking was hard at times, but I never felt as though I would pass out or be taken ill as is often the case on such escapades.

 Instead, I came home tired and content, fired up for future adventures.

Bring your own Pooh Sticks, as none will be found within the environs of the bridge

On the return journey we spotted the entrance to Owl's house up in a tree

POSSE POWER!!!

Photo by Reda Bluo

Since this blog celebrated its first six months of active service back in May, another brave soul has joined our Posse of Followers: Tom D.

This pushes membership to a very lucky 13, but we could always do better! We're very welcoming around these 'ere parts.

Look to the right and you will see in the side column (below the current 'featured article') a widget entitled Join The Posse. Under avatars for my current followers is a button marked Follow.

Simply press that and - all being well - your avatar will join the ranks of this group of brave heroes.

I do think you'll need a Google account for this to work (Blogger, after all, is a Google thing).

Not only does this mean, my expertly crafted prose will appear in your Google "Reading List" but it demonstrates to me that you're interested in my waffle and support what I'm doing (without having to part with a single red cent, sign up to a Patreon, or back my Kickstarter).

For those of you new around here, my blog is kind of a broad church at present with a mix of film (and TV) reviews, trailers, books, comic books (particularly Titan's Conan and other Howardverse titles), and underpinning it all a life-long love of tabletop roleplaying games.

I also love swords-and-sorcery, monster horror, westerns, Star Wars, B-movies, select superheroes (primarily Superman and Fantastic Four these days), curry, pizzas, my long-suffering wife, Rachel, and our cute little doggo, Alice.

And probably other things that have slipped out of my Swiss Cheesed brain.

I also write, occasionally, about my health: the idea being that, as a stroke survivor, I can share both the highs and lows of my ongoing physical and mental battles. I try to limit this, at most, to once a week (although, where pertinent, it can slip into posts about other things).

Anyway, you're here now, reading this, so why wouldn't you want to join the Posse?

• Of course, honestly, the best way to follow the action on Cowboys, Capes, and Claws is to add this blog to your Feedly aggregator or similar RSS feed reader application (it almost sounds as though I know what I'm talking about!)

WEATHER UPDATE: It's Hot, Hot, Hot!

Photo by Luis Graterol on Unsplash

Thanks to the effects of global warning, we've experienced a record breaking heatwave this week that goes way beyond just being "summer weather".

However, on the plus side, it did result in an epic thunderstorm on Friday night. At one point, which Rachel reckons lasted about half an hour, the storm was right overhead and one burst of thunder in particular was so loud it felt like it shook the house to its foundations.

Sadly, Alice doesn't like thunderstorms like I do and did need a lot of comforting during the middle-of-the-night event as lighting and thunder cracked and roared overhead.

What this heatwave has meant for me though is that I was relying heavily on prewritten material for the blog. There were some movie trailers that I added minimal commentary to, but the longest thing I actually wrote was the summary of our latest gaming session. 

I'm slightly concerned how this will impact next week's posting routine, though. I have several scribbled notes of ideas for posts that I should have written this week. Hopefully it will cool down enough that I can concentrate on my writing properly and get things back to normal.

As I've probably said before: heat wipes me out like no other weather condition.

Because of my various medical conditions since the aneurysm and stroke 20 years ago, I'm incredibly susceptible to extreme heat, being unable to concentrate (even worse than normal) or do anything really (even something passive, like watching TV, was nigh on impossible for most of the day), prone to dizzy spells and, even, if I'm not careful (which I was this week), passing out. 

In a very real sense, it often feels as though my brain is shutting down and I can't communicate with poor Rachel, I can get confused and forgetful. These things happen to me on occasion anyway, but it's just more frequent - and extreme - during the heights of a hot weather spell.

All being well, next week we'll be back on an even keel.

I did have my INR (blood thickness) tested again this week at my GP's surgery and it's staying within its target range, so I don't have to have another check for a month... which is great news.

HEALTH UPDATE: Is This What My Future Holds?

Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay

After all the general positivity in the wake of my steroid injections last week, I got a call from my GP's surgery this week saying I needed to come in for a repeat blood test.

You may recall I'd had a VERY painful blood extraction, a day or so after I had my spinal jabs. This, it turns out, was to test my lipids (which had improved, yayyyy) but also my liver function.

The latter showed signs of an increase in Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT). This could be due to an infection, some of my medication, a host of reasons. So, my GP - who never passes up the opportunity for a blood test - wants to double-check it next month.

Rachel stressed that it could be something as simple as the vast quantity of prescription medication I am taking and told me not to catastrophise. 

Of course, I did. Although, to be honest, not as much as I have done in the past. I think I'm just resigned to the fact that this is my future now.

To be honest, I might as well rely on healing crystals, reiki, or leeches, I (half) joked with Rachel.

Anyway, while I'm still waiting for the steroid injections to kick in and take the edge off my discomfort, I have another appointment with the phlebotomist to look forward to in a few weeks.

On a more positive note, ahead of the impending heat wave this week, Rachel, Alice and I made it to yesterday's Home Front event at Hever Castle, full of living history displays, period music and dancing, and 1940's re-enactors.

Bigger and better than the last time we attended the event, there were more tents, more people dressed up, generally more of everything. As usual Alice attracted a lot of interest with people wanting to know her breed and if it was okay for them (or their children) to pet her. She, of course, relished the attention.

The heat got to me a bit at first, but I downed a lot of water, took things slowly, stayed in the shade as much as I could, had some great ice cream, and we enjoyed a fantastic afternoon.

The dancers, as ever at such events, were phenomenal

The mandatory ice cream break

The mandatory shot of me with an American army jeep

Oh, and there was a Spitfire on the lawn

HEALTH UPDATE: On Pins and Needles

Casual, pre-injection mode, reading this week's 2000AD

After weeks - nay, months - of bitching, moaning, and dieting the stars finally aligned and I was able to get my long sought-after steroid injections in my back.

These will hopefully numb the pain for a while, allowing me to exercise more with (all being well) proper corrective results to beat the crippling inconvenience of osteoarthritis in my lumbar facet joints.

We arrived at the hospital at the crack of dawn, with a short side quest to drop Alice off with Rachel's parents, getting to the Chronic Pain Clinic at around 7.30am, just ahead of several other people.

After a short wait we were all allowed in and ushered to our individual rooms, where a couple of nurses, then the consultant, came in to check blood pressure and blood sugar, do some consent paperwork, and make sure we understood the nature of the impending procedure.

I'm happy to report that my blood sugar levels were a fraction of what they had been in January, when my previous visit had had to be aborted because my body wasn't ready for the proposed injections.

Although the consultant wasn't the one I had seen before, he was just as friendly and patient, taking his time to go through the procedure, the recuperation period, how soon we might see results (seven to 10 days) etc

I was the second person to be taken in to the operating room during this early shift, with a hospital gown in place of my t-shirt I was asked to lay down on the table and place my head in the padded hole.

Then, after a powerful numbing spray was lathered over my back, a series of six - almost painless - injections were made; three on each side of my spine.

Only one actually hurt - making my stroke-afflicted left leg twitch quite violently. But I had been expecting this as the identical injections I had almost a decade ago caused the same reaction.

And that was it.

I was wheeled back to my room, where Rachel was waiting. We were offered tea, biscuits, and a newspaper (it's not a true medical experience without biscuits), then a very short time later we were allowed to leave.

Complimentary biscuits indicate that it's all over

Evidence of four of the six injections in my back

This is what we really came for: tea, biscuits, and a newspaper

I'll be honest, I'm not exactly sure but I reckon we were in and out in around 90 minutes, maybe two hours.

Another positive health moment came later in the week with yet another International Normalised Ratio (INR) test of my the thickness of my blood.

My blood has finally calmed down now and is "back in target range" (it's now 2.3). Not only does this mean that I don't have to come back to my GP's surgery for a fortnight but, with immediate effect, we were also told to stop the daily blood thinner injections.

This was also a blessing for poor Rachel who was having to administer these nightly injections. She had said that since my recent diet it was harder to find fatty tissue on my tummy to easily stick the needles in (I took this to mean she now considers me "ripped" and gifted with a miraculous six-pack!).

But no more. At least for the moment, anyway.

However, I also had another blood test this week (testing lipids or something, I still can't recall) and that was a bit of a nightmare.

I hadn't slept more than a couple of hours the night before because I was so anxious, but the phlebotomist did a heroic job of - I believe, I had my eyes screwed shut - finding a willing vein, wiggling the needle about and drawing out the required blood.

I'd drunk over five pints of Barley Water that morning (as you're supposed to be well hydrated), which I think helped with the flow - although the nurse joked that my extracted blood was probably 50 per cent water!

All credit to her, there was very little bruising on my arm afterwards. I've had less painful blood tests that caused much more bruising.

My arm in the aftermath - the red marks were left when I removed the bandage later that morning

Kudos, also, to my long-suffering wife Rachel whose hand I nearly crushed in a combination of my trypanophobia (fear of needles) and inability to handle pain.

You can see the indentations my fingers made in Rachel's hand in the picture below, which was taken an hour or so after we left the doctor's surgery. 

Now I await the results of this test - and to see if the steroid injections have the desired effect.

Oh dear! I squeezed Rachel's hand rather hard while I was having my blood extracted

THROWBACK THURSDAY: My Life With Dan

A Sparrow, But NOT Dan!

The discovery of a dead bird on our decking earlier this month (I suspect it had flown into our glass doors at the back of the house) took my mind back to a more positive avian interaction five years earlier.

In June 2021, while Rachel was on a works' Zoom call, she alerted me to the fact that Alice was barking in the back garden and she thought our pup might have caught a mouse (which, we both agreed was totally out of character for her).

However, when I went to investigate, I discovered she had found an injured sparrow and was gently carrying it in her mouth to one of the flower beds where it could get some shade.

Having secured a small cardboard box, and filled it with packing paper and some of Barney's Timothy Hay, I gently scooped up the bird - which had a nasty wound on its hind quarters - and put it in the makeshift nest.

I tried to drip-feed it some water from a plastic syringe, but, despite still being conscious and breathing, it wouldn't take the liquid nourishment,

My next course of action was to phone the vets, who explained that this wasn't the sort of case they could help with, but referred me to a local wild animal rescue centre, Folly Wildlife Rescue, that I confess neither Rachel nor I even knew existed before this.

Calling the centre, we were given instructions to bring the bird in its box to their location, just outside of Tunbridge Wells.

When I picked up the box the bird, seeking the security of darkness, squirmed its way down to the bottom of the nest I had made for it.

Then we loaded up the car, securing Alice in the back seat, Rachel driving, and me with the injured sparrow in his box on my lap.

While stuck in traffic in Southborough - behind a car with a personalised number plate - I decided that the bird's name was Dan (because of the car in front of us and the classic Alan Partridge scene).

The centre was easier to find than the directions I'd been given had suggested (we relied instead on Rachel's sat nav on her phone), and Dan - in his box - was dropped off, after I filled in some paperwork.

I emailed the centre once we got home for an update, which arrived a few hours later:

"The bird was assessed on arrival and found to have bruising on its body and punctured air sacks. It was given immediate critical care and medication and is in the care of our vet and staff."

Over the bank holiday weekend I emailed again, seeking a further update on Dan's condition (having been warned by friends not to get too attached, should the worst happen) and this lunchtime, I heard back:

"The sparrow is continuing to progress well at this time."

This made me enormously happy and I aimed to drop them a, probably final, email later in the week, just to check up how he is doing (I realise their email is run by volunteers who have more important things to do than answer needy emails from rescuers).

Both Rachel and I have now donated to Folly Wildlife Rescue and it's a local charity I would definitely consider giving to again, as it offers an invaluable service to wild animals that I never knew was available.

SOME TIME LATER...

Fly, Dan, fly...

In an unexpected development, a few days later we received a phone call from Folly Wildlife Centre.

Initially, I feared the worst, but the woman explained that the sparrow had recovered and was itching to be set free. Would we like to come and collect him, to release him in our garden, she asked.

I was giddy with excitement and said we'd be there as soon as we could.

Luckily Rachel wasn't in a Zoom meeting and so once again, having made up another cardboard 'nest box' for Dan, we set off with Alice in tow.

When we rolled up at the rescue centre, we were met at reception, the box was taken away and Dan was placed carefully within.

Hailing his recovery as a "success story", they put a bit of tape over the top of the box to hold it shut, warning us to hold it tight as Dan was "a bit feisty".

The journey home was full of excitement, anticipation, and speculation as to how Dan would react when we could finally open the box in our garden, allowing him to fly free and (hopefully) rejoin his (imagined) family.

This is kind of where things didn't go quite as expected. I was looking forward to a dramatic John Woo moment or a shot resembling the end of Blade Runner, with Dan majestically taking to the air and soaring away.

Instead, as we all stood in the garden and I carefully opened the cardboard box, Dan flapped out... and crash landed on the decking!

At this point, Alice (being none the wiser) thought this was a game... and chased him.

Rachel was all geared up to video Dan's flight to freedom, as the woman at the centre had suggested when we picked him up.

Instead, she caught the farcical Benny Hill-style scene of me chasing (well, hobbling) after Alice who was chasing after Dan as he flapped around the decking.

He then proceeded to waddle under the sun loungers and hop down into the inviting darkness of the narrow gap between our decking and the fence.

We tried to look for him, but couldn't see him. Even Alice had a look a bit later on, but couldn't scent him, so we guess he recovered his composure and flew away.

Preparing for Dan's "spectacular" release!

THE DENOUEMENT...

When the the gardeners arrived for one of their last visits to finish the new planting (this was following our 'major redevelopment' of the garden) later that day, Jess volunteered to crawl under the decking and check to see if Dan was trapped down there.

It turns out there's a small bird-sized hole through to our neighbour's garden just where Dan dived down and we all came to the conclusion that he had "escaped" through there.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Dreams Do Come True!

Ever since I was a little nipper watching M.A.S.H. with my dad (one of those shows we bonded over) I was obsessed with the idea of driving a Willy's Jeep.

M.A.S.H.

Then in 2017, when Rachel, Alice, and I visited the Home Front event at Hever Castle, I was pictured behind the wheel of a static one.

And I happened to mention online that it was a lifelong dream to actually drive one.

One thing led to another and an old friend of ours, and former work colleague, Stu, popped up to say he owned a Willy's Jeep and would I like to come and drive it?

So that Sunday evening, once the temperature had cooled down a bit, Rachel, Alice, and I rolled up to their house...

... And I got to drive the jeep.

Stu talked me through the controls - and remember, since my stroke et al I haven't driven for over a decade - then coached me for a few circuits of their old tennis court, before he and his son jumped out and let me fly solo.

And you know what? My initial anxiety faded away, the controls weren't as stiff as I'd feared (okay, I never got it out of first gear), and once I found my groove I had the time of my life.

I loved the sound of the engine, the smell of the petrol, the handling of the vehicle. I really was on Cloud Nine.

There aren't many things on my bucket list, but this was one of them. And Stu's gave me an open invitation to come and drive the jeep again. Guess I'll need to get myself a M.A.S.H. t-shirt now.

There's a film at the top of this piece that Rachel shot, and spliced together (complete with a few comedy sound effects!), that hopefully shows you just how excited I was.

Not only to be driving again after so long, but to be driving a Willy's Jeep. Like in M.A.S.H. 

I think my dad would have been proud.

Tearing it up in first gear...

Alice, as ever, bemused by her humans' shenanigans...

The family Knight enjoying the jeep experience...

SO MANY DOGS!!!

I love Newfies - I just wish they didn't drool quite so much! 🤣

A cold wind blew us to Hever Castle yesterday for the return of Castle Canines (formerly Paws At The Castle).

This was the first time the venue had hosted its dog show in over five years (apparently there's a new management team in charge of the site) and it was clearly much in demand as, it appeared, probably more than 50 percent of attendees had brought their own dogs along with them.

In fact, Rachel and I were quite taken aback (in a good way) by the sheer number of dogs wandering the grounds. Neither of us had ever seen so many pooches in one place... and yet Alice still managed to garner plenty of attention.

Our first stop was the 'meet and greet' with the giant Newfoundlands, who we would later see demonstrating their life-saving skills in the freezing cold lake.

Newfy water rescue demonstration

Then it was a general meander through the castle grounds, oohing and aahing at cuteness on display.

During our stay we spotted a former (human) participant in Channel Four's amazing series, The Dog House, as well as - no, honestly - an elderly duck that had appeared in the Disney live-action version of Beauty and The Beast. It was that kind of wonderful, very British, very random event.

The huskies were very chilled

The weather wasn't a friend to the poor people serving puppy ice creams and desserts

However, mid-afternoon, the heavens opened signalling a mass exodus from Castle Canines. We'd managed three hours though, with a lot of walking around and standing, and I'm pretty sure we'd seen everything we wanted to.

Hopefully next year the weather will be better for the dog show and it, once again, becomes a regular fixture of the castle's calendar of events.

It was also great to have simply gotten back to Hever Castle, having missed all of last year's events because of my stupid back problems.

A family portrait

A Relaxing Afternoon Spent With Rescued Farm Animals

Alice and I pose by a Second World War era tractor at the farm

The weather was warm if overcast, so Rachel, Alice and I jumped in the car and headed out to the delightful Little Fant Farm (just outside Maidstone) on Bank Holiday Monday (yesterday).

Admission - and parking - was free, which was a nice touch, but we suspected the farm made up for that with its enormous, and very popular, award-winning outdoor café/restaurant.

In an environment that was both dog- and kid-friendly, there were a number of animals to check out on the farm, ranging from pigs and horses to goats and ducks. All of them are rescues - which made this experience even more perfect.

Nigel

A meeting of great minds

The ducks

Ant and...

...Dec

We had a walk around the farm and then a short stroll down a country road to a neighbouring farm, where we had a lovely chat with that farmer's mother who was feeding two of their horses, Bob and Ted.

All in all, it was a really chilled day out, topped off with a delicious cream tea and pleasant conversation with the couple we shared a table with outside the café.

Time spent around happy animals is always very relaxing and good for the soul.

Even though it wasn't a "tree safari" per se, it was still a day out and I took a small number of evocative pictures of trees and stonework to add to my portfolio.

Bob and Ted