In this weekly blog episode: birthday cake baking, the Sprite iced tea trend, motorcycling, gardening, National Map Reading Week, the end of National Walking Month, and a very painful back.
This weekly blog episode is brought to you from one of my semi-usual writing spots – the wooden bench in my kitchen. It’s not quite tall enough to constitute a standing desk, so I’ve got my laptop perched on two old board games, but it’s the closest thing I’ve got at home (something I hope to rectify sometime).
While I stand to work at the day job regularly, today it’s more out of necessity. Sitting for more than a few minutes is uncomfortable. I’ve managed to hurt my back, and that is proving to be quite the pain in the proverbial. More on that shortly.
But first, I’d better quickly cover some of the usual weekly blog chatter – you know, what the weather’s been like, what I’ve eaten this week, how little I’ve exercised, how busy work has been, and a solid bit of productivity versus success talk… okay, maybe I won’t blather on about all of that lot this week!
Cake and Iced Tea
Actually, I do have a kitchen-based success I want to mention. I made my husband a birthday cake, and it was delicious! I wish you could have tried some but, er, we ate it all. This is my one bake of the year; my husband normally does the baking in our house, but it doesn’t seem right that he makes his own birthday cake. And after last year’s very tasty caramel cake I had a lot to live up to.
My chosen recipe this year was this Biscoff layer cake – that’s a Biscoff cake with Biscoff buttercream. I should probably have taken it out of the oven two or three minutes earlier than I did, but it worked, was tasty, and most importantly, my husband enjoyed it.
I also gave into temptation and bought a bottle of Sprite so I could try the Sprite iced tea trend a go. In short, you bung two normal teabags in a bottle of Sprite (drink a little first to give the teabags space), and put it upside down in the fridge for a couple of hours. And then drink…
Iced tea is one of my favourite summer drinks, but I’ve never had fizzy iced tea before. It went down very well indeed; very refreshing, but incredibly sweet. I don’t make a habit of buying soda in plastic bottles (yes, I bought one just to try this), so it’s not something I’ll be having regularly this summer. I’m going to give the same technique a try using some fizzy water from my Soda Stream and some lemon or lime juice, to see if I can recreate the refreshing taste without the single use plastic (and sugar!).
Motorcycling in Wales
I joined a small group of riders on a pootle in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) on Saturday. We stuck to minor roads – some incredibly minor (with grass growing up the middle…) – and had a lovely ride in the beautiful sunny part of England and Wales.
We stopped at a couple of lovely biker-friendly cafes which are worth a mention in case you are riding or driving in this area anytime. The first was Copper Kettle on the outskirts of Abergavenny, and the second was Honey Café in Bronllys, the latter of which we’ve been to many times. If you go to Honey Café, get the lemon meringue pie, it’s so (so, so) very good. I’ve been promising a ‘favourite road trip cafes in Great Britain’ article for quite some time, I really should get that one written this summer – I’ve got lots of places to include!
It was another really great day out on my bike; my confidence riding the F750GS really does grow each ride out, and it’s feeling more and more like my bike every time. But despite owning it since November last year, I’ve still not managed to get any photos of me riding my new bike yet, and in fact, took zero photos all day on Saturday. I will fix that at some point I promise, hopefully on my summer road trip.
Digging the Garden
Like many British people, we spent a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon tidying the garden. The previous owner of our house was a very keen gardener, and planted a lovely selection of flowers and shrubs, which we’ve done our best to look after.
A few years on and everything is well matured, but that means there’s quite a lot of suffocation going on (it’s only a little garden and there are a lot of plants!). We decided to remove a couple of large shrubs which were being overtaken by other things, as well as one of the rambling roses, to give some of the other pretty things some more space. A job well done – I hope!
Injured by a Watering Can
Alas, my Sunday afternoon ended with that back injury I mentioned earlier. I got through all the digging and pulling without issue, but when I bent down to pick up the watering can so I could refill the bird bath, I through my back out. It properly went, instantly. I’ve never got ‘stuck’ like that before, it was not a nice experience. And still isn’t.
To start with I thought I’d pulled a muscle, but three days in with no let-up from the pain, it does seem like I’ve got a bulged disc. My symptoms, including shooting sciatica pain down my leg, point towards that anyway. I’ll give it a day or two more before seeking medical help, I hope it eases up before I have to bother anyone with something as silly as injuring my back picking up an empty watering can.
The idea that I do all these fun active things like hiking, scrambling, motorcycling and the rest, and then put my back out doing something so simple is comical. But it’s also a bit worrying. A sign of weakness in my core, of getting older, of not paying attention to how I’m moving my body. Not a lot I can do about those things just yet, though, let’s get this thing fixed first.
National Map Reading Week
Happy National Map Reading Week! And yes, I know we are over halfway through now, but I couldn’t let this weekly blog episode go without featuring one of Ordnance Survey’s biggest weeks of the year. And there is still time to get involved.
Meant as a celebration of all-things maps, the main aim of National Map Reading Week is to encourage us to get outside safely by grabbing a map (either paper or digital…) and knowing how to use it. It’s time to brush up on our map reading skills.
An OS survey of 2,000 adults in the UK found 1 in 5 people aren’t very confident reading a map, and almost a third of people never plan routes in advance or take a map with them. The same survey said that 70% of people have got lost without a map… see the potential issue here?
Thankfully, you don’t have to be a geography expert, or anything close to that, to learn out to read a map (I know I’m not). If you head to the OS website you will find a fun quiz to test your skills, and a bunch of free map reading guides to get you started.
Over the years I’ve written a fair few National Map Reading Week related blog articles, and in the last couple of weeks I’ve given two of them a bit of a spruce up for 2024. The first includes a few words about why I still carry paper maps even though I hardly use them, and the second is a listicle sharing nine things I love about maps.
Join a Cartography Masterclass
If you want to have a proper geek-out on maps this week, and are reading this early on the day I publish it (Thursday 6 June), you can also join a fun sounding Introductory to Cartography masterclass. Experts from Ordnance Survey will introduce the fundamentals of cartography and explore the specific elements of map-making – from data collection to the finished article. To attend (it starts at 7pm), register via this link. I’ll see you there!
And finally from me regarding National Map Reading Week, because it would be rude not to share the special offer OS are promoting, if you don’t already have an OS Maps subscription, you can get 30% off using code SPRINGWALK at checkout. There are some other offers this week, too. Start here (affiliate link).
National Walking Month Ends
We’re well into June now, but I wanted to round up my National Walking Month daily walks, in order to complete the challenge I was set at the start of the month. In case you missed that weekly blog episode, to celebrate National Walking Month, Ordnance Survey challenged its new group of OS Champions to go for a walk every day in May.
Right at the start of May, I said it was looking like a ridiculously busy month, causing me much stress and anxiety as I tried to work out how I was going to get through without crashing. I pointed out that May looking so busy was exactly the reason I should make this my month-long goal.
I generally manage One Hour Outside every day, most of the time anyway, so it wasn’t too much of a leap to make sure that time included a walk for 31 days. ‘Any kind of walk’ was the theme here; I really have done all kinds. There has been a real variety including everything from mountainous hikes to very short brisk walks to run errands. I walked in the Test Valley, in Cumbria, and in Scotland – and a lot at home in Gloucestershire, too.
I walked with the simple intention of seeing beautiful animals, walked to buy goodies from the local bakery, and walked to see the most colourful display of rhododendron I’ve ever seen. And while some walks could be described as more ‘stolen’ than others, in that I had to make a real effort to squeeze something in, every one of them was time well spent. Even the ones done in the rain.
My last four walks were of the smaller variety… all local, all at lunchtime, but all very much needed.
Tuesday 28 May: Trees and Otters
I wanted to give otter hunting one more go in May, so headed to Pittville Park for another mooch. Normally my most-walked open space each month is Cleeve Hill, but it was definitely Pittville Park this time.
If you have never visited Pittville in Cheltenham, I would highly recommend it. It was once a rich man’s arboretum, and the tree collection is one of the reasons I like to walk there. I often visit the Sequoia to touch its soft bark (no comments please), and with talk of otters living in the lake, there’s even more reason to visit. If you didn’t realise the tree collection element to Pittville Park, then there are a couple of leaflets here you can download.
Wednesday 29 May: Running Errands
With a list of bits and bobs I needed to do in town, my Wednesday walk was all about running errands. And while this doesn’t make for an interesting or scenic walk, it’s one of the easiest ways to make sure I get at least a short walk in the bag on any given day. On this occasion I posted a letter, did a little top up shop at the supermarket, and picked up a birthday present for a friend. Oh, and I saw a lovely snoozing cat. A lunchtime well spent.
Thursday 30 May: Dodging the Rain
I find Thursday is always my most busy and most tired day of the week, and as such it is the one where getting One Hour Outside is the hardest. And the weather on this particular Thursday didn’t help, either – it had been sunny all morning and then I stepped out of my front door intending to get a full hour of walking when the heavens opened and drenched me almost instantly. I retreated indoors while the rain blew over and tried again a bit later, going for a quick walk around the block in the drizzle. Oh well.
Friday 31 May: A Final Local Walk
In some ways it was a shame May ended on a working day rather than at the weekend when I could have made my final walk of National Walking Month somewhere fun and exciting. At least it was a Friday, and therefore a working from home day for me, so I was able to go on one of my favourite lunchtime walks from home. I had a lovely moochy wander, making the most of the footpaths which traverse the edge of the built-up area and the start of some pretty countryside. I can’t go too far in an hour, but I am fortunate I can at least get just about out of sight of the housing estates and within shouting distance of the Cotswolds.
It’s no secret that walking is by far is my favourite way to spend time outside, especially from my own front door, and so this was a very fitting final National Walking Month walk. Even after all the outdoor activities I’ve tried, and when compared to all the things I do regularly, the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other and seeing the world very slowly tops the list. And one of the reasons for that is the same reason behind Living Streets’ National Walking Month; walking and wheeling is an easy and accessible way to improve physical and mental health.
A 20-minute walk can reduce the risk of a number of preventable health conditions, including certain cancers, depression, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. And by swapping a short drive for a short walk, you can also help reduce air pollution, congestion, and road danger – and save yourself some money in the process. Worth it. (Just don’t pick up a watering can…)
See You Next Time…
I described what I was expecting this week to be like to a friend at the weekend as ‘a bit stupid’, and it is proving to be such. As you may have guessed with this post going up a day or two later than my weekly blog posts normally do, that statement is proving to be accurate. Of course, my silly back injury isn’t helping.
I am hopeful that come the weekend, both the business and my back will have eased, and I will be able to get out for some fun – maybe even an actual hike to celebrate National Map Reading Week. I’ll be sure to let you know in my next weekly blog episode.
In the meantime, I’d really love it if you read my post featuring my outdoorsy couple of days in the Test Valley. This was a gifted trip in collaboration with Visit Test Valley (Test Valley Borough Council), who are wanting to encourage more people to choose the area for a short break this summer.
And if you are interested in map-themed musings, then do check out my articles about why I still carry paper maps, and those nine things I love about maps.
See you next time.
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Support Splodz Blogz… with Tea
If you enjoyed this weekly blog episode and fancy supporting me and my mini adventures this year, you can “buy me a coffee” for £3 (well, a cup of tea, if that’s okay?). Head over to Ko-fi to find out more. Thank you.
PS I am an Ordnance Survey OS Champion, which I talked about lots more in this previous weekly blog episode. This is not a paid gig (most of us are unpaid volunteers), I just love getting outside and telling you all about it – it fits perfectly here on Splodz Blogz. But I am still clearly linked with the OS as a brand, and links to OS Maps are affiliate links.