we really are very fortunate to have a bus at all

a whole day of back and fore with the doctors

horsemouth emailed in a photo of his mum's injury and they reckoned it was a side-effect of the medication to bruise so badly so horsemouth and his mum didn't have to try getting to ewyas harold on the non-existent 1520 bus or back from ewyas harold on the non-existent post 1720 return service. 

nor did horsemouth and his mum have to phone around and beg a lift from friends (which is what it would need really).  

so let's get this straight 

last bus into ewyas harold (with a bus back later)  is;

1306 mondays, thursdays, fridays (the good days), 

1120 on a saturday, 

and 0920 on a tuesdays and wednesdays (the bad days).

sundays (and beware bank holidays) nothing nothing nothing. 

without the timetable in front of you you really don't stand much of a chance of working these things out. 

and yet (as the neighbour at the crossroads said) we really are very fortunate to have a bus at all. 

when the night buses come

they may be about to run night buses (i.e. buses after 1830 of an evening) at  2030 and 2230 from hereford to pontrilas but that doesn't mean there will be a connecting service running up to abbeydore (looks like horsemouth will be walking back across the common). 

you see for horsemouth it is not a problem - he can walk. for his mother (in the absence of a local cab and the community taxi needing to be booked in advance) as soon as there is any kind of emergency transport is a problem. 

and there's no sign yet of the hereford buses dropping from £3 each way to £2 each way - they are welsh buses and thus not subject to andy burnham's fiat. if horsemouth were in wales he would already have free bus travel but as it stands he will have to wait until 67. 

earlier on in the day 

horsemouth walked into ewyas harold and picked up his mum's prescription, checked out the volunteer run library (thursdays), and shopped for one or two items. the river is very low but someone is getting some giant LEGO style flood defences installed. 

and then he walked back. 

he probably needs to pick up some more bread and some more beer at some point. 

he's also been digging around and weeding in the garden. this means he has accidentally harvested some onions and some beetroot. the onions are tiny (shallot sized) - he blames limitations on the watering. they pretty much ate those last night (and very nice they were too). 

he thinks some secondary planting for an autumn harvest might be possible (or even necessary). 

it's a cold, coolish, autumnal morning but really we are still in the middle of a drought and a heat wave. even out here temperatures up to 30 and bottoming out at 24, some rain (but not nearly enough). 

today he will re-record his reading of chapter 5 for the far future village band project. it is bandcamp friday.