Charles Harries

Tuesday, 3 Feb 2026 2:29 pm

Now

I wrote an earlier version of this week-end post and then realised that I sounded like someone spiralling into an existential panic attack in slow motion, instead of someone with a half-full calendar and a Bluesky account, which is what I actually am.

So here goes.

Ghyll’s foot is healing, slowly. I think he’s walking on it well but we went out for a slightly longer walk over the weekend and he sort of looked like he was trying to avoid leaning on it. But then he’s quite happy to put his full weight on it to cock a leg and obliterate some previous dog’s scent-history. Sometimes I know exactly what Ghyll is thinking and sometimes the inner machinations of his mind are an enigma.

A white barnhouse with a bright orange roof sitting in a field of long brown grass, with a half-demolished brick wall in the foreground and an unnaturally green sky above

The car needed its annual MOT so I rode my bike back and forth to Shotton to bring it to & pick it up from the garage there. They called me only 15 minutes before closing on Wednesday evening and I raced up the hill to the garage in like 8 minutes. Maybe it was only 8 minutes to Bruce Glaser Terrace. Anyway I’ve been quoting 8 minutes to anyone who would listen & who knows the distance between Wingate & Shotton.

I also somehow coordinated with the good folks at Dowling Stoves to have a new plate manufactured to cover the hole in the flue. Some yobbo “lost” the original gub that covers the sweeping hole so we had to do some collaborative brainstorming to come up with a better solution, which in the end turned out to be a single piece of 4mm sheet metal bent into the shape of the flue & held in place with jubilee clips. Up at Haughtongreen to install it with our MBA Area Organiser David, who cheerfully blackmailed the lads visiting for the weekend into doing a proper tidy-up before leaving. The new gub fit magnificently. Hey Siri remind me to write back to Dowling with a picture of the fix in place.

A metal plate fixed to a stove flue with jubilee clips, framed in a stone fireplace

It’s my first week following the proper training plan for the Bob Graham; I keep thinking to myself that I ought to produce some sort of David Roche-inspired “Road to the BG” video series before remembering that I know not the first thing about producing a video series. The training plan is tough but fair. I went out on Saturday night and felt like I could really belt up the hills without losing puff. Probably psychosomatic + noobgainz but at this point I’ll take what I can get.

Uck a bunch of stuff also happened online but I’m electing not to think about it.

A sundial mounted under the eaves of a rendered building, indicating shortly after 2pm (correctly!)

now Ghyll Cars Haughtongreen Bob Graham Round

Sunday, 18 Jan 2026 11:39 pm

Now

Is half past eleven on a Sunday night an appropriate time to write a weeknotes? Not at all. Here I am anyway.

Decent week. I think this whole “not drinking in January” thing is finally starting to pay dividends. I don’t feel better per se but I don’t feel the same awful bonegrinding malaise that I generally do in the mornings after I’ve had even like two beers. I suspect that there’s some psychosomatic component at play.

Oh except for we discovered a massive leak in the ceiling right above the front door; luckily the boilerman was able to come out the following day and replace the fitting. Now we've just got three egregious holes in the ceiling and a couple of weeks waiting for the plasterboard to dry out.

A closeup of a plastic speedfit plumbing fitting, with a stripe of brown rusty water leaking out of one side. Other plastic pipes are out of focus in the background

Have decided to make an attempt at the Bob Graham Round this year, and have told a bunch of people at my running club about it. Is this a called shot? I’m terrified of those. My general MO is to labour in secret and then do something big and try to draw as little attention to myself about it as possible, because drawing attention to oneself is gauche and that’s the one thing I promised myself I’d never be.

Up at Haughtongreen over the weekend; met some canny lads but didn’t find the missing flue cover. The fix that we made to the roof is holding up, at least. Although the whole place kind of feels like a bit of a mess. I think we need to do some serious work before the summer and the blackflies roll in. After the trip to the bothy we went for a walk along Hadrian's Wall with Ghyll as the sun set. The picture below is very HDRed; it was actually a lot darker than this.

A man in a red jacket and a black scruffy dog sitting next to him, posing on a grassy hilltop with a stone wall running off over the curve of the hill on the right, with a darkening sky behind

On Sunday Ghyll ran off somewhere and came back with a big cut on his foot. We’ve wrapped it up with some Savlon but he’s not having a good time so I’m sleeping downstairs with him tonight. We’ll see how he gets on in the morning or whether he needs stitches or what.

Wow I got this done in like 10 minutes, pleased w/ myself.

A stone wall runs down a craggy hillside and back up the hill on the far side, with a dark cloudy sky above

now Haughtongreen Hadrian's Wall Housework Outdoors

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