Comic Cuts — 5 November 2021

Things are progressing well on Action. I hit 20,000 words on Wednesday despite some noisy interruptions in the room next door. We rent a house here in Wivenhoe and our landlady must have a valid certificate each year from a gas safety inspector. For a couple of years, the guy who was checking the property was concerned about the oven and last year said that it would not pass another inspection.

Nothing dangerous per se, just old and knackered. The seals around the over door were not the best and most of our cooking, whatever the suggested temperature, was done at full blast; we couldn't get the gas to light under the grill without using a match... that kind of thing.

Last Friday we had a new cooker arrive, which was installed over Tuesday and Wednesday and, while I've yet to try it out myself, it looks great. One minor glitch in that one of the safety features keeps shutting off the gas to one of the rings on the hob, but hopefully that will be sorted soon. Otherwise, being new, it should be a lot more efficient compared to the old oven. Mind you, it will take a little while to adjust, and I'm thinking that my next banana bread is going to be carbon before I remember that it won't take as look to cook. The oven capacity is smaller, too, as the grill is separate to the oven, which is going to make cooking at Christmas interesting — and not in a good way.

The clocks going back an hour has meant we're once again getting some spectacular sunrises during our morning walks. I'll try to put a little selection together to run below. I often say that the little camera I take out with me can't do justice to the delicate colours, but looking at some of the shots I've taken over the past couple of weeks... I may owe my little digital camera an apology.

I've chosen two groups of photos showing roughly the same view but taken on different days. This is why we never get bored of walking along the river — it changes daily and you can stand in the same spot and look in the same direction day after day and you will always see something different.

It was Hallowe'en on Sunday, and while we don't get involved with the trick or treating, we do like to see some of the pumpkin displays that people put together. There were nowhere near as many as last year, but I photographed a few favourites, which I'll post below. I'll do it as a separate post, so if you've reached this post via Twitter or Facebook, you'll want to click on this link, which will show all the recent posts.