This week I tried to spend a lot of time outside, as it was gorgeous out.

Monday was a little too hot, when we went to watch the Queen’s Joust at Leeds Castle. It was a lovely day to go out, but it would have been better to spend it in the shade. The grounds were lovely, and there was a lot of shade, but to watch the joust we got up next to the tilt and that was full blazing sun. We had excellent seats, and picnicked while they were between bouts. We got there just in time to see the awarding of points for the melee. Then they had a break before the second to last jousting event. They had two rounds to the joust. First they had riders do accuracy and skill challenges. Challenge one was looping rings on the lance. Challenge two was cutting heads of cabbage. Challenge three was hitting small targets with the lance tip. Challenge four was grabbing a purse of coins and then dropping it into a chest. Then the last challenge was tilting against a target and seeing how many times you could make it spin. These challenges were close, and the Norwegian woman won the skills section.

The actual joust was next. They had one knight each representing France, England, and Norway. The France and England teams were much more experienced, as they have been doing these competitions for several decades vs. the Norwegians doing it for several years. They also had the team captains for France and England participate. They did every set of jousts between the three, and they did that three times. England won by a single point on that round, which set them up to win the entire tourney. I recorded the first few rounds, but then my phone overheated and couldn’t record anymore.

We didn’t stay for the last round of jousting, as it was so hot and Steph and I wanted to get back earlier for a live podcast recording of Betwixt the Sheets. Some of Steph’s favourite historians do a podcast on how sex and women were regarded throughout history. The theme of this podcast episode was how dick pics (and art) are one of the most common and ancient of human art. It was good fun and the hosts are funny to listen to.

Wednesday afternoon I took off and went hiking in Epping Forest. It was a nice walk, but nothing special about the forest. I did really enjoy picnicking for dinner in a field of flowers. The hike was about 14km that I did in about 3 hours.

On Friday I did a presentation for Camden digital inclusion on parental controls, then I went to Castlehaven to do the one on one help. After I got back home, Steph and I drove down to Weymouth.

She went diving for the weekend while I went hiking along the Jurassic Coast. On Saturday I went west along the coast to Abbotsbury Swannery. The trail was a bit overgrown, which wouldn’t have been a problem except that it was nettles that had overgrown the trail in some spots. The swannery had over 1000 swans there, with about 200 signets. They had pens for the couples that were nesting, so that they could have a dedicated area and not fight each other for space. There were some other birds there as well, but mostly swans. They had a few major areas that were full of the swans and lovely to see. I also did their wildflower walk and hedge maze while I was there. The hedge maze was smaller than some I’ve done, but really well made, and of course in the shape of a swan. I caught the bus back and then walked the beach for a bit before heading to the hotel and joining everyone else for dinner.

The second day I was tired, but made it east from Weymouth to Durdle Door, a large rock arch in the ocean. I was soooo tired from that hike, and the grade on some of the sections just west from Durdle Door are absurdly steep. It took me an entire week to recover from these hikes, mainly from the knee joints being roughed up from the steep sections. We made it back to London and cuddled the kitties that evening.

London weekly 179