Photo an Hour - January 2016

January 16th was the date set for this month's Photo an Hour project. It's organised by Jane and Louisa, you'll see their versions on their blogs, together with details of how to sign up for reminders if you'd like to take part. 

We had a quiet day, so this is what a lazy Saturday looks like in our house.
 

9am, looks like a cold but beautiful day outside

10am, my husband had surgery over New Year, I get his drugs ready each morning    

11am, catching up on 'Once Upon a Time' on Netflix whilst my husband was in the shower    

Midday, chicken soup for an early lunch    

1pm, feeding the fish who don't seem to be feeling the cold as much as me   

2pm, getting the laundry done  

3pm, I love a trip to the car wash

4pm, a stop for coffee and cake

5pm, we're in and the fire is lit

6pm, doing a quick bit of work in my role of Treasurer for the local Parish magazine

7pm, a quick trip out to collect pizza

8pm, home and watching 'Hunger Games: Mockingbird Part 1'

9pm, a nice cup of tea

Making a Murderer

Courtesy of Netflix

Around the middle of last week my brain slowly picked up that more and more people were talking about 'Making a Murderer' and that it was compulsive viewing. By the weekend I couldn't ignore the pull to see it any longer, and after watching it over three nights, I'm glad I've seen it.

If you've not heard about it, 'Making a Murderer' is a ten-part documentary series released by Netflix in December. It was filmed over the course of ten years and covers the story of Steven Avery who served 18 years in prison for sexual assault and attempted murder before being exonerated of the crime. Two years after his release he was arrested for murder. The series also covers the arrest and prosecution of his nephew, Brendan Dassey, for the same crime.

As with many other viewers, I found the series incredible. The series seemed to make such a good job of suggesting the innocence of both Steven and Brendan, that I wanted to find out what had been omitted from the documentary, to see if I could follow the thinking of the juries.

There is no shortage of information in the public domain, some of it seems reliable, some of it less so. I've summarised what I've found out, and how this affects my thoughts concerning the guilt of the two parties below.

You may want to stop reading at the this point if you've not seen the series and intend to.

Steven Avery

As mentioned above, the series is clearly edited to suggest Steven's innocence. The defence suggests that various pieces of evidence which should demonstrate his guilt may have been planted. From the evidence and facts presented in the series it seems unlikely that any jury could have found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt. However, the trial lasted much longer than the series and therefore there must be swathes of information which has been omitted.

The first piece of information I found is that the prosecution had identified a motive for the crime, although it wasn't presented at the trial, as the information was unclear. Steven Avery had apparently greeted Teresa Halbach, the victim, on a previous visit wearing just a towel. She mentioned the incident to a colleague, advising them that she was 'creeped out' and wouldn't work with Avery again. When Avery arranged for her to come out to take photographs of the vehicle they were selling on the day of her murder, he gave his sister's name, the registered owner of the car. The suggestion is clearly that Avery lured Teresa to his home, she rejected Avery's advances and he attacked and killed her as a result.

No evidence of Teresa's presence was found inside Avery's trailer. Blood smears containing Avery's DNA had been found in her vehicle, but the defence clearly suggested that these had been planted. Avert's DNA (not blood this time) was also found on the bonnet latch in her car, a fact not presented in the series. However, this doesn't seem to add anything to the case.

A bullet fragment was found in Avery's garage (albeit after some time) which contained Teresa's DNA. What wasn't mentioned in the series was that the bullet was forensically tied to Steven's rifle. In addition, some of Halbach's belongings (including her camera) were found in the burn barrel outside Avery's trailer. Bone and tooth fragments were found in the burn pit outside Avery's home, but knowing that even cremators don't fully destroy bodies, I'm surprised that an outside fire could.

In recent days, Avery's ex-fiancée Jodi has commented that she believes he murdered Halbach and that he was violent towards her. Again, the series made little reference to Avery's previous violence. As such, the murder almost seemed to be out of character. If Avery really was a violent character and was generally known to be so, this could well have influenced the jury drawn from the population of a relatively small town.

In summary, given the above, I think Avery could have committed the murder, but I still don't think that there is sufficient evidence to convict him beyond reasonable doubt. There is talk that members of the jury were related to the Sherriff's department (possibly unavoidable in a small town) and that they were swayed by Brendan's withdrawn confession which implicated Avery, despite being told that they should not consider this as part of the evidence. It may simply be that the jury had to reach a unanimous verdict and more vocal members of the jury swayed the less vocal, perhaps simply because they were going round in circles and wanted the trial to be over so that they could return home.

Brendan Dassey

Brendan's case appeared much more clear cut on the documentary. There wasn't a shred of physical evidence and his confession was clearly as a result of coercion, if true there would have been blood evidence all over the bedroom in the trailer.

I struggle to see how the appeals have failed to be successful. His defence, Len Kachinsky, acted despicably, at no point did he seem to be acting in the interests of his client and I'm surprised he's not been struck off. Similarly, scenes of the investigator, Michael O'Kelly, coaching Brendan to draw pictures which supported the statement which he had just denied were incredible.

 

I certainly would have been unable to find Dassey guilty beyond reasonable doubt despite his confession, and I struggle to see how anyone else could. There doesn't seem to be any additional evidence coming to light since the series was shown to explain how this happened.

The alternative

The key question is probably, if Avery and Dassey didn't murder Halbach, then who did?
The programme makers seemed to suggest Halbach's family or her ex-boyfriend should have been investigated more thoroughly, Avery himself suggests that it could have been his brothers. The less palatable suggestion is that the Sherriff's department may be to blame. Much as I'm sure there was a degree of planting of evidence (the RAV4 key being the most obvious example), I'm reluctant to consider that the police would intentionally kill a member of the general public, just to frame Avery. As Ken Kratz admitted (ill advisedly), if they wanted to get rid of Avery, it would have been easier to kill him than frame him. Equally, if there was to be blood on their hands, surely they would target Avery rather than someone else.

It seems unlikely that anyone outside the family (with the exception of the police, who if my recollection is correct made Avery's family leave the site whilst they conducted their searches) could plant the RAV4 on the site, plus Halbach's remains in the burn pit and burn barrel without a member of the family seeing anything. This suggests that unless the police really had taken the most drastic steps to eliminate Avery, the most likely culprits are Avery or a member of his family.

I doubt we'll ever really know the true story behind what happened to Teresa Halbach, but with the amount of attention which the Netflix series is drawing, I don't think it's going to go quiet any time soon.

A week in Skye

We love Scotland, heck, we even got married there. So when we were given a holiday voucher I wasn't too surprised when we ended up browsing locations in Scotland. We spotted a renovated crofter's shed in Skye and booked it without a second thought. 

Fast forward to a couple of weeks before our holiday in October, I finally realised just how far away Skye is. I ignored my husband's protests that we'd be fine to do the journey in one day and booked a hotel near Carlisle so we could break the journey. With hindsight it was a good job we did. The motorways were a nightmare, we seemed to crawl most of the way to Carlisle. We continued our journey the next day and made much better progress. As the weather was fine, we decided to take the scenic route, the Road to the Isles, from Fort William to Mallaig. The views were spectacular and we managed to spot the Glenfinnan Viaduct (known from the Harry Potter films) in the distance. 

When we eventually arrived at our home for the week it was worth the trip. It was on the middle of nowhere with only sheep and rabbits passing our front door.  

The next day we got up and headed to Portree, the main town on Skye, partly to see the harbour but mainly to get some food in for the week. We had lunch and grabbed a couple of geocaches whilst we were there. We struck lucky that one of the geocaches gave us a great view of the harbour.

To make the most of the dry weather, we took a walk out to Neist Point on the other side of the island towards the end of the day, to see the lighthouse. It was a round walk of about a mile and a half, relatively easy going to get there, but a hard slog back up the steps on the way back. The lighthouse is less impressive close up as it's fallen to ruin, it looks much better from a distance. 

The next day the weather was still dry, if cloudy, so we headed out for a longer walk. We drove to the parking area near the Storr and headed up to the Old Man. Although it was only about three miles, this was a much tougher climb, the gradient was relentless, the weather deteriorated as we gained height and as we approached the Old Man itself, we were literally scrambling up on all fours. By the time we reached the top it was so windy that I just sat on a rock and took a quick panorama hoping I wouldn't be blown away! I was very glad to get back to lower ground. It was certainly an achievement though!

Our next trip, a couple of days later, was to Dunvegan Castle. I'd managed to get free tickets through work, so we felt we should go, even if it was their last open day of the year. It was clear when we got there that it was end of season, with stocktaking underway. The Castle itself was a little underwhelming but the grounds were interesting and varied, even in October. We had a good walk around and found the best views of the castle weren't necessarily from the front.

 

After our walk around the castle and gardens, we headed up the coast for a walk out to Coral Beach. Despite its name, the beach isn't actually made of coral, but dessicated and sun bleached algae. Its sandy appearance is unusual for Skye. It was a walk of about three miles, including a climb up the hill you can see in the distance. We were there on a bit of a gloomy day, but it would be beautiful there in the summer. 

On our last day we ventured back to where we'd first entered the island to see Armadale Castle Gardens. Again, we'd got free entry and so felt we should make the most of it. The castle (actually a ruined country house) was a bit of a disappointment, just the frontage remained, and the gardens were past their best given the time of year. It's a shame the castle wasn't rescued after it was abandoned by the family before it fell into such disrepair.

We did a couple of geocaches before heading to Fairy Pools. We walked the mile and a half route fairly briskly as the light was starting to fade. It was worth the walk to see the waterfalls and the sunset on the way back made me glad we left it until late in the day. 

 

Our journey home the following day took twelve hours from door to door, with a couple of stops for fuel and one for food. Luckily the traffic was much clearer on the way back. I guess Skye's not that far after all!

My plans for 2016

 

Whenever I've come up with New Year's resolutions in the past they always seem destined to fail. I think putting pressure on yourself to change a number of things all at once is just too much. As such, this year I've not so much come up with resolutions as plans for the year. I've left out anything which I have no control over, and things that are traditional resolutions as I don't want to set myself up for a fall. That leaves me with a list of things I'd like to achieve which I can review as the year goes by, and which I'll actually enjoy.    

Read sixteen books 
This was originally going to be fifteen until a friend pointed out that 16 in '16 sounded much better. I struggle to find time to read (I think I read just one book last year), so I've just set a number rather than making it more specific, by genre or subject. I've got a number of unread books on my Kindle, so I just need to focus on picking it up and reading when I have spare time, rather than just browsing Twitter for the twentieth time that day.     

Find one hundred geocaches 
We had this as an objective last year but my husband's eye surgery in November and December scuppered us. Although the year hasn't got off to the best start, with yet more surgery, I'd still like to try to achieve it this year. I love geocaching, it's a great motivator for getting out for a walk and some fresh air, even if we do look like mentalists digging around in the undergrowth when we reach ground zero.     

Maintain Vitality gold status 
I get private medical cover through work with Vitality. Every time you do something that's good for you (whether it's exercise, going for a dental check up, getting a health check etc.) you earn a certain number of points. You start on bronze status and build up through silver and gold before reaching platinum. I've managed to reach gold each year and want to do the same again, if for no other reason than it gets me a free weekly cinema ticket, free coffee at Starbucks and an iTunes gift card.     

Try three gym classes 
As with so many things, my gym trips have been curtailed by recent medical events, but hopefully I'll be able to get everything back on track before too long. I normally hit the treadmill and then call it a day but I think it's time to try group exercise. There are lots of classes at the gym, so I'd like to aim to try three of them in the hope of finding one I'd like to attend regularly.     

Meet up with an old friend 
I've moved around a bit, I grew up in Shropshire, left for college then moved to Gloucester for work, moved to Bristol when I met my husband and then moved to Wiltshire last year for work. Every time I've moved I've lost touch with friends, however hard I've tried to keep in touch. Honestly, I'm sure Bristol is only 40 miles away, not 400! This year I'm going to put a special effort into meeting up with a friend who I've not seen for a couple of years or more. Everyone has such busy lives, especially once they have children, that it takes a bit of organisation to meet up, but it's always worth it.

Blog once a month 
Last year I found it virtually impossible to find the time to write any posts. I'm going to try harder this year, I'm hoping this list will mean I'll have something to write about, as I make progress.    

Watch a new film once a month  
I love watching films and saw quite a few at the cinema in the first half of last year. I've got quite a long list of films that I'd like to see, they may no longer be new releases, but they're new to me. I'd like to try to watch one of these a month.    

Take two holidays 
Work is pretty full on through the summer, so we normally try to take a week off either side of the traditional summer break. This year we went to Northumberland and Skye. Whether we go abroad or not will depend on whether we get a dog this year, but I'm sure we'll have a relaxing time wherever we go.    

Take six day trips 
We're both keen photographers and love a day trip to see something new and take some photographs. As we've only been in Wiltshire since last May there are plenty of places for us to explore. We just need a break in the rain to enjoy them!


Suddenly this seems like quite a long list! I've already made a start on a few of these and will post an update each month on my progress. If you're doing something similar, I'd love to hear about it. 

A sightseeing break in Northumberland

We spent a week in Northumberland in mid May. As with so many things, I've not had a chance to publish this blog about it before, as our house move had taken over our lives. Anyway, here it is, better late than never.  

We left home just before 11am, breaking the journey at Wetherby services and arrived at Beacon Hill Farm at 5pm. One of the owners, Christopher, gave us a guided tour of site on a golf buggy which had some novelty value. The site seemed to have everything we'd need, and some. The views from the site, and even our sofa were so far reaching, they immediately made us relaxed. We settled in, had dinner, sampled the cake that had been left for us and set about making plans for the next day. 

The next morning was Andrew's birthday so we got up and did presents. After breakfast we headed to Cragside, a National Trust property nearby. We started with the six mile scenic drive around the estate, stopping a couple of times for short walks and to take some photos. The only seating available for lunch was outside, and it coincided with the rain arriving, but what's an English holiday without eating in the rain?! After lunch we walked around the house then down and around the gardens to see the Archimedes screw. Again we were caught by the rain so we headed back to change before going back out to meet a family friend for a catch up and food. 

The next day we headed to Alnwick. We walked around the gardens first which were literally incredible, we spent a lot of time in the Serpent Garden admiring the water features. We had a break for lunch before heading on to the castle. It was very well stocked, the owners had clearly never had to sell off the family silver! Afterwards we headed into town for tea and cake and called for groceries on the way home. By the time we got back, we collapsed in front of the television for the night, with the woodburner keeping us warm.

 

After a couple of days of sightseeing, we decided to have a day of geocaching near Acklington. We picked a circuit and managed to do 14 succesfully. On the whole we were lucky with the weather, but could have done without it starting to hail as we walked across a very open field. Afterwards went to Amble for fish and chips, it took us a while to find the restaurant but food made it well worth it. 

The next day we had a plan to go to Holy Island and got up early so we could catch the tide. It took about an hour to get there and crossed before the water reached the causeway. We walked up to the castle first and then around the back to see the views and do a geocache. We met two other geocachers who pointed out the cache to us when our GPS was pinging about all over the place. Next we ventured inside the castle, which was interesting and compact. The wind was perishing on the way back into town and it started to rain as we hit the centre. We went for food at the post office as they had tables inside. It was a tiny space but the leek and potato soup was amazing. When we couldn't linger inside any longer we ventured to the priory, had a quick walk around in the wind, then into the church. We stopped for tea and cake as we waited for the causeway to reopen, then headed back.

After the weather the previous day, we decided we'd earned a lazy day and had a late breakfast and lounged around for a while in front of the fire. Once the rain tailed off we headed out for a walk. We went down to Meg's Lake first, it was incredibly windy but the weather improved as we walked around. Forgetting our plans for a lazy day, we then headed off to do the local geocaching trail. I could have done without crossing a field with a bull in, which stood up as we approached, but the views mostly made up for it. We finished what we thought was a circular walk but then had to head back, again passing Meg's Lake. The weather was horrible, cold, windy and hailing. We were glad to get back and get the fire roaring. After a snooze and some TV we headed out to the local pub, the Shoulder of Mutton, for tea. 

On our final day we headed for Embleton. We parked up and walked along the beach to Dunstanburgh Castle, which was stunning, doing a couple of caches on the way, then back along tracks and paths doing a final cache. We stopped at Alnwick on our way back for very well deserved food and cake. Afterwards we headed back to pack our bags and prepare for our journey home the next day.

We had a really good week in Northumberland and will be back to do a few things we didn't manage to fit in on this occasion. The accomodation was good, albeit the owners were a bit elusive, not responding to queries. We never did manage to find the tools for the woodburner, but managed to avoid third degree burns anyway!!

90 day SSS - Cycle 1 Week 1

After a very busy and fairly stressful few months due to a house sale, purchase and move, it's fair to say that the mirror tells me that I'm a little rounder than I was this time last year. It's been on my list to do something about it, but I wasn't entirely sure what. I was aware of the Bodycoach on Twitter, and Instagram and the amazing transformations experienced by his clients, but it wasn't until one of my friends signed up and raved about it, that I decided I should join up too. 

I paid the fee a few months ago, with the intention of starting following my house move in May. A series of friends and family visits meant that this was pushed back, but my birthday appearing over the horizon made me think that it may be a good time. I completed and submitted the questionnaire and just under two weeks later received my plan through. It was long, but I read through it and made sense of it. Over a couple of nights I came up with a food plan for my first week and it took another night to turn that into a shopping list. I ordered the majority of the food from Ocado, in place of my usual online shopping order, and went to Sainsbury's to collect the fruit and veg, and any other items I couldn't get online. The food shop was a lot more expensive than usual, but that was mainly due to one-off items, such as herbs and spices which will be good for months to come. I also ordered protein powder and Walden's sauces online, followed by BCAA tablets and Quest snack bars. Once everything arrived, I thought I should be good to go. I set my start date for Monday 17th August. We had a final trip to Pizza Express on the Saturday and had three courses, I'll miss that cheesecake! 

I spent the Sunday evening before I was due to start prepping the food I'd need for the next day, I'd not heard good things of the reduced carb oatmeal, so I baked that into biscuits and prepared the tasty tuna salad for lunch. I also made a batch of turkey bacon muffins for snacks. It was fairly full-on and exhausting but I felt I was ready to start as I meant to go on. In the morning I got up and had my oatmeal biscuits. They were very solid and even with some Walden's caramel syrup, they took me about 15 minutes to eat. I was a bit deflated, but headed off to work with my tuna salad. I had another disappoitnment at lunchtime, the sauce on the tuna was so mustardy, that I found it really difficult to eat. I struggled through, but it felt like a chore. Alongside all of this, I had to keep remembering to drink water, I have to drink almost three litres a day. I'm spending much more time on trips to the toilet than I ever have before! I had some melon mid afternoon which I enjoyed and which lifted my spirits. Straight after work I headed to the gym for my first HIIT. It went well, My heart rate probably isn't as high as some but my legs won't move any faster and risk buckling, so that'll do. 

The rest of the week went much better. I had one breakdown on Tuesday night. I was making reduced oatmeal biscuits (to then break into cereal, eaten with milk they're much nicer), orange chicken salad and Mediterranean stuffed peppers. The fridge had had a panic with all the food we'd loaded into it and it's temperature had gone haywire, freezing my lettuce, spinach and peppers. We had some slightly mushy peppers for dinner and I had to buy (even) more lettuce, but apart from that everything went well. 

I've continued with only preparing breakfasts and lunches in advance, I make my evening meal fresh each night. Most of the food has been okay, although the muscle mince is like the magic porridge pot, however much you eat, your plate doesn't seem any emptier! Some of the food was a bit too herby for my tastes, but I can adjust that in week 2.  

The exercise had been tiring but doable. I went off plan one day and did a long walk, burning 800 calories, I decided that warranted a refuel mail even though it wasn't HIIT. I have to admit to struggling with the water intake though. I'm just rubbish at remembering to keep drinking, particularly when I'm busy. I'm also having more fruit as snacks than I should but decided it's probably better than skipping them.  I'm proud that I only went off plan once, when I had Welsh cakes with a friend. Hopefully I made up for it by missing breakfast and did a HIIT session afterwards.  

And so on to week 2. I'll do my next update at the end of Cycle 1. Fingers crossed I'll have something to show for the four weeks in pounds and inches. Until then I'm following the advice of Joe Wicks (the Bodycoach) and staying away from the sad step (aka the scales). 


Update!

At the end of Cycle 1 I decided not to proceed to Cycle 2. I stuck to the exercise side of the programme 100% and the food around 80% (probably more). However, after four weeks of seemingly endless food preparation I hadn't lost a single inch and although I'd lost three pounds, I just didn't feel my results reflected the amount of effort I'd put in.

I have my programme for Cycle 2 and may pick it up in the future, but for now will put the 90 day SSS programme to one side. I have however bought Joe's new book and so am looking forward to preparing some meals from that in the next few weeks.