All the 8s

Well I did it...

I deleted the whole damned caboodle from the cardbox.

It was a chore, having too much in it and not necessarily words I wanted to revise, and as such I had stopped using it.

And I have started a new one.

You may have thought I had given up studying what with all the gardening. It is true that I am doing nowhere near as much at the moment, but I am still trying to do some every day. I am currently, and have been for a while now, concentrating on 8s. These are definitely my weak area...

I am attacking them from more than one direction.

I should have finished revising the top 10000 by the BMSC this coming weekend, and now I am just adding those I miss into the cardbox. I will keep working my way through over time.

Alongside that I am slowly going through the higher probability 8s. I started at 23k, as that was as far as I had got when I was card boxing. With these I do a quick test, breaking them up into chunks of 250 words. Those I miss or get but wouldn't bet my life on in a game get saved to a file in groups of 1000, e.g. 8missed-23k-24k. I then retest myself on those files several times. After several passes then those missed also get added to the cardbox.

It is actually quite fun doing this - learning some new words as opposed to constant revision. I am currently going through 28001-29000.

I Deserve This Piece of Cake

Shock Horror - I am no longer cardboxing.

In fact I haven't touched it since I got back from Malaysia. I did open it up today and see 13000+ questions waiting...

I am hoping to have learned a lesson. When you are physically and mentally tired you find out if you really know the high probability bonuses beyond a glimmer, nay a nano-glimmer, of a doubt.

The problem with using the cardbox for studying is that after you have got it right enough times you won't see the anagram again for about a year and a half.

So for the last month I have been repeatedly going over the top 10000 7s and 8s. Once I am happy that I know them well enough (around 99% at a rate of 10 a minute) I will have a change.

So today I did the single solution 8s 2501-5000 (1486 questions) in 132 minutes missing 15 answers. I probably would have got those missing answers if I knew I had 16 minutes or so to spare at the time but I need to set some sort of time limit per answer. I did try setting the timer on the questions but this was counter-productive. If I didn't get the answer in the first 10 seconds I found myself watching the timer and not trying to solve the anagram!

Anyway, target met and it was time to take the dogs out for their afternoon pee break.

I don't care what the BBC weather site says - it was not 8C and thawing. There was no torrent of water from melting snow and ice down the path and steps at north facing Todheugh. The thermometer read 2C. And our path and steps are getting icier and more slippery every time we go out now.

So I decided on return to make an attempt to clear the steps. I managed to fight the shed door open and emerged with Paul's beautiful birthday present spade.

I was half successful. The ice on two of the steps decided to come away in one enormous slab after a lot of prising with the spade. The only problem was that they were so heavy I could hardly lift them to throw them onto the drive. The bottom step was less successful but I did manage to clear a small area - certainly enough to get my feet on. The top of the steps was a complete failure.

I then started just attacking the path to at least make it rough so you could get some grip on it. And then lo and behold in one place a big slab of ice broke away. This was enough to give me a weak point to keep going towards the front door. By the time I finished it was getting dark, but now there is only a small section from where it goes along the bottom of the high bank to the steps that still needs doing.

I hadn't looked at my watch until I got back inside. Nearly 5 p.m. - I had been out there over an hour and a half and felt absolutely knackered.

So now I am having a cup of coffee and eating a slice of cake that must be less calories than I have burned off :)

Back In The Groove

Normality has returned. Well, until I go away again on Friday.

Cardbox is back under control. I am being paranoid at the moment - recent experience has led me to add in all the 7s with 2 Vs or 2 Ws...

Alpine strawberry picking has started. Just over 2 pounds last week that I converted into jam with about 10 minutes to spare before Allan arrived to whisk me off to Carlisle on the first leg of our journey down to Stone and the UK Masters. (More on that in a later post). Just under one and a half pounds this evening before the rain drove me back inside, leaving a couple of patches unharvested.

Weeded the herb bed yesterday and got all my lavender plants planted in pairs dividing it into equal sections, with herbs in between - still got two 'herb' gaps waiting for me to transplant some chives from LB4 and I haven't decided what else yet. I will also plant some mint in a pot and that will go on the end to hide the drain cover. And then I need to stop Jen walking all over it :(

This afternoon I worked through the drizzle weeding LB12 (again) and a bit of LB11. Even Paul noticed how much better it looks. I dug out Reg's daffodils and planted the hosta and iris from the Paxton plant sale and the second daphne from Edrom nursery in the gaps that created.

I really need to spray again as the bindweed is coming up all over the remainder of the LB extension, but rain is forecast in varying amounts for the foreseeable future.