Digging without drama

The young lady who comes to do the garden now comes on Tuesdays - she is a great asset as she has enough initiative to get on with it and enough sense to ask me first when necessary. She took some of the spinach her predecessor left as I don't like it (the slugs do!!). I now no longer have an apple tree that touches the ground (but buckets of apples - and no room in the freezer!!) and no longer get a faceful of buddleia when I go down the path (not pleasant if the buddleia is wet and potentially dangerous if there are bees on it). I didn't want to cut it back while there were still flowers on it for the bees and butterflies to enjoy: I was delighted to see both a week or so back. Now the balance has shifted to mostly brown decay - the downside of both it and lilac.

There is still plenty to be done in the garden but gradually it is getting tidier. So much of what I had intended to do this year remains undone, in part the result of my best mate having had cancer and therefore having been out of action for most of the year so far (and most of the rest too, I suspect) and also in part due to the miserable weather (my get up and go is so much more there when it's sunny, and I can make a pleasant day out of going to see bathroom fittings or whatever). I wouldn't be at all surprised to see GPs inundated not only with swine flu but also with depression - three non-summers on the trot must have affected others as well as me. Getting back to study will help.

At last! (2)

There is better weather forecast, and it looks as though it might stay around long enough to give us a break, for a day or two at least - and then, with any luck we will be able to enjoy real Spring weather (with, no doubt, some unwelcome flashbacks!).

I finished the Maeve Binchy earlier on - an interesting tale with a real twist at the end, though I wish the villain of the piece had got his comeuppance - he doesn't, although he has been rumbled.

Change

It felt relatively benign outside yesterday, so I decided to go to Croydon to replace worn-out trousers, once I had disposed of the rubbish that had accumulated though there being a barricade of snow outside the front door last week.

By the time I was ready to go it had clouded over and by the time I got back it was throwing it down with great enthusiasm - I think the weather sees me coming (or going?) and changes appropriately!! I skipped putting the paper out for recycling as I had intended to do on my return - domestic rubbish I have to have ready, but the recycling I can take to the sites in town if I miss getting it out. I am so glad I have my little heater and can warm up and dry out fairly quickly if I am the victim of such capriciousness. Otherwise, I am glad to say, I have adjusted to the cold a bit and am no longer quite so affected by it.

Nonetheless - I can't wait for Spring! And next time I go to Croydon, I will come back after 4 pm - I coincided with hoardes of schoolkids on the tram, though I had left early enough to avoid the like swarming down the high street as I left - they move like a crowd of locusts and don't look where they're going!!

Chilly!

It really is!! And the heater I wanted to order from John Lewis is no longer on their website, though I don't think it was a sale item :(

That's the bad news. The good news is that the weather forecast is showing it as warming up a bit on Sunday - which I will believe once it happens! It's misty here, so no sun to warm us inside, but it is better than the forecast. Another downside is that for some reason I always feel I want to eat when I'm cold .... which is a big no-no if I want my projects to succeed.

Hic!

Actually, I haven't been at the booze, but my New Year project had a little glitsch Saturday night ..... there was a bag of crisps from Christmass and the cold had me having an extended nibble .....

I had a pub lunch on Sunday. At the moment it's so cold I only go out on Sunday, to go to Mass and top up my groceries. While I'm out I have a bit of a treat - lunch before I go home. Lunch happened about 4 pm - garlic bread followed by surf and turf, so lunch and supper in one! And cake and coffee to finish off. Usually I make it a panini at the coffee shop, then cake and coffee, but I was so late I didn't want to cook again that day. I feel a bit guilty that I didn't get to Mass (I had to wait until it was the same temperature as it had been last week to go out and by then it was too late) and yet got to the shops, and I feel I've missed out, too.

Even though I've got the heating high I'm not really warm. I don't think the heating system is geared up to this. It was on my list to organise getting it serviced and it might not be working as it should, so it would be worth checking .....

Otherwise I'm now back on the straight and narrow and impatient to see results! They just don't come that quick ....

Never did get back to the reading, but need to - life is just too boring staying inside otherwise!

Brrrrrr!

Well, as announced, I was out to Mass this morning. Then picked up bread and more (for the storecupboard - three months more of winter to come, at least, so the fewer the trips to the shops the better) and later in the afternoon to an ecumenical carol concert (singing by the local Anglican choir - a good one, which is why I went - and readings by everyone else, I think). Strictly speaking it is one of the Anglican choirs here, but it belongs to the oldest of the Anglican churches and is probably the biggest, so calling it the Anglican choir is accurate (but don't tell the others!). I picked up some leaflets about musical events they are having in December - good music five minutes from my door is good for my soul, my bank balance(compared to going into London) and my carbon footprint!! After that I went on to Mass.

Just in case you wonder, this does not mean I am a religious nut (though my Catholic faith is important to me): it just means it took me such ages to get out this morning that I only arrived half way through!! As I was already out tonight I had the necessary layers of clothing on, so this time around I arrived before it started!

All this meant that I in fact spent more time out than in today, and my feet still haven't got warm!! Well and truly time to dive under the duvet, where they will (even if it takes a bit longer than I'd like).

Cold, wet and windy!

The weather forecast promised another icy blast tomorrow so I decided to do my shopping today (riding a mobility scooter means you get to feel every little bit of wind that's blowing - which is no joke when it's coming straight down from the Arctic .... ). Have now got sufficient stamps for my mum's cards and my own, a couple more pressies and a couple more books (if I ever won the lottery the local bookshop would be the very first to know!) and am hibernating forthwith - no such thing as a quick trip to the shops as it takes me longer to don the extra layers than it does to get the shopping. Although my desktop gizmo says the temperature outside now is the same as it was yesterday, it feels cold (probably because it was wet today, which the forecast didn't say).

I hate winter - I think I must have been a lizard or a cat in a previous incarnation (our cat used to sit right in your way, but just where the pipes for the central heating ran under the floor) ... one of the reasons I like cats is because they know how to look after themselves: any self-respecting cat (and most are) can look at you with a pathos that suggests it hasn't been fed for at least a fortnight (the one that came visiting here and tried that one got short shrift - having had a cat at home I was wise to it!!)

I wouldn't want to lose winter altogether - I'd just like a lot less of it (the same amount as we got summer this year would be plenty) ...... and we have January and February still to come :( The pressies I got today were terribly boring and predictable - but I hope they'll suit the people concerned (and I'll tuck a little extra inside the parcel so it's not just practical).