All Change!

Saturday. 9.55 a.m. I have returned from Sainsbury's, where I have done a pop-up shop. 

The travelater, that is, the moving 'slope' (for want of a better description) which takes you from the underground car park up to the shop floor, isn't currently operating. The DOWN one works, but not the UP. There have been repairs going on with these machines over quite a considerable period, but it doesn't seem to have made much difference to the travelator

I had a list of items, which made it easier and quicker to shop. But some items have been moved to different locations, particularly bath sponges. They have been located in the same place all the time I've been shopping in this branch of Sainsbury's, so I had to ask a member of staff and he was helpful and I managed to locate two bath sponges!

On the way into the store, having came up on the travelater, (which wasn't moving. A rather strange experience, because your eyes try to make it seem as if the thing is moving when it isn't. I can't explain it any other way.) I noticed some small Christmas trees on a display unit. I went to have a closer look. They were complete with battery-operated lights and at £10 seemed good value. I went through the barrier (which is the latest addition to the store.) I found I couldn't get to the Christmas trees without setting off an alarm. So, I had to ask another member of staff to allow me near enough to the Christmas tree display to select one so that I could buy it. Another mission accomplished.

I learnt, on the BBC Breakfast programme this morning, that Booths, a north of England supermarket chain, is removing self-service tills from almost all their stores, because of the feedback they have had from customers. They will put back staff on tills to replace them. Let's hope that this is the start of a return to common sense and that other stores, such as Sainsbury's, return to manned tills. It doesn't make sense when they have to have staff close by the self-service tills for when they go wrong, as they always seem to do when I use one in Sainsbury's. 

Sunday. 2.15 p.m. It's been raining this morning, and it's really colder. Definitely autumnal, murky and very low light when driving to church along Chaffron Way this morning.

Monday. 12.30 p.m. It was quite a shock early this morning, when I took Alfie out, to discover that it was raining. Not too hard, but enough to get a drenching. But as I write this, considerably later, it's sunny and bright, but there's a strong wind blowing.

Tuesday. 9.30 a.m. Here I am in my flat, not going to Camphill. Never mind, I have the possibility of voluntary work with Bridge Builder. I have an interview there at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

There is a large amount of fallen leaves outside on the grass where I take Alfie, alongside Strtudwick Drive. He doesn't like being taken through it, so I carried him to the leaf-free section of the grass.

An electric scooter lies in the grass, where it has been since yesterday morning. I moved it onto the grass, as it was likely to be in the way of anyone walking along the patch, most particularly someone pushing a child in a buggy or someone in a wheelchair. These things are left, presumably, when their batteries run out. I was surprised by how heavy it was. No doubt someone will come along and collect it at some point during the day.

Pandemic Burnout

(Wednesday) Oh  no! Yet another press conference about the pandemic, shown on BBC1 tonight with Boris Johnson leading. I get the impression, right or wrong, that all the questions asked by the journalists are censored and some questions are evaded. You're not allowed to undermine the scientists or go again government guidelines regarding the pandemic. Oh dear! I just think Boris should be a good deal bolder and not listen that idiot Witty who keeps on saying that there'll be x thousands of infections and x thousands of deaths as a result of the covid pandemic when his predictions are inaccurate and produced from computer projections which have been out my umpteen thousands. He should listen also to other scientists who have produced far lower infections. Why on earth can't these press conferences go on the BBC news channel? When they're on BBC1 it means the early evening programmes are scrapped, at least one or two on BBC2. Pointless gets moved to BBC2. If people want to watch them, then go to the BBC news channel. I'm not sure it's not on there as well. Why does it have to be on two channels at the same time?

I listen to Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk Radio. She's a good journalist and doesn't suffer fools. She's like me in that she doesn't believe the data that the mad scientists feed the government. I'm no sheep and have to do my own research as regards the pandemic. She was grilling some N.H.S. bureaucrat on the fact that hospitals are probably not as busy as they would be in a 'normal' winter. The testing system is flawed in that it gives false negatives, picking up 'dead' coronavirus. I could go on ad infinitum on this issue. As I've already said in the above paragraph, the government should be listening to a wider range of evidence from a wider cross section of research from more scientists before making lockdown decisions.

I had a weird dream last night. Well, nothing usual in that because most dreams, or at least those we remember, are odd. I was in a theatre. Took me back to when I worked in stage management. It was in Leicester. As I was an A.S.M. briefly at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester in the early 1970s, perhaps not a surprise, but it wasn't clearly like the Phoenix. A theatre where some of the auditorium seats had been removed. I sat at a table with other people and one was an academic of some sort. I'm not sure what I was doing there. Was i part of the stage management team? Or about to be acting in a play? It seemed that it might have been a rehearsal. Some of the seats in the auditorium had been removed and some were facing the wrong way round to the stage. That's about it, but I've had several similar dreams, one where I had gone to Northampton (I think. But it seemed like Northampton.) and had been brought in at the last moment to be an A.S.M. or at least a member of the stage management team. I had no idea what the play was that we were involved in but I have had dreams where I am expected to take over a part, without knowing any lines and standing on stage and trying ro recall my lines. I think this is a typical dream that actors are supposed to have, having to take over a role at short notice and be an understudy for an actor who is ill or otherwise incapacitated. I think it is understandable when actors have worries about forgetting their lines.

I have divested the Christmas tree of it's decorations. I am so pleased with that little tree which I got from Waitrose. Absolutely perfectly for the flat. It hasn't dropped a single needle. My experience of 'real' Christmas trees is that, when you come to deal with them at the end of the festive period, you find the floor covered in needles. I have kept it watered during the Christmas period which might be the reason it has kept it's needles. After all, a real Christmas tree is like a house plant which needs care, particularly watering. 

The little Christmas tree is now outside in the community garden. I have given it another water, I hope it doesn't get lonely. It's going to be another frosty night and it won't like getting cold.

I got a text message from Nationwide to tell me that there wasn't sufficient cash in my account to cover a couple of Direct Debits which go out today. My only option was to go into the city centre and take out money from my second account, the NatWest and transfer it into the Nationwide. This had to be done by 2.30. I had around an hour and a half to accomplish this mission. I drove in and parked near the Point and rushed into the shopping centre. The carpark was virtually empty and when I reached the Nationwide I had to wait to enter as they're not letting too many people in and they have a one-way system due to the pandemic. I managed to take out enough to cover the Nationwide payment, from my NatWest account and I then had to wrestle with the cash machine. You can only pay in cash one note at a time and the thing was being difficult. Several of the notes I managed to insert in the slot were disgorged, but eventually I managed to get them all into the machine, but it was a tortuously slow procendure. It was as I walked back towards the car that I realised that I hadn't paid my parking ticket. I was in such a hurry that I clean forgot.

Very few of the shops were open. I think W.H.Smith and Boots were open, along with banks. Probably they are what they call 'essential.' 

I got back to the car to find a host of crows either sitting on the cars or all over the ground, like a swarm of flies. Very reminiscent to the Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds.' A couple were sitting on my car. Not the sort of bird you'd want to have an argument with, considering the look they give you with their beady eyes and their sharp and pointed beaks!

(Later) Boris is given ANOTHER press conference! How much more of this can a person endure? It's getting so tiresome. I know we have to be told, but endless ramblings and those miserable faced scientists and their graphs. Just turn off the television or watch another channel, which is exactly what I did. I put 'Pointless' on, which was on BBC2.

Volunteering at Camphill

I've been volunteering at Camphill, as I think I've mentioned in an earlier blog post. I'm working with the drama workshop group, and at the moment I'm doing a few hours on a Tuesday morning. I'm aware that, due to my heart-health issues, I get very tired and by 2 o'clock I am beginning to feel wiped out. I hope to discuss this with my cardiologist when I go for my follow-up appointment on 2nd May, which will be four months after the stent procedure which was done at the John Radcliffe in Oxford. I have got someone from church who will take me. I had considered driving there myself, but  I think it's going to be quite stressful having to drive all the way to Oxford and find a parking space at the hospital. As the appointment is at 11 o'clock there are likely to be no spaces in the carpark, and I had thought perhaps I could park in one of the park-and-ride carparks which ring Oxford and then take the bus to the hospital, but even then it's going to be quite stressful getting to the JR on time for the appointment. So, after this appointment I hope they might either reduce the dosage of some of my medication, such as the atarvostatin which I take at night. I have a feeling it's this particular medication which makes me feel so tired and it causes some side effects, such a stomach and muscle cramps. There again, they might change some of my other medications. Just have to wait and see. It's somewhat annoying that I have to go all the way to Oxford, because the Milton Keynes Hospital Cardiology department is a mere 10-minute walk from this house.

Camphill are going going to do a disclosure because I am working with a vulnerable group of adults with learning disabilities. I have taken all the identification material with me so that the disclosure paperwork can be sent in.

We were discussing various things before we did several hour's of rehearsal for the 'Stranger Danger' play and planning for the next production which is going to be loosely based on Robert Louis Stephenson's 'Treasure Island,' which is one of my all-time favourite books and has to probably be one of the best children's adventure stories ever written. I can't wait to see how this develops, as we were discussing having songs in it, so it's likely to be more like a mini musical than a straight play.

Later. Goodness! The weather has changed. For the worse it would appear. As I write this,  at 5.20 p.m.it's raining. I couldn't believe how hard it's raining.  It's running down the road outside in a torrent, almost like a mountain stream. It has been clear and bright most of the day, although it was quite mild earlier. No frost on the car windscreen first thing when I went out with Alfie at around 6.20. But it clouded over during the afternoon and I thought it was going to rain and it got colder so I put the central heating back on. I have 'Pointless' on television as I write this. It has to be one of the more intelligent of the current crop of television gameshows. Gets you thinking.

I'm amazed. Twice in one blog post. Is this a record? Probably not. But the Christmas tree, which we bought a good three years ago from Dobbies and was potted in a rather splendid pot we got in Homebase (I think it was called something else at the time, but has since returned to being Homebase. How odd is that?) Anyway, it's started showing signs of growth, lots of little green shoots. It appeared as if it had died, probably due to the heatwave we had last summer. It has what look like scorch marks on some of the branches, but it has obviously decided to perk up and continue to grow. It was intended that it could be moved indoors for the Christmas period, but didn't last year due to the passing of my lovely Carol. I wasn't here for the festive period. I spent nearly two weeks with my daughter, Chloe, and her ever-growing family, in Worcester. But to have this Christmas tree growing again is somewhat good news. I kept it fed with plant food and it obviously paid off.

Seventh Chemotherapy Cycle

It's almost springlike this morning. The sun is out and it's a good deal warmer. The bulbs which Carol planted in the large round planter, and given her by her mum, seem to have survived the snow and are looking fresh and healthy. Even the Christmas tree, which was put out in the garden after the festive season, looks as if it's put on some growth. Whether it services until next Christmas is another matter. We can only hope. I think it might need repotting into a larger pot. We have an almost constant flow of birds to the bird-feeding station, so that seems a success. We must keep it topped up with food.

Carol had to be at the oncology department by 9.20 this morning. We were there well before that time and as a result we spent at least 40 minutes waiting. Carol had to have a bloodiest before the actual chemotherapy starts on Monday morning. She had another appointment at 4.30 in the Macmillan unit this afternoon but she decided to cancel as it would mean us coming out again, so I walked down the corridor and spoke to their receptionist but couldn't reschedule the appointment. We will have to ring the doctor's secretary to arrange a new appointment.

Very quiet in the oncology department. Few patients. But we weren't in there long.

We went to Waitrose for coffee and cake. You can generally rely on Waitrose for good quality coffee and cake. Well, one reason for going there is because we can have the coffee free as we each have My Waitrose cards. A good enough reason. Then we did some shopping, for Sunday lunch, as there's an offer on related to Mothering Sunday this weekend.

Alfie really is a fussy little dog. He has virtually the same food which we feed him every evening. Usually dry mixer with some meat in it. He eats the meat and the dry biscuit is left so he has something to eat if he's hungry during the day. He does pick at it on occasion. If we're having a meal, at lunchtime or whenever, he occasionally gets scraps. Not too much, as it's not good to over-indulge a dog with scraps. I broke up a biscuit which was left on the shelf in the lounge, which Carol left there. He poked it with his nose, but wouldn't eat it. If we give him some scraps he often asks for permission, leaving it and then looking at one or other of us for approval and may eat whatever it is.

There's a tin on the footstool in the lounge which has pens and pencils in it. It used to have Marks and Spencer shortbread in it for Christmas. Alfie has learned the trick that, if he stands with his back paws on the floor and his front paws on the stool and pokes the tin with his paw he will get our attention. He's got wise to the fact that, by sitting in our eye-line, in front of the television when we're watching something, we will get his attention.

I'm trying desperately to find stuff to write about in this post. I have to say that the last few posts I've written have been a bit repetitive. Going backwards and forwards to Milton Keynes hospital as we have over the past couple of months have become very similar so these blogs are similarly written. Just a thought before I hit the 'publish' button.

Mixed Weather and Other Matters

It's been a good deal milder the past couple of days. Which means we haven't had the central heating on, which can only be a good thing. We have crocuses coming up in the garden, the one's Carol's mum gave us and which were planted in the large round ceramic bowl we bought when we went to Norfolk Lavender several years ago when we went to visit my brother Andrew. The Christmas tree, which has been put outside in the garden once the festive season was over and still in it's plant-pot (and in definite need of a replant in a larger one at some point in the not-too distant future.) appears to be growing quite considerably. But yesterday the weather turned a good deal colder, so we had to put the heating back on. Well, considering we're almost into February (well, it will be tomorrow.) we seem to have escaped the worst of the winter weather. I just hope we don't get another dose of snow and ice. As I write this (at 8.55 a.m.) it is raining and there quite a river running down the road in front of the house.

We are slowly filling up our new bookshelf unit. The boxes of books and other things are being emptied from when we dismantled the old shelves. As I write this, the bits of the old shelves are still piled up on the grass at the front of the house, ready for the Council workmen to take them away.  I'm surprised that nobody has attempted to shift them in the night. There are spaces for baskets or boxes which we will eventually buy from IKEA and these will hopefully hide a lot of the items which previously lived on the shelves, the bits and pieces you can't avoid having somewhere or other in the room, such as the cables which connect our cameras to the computer, glasses cases, spare change, pencil sharpeners and a host of other things you can never do without, however hard you try.

Alfie has become even more clever We gave him a large tin of Baker's dog treats for Christmas. He knows exactly where it is (standing on one of the red IKEA coffee tables near the window.) and what it contains. He goes and stares at it, even poking it with his nose. Or his other trick, taking you to the sliding patio doors in the kitchen which lead out into the garden. Goes out for a wee in the garden and comes in and waits, expecting to automatically get a treat for going outside, but now he just takes you to the sliding door and stares out, and seems to think that alone warrants a treat. Crafty little dog. Also, if he sits in front of either of us, when we're watching television (cleverly in our eye-line) and stares at us, he will get something such as a treat from the tin.

I'm continuing to read 'Goodbye Christopher Robin,' by Ann Thwaite. It was a free book one Saturday when you bought the Sunday Telegraph. I think I might have read it, having borrowed it from Bedford Central Library many years ago. It is the basis for a film of the same name. It's about how A.A.Milne came to write the 'Winnie-the-Pooh' books. I'm enjoying it up to a  point, but then Milne isn't a particularly interesting person. Pooh is a far more interesting, which says a lot about his creator. Milne was a relatively successful playwright before the 'Pooh' books were published, but nowadays the plays are relatively unknown. Milne is not as interesting a person, or so it would appear from reading this book, as, for example, Oscar Wilde, or Noël Coward, who wrote plays which are still being produced and never seem to date. Both came out with witticisms and many quotes come from their plays and other writings. I have to say it's a bit of an effort to read and I'll be glad when I have finished it. I'm interested in the creative process, how Milne came up with the idea for the stories and characters, but that is about all. I do like 'Pooh,' but I think the whimsy does get a bit cloying and mawkish. I prefer children's writing to be more acerbic. Writers such as Roald Dahl, who gave a far more realistic sense to their characters, not in the last sentimental and whimsical in the least.

This last section is being written at 7.35 p.m. The pieces of old bookshelf, which were piled up on the grass at the front of the house have now been removed by the Council workmen of the refuse collection department. It makes me laugh when I knew from hearing them collect the stuff, but then when I went online and opened my emails I saw the Council had sent me an email informing of the fact that the wood had been taken. Good of them to let me know.

Christmas Is Over

So, that's it! Christmas is over for another year. I went upstairs, and when I came back into the lounge, Carol had removed all the decorations and the tree was in the kitchen, in it's pot, standing by the patio door. The lights were coiled up, but still lit, so I had to remove the plug which was in a socket behind the television and had to wheel out the set on it's stand and gingerly unplug the lights, being careful not to stand on various items on the floor as well as possibly pushing over the television. Lights are now ready to put away for next Christmas. Well, with the tree out of the way, we get the space back that it was taking up. 

Cold and Frosty Morning

It's been a cold and frosty but bright and sunny Saturday morning. I had to defrost the car before driving out mid-morning on my way to Garraway's for a few items for lunch. I'm glad I bought some spray defrost as otherwise it would have been a difficult job. Also using the scraper and the car's heated windows to melt the ice.

So glad Carol has no appointments until Monday. I went with her to the pain clinic within the Macmillan unit on Friday afternoon at the hospital and the doctor has increased the dosage of some of her medications. I had to go to the hospital pharmacy to collect the meds as the doctor wrote a prescription. A relatively long walk back towards the main entrance and then a 30-minute wait until the drugs were prepared and then one wasn't available and will have to be collected on Tuesday or at least when the pharmacy has a delivery.

We bought the Christmas tree in from the garden and Carol has been decorating it. It is the first time we've managed to have a live tree survive from one festive season until the next. I think it has grown considerably since last year, although a few of the lower branches needed cutting off as they hadn't gown and were brown and dead. 

Buying A Christmas Tree

On Sunday morning we decided it was time to go out and buy a Christmas tree. So many of the people we know on Facebook have photographs of their homes, decorated for the festive season, complete with all the decorations and central to all this, a Christmas tree! For the past few years we've made do with an artificial tree, but, to be honest, it's seen better days. It's in sections which have to be bent out and then all these sections slotted together. This is stored in the spare bedroom, along with a lot of other clutter. Having a look at this excuse for a Christmas tree, it certainly looks very shabby. So we came to the momentous decision to go out and buy a real tree this year. Our efforts to maintain a real Christmas tree has generally ended in failure. We buy them ready potted, and by the end of the Christmas season, they usually end up looking very miserable, because they loose most of their needles, all over the lounge carpet, and when we put them out in the garden, they survive a couple of months and then get taken to the tidy tip for recycling. We had usually gone to a garden centre up the A5 near Towcester to buy a tree. It occurred to us that if we didn't buy a tree soon there would be a good chance that we'd be left with the scrag-end of the bunch, the lonely, sad little runty Christmas trees that nobody wanted to buy, so Sunday morning we looked on line for the garden centre and it looked as if they were under new management and that they didn't sell real Christmas trees, which is rather sad when you think it's a garden centre. We definitely didn't want anther artificial tree. After some considerable thought we decided on visiting Dobbies garden centre to have a look at their selection of trees. We weren't disappointed. There were a few on display at the front of the main building as we got out of the car at the carpark. But we went inside and found they had a good many more at the back. You don't just have one type of trees nowadays, but several variety of fir, some which are supposed to last a good deal longer and some which don't seem to drop their needles. I'm not convinced that they don't, but it's surely to be expected when they are bought indoors and the heating in your home dries them out, hence the propensity to needle-drop. We went for a variety. The one we eventually chose had roots as we intend planting it out in the garden after Christmas. It came in a rather attractive pot. It was netted by a very helpful lady and we put it on a trolley and took it to the car. We then returned to the restaurant to have coffee and scones. (Yes, I know. If you read my blog posts regularly you will know that we have something of a love affair with scones!)

By now the place was heaving with people. I can understand why, because your average garden centre sells a good deal more than just plants and gardening items. They have a very well stocked food section at Dobbies where you can buy all types of food ranging from sausages, cakes, biscuits, wine and a good deal more. We left for home as Carol was eager to get the new Christmas tree installed in the lounge and decorated.

Warmer Weather

A real increase in the temperature as the weather improves. I can't believe I'm going out without a jacket on. I've managed to cut the grass. It seems to grow a good deal faster once it's mown. I still refuse to term it a 'lawn.' It has absolutely no attributes for a lawn, such as very short grass, with those distinctive stripes and ironing-board flat. It's more like a meadow, but without the cattle chewing the cud. Or sheep, roaming about. It's got so many undulations, it's more like a scale model of the Pennines. 

We've begun to fill the collection of pots we have scattered around the place. Several had been sitting on the front bit of paving for I don't know how many years. We were given some by someone who worked with Carol at the Academy as well as a rather nice planter which originally had a Christmas tree in it but then the tree died and the remains of the tree were still in it. We never seem to have any success with Christmas trees. I suspect it's because, once Christmas is over, being the middle of winter, any chance of the poor little fir tree surviving is so remote because the weather is so cold. When I lived in Cardington we always had a real Christmas tree, and once the festive season was over the tree was planted out in the garden and lasted for many years until it grew far too big to be brought indoors. Ours always seem to die and I'm not sure what we can do to prevent it happening again. Anyway, we have had quite a few plants from various garden centres we've visited over the past few weeks, including strawberry plants and bedding plants which were free from Homebase with an offer which was in last weekend's Daily Telegraph. 

I have also been clearing all weeds and moss off the front drive, in between the paving slabs and the block paving where the car stands. It's beginning to look really clean and tidy. Quite a hard job, but now I've started it I want to complete the job. I don't think this has been done in a long time. Certainly not in all the time we've lived in the house.

We have a bird feeder in the garden. We had one a few years ago, but I'm not sure what happened to it. This thing is described on the box it came in as a 'dining station.' We got it from Amazon. I always thought of Amazon as being the place on-line to buy books, and nothing more, but it seems you can buy virtually anything on there. I got a case for my Canon digital camera. To keep it safe when I carry it about. I used to own a traditional film S.L.R. Camera, a very good Olympus, and it had it's own case which it lived in, which was fixed to the body of the camera by the screw underneath which you used to fix it to a tripod. Nothing, unfortunately, like this for a digital camera. The Olympus case was made of a fairly rigid material which kept the camera within safe from knocks and folded down when in use. Unfortunately, you have to remove the camera completely from the Canon case and won't fold out of the way like the Olympus case.

As I was mentioning, the bird 'dining station' came with a central metal pole which you stick in the ground and then attach the feeders onto the hooks at the top and then fill each of these wire feeders with nuts or other food. It has proven very popular with the small birds which live in and around the garden. We had a group of starlings who seemed to enjoy the coconut we had hanging on the dining station.' So much so that they have completely devoured the coconut and as I write I can look out and see the completely empty shell of the coconut. I will have to go out and buy some more. The content of the feeders needs replenishing.

I got a knock at the front door earlier this morning. A man dressed in bright orange work gear, the sort of  colour used for people who work in possibly dangerous situations. I can't think as I write what the term is, but I'm sure it will come to me once I've finished this.  I have now remembered what the term is, and it's 'High Vis' a shortened version of 'High Visability'. I can see why they wear it as it's very bright and they are certainly 'Highly Visable.' It turned out he was an employee of Anglia Water. He said he was working with a gang further along the road and, as their van was blocking our exit, if I wanted to move our car, to just let him know. I'm not entirely sure what they're doing. I thought it might have been something to do with water meters or something unless someone further along the street has a water leak. Never mind. At least he had the decency to let me know, as a lot of people never bother to tell you, and then when you want to drive out, you can't, because their vehicle or other equipment is in the way.

I'm currently reading 'The Lady In The Van' by Alan Bennett. I bought the DVD of the film which was based on the book and play which he wrote and about Miss Shepherd, the old lady who lived in a van in his garden. She is played by the amazing Maggie Smith. I've always been a admirer of this actress. The part is light years away from the character she plays in 'Downton Abbey.' I also love anything Alan Bennett writes. I'm really surprised he had the patience to put up with such an eccentric old woman living in such strange accomodation in his garden, and for fifteen years.

Back To The Academy

Well, the Christmas and New Year holiday is now over. The decorations are down, the Christmas tree dismantled and the ornaments packed away for another year. We had a real, live tree for a couple of years, with the intention of keeping it in the garden and bringing it into the house every Christmas, but for some reason we never discovered, both these trees just died. I recall when I lived at the farm in Cardington that we had a live tree which was planted out each year and bought in to be decorated and that lasted for years. I think it probably got too big and was left to grow in the garden. Maybe that was the answer; plant it out and take it out of it's pot. Maybe ours got pot-bound or something or even the fact they don't like being put out after the Christmas period.

Yesterday was really over-cast and foggy. I went to church on my own as Carol wasn't feeling too well. I had to scrape of ice from the windscreen as I was about to drive out of the estate. The car is desperate for some work doing on it, particularly getting the windscreen wipers repairs. We need to find someone who can do it at a reasonable price. 

Wet and Windy

There was howling gale outside and rain dribbling down the windows  and making quite a noise all night. I'm not sure whether the so-called 'Weather Bomb' hit the British Isles last night, but it was very wet. As I write this at 7.41 a.m. I have driven Carol to work and there is some rain but only a slight amount and the wind seems to have dropped, thankfully. I doubt our remaining fence will be standing if there is strong wind as I suspect there will be. There is another section which looks to me to be on the verge of falling over. It is very rotten and won't survive much longer. Still, we wait with baited breath to see whether the landlord actually comes to get the fence replaced, but I doubt it.

We are ready for Christmas. We put our Christmas tree up last weekend. We have had real trees in the past, but we never seem to have a great deal of success keeping them alive after the Christmas season. Although they are watered and fed, they never seem to last long outside. We have had two which came from local garden centres and have come growing in pots, but I don't know what it is you have to do to keep them alive. When I was a child and living in Cardington we had a Christmas tree which lasted for years, planted out in the garden and brought in for the Christmas season and then re-planted. It seemed to thrive quite well and grew considerably. Maybe that is the secret; you have to plant them out in the earth. I think the roots need to be freed from the pot they are planted in. I just don't understand why the trees we've had have never survived. Just such a shame as I prefer a real tree to an artificial one, although the one we have, which we bought last year, isn't too bad. At least an artificial one doesn't shed it's needles. We got a really decent set of lights in Sainsbury's and so we do at least have enough lights on it to make it look really good.