All About Weather

It's bright and sunny this morning, but there's a cooling breeze. So, I begin my blog posts most days with a mention of the weather. I think most people, when they meet others, will almost always mention the weather. We do tend to spend a great deal of our time in this country discussing the weather. It does have an effect on our lives to a large extent. It gives the British their character. Stoical, long-suffering, uncomplaining. Is this true? A lot of British people moan constantly about the weather, as well as other things, such as politics, those in authority, but they make a living out of moaning, and do nothing much to try to change things. Admittedly you can't change the weather, you just have to 'grin and bear it,' whether it's too hot or too cold. We do have a habit of moaning on and on that it's far too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer, as we seemed to do during the recent heatwave. I have to admit it did get far too hot for me, but you can just keep out of the sun, or, when it's cold, put on more layers of clothes. If it's bright and sunny it does give you an up-lift to your mood, but if it's cold, due to snow and frost, or wet, due to rain, it can tend to make you miserable. I don't like it when the clocks move back in October, long dark days when it begins to get dark at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. That long haul as we build up to Christmas, getting colder and even more dark doesn't help.

My father was a farmer and weather with important to him. There was a barometer on the wall in the corridor downstairs and he almost always consulted it at some stage of the day and he insisted on watching the television weather to find out how things would turn out, particularly during the corn harvest. If it rained it could effect the moisture content which was vital as to whether a particular batch of wheat, barley or oats was to be harvested. We didn't go on our annual holiday to Frinton-On-Sea until the first fortnight in September. I suppose school realised that most of the pupils were farmer's children and my father wouldn't go away until either the harvest was complete or unless the weather was fine and he could come with us to Frinton. It seems amazing looking back to think we must have missed two weeks of school, but that's what we did.

We've been out this morning. Carol had seen an advertisement in a magazine for a shop in Leighton Buzzard. They sell crafting materials. I'm not sure whether they have a website, but most likely they do. We drove there, via the A5 and then off towards Aylesbury along the by-pass. Some of the route is being resurfaced, the opposite lane. We got to Leighton Buzzard and parked in a Morrison's carpark but had no real idea where the shop was, but it's in a side-street off Lake Street, which means nothing to either of us. We visited the town a few years ago, but, frankly, the place has nothing much to recommend it. I think that time we parked near the theatre, but that's about all I remember. It's somewhat depressing, just looks rundown. Very bleak. Is it just me or is this how most towns look these days? Lots of boarded-up properties. No end of charity shops, pubs, banks and building societies. We eventually discovered the shop, which is down a rather seedy alleyway, which you wouldn't want to venture into at night. The shop is small and rather depressing and even more rundown than all the others. We have a browse and then return to Morrison's. Unfortunately you could buy everything they sold in that shop in large barn-like retail outlets such as Hobbycraft or on-line. We went into Morrison's and bought sandwiches, crisps and drinks to have for lunch. We were undecided where we should stop to eat our picnic, not really having an idea about the immediate vicinity. We drove away from the town towards Dunstable and the A5 because the alternative route back along the by-pass would be closed off due to the resurfacing. It seems incredible that such a recently opened stretch of road should require resurfacing. It is remarkably poorly constructed, no doubt as a way to cut costs when it was originally built only a few years ago. We reach the A5 at the roundabout we know well because we come this way when we visit Whipsnade, and go left and then meet a traffic jam. It creeps along at no more than walking pace. It goes on towards Hockliffe. No sign at all as to what caused the traffic hold-up. I imagined it might have been further roadworks, resurfacing perhaps, but absolutely nothing. Not even a road traffic accident. The jam just disappears and we move on at a higher speed. We decide to come off the A5 where the road meets a roundabout, to the left going off towards Stockgrove Park, which we visit on occasion with the dogs. But we go off right towards Woburn. There must be somewhere to stop nearby to have our improvised picnic. We drive through the deer park, doing the loop we usually do and come back through the park. We eventually find a rather pleasant bypass in the wooded area going back towards the A5. We sit in the car and eat our picnic and then return home via the A5 towards Milton Keynes.

Friday, later. The weather has changed considerably. The day started off sunny bit windy, but as I write this (at 6.55) it's been raining and we had a clap or two of thunder. It went quite dark as we were about to have our evening meal and I shut the curtains to keep the weather out.

Blackberries and Dog-Walking

I have been picking the blackberries which we have on the bramble-bushes in our garden. There is a tangled branch along one side of the garden, which you have to negotiate when you are either pegging out clothes on the washing line or collecting laundry from the line once it is dry. These branches are really prickly and the thorns on them are lethal. Having collected all the blackberries which were in the garden, I decided to take a stroll along the Redway behind the house and pick some more. Carol thought it would be a good idea to combine my blackberry-picking excursion with taking both dogs for a walk. This sounded a good idea, but trying to get both dogs suitably equipped with their leads on (and, first of all, discovering where the leads were was a problem, but we managed to find them fairly easily.) was no easy task. The moment Alfie, particularly, realises we're going to take him for a walk, he gets so excited and begins to bark and carry on extremely noisily. Poppy, on the other hand, is not quite so vociferous, but can still get quite worked up. Nevertheless, we managed to get their leads fixed up (Carol has managed to arrange the leads so that both dogs can be walked together on a sort of 'Y' shaped arrangement.) and I was able to take a plastic box to put the picked blackberries in. We got out to the Redway, walking towards the canal, and along the path which runs around the back of the hospital. Before the path got to the main road, Marlborough Street, we crossed over the Redway and back into Eaglestone and let the dogs off their leads in the park. Surprisingly, Milton Keynes has many really attractive places to walk, and Eaglestone Park is rather a pleasant place to walk, particularly with dogs. There are a number of little bridges over running water and streams and wooded areas to walk through. Poppy just potters along enjoying the scenery, occasionally disappearing into people's front gardens for a sniff around, and at one point disappeared under a hedge and we didn't see her for quite a while. Alfie, for a little dog, has enormous amounts of energy. He can run for a long way, and is extremely well behaved, and always comes back to us when he's called. He didn't need much training to walk on a lead and almost always comes to 'heel.' He does, occasionally, get very excited and yaps rather a lot, but I think this is just because he enjoys being out and is allowed to run free. 

I did manage to pick a few blackberries, but not enough to make a blackberry-and-apple pie or maybe a crumble. I have a feeling that most of them have already been picked by other people. It doesn't really surprise me, as it's a free supply of food on most people's doorstep. In most cases, a lot of the inhabitants of Eaglestone have a ready supply of blackberries at this time of year, and have only got to go out of their front door like we have to get quite a good amount to make a really  tasty pie or crumble. I shall go out on my own again tomorrow sometime and pick a few more. Those we have got we put in the freezer and can be used during the winter months. In Morrisons the other Saturday they had blackberries on sale, which seems incredible when you think you can get them free by just going out and looking. It was something like £2 for a really small punnet. (Sorry, I don't think they use traditional punnets any more. These were in those clear plastic boxes so loved by supermarkets.)

We had to put the dogs back on their leads when we walked back through the estate. We got back to the house just in time, as a really heavy rainstorm came in with very black clouds hanging over Milton Keynes virtually as we walked in the front door. Both dogs seemed quite exhausted by their walk, and within half-an-hour of coming home were both asleep on the sofa! Poppy had several bits of twig caught in her coat which we had to pull off! Alfie seemed to avoid the twigs this time, but I remember the first time we took the dogs for a walk when Alfie was still a puppy (I think it was either Stockgrove Park or Salcey Forest, I forget which exactly.) he got really upset by the fact that he was picking up quite a collection of twigs and leaves in his coat as he walked along, and stopped every few yards and sat down to pick them out with his teeth. It really was quite amusing! I don't think he liked them for some reason best known to himself. Alfie can get very stressed about going in the car. It is virtually impossible to have him in the car so that he just sits on the back seat. He will just run all over the place and even try and sit on the lap of the driver, which can be quite dangerous. We have even attempted to have him sitting on my lap while Carol drives. The first time we tried this, we were going to one of our favourite places, Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham. We were driving along the long, straight road which leads to Stowe, when Alfie was sick. We had to stop the car to clear up the mess, but after that we realised that it was going to be very difficult, if not virtually impossible, to take him out in the car, if he was going to continue with this behaviour. I'm not sure whether this is normal behaviour for Yorkshire terriers, but it would be very difficult to drive and have him creating in such a stressed-out fashion. We eventually purchased a cage from a pet shop, which was the right size for him to fit in, and would go in the back of the car. He does make a certain amount of noise, but I think he probably rather likes it and does eventually settle down and go to sleep once we are out on the road. When we stop, it's then he starts his noise. This has rather put us off taking him out with us in the car, which is such a shame, as he does enjoy his walks, but we think we're going to just persevere with him so that he gets used to car journeys.

Back To Work

Carol has gone back to work today. She had a second week off, due to the horrible cough. The doctor had given her a sick note for the first week and she went back last Monday and he gave her a second week off. Bronchitis was the cause of the problem. I was booked to have a blood test also on Monday, at 9 a.m. but the nurse could not take any blood as she couldn't find a vein. I'm not going to be prodded and probed in order to have blood taken as it isn't going to happen, so she is looking in to me going to hospital and getting someone there to take blood. Seems somewhat drastic but it seems to be the only way it's going to happen.

The weather has improved dramatically. It's quite mild and pleasant this morning. The clocks have gone forward (during the night of Saturday/Sunday.) which always makes things better as the days seem longer. We'll get more light in the evenings, which means we can go out with the dogs once Carol finishes work. We took them to Stockgrove Park near Leighton Buzzard and walked around the lake the other morning. We kept Poppy on her lead as she has a propensity to head for the lake and have a swim, which disturbs the ducks and generally causes havoc. Alfie has learnt his lesson, as regards jumping in water, so keeps clear of the lake! As soon as we let him off his lead, having released him from the cage in the back of the car, (he has to be put in this cage as he won't sit still inside the car otherwise and it is far safer than driving with him getting entangled in the steering wheel and gear stick and insisting on sitting on the driver's lap as well as making a great deal of noise.) he started barking and yapping, telling all and sundry that he had arrived! Both dogs returned home with bits of twigs and leaves attached to their coats, and we found bits of Stockgrove vegetation on the lounge floor which they bought home with them.