Foggy Morning

(Saturday)Another foggy start to the day, but I expect the sun will come out during the day. I had intended going out a good deal later than usual, say, just after 8 o'clock, but Alfie wouldn't have it. So we did our usual walk across the park. Spring is definitely making its mark, with no end of daffodils and crocuses showing themselves as well a wide range of blossom, most notably may, or is it called hawthorn? Anyway, the white blossom.

Later. Having been to do some shopping in Sainsbury's, after I'd done a load of washing, I come home and unload the groceries and put it all away, and then watch some television. I've been watching 'The Crown' on Netflix and decide to watch the first part of a documentary series which chronicles the story of the House of Windsor from it's birth a century ago. It's called, very imaginatively 'The Royal House of Windsor.' It draws heavily on documents and other papers kept in the royal archives at Windsor Castle. Very interesting to me because I love history and gives more background to what eventually becomes the framework for the storyline for 'The Crown.' Particularly interesting is the build-up to the Abdication of EdwardVII in 1936. I later watched the second episode as I got really hooked into the first episode. This is the factor which seems to make Netflix so good. You get all the episodes of a show to watch when you feel like it. I don't think I very often watch television 'live,' at the time it is broadcast, or if I do, it's very rare to watch 'live' broadcast television.

I was correct in what I said at the beginning of this post. It has turned out particularly warm and sunny. It certainly seems as if spring as arrived.

Sunday morning. Alfie was being as insistent as usual. He makes sure I know he wants to go out for his routine walk. More like a run, but never mind. He went off on his explorations along the path round the park. Then I heard a sort of knocking sound. I couldn't be sure what it was. It happened several times and now I'm sure it's a woodpecker! It was far too distinctive a sound. If so, its the first time I've ever heard such a sound and I can't believe I heard it in the middle of Milton Keynes and at such an early hour.

It's getting lighter earlier, so we go out earlier, much to Alfie's relief. He becomes like a coiled spring, with the build-up to getting out. It was deceptive, looking a good deal warmer than it was. I usually wear my fleece under my Regatta jacket, which I did as usual, but I didn't wear my gloves. There was a certain amount of ice of the car windscreen which is generally a sign of how cold be has been over night. I don't think it will take too much effort to scrape it off before I drive off to church at 8.40.

Later still. Really quite warm and sunny as I write this at 12.00 midday. I've been to church and then went into Morrison's. Trying to find something to get rid of fleas as Alfie has been scratching a great deal lately. I haven't seen anything (fleas, I mean) but if I put this stuff on him it will at least put paid to anything that might be lurking in his coat. It is quite long and I'm not sure I can see anything. Anyway, I'll give it a go. You can buy something to put in your dog's food, but I think this is a better solution.

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.

Signs Of Spring

Goodness gracious! What's this? The sun is out and there are definite signs of spring. There are daffodills blooming outside the Academy and crocuses are popping up all along the Milton Keynes grid roads.  Having said all this, the roads around here are in a really bad state of repair, most likely as a result of three really bad winters. There are potholes on many of the grid roads and roundabouts which are really hard to avoid. Some of the drains along the kerbs are in such a bad state of disrepair, particularly where you come off the roundabouts, that you have a really difficulty avoiding. I wonder how many people have their cars damaged by these pothole and put in claims for compensation from Milton Keynes Council.  This may account for one of our front tyres always loosing pressure as it always needs air putting into it as it is always virtually flat whenever we go out in the car.

There has been something of a cold wind blowing, not metaphorically, but genuinely and when I dropped off Carol at the Academy this morning we almost got blown away! Hopefully if the weather holds up we can go out this weekend. Let's hope so.