The Beast from the East

It started whilst I was out on a lunch time walk and I was glad to get home after work.

We all hunkered down.

I say all, HWMBO was somewhere in Canada, America or inbetween for the whole time and Cog just got on with life and went off for the bus whilst I worried about her.

 So it was the kitties and I that hunkered down.
















Or sat right in front of my keyboard whilst I tried to work from home.

 Little Cat never went out once and I became her litter tray slave, but fat cat refuse to lower her standards and insisted on still shitting in the neighbour's gardens despite the -11C temperatures and as always is the case, a nice clean litter tray on offer.

Work that one out.

The rabbit run was snowy.

I worried about them getting cold and the snow blew into their downstairs home.  I packed upstairs out with so much straw,

But they left clear evidence each morning that they were not sensibly staying cuddled up with their hot water bottle, they were out playing at night.

So their hardiness guilted me into getting out for a walk.  I found the cancelled playgroup's milk still outside the village hall (I was rather surprised it hadn't gone walk-a-bout to be honest) so I walked it up to the owner's house.

 Our pond was covered over.

 As were the roads

 At day 3 of being home I decided to take my muddy shoes out for a clean.

 The snow had been drifting over night

making it rather deep in places.

Not conducive to running.

 The canal was as frozen as I had ever seen it.

 But I didn't fancy finding out how frozen and I turned back once the drifts were as big as me and blocking the towpath.

It did however, clean my shoes off nicely.

Like everyone else though, I'm a bit fed up with it now. We just aren't geared up for extremes of weather.  If we got it a lot we would be.  Or if we got it for longer, again, the councils and us would be more likely to be better set up to manage.  But the transient and rare nature of these extremes means we just can't cope.  The roads block, we panic buy milk and all enjoy the 'god isn't it dreadful, I'm down to my last 50 tea bags and 10 pints of milk' chatter.

But I do have (semi) clean shoes, which won't last when this lot melts and the mud is back!

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I made myself a snowball, as perfect as could be

Being as the snow finally came, have a ball:

Snowball
Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snowball, 

As perfect as could be, 

I thought I’d keep it as a pet, 

And let it sleep with me. 

I made it some pyjamas, 

And a pillow for its head, 

Then last night it ran away, 

But first - it wet the bed! 

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A brush with the teen and potholing.

I finally found out why every home should own a teenager.

Well you know you can't leave a car engine running unattended these days whilst the car warms up.

It is important just on safety grounds that someone sits in the car warm and dry to protect it, whilst the chosen one brushes off the snow.

She's not daft mind, she understands the importance of keeping me in a good mood just before we go shopping.  Which clearly worked as we sat in a coffee shop a few hours later both sporting new boots.  Only I had left the house in new boots!  The review of my new Chatham-Marine's is here.

It's not great that we are getting towards the end of March and still needing boots that can cope with bad weather.  But at least I have some control over how comfy and dry our feet are.

 

The roads however are now falling apart.  The potholes are too numerous to even bat an eye at as you bang down yet another one.  Interestingly I regularly travel a road, too rural to have a number, that was recently patched up quite magnificantly.  I was amazed as there is rarely more than a handful of cars, tractors or horse boxes on it.  Although it does go past the drives of 2 extremely large houses in an incredibly expensive part of the countyside.

So when a bad patch suddenly appeared that was twice the size of any of those recently patched on Lord and Lady Ladidaaa's road, I knew the council would be straight onto it.  Once they'd finished reading the Sun in the cab of the van, obviously.

Oh stoooooopid, stoopid me.

"Dear Ms. K,
A Highway Inspector has assessed the issue that you reported to us and concluded that it is not currently a high priority. However, it has been noted for consideration in one of our future schedules of work.
Yours Sincerely,

Customer Service Centre Team
Environment & Transport"



"Yes I noticed you’d put the yellow marks around it.  As we discussed, the depth is still quite shallow despite it being 4’ square so I’m sure we can wait until cars are being damaged by it before patching it up. Wouldn’t want to pre-empt anything and fix it in advance of a bike coming off or anything like that.

Keep up the good work.    Yours MRS KelloggsVille"


"Dear Ms K,

I have added your further comments to the job notes and passed these on to the Highway's department who will be dealing with this matter.

Should you have any further questions please do not hesitate us"



"I'm sure that is another fantastic use of council time and resources.

I would be more than happy to discuss with any of the team about how 4' square pot holes on a heavy use* junction at the end if a chicane might affect the ability of drivers to do an emergency stop as the kids try to cross the main road to get to the high school bus stop.

But if they are too busy dealing with important issues, no worries.

As I said,  keep up the good work.

K"

*it took me a while to wait for the quiet moment to take the photo but trust me week mornings this is heaving!

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What is that brown stuff?!

 It's still pretty grim around here.

In more ways than one.  The canal has frozen over in a brown yukky pattern kind of way.











I threw some snow onto it to prove it is actually frozen brown yuk.  There was a big oil leak around here last March, I rang up about it many times but nothing happened.  I'm wondering if it is that or residue off the fields.

The animals are walking on water, this looks like swans to me....normal yes.













But this I think is a fox.  He was feeling very brave, or very hungry.

It's got to be cold living on the water right now.  As idyllic as it looks in the summer, I only have to think about those winter months to know it's not the life for me.  The slippy, sloped canal towpath is taking your life into your own hands at the moment.  I don't fancy doing it in the dark one jot.

But the snow is starting to melt, we are in for one heck of a flood as the canal overflow is already rushing out faster than I've ever seen it.

I walked for miles and miles on my own today.

Cold but beautiful.  Silent time for thinking.









What the hell was that brown stuff?!

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The Coolest Snow Sledge

Look at this, It's a SnoXross Sledge sold by GardenGames (outdoor children's products).  I have so got to have one of these.  I may have to borrow some one's boy (and I don't do boys) for a while just to justify having one. 

Or this.  I honestly thought people that had sledges like this was because their parents had looked after them and they were passed down the family.  I had one when I was young,  I didn't realise you can still buy them. But get this: (I'm now hopping from one foot to the other in excitement) it collapses so you don't actually rip your shins on it in the shed every time you try to get the mower out.

One wintry afternoon when COG was in her first year at school, I was working from home and the snow started to come down thick and fast.  I looked out the window for a while as the inches grew and then the impetuous me grabbed her wellies and the pull along sledge and marched up to the foundation class door (a completely separate building to the school) and knocked:  "I've come to collect my daughter"  "Why?" "I want to go build a snowman" ! I pulled her home from school on the sledge and we had a glorious afternoon.

It sounds so irresponsible I know, but it's one of the best memories I have of me and her, that afternoon, doing something naughty and yet so wonderful.

I've been having such a ball in my sledging memories that I'm forgetting to tell you the reason why I got here at all:

GardenGames (outdoor children's products) sent me Boules In a Metal Box

This is such a quality bit of kit. We have a Petanque court at our local pub that you can go play on and this summer we will.  In the meantime I'm hopping up and down waiting for the snow so we can give it a go in that.
After my father died my mother played Petanque(Boule) for many years, it's a lovely sociable sport.

The problem with this is we'll rock up looking like professionals and not quite make the mark.  I'll let you know how it goes!

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