Snowdrops

The snowdrops are out. There's a mass of them down the garden but I can't see them from my desk because there's a stone wall in the way. I can only see them if I stand up and stop working.

From where I'm sitting I can see the top pond, the bird table and an old blue tarpaulin that we used to keep the rain out of the conservatory. The cat sits on the tarpaulin, watching for birds and hoping that someone will appear from the conservatory door to feed her. The tarpaulin is warmer and softer than the pebbles. She has just woken up, cleaned herself a bit and now is curled up really tight again. Her fur is thicker than it used to be, perhaps because she's an outdoor cat and needs it to keep her warm.

New toy train

Husband had such a good weekend playing with model trains and grandson that Monday was sad. To cheer himself up he did some shopping therapy and has bought himself a big Lego train set. It's his, and it is to stay in our house, and people who want to play with it come here. He thinks his one grandson will have offers of help from willing aunts.

Model train exhibition

Husband and grandson enjoy model trains this weekend. We get grandparenting duty Friday night with grandson, while his big sister has an exciting weekend away with aunty at university. Husband and grandson came home from here enthusing about Lego trains, and the one that grandson crashed. Photos are available from the Risboro site - look for exhibitions and then Risex 2009, and our video's here.

Retiring husband

Husband spent a retirement day at home today. First he met Milly for one thing, and then she passed him on to Louise for something else. Then he spent time helping a local charity with their computers. He tells me that first he had to get introduced to Wendy, and then had a cup of coffee with Pat who wants him to talk to Lindsey next week. But he did fit in the time to meet Cherry as usual.

He thinks he's going to have to get organised, but if he's going to be meeting that many women then he'll be organised. How funny! He's spent most of his working life in a really technical environment where few women go.

Saving pensioners

The paper here says that old people are going to be ever so badly off because water bills will be so high - as high as £300 per year. But our bills have gone
down,
down
and down!

since the children left and there aren't long showers, and so much laundry to be done. We've gone down from something like £44 a month to £5. Husband says if we had one more teenager to leave home, the water people would be paying us for water.

Weekend - fledgling returning

Daughter's coming home for the weekend. And we have a child stopping overnight too. Good. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll get to read a bed time story and have an interesting chat over a leisurely cuppa or glass of wine.

Retirement looms

Husband says that he has heard that he is definitely retiring at the end of March. So he'll go from working three days a week down to no paid days a week, and have to occupy himself in the house and home seven days a week. He's been building up to it by:

• attending a local archeology course
• getting involved with the old town residents association
• building and displaying model trains
• advising the local Florence Nightingale trust on their IT, broadband and PCs.

Snow 18 years ago

This is son's first snow man.

Feather fight

I burst a couple of feather pillows and the fabric on an eiderdown was perishing. So it was sew or throw, like I said earlier. I've made a new eiderdown-come-duvet for daughter's bed when she comes home, and spare feathers to have a go at doing it better.

How does one make an eiderdown?

Dusty room

Weekend plans frustrated by snow, ( I was going to visit family in the north) I've spent most of the afternoon rearranging my study. For those of you who don't know, my "study" is literally a corner of the sitting room, growing off it like a carbuncle and separated only by a pair of long thick curtains, which if closed, darken the sitting room. This study has nine huge windows on three sides, which make the corner very bright, but also very cold in winter, and too hot in summer. So it hasn't got much wall space for books, and it's not conducive for cosy contemplation in winter.

To insulate the room slightly at the expense of light, I've moved the one large bookcase against one of the brightest windows, and put my computer where the bookcase was. I'll now be better able to watch the birds in the bird bath. I've thrown out a bin bag of old papers, and the dust has dried my nails, so they've split. Do other people's nails do that?

What I'd really like is to redo the windows so they open and close more easily and securely and less draftily, and have roller shutters, and a door that would open onto the patio so I can wander outside when study, marking, computing, or research gets too much for me. Oh! And I'd like the floor not to be carpeted, but wouldn't parquet be wonderful!

Snow work

Wake up - you can have a lie in!

Husband woke me at seven to tell me that it was too quiet for me to get to work, that is, there's no traffic to hear because there's snow everywhere. He was out by eight o'clock clearing snow.

The little pink smart car had a less smart driver at the time I took this photo. The SC driver managed the first 10 yards but got stuck there. Half an hour later after much phoning of SC driver's mother and labouring of neighbours little SM ended parked on the yellow lines just behind the junction, facing the wrong way and SM driver had decided not to join friends in High Wycombe today.

Vacuum cleaning

I bought a couple of the step daughters a vacuum cleaner - a brand that my mother-in-law insisted on buying for me 17 years ago so I know it's good. Nevertheless, I was well pleased with SDs' delight and use of cleaner. And SD#3's thanked me so enthusiastically that I'm well chuffed.

SD#3 rang all excited to say how she was using it and which of the tools she used to get round the furniture and which tools do the backs of the radiators - the land lady is doing an inspection tomorrow. SD#3 was eulogising about how great this vacuum cleaner is and how land lady is going to find the place sparkling clean.

My SD#3 needs to get out more.

Working at home - a bit

The weather is too snowy to go to work. I've been admiring the robin on the bird table by my desk.

The plumber brought his electrician brother to do the electrics for the shower. We now have a working shower. However, the tumble dryer is now disconnected. We have to move it and connect it somewhere else.

Bruised knuckles

Doce pares - it's a Philipine martial art in which you fight with sticks. But holding the sticks gives you blisters, and the least damage you get is bruised knuckles when your partner accidently hits your hands instead of slashing you from head to toe.