Just a quick nature note for future reference. Another warm and sunny day today, with a fresh breeze. I noticed that the daisies are springing up everywhere, J’s tulips are shooting and now almost 5 cm high, and I saw my first wall lizard of this year when I was hanging out today’s washing. The birds are very active too. Dusty has been snoozing on the laptop again and it took a while to restore
Category: Crooked House
Turning a corner
We have been away on a couple of trips in the van, so that partly explains radio silence around here. Either side of trips away there has been packing and unpacking, both of which are lengthy and time-consuming rituals requiring domestic drudgery and really not worth talking about. The other explanation is a growing list of Draft status posts that I found time to write but somehow never got posted… …but I am back, albeit
Snare(s)
Fog and frost today. Very cold, quite miserable, and last night we received the first request to save power, with some potential for power cuts today. I don’t believe that we shall be affected by a cut here but wondering whether or not it is my civic responsibility not to run the washing machine… Unconcerned overall regarding power cuts as our heating comes from a woodburner, I have a hob that runs on bottled gas
It’s all a bit boring
I am trying very hard to maintain a daily blog habit, even if that means splitting posts between here and Scattered Thoughts. The challenge remains however in that there is so little to write about. Today has been typically empty. We took the dog for a walk and the Crooked Man has been practising on his drums. The day has been chilly, though not quite as cold as of late, and damp. It’s grey, with
Desperados
There was snow this morning but only a light dusting and not even complete coverage. Today’s bottle bank was in Adriers. We added in a trip to the Pharmacie to refill a prescription and to seek information on Dental Services (I have broken a tooth or lost a filling, uncertain which.) Then we popped into the garden centre, in an unsuccessful search for some wellies, and on to Intermarché. We are now fully divested of
Cusp
Here we are, on the cusp of the year. It’s been a funny one, all told, but one in which I have been grateful that we chose to live here, of all the places that we might have settled. Throughout the pandemic, our Region and our Department have featured at the lesser end of the virus scale. At present our Department, Vienne, is one of only 8 “green” departments remaining (and one of those is
I think that this may help
When we bought a load of handmade furniture from some local Brits who were selling up to return to the UK (yes, I know, folly in the extreme but we all make personal choices) amongst the pieces was a little bureau. I haven’t made best use of it so far and it has so far been a simple repository for “stuff”. We recently moved the location of the bureau in our sitting room (to make
Greedy, Greedy
Regular readers may recall that one of my ways for dealing with Lockdown has been to have a weekly Date Night. The planning, preparing, shopping, cooking, and finally the eating of a three course (or more!) meal has added structure to my weeks and the effort has occupied my time and speeded the weeks along. I hope that it pleases, to know that the Crooked Man and I are still dating on a Saturday night.
December Reflections 4: Red
Nature is red in tooth and claw and nobody knows this better than a person that shares their life with cats… At 4 am today there was a thud, followed closely by another thud, and another. It sounded curiously like a rather fat cat pouncing on something. “Has Dusty brought some prey in?” The Crooked Man went to investigate. Dusty had indeed brought some prey in and when he saw his dad, he let go
The Cold Light of Day
Nell’s excessive drinking and urination have ramped up considerably. Hence I was outside at a little past 2 am this morning, by which time the car was already covered in a sparkling frost. On the 6 am toilet run, the world was looking fairly well white all over (as viewed through the window from my bed, that is). When we first came house-hunting around here there was snow on the ground (apparently a once in