Tuesday 27th November 2018

It gets darker every morning, making it feel very much like the end of November, and was darn chilly too. We get up and put the heating on, then go downstairs to make coffee and feed the cats. The cats won't let us forget them.

As it gets light outside, a mist rises in the dip, and turns into fog very quickly, making the day have a twilight feel until mid-morning when the sun burned off the clouds and the greyness was replaced by clear blue skies and vibrant colours with long dark shadows.

I know this as I went for a walk at lunchtime, mainly because I had not left the house since Saturday.

So, once I had reached the point of nirvana where I had caught up on my mails an actually felt in control of my spreadsheet, I thought it safe enough to go out for an hour.

I just walk over the fields to Fleet House and the Pig's Copse, no pigs there of course, they'rs probably sausages now. I went to see how many wildflowers I could see still in bloom, and to see if I could match the challenge from BSBI to find "the winter 10". I came close; two kinds of sow thistle, a dandelion, ivy, annual mercury as well as a host of seedheads and berries.

In the sunshine, the countryside looked full of life, but it is shutting down for a few months, and yet there are buds showing on branches, and the plants that put up wintergreen are showing. Including many orchid species, but none of those round here.

I walk home along Collingwood, getting the gran panoramic views down to the cliffedge and then round further east so glimpses of Pegwell Bay and Thanet could be seen.

Back home I send more mails out, but having caught up on things, it seems I might have a few quiet days before I get into a chaotically hectic travel period in the run up to Christmas.

But more of that another day.

It was now getting dark, the cats were getting hungry, and I needed to hear some music, so I put on the radio, pack the laptop away and tidy up.

Dinner is warmed up roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, along with fresh steamed veg, roast potatoes and a bottle of fizz. The reason for this was so not to let the leftover gravy go to waste. Oh no.

The evening was spent following another City game via Twitter and the radio. In dreadful conditions on Humberside, City labour against Hull in pouring rain, and the game ends goalless, but City stay top. Just.