Monday 13th February 2023

Back to work.

This was supposed to be the week that we get the clarification we have been waiting two years for, but then I found out our manager is on holiday all week. So, we've waited 106 weeks, and couple won't hurt, will it?

Grrrr.

This is a hectic week. On fact the start of a very hectic few months, with trips, concerts and holidays planned until the middle of June. So much to tell you about, or shall I just keep them a secret?

Anyway, so I spent the time between Jools leaving for the pool and me starting work to fill in the calendar with all our stuff. Just as well as I found that we are going to see Danny Baker on Thursday in Maidstone, after a panic, I found the tickets. So, we have to plan our lives round that, and on Wednesday I am off to Chatham to give a lecture.

As you do.

Orchids are popular, dontcha know?

And then there is work.

Always work.

Dawn was bright and bloody red, but faded as the mist rose, and it became time to set up the office and try to log on.

And so begins another week tackling sloth and stupidity. Or work as we calls it.

The sun rose quickly, and warmed the back of the house, to the point it was hot, so I opened the back door after turning the heating down, so the cats ran in and out, unfettered by flaps and each other. It was warm enough to have lunch sitting outside gazing at the birds on the feeders, and the endless blue skies above.

At three I put on my walking shoes, grabbed a couple of cameras and set off across the field towards Fleet House. Before walking, I snapped one of the snowdrops, not realising I had also snapped a tiny fly resting on one of the petals. A possible ID showed it to be 2mm long.

Tiny.

I saw no flowers in bloom, well, none new. Though Alexanders are getting close. Carpets of green show where Field Speedwell are showing, now dotted with brilliant blue of the flowers.

The ground has firmed up to the point there is very little mud now, so I can walk on all my favourite spring and summer hikes, though little to see in flower for the moment, but promises of much, much more in the very near future.

On the way back I see a fox anout a hundred yards ahead. He stops to look at me, and I look at him, long enough to get a shot looking into the sun. And he was gone.

I walk back home, have a brew, then clear up the office and feed the cats.

Feeding the cats is now tricky, as each one is refusing to eat one of the four flavours we buy, so who knows what to put in their bowls? I close my eyes, pick out a packet and open it to give to the demanding moggy.

Fritters for dinner, we should have had squash, but finishing the bottle of wine was too easy.

And then the Merseyside Derby, neither of which was Derby. A frenetic first half ended with Liverpool scoring, and it was a given then they would go on to win, which they did.