Monday 13th March 2023

Three years ago, the country, and the world was decending into chaos. The Government dillied and dallied, while more and more people fell ill, and the entire football program was postponed. This week the UK Government scrapped the final data collection of COVID, lets hope there's no new wave or a new variant.....

But for this year, I can say we have so much planned, all coming up before the end of June, so much in fact that from the end of the month I will only have one 5 day working week between now and the 3rd week in June. But to fund all this fun and travel, we have to work to pay for it all.

Such is the way.

Monday morning, and the 36 hours of gales was about halfway through when we woke at five, the house was shaking with the windy onslaught.

Jools was to return to swimming, so she bustled about, and about half an hour later, I got up too. Cats were fed, the mogs tried to go out but the wild weather convinced them to stay inside, though there was some occasional fighting between the bored kitty cats.

For me, I had an audit agenda to prepare, I was about a third of the way through it, so once I powered up the laptop I got down to tapping away at the keybard.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

One letter at a time.

Crumpets for lunch, smothered in butter. The crumpets, not me.

And back to the typing.

Come three o'clock, the sun was out, but the wind was still blowing. I would go out for a walk.

We have had some rain, and the tracks and lanes have turned to mud. Some are passable, most are not, so I walked to the end of the street, then up Station Road, back along Collingwood, and down the track to home.

I tooks some shots, most on the garden where the Fritillaria imperialis are doing well, so much that their scent fills the garden, at least on still days. The Hellebores are nearing the end of their flowering season, the blooms being raised and the petals spread wide, showing (I think) that they had been pollenated. And along the street, a single Cowslip had opened, so I snapped that too.

After checking each week on the small colony of Coltsfoot, and finding none, I thought they had failed, but my trip out was rewarded by nearly a dozen bright yellow blooms bobbing in the wind.

In truth it was too cold to walk far, so I came back home, and once I had made a brew, mixed the dough for chipotle and halloumi bread, wich I also pepped up with some chilli flakes.

Needless to say, the bread was another triumph.

To go with it, I defrosted and warmed up some tagine, and grilled a butterfly lamb chop which I had marinated in spices through the day.

And, another triumph.

No football to listen to or watch, so we had the wireless on, drank coffee and went to bed.