Tuesday 9th January 2024

What is the we see in the sky?

A ball of burning gas that is warm, precious.

I say warm, as its a relative term. And although the sun might be out, the wind is set in the north east and cuts right through you.

It just about got down to freezing the night before, and we switched the heating off overnight as usual, but then took until lunchtime to warm up. Tuesday night we shall keep the heating on low, to take the edge off.

Once we were up and had coffee, it was getting light away to the south east, though was mighty cold in that pre-dawn light.

The cats went out, and came straight back in, went to bed and were not seen until later into the afternoon.

For the day I had to task of writing an audit agenda for a trip to the island next month, that and arranging to have a co-auditor with me too.

The day crawled into the afternoon, and I know I should have gone out for a walk but my back said "no", and my brain said it were too cold.

Who am I to argue?

I did nip outside to snap the small purple hellebore that just came into flower beside the drive, at this time of the year that part gets no sun at all, so you'll have to make do with a shady shot.

Dinner was buttermilk coated chicken, garlicky bulgur wheat and frozen corn.

It was fabulous.

and I had the 11th bottle of Belgian Christmas beer.

And of course there was football: Middlesbrough v Chelsea, and Boro ran out deserved winners. At least the billion quid spent on revamping the Chelsea squad was money well spaffed. No?