Friday 9th January 2026

Each day I start the day not just with a coffee, but to read old blog posts. And I realise that a lot of my posts in January lament or note the lack of light, and dreaming of when the days will become visibly longer.

Well, that hasn't happened this year. Not that I don't miss the longer days or the warmth of the sun, its just that life is full with fun stuff now, and we know that come February days will be longer, and maybe warmer.

Anyway, at the end of February we fly south chasing some late winter sun and orchids.

Which will be nice.

Friday was the day the Storm Goretti blew through. Here in east Kent it brough heavy rain, strong winds, but that's it. Through the day we had some snow, but it was too warm and wet to settle. Meanwhile the coast from Folkestone to Hythe was battered, with parts of the promenade destroyed, roads and houses flooded and tons of shingle from the beach washed up.

Jools went to yoga first thing, while I donned a rain-proof coat to put the bins out and to fill up the feeders.

Rain was blowing horizontal, and mighty cold. Jools was delayed coming home by an accident on the A2. Not sure what happened, but a single car had a bad accident, and the road through Whitfield to the port was closed for six hours, causing massive jams down Whitfield Hill and into town.

Jools would have missed it, only she offered to get bacon and sausage butties from B&Q on the way home, and got stuck in the jam. It took her an hour to get back, with the just still warm butties.

And then she was off to her craft morning at the library, followed by a late Christmas party in Martin at one of the member's houses.

So I stayed here and waited on the cats. Tested Scully and fed her, while outside the rain turned to sleet and then snow.

I was happy enough inside.

Having bought a whole cheek of guanciale, it needed to be cut into portions. So, I sharpened my knives and set about slicing it. The skin made it tough going, until I remembered the trick of cutting down through the skin holding the cheek vertical.

We got something like two pounds of guanciale which is now frozen and will be brought out whenever carbonara is on the menu.

When Jools came back, we settled down to watch two more episodes of Digging for Britain, which to our delight featured regular views of our village during the spoken links.

Supper was defrosted ragu, pasta and garlic bread cooked in garlic infused olive oil, which made bread tasty enough to ward off the most persistent of vampires.

I did poor in the quiz, only getting it right at the end, so nil points for Jelltex.

And no football on TV, as the FA Cup is now on TNT Sport, which is one subscription to much. So I went to bed early to read.