Outdoor Day.

 A sign of a good day.

At last I've been able to get some work done outside. My last venture outside seriously wrecked my back so I wasn't going to overdo things today. Even so I finally got the 5ft yew tree stump out by working through a couple of brief hail showers. It wasn't too arduous as most of the work involved kneeling on the ground, scraping away the soil and cutting the roots with the loppers. It's quite a heavy log so I think I'll roll it down the hill and abandon it behind the shed as you can't burn yew wood.

Once I'd finished I intended just to wash my boots and loppers in the stream but then I thought I might as well tidy up the far bank of the stream. I pulled out or cut the brambles, shortened some new tree growth and cut back some of the overhanging holly that was at face height. By the time I moved some of the bigger rocks that had shifted when the stream was very full my boots, gloves and loppers were nice and clean. 

It hasn't felt so cold today maybe that was because I was working outside and apart from my frozen toes was warm and toasty from my exertions and also there hasn't been much wind. I've made a big pot of winter soup using up swedes, parsnips and carrots along with some pumpkin puree from the freezer and a handful of chunks of salami. Something warming for these winter days.

Chilly.

It certainly feels like winter now  or at least a Devon winter with a covering of ice on the car windscreen first thing. The morning itself was quite sunny but as I drove to work I could see banks of grey rain clouds over Barnstaple. The rain held off until after school but now I hear intermittent rain on the conservatory roof. As I drove home the clouds out to sea were momentarily lit up by lightning reminding me that thunderstorms had been mentioned on the morning weather forecast. Going down the drive there was another bright flash, this time over the Bristol Channel as the thunderstorm headed away from us so I didn't need to rush in and unplug the internet.

At last week's staff meeting somebody had come up with the bright idea that instead of inviting the parents of each year group in for a talk about reading and how they can help their children we should make videos to post on the school website. That way we wouldn't have to keep doing the same thing each year and the parents could access the tips at any time. Today instead of a staff meeting we split into pairs and went off with an i-pad and script to make a section of the video. As the closest I've been to an i-pad is prodding one on display in the supermarket (I'm happier with my nice big pc screen and I don't have random spare time that needs occupying with a hand held device.) I ended up having to be filmed trying to talk/follow the script without looking down. That's scruffy old me, little make-up and wild hair from being out on playground duty not to mention how horrible I think my voice sounds on tape. I bet that bit has to be done again.

 Must put some more fat balls in the bird feeder.

Much Colder.

An icy wind has been blowing all day long. It would have been exhilarating to work outside this morning but I was waiting for a phone call from the carpet fitter. They had phoned me yesterday to confirm that they would be coming today. Then this morning they phoned to say they had to finish another job first and would come after that. Each time I told them I needed to leave at 12.00. Then I get a call from the fitter at 11.30 to say he was on his way. That was no good but he was going to phone in a few minutes after he had looked at his book to arrange a better time. By 12.00 there was no phone call so I left for work. I came home to find a message on the answer phone to say they can't come for another 2 weeks. That's a little irritating. 

Instead I did some school work and put my new earrings onto hooks. Naturally I planned to wear them today but I took one off when it was banging against the phone and then forgot to put it back in when I left for work. I had to take the other one off which made me feel very incomplete as I always wear earrings to work.

At school I'm back on handwriting with the reception children and rushed my way through 27 children writing the letter g. After work I dropped into the Co-Op and got my usual haul of bargains including Christmas cards and Star Wars wrapping paper.

  I was surprised to see the kerria beginning to flower.

 3 stages of Squeaky getting into her favourite warm spot.

This morning I was looking out of the open back room window when there was a squawk and a sparrow hawk zoomed along about 5ft up following the bends in the stream and out to the lake.

Some Blue Sky.

Yesterday's hail has all but gone from the garden with just a few patches here and there. Driving to work at midday it made a nice change to see some blue sky. Instead of unremitting grey the white and grey clouds looked quite interesting and in the distance the tops of the sand dunes were back lit by the reflected sun-light from the silver sea.

It's still quite cold so my morning was spent doing housework and going through my blog to make more notes for my journal. I'm still working on getting my photos to upload into daily folders. So far I can do it manually with about 4 steps each time I upload which is a real pain. Looking for a solution I've found that there are many other people out there having the same problems or worse with uploading photos. Surely each new version of windows is supposed to be an improvement?

After school I walked into town to change my library books. I had a little time to check out some of the sales and got these earrings which I will put on hooks. I had another thing to buy but that shop is closing down and there was very little choice so I didn't find the (present) item I was looking for.

Getting Colder.

Last night the wind roared around the house making it seem extra cosy under our warm duvet. By this morning the wind had died down and instead we had rain, lots of it. Then the rain turned to hail and before long the front patio was white with hailstones.

As soon as the hail died down I went outside to check on the dams. They were still intact but I took the opportunity to take off some of the grass and soil that was encroaching on the road  and use it to reinforce the dams. That was my only foray outside and for the rest of the day I worked on first writing up notes in my journal and then making a start on reading the following year's blog and taking notes. Those were the years we had lots of snow and were cut off here in the valley including having no oil for heating and then no piped water. Hopefully that won't happen this year. 

Having taught myself to do an elastic bind off' for the fingerless mittens I'm knitting I realised that I really needed to make a tighter rather than looser edge. Undoing the elastic bind off wasn't as easy as usual because you knit a stitch and then knit it again with the last stitch. My usual casting off stitch gave a better edge after all. The pattern didn't have any tension measurements so the mitten is possibly a bit loose. That's not a problem as the mix up in the order means I have 3 extra balls of the same wool and can knit a second smaller pair of mittens.

Wet.

It has rained all day long. I took these photos in the middle of the day and the camera has lightened up what was a very gloomy day. An hour later it was almost dark and the afternoon slid quickly into the dark of early evening. It is beginning to get a bit colder and for once I have put on 2 fleeces which are keeping me warm.

A good day for working at my pc. Peter has been working on getting me Office as although I brought the disc home from work - the licence does cover home pcs if they are being used for work but unfortunately the numbers written down are the order number and not the licence code. (As the school outsources its IT support the companies we used have hung onto all such vital data.) I do have Office on my work lap-top but it will be inconvenient though not impossible to work on that.

Our internet connection has improved enough for me to send all the wedding photos I took to Sally though at 5MB each I can only send 3 at a time. I also carried on with writing up notes for my family journal though at one point I found myself looking at the wrong year on my blog and had to go back and check again.

The internet also proved useful for finding out how to knit an elastic bind (cast) off. The instructions on the pattern for the dwarf's mitten from The Hobbit were a bit unclear so after seeing it done on a video I now know what I'm doing. One mitten is done and one to go. Peter complains if I try to knit in bed because of the noise of the needles but luckily working with 4 needles I 'clack' less and I can knit once he has fallen asleep which is about 5 minutes after he starts to read his book.

Piano Tuned.

Still dry and not too cold though the word is that it will feel a lot more wintry next week.

This morning the piano tuner came to sort out my poor old piano. I used to have it tuned regularly but then the tuner retired (he used to ring me when it was time to tune the piano) and with one thing and another the years slipped by. I've been meaning to have the piano tuned for a while but there was no point if it was going to be moved by the carpet layers. It's so nice to have it back in tune though there is a slight creak on the sustain (loud) pedal which he couldn't get rid of and even without the pedal some notes are sustaining much longer than they used to. That's not too much of a problem as I like the notes carrying on and have the bad habit of using far too much pedal when I play. I talked to the tuner about the condition of the piano and he confirmed my ideas that it would be better to get rid of the piano when we move and buy another when we finally settle down. I'm not sure I would get the same satisfaction playing a modern electric piano. 

Late I had a long session playing the piano though I'm not sure how much Peter enjoyed hearing me working my way through scales. It's funny that although like many kids I hated practising scales I find them quite fun now and a good way to loosen up my fingers. Arpeggios tend to make my right hand, which has a touch of arthritis, sore but I do some for the challenge.

I've defrosted some pumpkin soup from the freezer for supper. As I've added carrot, parsnip, celery and onion it's now more of a vegetable winter warmer.