Chilly.

After being a never mind the weather I'll work outside all day person yesterday today I was a I'll spend my whole day shopping person. I was at the car park just after 9.00 and it wasn't until 3.00 that I was finally on my way home. Admittedly knowing I had an all day ticket I deliberately didn't rush but ambled from one shop to another. Friday being market day is the busiest weekday in town but there weren't crowds of people shoving and pushing which I suspect will be the case tomorrow. I didn't have too much to buy but there was the bank, library and post office to visit. They've installed a DIY parcel and letter service recently so I tried that rather than wait in the main queue. I was doing well until the screen said I needed assistance for which I had to wait. I got most of the things I needed including some home-made marmalades, jam and chutney from the farmers' stalls in the market. I also found a grey fluffy hoody in a sale which I bought for myself. At Tesco's I tried out the hand-held scanner to scan my shopping as I put it in the trolley. That's quite useful as you can see just how much you have spent. I had a voucher which took £6 off if I spent £40 so I stocked up on cat food which I would buy anyway.

I stopped at the top of the drive to take these photos as I was coming home. It had been mostly dry all day but rather cold. Every now and again there were even some blue patches in the sky. 

And from the same spot I could see that it was raining heavily on Exmoor. 

The goose family were back in the field today. I wonder if they have been here all the time or did they go somewhere else in the summer?

Stormy.

It's been stormy all day with sudden quick showers and even some hail. I wrapped up well and took myself outside to carry on with the wall. During the brief showers I sheltered in the conservatory but for most of the time it was pleasant to be out listening to the wind chimes clanging away and the wind whistling through the trees. I felt a sense of achievement when I completed re-laying the first row of stones all the way up to the pillar which was my goal today. Digging out some well established ferns took  a while as I didn't want to take any chances on them growing back again. Soon after I had cleared up for the day the rain set in for good.

I had just cut up some melon for a healthy snack when I heard the tell-tale sound of the compost bin scrap box being raided in the kitchen. There was Patch happily munching on a melon rind. I put him and his melon rind out in the conservatory where he ate the whole thing and then came back and stole another one. (He also loves raw potatoes, cucumber and mushrooms.)

I spent the rest of the afternoon making some zany Christmas cards for my friends. (Will show them later.) Instead of my usual salad for supper I've defrosted some of my pumpkin soup.

Stormy.

It was so nice last night, lying in a warm bed listening to the storm raging outside. By this morning it had mostly died out and I was able to fit in another hour working on the wall before going to work. I'm not feeling so energetic today because my cold is taking a turn for the worse again. I've had the sniffles all autumn but now my throat is getting sore once more and that achey feeling is back. Last time I treated my sore throat with hot toddies at bedtime (honey, lemon and whiskey) and gargled with mouthwash a couple of times a day. That did the trick and it didn't develop into a full blown sore throat so I shall follow the same treatment once more.

At school I was working with the Year 1 classes looking at the similarities and differences between the way Christmas is celebrated in the UK and Poland. We have several Polish children in school and Polish Christmas traditions are very similar to Lithuanian traditions which gave me some inside knowledge.  After playtime instead of a story I put on a DVD - The Polar Express. I very rarely resort to showing DVDs to the children but they were all quite tired after yesterday's evening performance followed by a morning of writing. For once you could have heard a pin drop in that class.

I left school pretty promptly so that it was still light as I drove home. On the news just now there were pictures of massive storms hitting the coast in Scotland and the north of the country. We are due more wind tomorrow and right now I can hear the wind whistling and the rain lashing against the windows. Time to light the fire I think. 

Gales.

These are the skid marks from the delivery man's little adventure last night. He had come down part way to our place and then reversed up (L to R in the photo) and then driven forwards onto the grass thinking he could turn around there. He used the lengths of wood from my dam to stop the car slipping any further forward and I've put them back temporarily across the road. I won't give the dam a proper sort out until the oil tanker has delivered the oil sometime this week.

It was a bit warmer this morning. I was up bright and early and had brought in lots of wood before breakfast. That gave me a couple of hours to work on the wall. I have repaired the other side of the wall as well and have got the stones to a level where I will put a row or two of horizontal stones to finish it off. The weather man last night mentioned snow but only for the high ground in Scotland and N Wales. Instead we are due severe gales for the next few days and it is already stormy outside with the wind howling down the chimney. Reminds me of last year.

As I walked around the garden this morning I was most surprised to see these primroses already in flower. I had a look at the back of the house where we sometimes have very early daffodils but they are only about 6" high. 

School was a repeat of yesterday afternoon. As well as their afternoon performance the older children are doing an evening performance so all the other teachers stayed on at school while I went off to buy more sand and cement. 

Cold.

We had a lot of rain last night but fortunately it stayed dry all day. Dry and cold with a little bit of sunshine so I was able to get out and do a bit more work on the wall. Then it was time for school, an afternoon of making cards with the reception children and trying to keep the noise level down while the rest of the school were performing their Christmas play in the hall.  

After school, having remembered to turn on the dishwasher (that's 3 times this term), I walked into town and bought our cinema tickets to see The Hobbit (3) next Saturday. I can't believe that it's the end of an era. Perhaps Peter Jackson can  be persuaded to do the Silmarillion next. I haven't enjoyed the hobbit films as much as the LOTR films, too much divergence from the original with some very silly moments but Middle Earth is a fantasy world I'm always happy to enter.

I took these photos on my way in to work at about 12.00. Poor Peter drives to work in the dark, spends all day working in a windowless factory and then drives home in the dark. I would find that very hard to cope with but needs must.

We've just had a knock on the door, a hapless delivery chap has got his car stuck on Paul's field. I'm not quite sure how but I think he started to come down to us then changed his mind and for some reason decided to drive on to the field to turn around and found that the ground was so wet the car was just slipping. He's put a couple of pieces of wood under the wheels and it should be no problem for Paul to pull him out either with his Discovery or the tractor. I suggested to the chap that he hand the parcel over to Paul first and then ask for help with his car. Update - Paul has just pulled him out with the tractor.

Windy.

Wild and wet weather this morning made the perfect conditions for a long lie-in this morning watching the clouds racing across the sky while listening to 2 omnibus editions of The Archers. It was dry but still windy in the afternoon so suitably wrapped up (I love that quote from Alfred Wainwright - There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.) I got on with my wall building. I haven't built a wall in such a haphazard way before, reinforcing my drystone technique with dollops of cement behind the stones, but hopefully it will work. All the stones that I used originally are still there so it is like putting together a 3-D puzzle. Once I've got this section up to the correct height I'll pull down the remaining section and re-do that as it is too far forward and has some large ferns growing in it. 

Right now there is a wood fire burning merrily and I'm looking forward to a relaxing evening of Strictly and the results show.

Advance warning - the internet hub flashed a yellow light at me yesterday, only for a moment but it might mean that lots of rain will close us down again. So if I go off-line that will probably be the reason why.

Warmer.

It's been warmer today, in fact after Peter turned off the rayburn in the kitchen it was warmer outside than inside. At least when the sun was shining. Peter had turned off the rayburn so that he could give it a clean and service. A friend from his work came over to help which made the job manageable. The last 2 times we had to pay for an engineer to come out after the rayburn went out and Peter's hands were particularly bad. But today when Peter was dismantling the burner he found a number of things that had not been done correctly; the wicks were cut too short and put in upside down, the oil pipe hadn't been cleaned out and the oil burner had been put back without being leveled even though Peter had told the chap how important that was. The result was uneven burning which causes the wicks to soot up quickly, no wonder it had gone out so soon (relatively) after the first visit. I suppose it's not in the engineer's interest to put in the extra effort as this will mean he gets called out less often but when you are doing it yourself you do the best job possible. So we are very thankful to Larry who came and gave Peter a hand.

After some early morning sun which made it warm enough for the midges to be out, the clouds rolled in and there was some light drizzle.

This 1" frog was hopping around in the kitchen much to Squeaky's amazement. I took it outside and it hopped away before I could get a good photo. Apart from cooking sausages and making tea this morning I haven't done much. Just pottered around and did some general tidying up.