TURBULENT TIMES...AGAIN.

Once again the weather forecast is a mass of dangerous looking isobars and large expanses of blue to indicate that yet more torrential rain is on the way. We have lost several fence panels, indeed the fence at the top of the garden has given up the ghost completely, so much so that our neighbour(a miserable old so and so) has been complaining about it.

Oh not to us to be sure, but to just about everyone in the village, by way of the corner shop!

It would be useless to tell the old bugger that we are in the process of getting it fixed but we are told that until the wind drops it would be useless to attempt the job.

I also need to have some overgrown shrubs and trees cut back but this too has had to wait for the same reason, mind you, if the wind over the weekend is as fierce as we are told it will be there may be no need for help from either tree surgeon of gardener!

At present the house is being lashed by heavy rain and strong winds as usual, our cats steadfastly refuse to leave the house and any outside chores have to be done at the dash between squalls, I doubt if there is an intact dustbin in the entire village!

Trapped indoors due to the weather and ill health I can almost sympathise with the poor chap who has spent an age mewed up in the Bolivian Embassy…..almost.

My son, who is to begin another novel tomorrow has been attempting to take a long walk for days, so far all he has managed is a brisk trot up the lane and a dash around the church yard, we are all becoming stir crazy.

Indoors we are very snug and cost yet we all long for some fresh air of the kind that does not drench to the skin anyone foolhardy enough to venture forth. Late this afternoon I opened my window for a breath of air and the catch was snapped off by a great gust of wind,, a blast of cold air scattered the papers on my desk and the cat Twiggy, who had been sleeping peacefully on my bed, shot off in high dudgeon and was not seen again for hours.

When we first came to live here she discovered, on the first day a hiding place so perfect that we have yet to discover it's whereabouts. The house if full of odd crannies and peculiar wall cavities, and the wardrobe in the hobby room, which is too vast to move is so massive that for all I know our cat could be spending her afternoons in Narnia!

Lucky cat, at leas she is getting out of the house for a time, if so.

POST !!!

Since well before Christmas Parcel Force deliveries have been as rare as Unicorn poo in this neck of the woods, almost every parcel delivery has been by courier. This has meant that, by and large our packages have arrived on time and within a few days of being ordered.

However there are still a few poor benighted souls who use Parcel Force, sellers on e bay, small on line businesses and often ones friends and relations, and this has proved to be problematic.

Some items which we have ordered have been days, even weeks overdue occasioning the writing of letters of enquiry to suppliers as to the where abouts of goods ordered…….until today!

Normally there is someone awake, dressed and downstairs by seven thirty each morning, not today. How tiresome then and how typical that Parcel Force chose this very morning to deliver over a months backlog of parcel post, small packages by the normal post man and an absolute mountain of large ones a little later.

Many of the packages had been posted so long ago that the writing on them was in Sanskrit! We had actually forgotten about one or two of the items completely, and so were pleasantly surprised.

While it was a great relief to receive our parcels their arrival necessitated the writing of numerous letters of apology to those suppliers who had been in receipt of several increasingly irate missives from the three of us(manners dictated that this must be done) about our overdue mail.

Some of the packages were very tatty and appeared to have spent some time in a very damp place, thankfully all the items were intact.

I can only suppose that, Parcel force had saved up all the packages until they had enough to make a visit to our very rural village worth while, for we are not an isolated case. A number of neighbours have expressed concern about the situation.

Small businesses in rural areas depend upon a reliable delivery service and thisi s something which Parcel Force no longer offers.

We once had a postal service to be proud of, not any more.

I am just thankful that I resisted the temptation to purchase a Stilton Cheese!

JANUARY IS OVER, THANK THE GODS!

What a right royal pain in the behind January was. Of course I never expect much of the month but this one has, for sheer unpleasantness surpassed any January I can remember.

To begin with I was struck down with Noro Virus and barely having recovered contracted a “virus” which has caused me to be practically bedridden for the past four weeks.

Continual gales, named storms, torrential rain and days when it was so dark that it almost seemed like night time lasted for a week added to the depression my illness had caused, talk about “gathering gloom”! Ghastly!

To make matters worse I have been without a cleaner for the entire month and being unable to raise my head, let alone a duster the house now wears a patina of dust from the two stoves which will, I fear, form a crust if it is not tackled soon.

Fortunately I have now engaged another cleaner, this time from and agency who will I hope prove to be more reliable than my last, who's complicated love life became as much a burden to us as it was to her! Don't mistake me, I really liked the girl and I hope we shall remain friends (doubtful she has not spoken to any of us since we fired her), but really I could not allow her to continue cleaning the work tops with the same cloth she used to clean the loo!!!

Could this explain my current condition, the test result make it seem very likely.

Then the sad news of David Bowie's demise which threw me into a decline for days and he death of Terry Wogan was the last straw, even my stalwart son was deeply shocked and spent the entire day watching back numbers of “Blankety Blank”! I could not believe how much his death affected me, and everyone else it seems.

On the first of February I ripped the page off the calender and burned the wretched thing, it gave me great satisfaction.

Of course there is no guarantee that this month will be any better than the last, indeed it began with a bloody hurricane which brought down branches and closed a few roads here about. That said I do feel a little better and am able to eat again, and if I see one more jacket potato or bowl of rice pudding for at least a year I shall howl!

From all around the world tales of plague and pestilence, war and famine and the rise of potentially dangerous politicians (Messrs Trump and Corbyn) to name just two have caused alarm and despondency, mind you this is no new thing to be sure.

But enough of this misery, on the plus side the garden if full of Crocus and Snowdrops and the daffodils will soon be in flower. Today I noticed that the Hazels were covered in long catkin tails and tall knots of Bluebell leaves are to be seen among the shrubberies.

The nest boxes we put up in the Autumn have survived the gales and are being used as dormitories by the many Blue tits which frequent the garden and the new Dove house has attracted the attention of our tame Robin who is often to be seen standing in it's door way. it will be a grand residence for so small a bird I think.

Now the nights are drawing out, always cause for joy in our house, and soon it will be possible to spend time in the garden after tea, or take a stroll in the lane, wonderful.