I have to say, I don’t know where this week went to. I’d like to say that I’ve been so busy with my Christmas preparations that the time has just flown by. Unfortunately, that would simply be untrue. I will, however, have to start taking it all a bit more seriously very soon. Otherwise, it will be Easter before anything gets done! Continue reading “15 December 2013”
8 December 2013
Good morning to you all – I trust you are all in fine form. It’s been an “OK” week – fairly mild at the beginning but then, on Thursday, the north winds began to blow and the temperatures reverted to their normal range for early December – cold! (But still nowhere near what those of you in the frozen northeast get to enjoy – thank goodness for the Gulfstream). Continue reading “8 December 2013”
1 December 2013
Good morning to you all and especially to those of you in the States in your post-Thanksgiving bloatedness. I hope the festivities were grand and the food excellent. We’ve had a pretty tame week all told – a bit of rain, a bit of frost, a bit of sun, a bit of fog and a lot of cloudy, overcast days. Pretty normal then. Continue reading “1 December 2013”
24 November 2013
Last time I wrote that weather wise we seemed to be on that slippery slope down into the depths of winter. Boy! No kidding. The temperature has dropped like a stone falling through a vacuum; we’ve had rain, sleet, bitterly cold winds and hail along with a smattering of snow in the highlands. And it’s only November!
Ms Playchute and I enjoyed a lovely few days at the beginning of the week – we took ourselves off on a little mini-break to Norfolk and had a splendid time. Continue reading “24 November 2013”
17 November 2013
Another good week – pretty reasonable weather all told, some bright sunny days with some frosty mornings – we’re clearly on that slippery slope down into the depths of winter, though – it’s getting a bit brisk on those afternoon dog walks and the sun sets earlier every day.
We had a lovely evening out on Wednesday – we attended another live streaming of a play at the Banbury cinema. This time it was a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Richard II with David Tennant. This was the RSC’s first live streaming event from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon and, apparently, it was available in cinemas all over the world! Continue reading “17 November 2013”
10 November 2013
Good morning to you all. We’ve had a fine week with some lovely days of bright sunshine as well as a couple of days with sheeting rain and wind. Today is supposed to be pretty nice although the temperatures have certainly decided that we’ve had enough moderate autumnal days and it’s time for the temperature to revert to something more approaching the seasonal norm. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Continue reading “10 November 2013”
3 November 2013
Well, we survived the great storm of 2013, expected to be the worst storm to hit the British Isles in 25 years! It raced through on Sunday night/Monday morning with hurricane force winds and buckets of rain. The original map of the predicted track had it coming straight through our back garden but it seems that it crossed a little further south and, as a consequence, we had a lot of rain but thankfully no excessive winds. There have been a couple of fatalities in the south and quite a bit of structural damage so, on the whole, we got off lightly. Looks like the Netherlands and Belgium received the brunt of the storm instead of us. Continue reading “3 November 2013”
27 October 2013
Good morning. I hope you’ve all had a lovely week. Ours was fairly miserable for the first part of the week although Wednesday and Thursday were outstanding – clear, bright blue skies and very acceptably moderate temperatures. Still, the sun is lower in the sky every morning, the leaves continue to turn and then fling themselves to the ground and the clocks went back to “proper” time this morning – yep, Autumn marches onwards and the grimy, grinding winter won’t be far behind.
By the wonders of technology, this is coming to you even though we’re not at home – we are enjoying a couple of days respite on the south coast with our friends Sue & Stuart. Continue reading “27 October 2013”
20 October 2013
Thursday last week was one of those delightfully glorious, bright, sunny, “fresh” autumn mornings which provided a welcome alternative to the dank, dark, dreary, drizzly days we endured for much of the rest of the week. I mowed the lawn and Penelope continued with her task of re-pointing the patio. Still, I guess it’s true – autumn is really here and winter won’t be far behind. Hmmm.
13 October 2013
Good morning and what a beautiful week we’ve had (well, up until Friday, that is). Bright, sunny skies, for the most part, and exceedingly moderate temperatures. Not quite an Indian summer, I guess, but certainly very, very acceptable. Toward the end of the week, however, the temperatures began to plummet (winds from the Arctic, of course) and brought us the sort of Autumnal weather to which we have grown accustomed in years gone by. One might also describe it as “crisp” which is certainly an adjective which could be used to describe Autumn temperatures. Continue reading “13 October 2013”