Thursday, February 5, 2009

The North Wind Doth Blow UK Visit, 31st Jan - 4 Feb

Saturday 31st January, 2009
Another trip to the UK for me as it was my daughter in law Sam's 30th Birthday on Saturday 31st January. I caught a later plane than usual and landed about mid-day at Stansted and Sam and the lovely Jack were there to meet me. Jack is always so pleased and excited to see me, it's wonderful. We went straight home (via MacDonalds for a take away coffee). It was freezing in the UK, much colder than it had been in Ireland and I gather the bitter wind was coming from Siberia, so no wonder.

It was a playing with Jack afternoon for me. We played all sorts of games, he's really into 'make believe' ones at the moment. As his mum is having a baby he likes being a baby too or being Buster, my dog!

I had bought Sam 30 presents! I just managed to fit them into my case plus a few clothes for the 3 days and that was about it. I emptied the presents on the floor and Sam and Jack (mostly Jack) opened them, which took some time as you can imagine. I think Sam liked all her bits and bobs, especially the red pyjamas - large enough for her growing bump.

Sam and Jack with the 30 birthday presents

As we were booked at the Harvester to eat at 6pm we all got into our glad rags and make up and headed off about 5pm. It was a very cold evening but warm inside the restaurant and we spotted our table with '30' balloons on it and 30 confetti all over the table top. Sam's friend Amanda had arrived early and arranged that, plus a bottle of bubbly. Jack was dressed in his 'Sportacus' outfit and behaved very well all evening, even though he's usually in bed by 7ish. The food was fine and the desserts delicious! Jack had chosen Sam's cake for her, a clown and our waitress brought it in although we were all too full to eat a piece. As well as Sam and Jason, Amanda, Jack, Rene (Sam's Mum), Ivor and Maureen (Jason's Granddad and his wife) and of course me - attended.

Sam with her meal, Maureen in red

Jack helps Sam blow out the candles, Maureen and Ivor look on

We were pleased to get home and it wasn't too long before we all headed off to bed. I think Sam enjoyed her day.
Sunday 1st February, 2009
We had decided last night to go to a car boot fayre on Sunday morning, so we were up pretty early. Poor Maureen had had a rotten tummy all night so wasn't up to coming, but did all Sam's ironing instead. Ivor and Jason decided to stay home too and watch the football, so it was just me, Sam, Rene and Jack who braved the weather. There were hardly any stalls there and it was bitterly bitterly cold. Talk about 'The North Wind Doth Blow'. I bought frozen Jack a woolen hat and one for me too. The lovely man on the stall gave Jack a pair of gloves!

Rene bought a pair of curtains for 50p for her new flat at Jason and Sams' house and a lamp. A lady was selling a box of craft items for £5 but said I could have them for £2 so it was worth the trip after all. I can't remember it ever being quite as cold as it was there. My eyes were streaming and we all rushed back into the car and headed off to Asda for a warming cup of something and a bun. We're good at that. Back home and we had a lovely lunch of jacket potatoes and accompaniments with birthday cake for dessert. Jack enjoyed playing with Sam's birthday balloons:

Don't you love that tee shirt? 'I love spiders, snails and dirt'

It had started to snow by then and as the afternoon wore on, it became more persistent. Ivor and Maureen had about an hour's drive so decided to head off into the snow.

Jason, Maureen and Ivor and one of Sam's balloons. Can you see the snow falling?

Monday 2nd February 2009
Jack should have been at school this morning but it had been cancelled. While at school, Sam works with Jason in their office at home, so I had Jack while Sam worked. We played many many lovely games. I was surprised he didn't want to go out into the snow but he was happy inside in the warm playing 'I'm a baby' games. Late afternoon we did decide to go out and build a snowman and Jason and Sam too. All wrapped up against the elements, we had a great time:

Weeping apple tree in the snow

Snowy Bench and laurel

Jack and Gran (me) in the snow

Jason making the snowbody

Sam with snow on her head by Jason, Jack on the left behind our huge 'snowperson'!! How cool is he?

Lovely photo of Sam in the snow

Little stone bench and snowy apple tree in Jason and Sams' garden

Now I should have been going home on Monday evening but of course my flight from Stansted was cancelled! So it was another night in Suffolk for me. In fact it was two! I couldn't get one for Tuesday either but finally booked one for Wednesday evening at 6pm. I was a bit short of clothes but Sam washed some big knickers and a t shirt for me and saved the day.
Tuesday 3rd February
We spent some time in Newmarket on Tuesday. It was really sunny with blue skies but still very cold. The snow was still about but melting where the sun had caught it. I took a few photos.

I took this through the car window. I think it turned out rather well. Evening sunshine on snowy hills

Sunset at Newmarket

Newmarket Clock tower

Wickhambrook, Suffolk at dusk

Jason and Sams' house in the snow

Wednesday, February 4th
I had a lazy morning as Jack had gone to school. We picked him up at 1pm and met up with Sam's friend Lyndsey with her twin baby girls and son Ben who's the same age as Jack. They played really well together, inventing new ways to 'get the baddies' which seemed to involve 2 round soft bricks they called 'cheeses'. Sam and I took turns in holding the twins who were a bit grumpy at times. Then it was off to the airport for my plane.

Jack in the hat with a very silly smile! In the car

The plane was on time and we boarded but there was obviously some sort of hitch. It turned out that we had one passenger too many! A stowaway? Up and down they went, checking names and passports against numerous lists. Did they find this extra person? Apparently not! We set off about half an hour late, the mystery unsolved. Jim picked me up at the airport and it was once again really cold and windy. I gather the neighbours have been up to the house complaining again! The room floors have been concreted now and Jim has been busy doing odd jobs.
Thursday, 5th February
It was good to be back in my own bed last night. I was able to view the new floors this morning and the day was bright and sunny at first. Jim and I walked around the land and he showed me the work he'd done round and about. He has been making some willow fencing around the allotment, mainly to keep Buster off. It looks absolutely brilliant and is very strong too. It's not a living willow but a wattle style fence, the one you do in panels.

I stayed and did some work at the top of the allotment while Jim nipped into Gort to buy some fruit bushes from Aldi! We are adding to the soft fruit bed on the allotment. The bed already has strawberries, some rhubarb and blue berry bushes on it so these extra raspberry, blackberry and tayberry bushes will fill it up. Let's hope we get some sun this summer.

The bad news is that the mad neighbour Sandra spotted Jim in Aldi and once again complained about the mess on the road, the concrete truck that blocked her way (once, for about 2 minutes) and, and, and! She wanted to be informed of any deliveries we are going to have, times, etc!! The woman's getting madder by the day. She said we were avoiding her. Too right we are!!

Ah well, in spite of that, I managed to almost put her out of my mind and got a lot done this afternoon and finished off when it got dark about 6 o'clock with a big bonfire. Buster came and sat with me for a while until the sky totally cleared and it dropped really cold. It was amazingly bright though with a beautiful moon and sparkling stars.

Jim made a cassoulet for dinner, which was lovely. Haricot beans, bacon, choritzo sausage and vegetables. It was a bit salty but delicious.

It's good to be back.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Inflated Buster? Woodland Walk and Woozles

I had to laugh when I noticed the front of Lidl's pamphlet today:

It sounds as though he's about to blow up! As it happened, Buster did have a swollen eye and I suspect Sandy lashed out at him for being a pest once too often and scratched just above Buster's eye. By tonight it has gone back to normal thankfully.

Winter has struck with a vengeance. Today we've had snow on the hills, hail, rain and a bitter, biting wind. I went to get the post from our box outside the gate and thought I'd freeze. We spent most of the day indoors keeping warm. Jim valiantly battled the snow and went down to the orchard to bring up 2 barrow loads of wood. Buster went too and kept looking up at the odd flake of white powder coming down towards him. I stayed inside and sorted out the Christmas cards. OK, a bit late I know.

Later on, we realised Buster hadn't really had a walk so I heroically took him to the wood. I wore 2 cardigans, a thick coat and my new balaclava type hat! I was certainly warm. Oh, and the red spotty wellingtons of course. The ground underfoot was really muddy and slippery but Buster didn't care and had a fantastic run. He does love that wood.

I didn't take my camera as it was raining and a bit dark. Of course when you don't take it....
In that odd light before the rain falls, the mosses were vibrant in their shades of green. Lime, sage and emerald stood out brilliantly against the dark dying leaf floor of the wood. Several trees had fallen into the lake, which itself was dark and moody. When the raindrops came, they plopped off the trees into the water, leaving ever increasing circles where they fell. The 2 bullrushes remaining were today deep in water and around them the water was momentarily still as a mill pond. The red rowing boat jutted out above the water line as if to say 'I'm still here'.

The rocks Buster and I normally climb over were all but submerged under the then choppy waters of the lake. Buster had a paddle and a drink but didn't stay in long. We turned back and once again ploughed our way through the muddy tracks. I cut a route diagonally through the wood to go back to the car. It was steep but less muddy and Buster and I played fetch with pieces of stick. Buster is pretty hopeless at it really, but enjoyed the chases. I picked up some fallen twigs, covered in lichen. It comes in so many shapes and forms and the pale green of the lichen stood out in the fading light. I took a photo of my 3 sticks at home:

I am going to dry the top two and see how they turn out. I am so glad I made the effort to get outside. I really enjoyed it.

Just now it's sleeting and the ground is covered in little round white stones of ice mixed with some snow. Buster ventured out and so did I, but only a little way!

Footprints in the snow. Is it a Woozle?

Just to remind us all that there is still a child in our hearts. You cannot read this without smiling:

chapter three

In which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a Woozle

We start this chapter by meeting Piglet for the very first time - hello, Piglet! Piglet, like Rabbit, doesn't seem to have a proper name, although we are told that his grandfather was called Trespassers Will, which was short for Trespassers William, and he knows this because a sign next to his beech-tree house reads Trespassers Will.

Piglet is just brushing some snow from his house when he spots Pooh, who is walking around in a circle. Piglet asks Pooh what he is doing, and Pooh says that he is hunting and tracking something, although he doesn't know quite what he is hunting and tracking, and he'll have to wait until he finds the something to find out.

The way that he is tracking the Whatever-It-Is is by following some paw-marks in the snow, and when Piglet sees the paw-marks he gets very excited. Piglet, as we shall see from later stories, is generally quite an excitable animal, and sometimes rather nervous, but he can also show bravery that belies his tiny size.

Piglet is excited because he thinks that they might be tracking a Woozle. A Woozle! That really would be exciting! Can you imagine! A Woozle! (No, I don't know what a Woozle is either, but if Piglet says that it is exciting then we shall put our faith in Piglet.)

Pooh says that it might be a Woozle, or it might not, and Piglet joins in with the tracking and walking in circles to see if they can find out for sure. And after a little while Pooh stops walking, and says that it's very funny, but there are now two sets of paw-prints, which means...well, what does that mean?

"This...whatever-it-was...has now been joined by another...whatever-it-is... and they are now proceeding in company. Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to be Hostile Animals?"

Luckily for Pooh, Piglet has nothing to do until Friday, and anyway he wants to find out whether they are really following a Woozle, or indeed, as Pooh points out, two Woozles, and so Pooh and Piglet set off together to do just that.

The Woozle, or Woozles plural, seems to be going around a little group of larch trees, so Pooh and Piglet go round the larch trees too, and Piglet tells stories about his Grandfather William, and Pooh wonders if perhaps the Woozle they are following is a Grandfather instead, or maybe two Grandfathers, and if so whether they can keep one of them.

Suddenly, there is a revelation - Pooh stops and points to the ground!

"What?" said Piglet, with a jump. And then, to show that he hadn't been frightened, he jumped up and down once or twice more in an exercising sort of way.

What Pooh has spotted is that there are now three sets of tracks - they are now following three separate Woozles or Grandfathers! But in fact, Pooh has noticed that the new tracks are different from the old tracks, which means that they could be dealing with two Woozles and a Wizzle, or even two Wizzles and one Woozle. Who can say? They must continue to follow the tracks.

And they do so, although by now they are feeling a little worried, because of the large number of animals involved, and the possibility that one or more of them might be of Hostile Intent. Piglet rather wishes that his Grandfather was there to help them, and Pooh has a little dream about happening upon Christopher Robin, entirely by accident, and only because he is rather fond of Christopher Robin, not because they are in need of Help.

And then...Pooh stops again...for there are now four animals in front of them! Yet another Woozle has appeared! And Pooh resorts to licking the tip of his nose to try to cool himself down, because he is now so hot and bothered.

"I think," said Piglet, when he had licked the tip of his nose too, and found that it brought very little comfort, "I think that I have just remembered something. I have just remembered something that I forgot to do yesterday and shan't be able to do tomorrow. So I suppose I really ought to go back and do it now."

So Piglet goes off to do his very important thing, very glad to be Out of All Danger, and luckily for Pooh Christopher Robin arrives right at that moment. Christopher Robin has actually been sitting up in a big oak tree and watching Pooh and Piglet as they walked round in circles.

Christopher Robin asks Pooh what he was doing, as Christopher Robin has watched Pooh walk round the trees twice by himself, and then twice with Piglet. And Pooh sits down and thinks about this for a little while, and then he tries putting his paw into one of the tracks, and then he stands up.

"Yes," said Winnie the Pooh.

"I see now," said Winnie the Pooh.

"I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a Bear of No Brain at All."

And what has Pooh realised? Well, that he and Piglet have been following their own tracks around the tree, and there were never any Woozles, or Wizzles, or Grandfathers to be worried about.

But Pooh doesn't need to be too bothered by his revelation, as Christopher Robin assures him that he is the best bear in all the world. "Am I?" says Pooh hopefully. And then he cheers right up, and remembers that it is almost lunch time, and goes home for it.

We should note that the events of this chapter are recorded on the official Winnie the Pooh Map, where you can see the little group of trees, the paw-marks in a circle, and the label Where the Woozle Wasn't.

Utter Brilliance.