We woke to snow again. It had started to thaw last night, but the temperature dropped far enough to form long icicles on the gutters and freeze the surface of the pond. A light dusting of snow on the pond stayed throughout the day. We took a long walk down to our local wood andContinue reading “A Walk in the Woods”
Author Archives: juliachalkley
Closed until further notice
The only people still cheerful about snow out here are kids and big kids like me. We’ve had a strong blast of cold air straight from Russia and Scandinavia hitting the east of the country and dumping up to ten inches of snow on counties that are really not used to the white stuff. I’mContinue reading “Closed until further notice”
Snow at last!
We’ve been threatened, we’ve been warned, and finally, we got the snow we deserve. My friends up north have my permission to laugh, take the mick and share photos of REAL snow… but down here in the soft South of England, we’ll take an inch of snow and play in it till it’s muddy slush.Continue reading “Snow at last!”
This old house
We’ve been correcting the door on the larder for the last few days. Excuse the fancy terms; we do tend to take the mickey sometimes. Our house was built many years ago for a family that had achieved moderate success rather than great wealth or just enough to keep out of the workhouse, so itContinue reading “This old house”
Lighting up the darkness
Photo by Tomasz Pro, Pixabay When one of our cats dies, I light a tealight and leave it burning in a lantern over the cat’s grave. Tonight there’s a candle burning on each grave in the garden, to acknowledge that every cat out there added his or her own flavour to the house. Looking outContinue reading “Lighting up the darkness”
The Silence
Image of tortoiseshell cat by Didi S, Pixabay We’ve woken every morning for the last six months to our young tom’s call to the breakfast bowl – a kind of rusty hinge squawk some mornings, a sudden loud “AWWWW!” on others. This morning, we woke when the sun came round to our window. It’s smallContinue reading “The Silence”
Life hands you lemons. Unripe ones.
Picture by Eduardo Viera, Pixabay This time yesterday, we had three cats; an elderly tabby female and a pair of youngsters just growing up to be adult cats. They’d negotiated their spaces in the house and everyone got along with everyone else. The tom was starting to show signs of preferring to sit with myContinue reading “Life hands you lemons. Unripe ones.”
Now the year has really started.
Yesterday was another indoors day, and I used it to plant up the first seeds of the year. I’ve had the propogators set up for a week now; seed compost in modules, gently watered and plugged in to heat the soil. Yesterday I spent the whole day deciding which varieties I was going to plant,Continue reading “Now the year has really started.”
Waiting for the snow
We have friends in Scotland and the north of England and the borders of Wales. So I know that many people have had proper snow and are now wishing it would clear up and move on. Apologies for the excitement, but over tonight and early tomorrow we have snow forecast for our area. I hadContinue reading “Waiting for the snow”
Didn’t it rain!
Wet day today. Started just before noon yesterday, and it’s been raining ever since. The roads out to the nearest town have been flooded, the river has burst its banks in several inconvenient places, potholes appearing in the roads are invisible under huge puddles, an accident a few miles south has delayed journeys home toContinue reading “Didn’t it rain!”
Julia Chalkley 