Life!

Clearing the drive had been a really good idea - the sun came out again the next morning and although it had little effect on the deep snow, it melted all the patches of ice on the drive and dried it up so that getting out later was not a problem.  I took Suki for another long walk in Parke from the house before setting off for London, via Jay's for lunch. I got to Jay's house just after 1 pm - Suki dragged me through the garden and into the house, and then promptly peed on the carpet!  I don't know if it was the smell of cat or just excitement.  Jay produced a nice lunch of homemade soup, rolls, quiche and salad - and a cup of her nice strong coffee to finish.  Certainly helped break up the journey - and I didn't need to eat a single sweet.  Must be a record. It was funny being in the house on my own - strangely quiet.  I made a lot of progress on admin and paperwork and I finished putting the Barnes QPs since the fire on Bell Board.  I went to se...

When I arrived in Devon from Stoke Mandeville it was positively springlike - the sun was shining and the birds were singing and it was just beautiful.  I forgot to unset the alarm when I went in, and was drawn to go out in to the back garden as it was so lovely and sunny - at which point the alarm went off!! The following day I saw rain was forecast and got out early for a nice long walk in the plantation - the rain started at 10.30 and it hammered down all day resulting in lots of flooding and everywhere for walking is now a muddy boggy mess. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing the final paperwork on Mary's estate.  I was not impressed with the Tell Us Once service we were offered by the Registrar when registering Mary's death.  There was a council tax bill for Mary when I got here and when I phoned to query it they stated they had not received any notification.  When I telephoned HMRC to enquire what was happening with the income tax refund, they wouldn't tel...

It looks as if I left Devon at the right time - there was a red weather warning the next day for severe snow and ice, due to Storm Emma coming up from the south.  I might have been snowed in there -  which I wouldn't have minded ordinarily but I needed to be back this time to take Mike in to hospital  on 28th for his pressure sore operation on 1 March.  The garden was covered in quite thick snow - and the pavements were very icy with thick hard packed snow on them.  It was all treacherous. The snow started again about half an hour before we were due to set off, and I was getting very anxious about driving.  All the official advice was to stay in unless your journey was absolutely necessary.  People had been stuck on the A303 all night.  It was difficult getting out of London - Larden Road was slippery and had snow on it, as did the Uxbridge Road.  The A40 was a little better but the snow was beginning to build at the sides, and we were...