At home

When I come back having left this mortal coil I want to come back and live in the house of a cat lover  like me- our four just don't realise how lucky they are as they have got their paws well and truly under the duvet - literally.

We woke to terrific storms again today and having wiped the sleep from our eyes found that we had the three boys snuggled up on our bed all warm and comfy and Boris had actually got half of himself under the blanket and was well happy.  They proved to be our excuse not to get up too early - that and the fact that the house felt really chilly - it has been probably the wettest winter on record and it is beginning to take its toll as everything is so damp and doesn't get a chance to dry out and that makes it feel colder than it actually is.

It is difficult to keep on top of the laundry and we have had to have washing hanging around indoors because we have failed to get it dry - I could tumble it but we have used so much electricity this winter so far compared to previous ones that I am loathe to do so.  

On the plus side enforced house arrest meant that I could start acting on one of my New Year's Resolutions which was to go through the house and get rid of things that we clearly no longer needed.

I decided to start in the kitchen simply because John had the fire lit and it meant I could tidy and keep warm at the same time.  For a house that has limited storage we seem to have a lot of stuff and John and I often fail to agree on what we need to keep and what needs to go but I was on a mission today and went through loads of things and felt better for doing so.  At the end there wasn't too much selected to get thrown or recycled elsewhere but what remained got sorted and tidied and it was quite cathartic to do that.  How long this will last god only knows but it is a start!

Along with my tidying I got a coq au vin started in the slow cooker and a bread and butter pudding which we were going to have for tea with Mum and Dad.

It had rained all day and hardly been daylight when we set off down to Emba for dinner with Mum and Dad - it was quite hard to drag ourselves away from the log burner but the promise of central heating and a meal I had not had to cook myself was strong and we were not disappointed.  The house was toasty warm and we had horseradish beef which is one of mum's signature dishes.

We had a good natured game of Mexican train dominoes and gave Fred a bit of a fuss - I had sorted him out some toys and some treats during one of my forays into the furthest reaches of one of the cupboards - I reckon he may get a bit bored being confined to barracks having been a wanderer before he started to get beaten up.

When we left Emba it was about 17 degrees - which can often be the temperature of a summer's day in England but it was windy and damp so felt cooler and when we approached Droushia there was sleet and snow hitting the windscreen - we reckon if it carries on through the night we will get a scene like the one which greeted us on New Year's Day last year when we had a fair bit of snow fall overnight.

The thought of snow reminds me of a couple of year's ago when in February we had two very different consecutive days - Day one when you couldn't see your hand in front of your face and there was a fair covering of snow and rolling mist and Day two when the sun was shining and the snow was gone!!