Out and About

February seems to have gone almost before it arrived. Not actually done much around the house / garden - it's remained rather too cold to start planting anything - there are still no daffodils out yet (I'm sure that by St David's Day last year they were almost over!).

Been really busy at work though, was down in Cardiff one week, attending a conference at St Fagans: National History Museum.

The conference was good, but it was also really interesting getting to look round some of the buildings, and spotting the bits they'd used to film Dr Who episodes! It's definitely on the list for a return visit later this year for a proper look round.

This last week was up in North Wales for a couple of days - luckily the weather stayed nice for the most part, and I could admire the snowy views on the drive, without actually getting caught in any blizzards. The road through Beddgelert was particularly stunning (should have taken the main road, but SatNav was set to shortest route and I didn't twig that it was taking me over the high ground at first!), unfortunately I didn't have time to stop for photos .

[You can (just) make out a snowy mountain in the background of this shot taken the following day from Bangor University.]

Otherwise where we are seems to have escaped any more snow - no more than an occasional dusting / hard frost anyway - just enough to provide some good photo opportunities:

Green Shoots of Spring

Well if Spring hasn't quite Sprung yet, it is certainly poking its green shoots up above ground. Most noticeably with regard to our annual crop of snowdrops, but there are also a range of other bulbs on their way to flowerdom.

I planted over 100 cheap bulbs (tulips, crocuses, muscari, fritillaria, and whatever else was on offer in the Poundshop) earlier in January, but not sure if they'll make much of showing this year - hopefully some will survive and flower in Spring 2011.

Otherwise the garden has been cleared of its undergrowth of rotting montbretia leaves. The clematis montana (dislodged when the window men took it upon themselves to do the garage roofline - we hadn't ordered this, and ended up getting it for free) has been persuaded back on to the trellis on the garden wall - hopefully it will recover sufficiently to put on its usual glorious display.

We've finally pruned the raspberry canes as well, and the kitchen windowsill is resplendent with baby onions (decided to grow from seed this year). More to be done though - next on the list digging over the veg plots, and weeding the fruit cage - before more planting (tomatoes, courgettes, spinach, etc.) - next thing we know it'll be time to cut the grass and trim the hedges!

The Big Freeze?

That's what they are calling it - the Big Freeze - where most of the UK got hit with heavy snow for much of the first half of January. We got some here in West Wales, but being on the coast it wasn't so bad - didn't have any trouble getting in to work, as the bus ran every day no problem.

Anyway, here's my run down on January's weather, and if you want to see a more technical rendering the weather station now has its very own blog.

Last Year I Mostly Read . . .

Continuing my annual archive of what I'm mostly reading this week.

Finished:

The first three books in Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity series, Keeping it Real, Selling Out and Going Under (November 09 - January 10). Basically a set of fantasy/sci-fi 'romps' set after the detonation of a Quantum Bomb which broke down the borders between the realities of our Earth, an Elven one, a Demonic one, a Faery one, the land of the Undead, somewhere with 'Elementals' and I think somewhere else I can't remember - well something like that anyway. They're good! Waiting for the fourth to appear in paperback . . .

A re-read of Robin McKinley's Beauty (late October 09, while suffering with a cold) one of my all time favourites (a really good 'comfort read') - followed by her re-telling of the same story (Beauty and the Beast) in Rose Daughter (published 20 years later), and (I've decided) one of my least favourite books, in fact I'm not sure why it is still on my bookshelf . . .

Jim Butcher's Dresden series (all 11 including the latest Turn Coat) - unfortunately I lost the bet Martin made with me about reading them all in a couple of weeks (got distracted when he broke his leg!). Nevertheless enjoyed revisiting them, and it was interesting to track the emerging conspiracies and plot lines. Turn Coat is also a fine addition to the series.

PopCo - (September 09) A kind of an anti-globalisation mystery story with codes and stuff. Well I enjoyed it anyway, and it had some good messages.

Old Man's War - (August 09) A Heinleinesque piece of highly readable sci-fi.

Friends Like These - (July/August 09) Danny Wallace's very entertaining attempt to track down best friends of the past.

Felbrigg: The Story of a House - (July 09) All about the history of a National Trust property - well about the family that owned it and how the property changed with them. A nice read.

Unchained America - (June/July 09) Dave Gorman's roadtrip round the US trying not to give money to 'The Man' - pretty good, except I think he's probably a little unstable!

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (May 09) - abandoning John North The Ambassador's Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance (which I may yet go back to) - made me think I must re-read Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell.

Hellraisers - (May 2009) tales of excessive drinking in the lives of Burton, Harris, Reed and O'Toole.

Predictably Irrational - (April 09) all about just how irrational human decision-making actually is.

The latest Dresden, Jim Butcher's Small Favor (Americans can't spell), riveting stuff (March 09), but didn't explain some plot intracacies - maybe it's being held over till the next book?

Tanya Huff Summon the Keeper and The Second Summoningand Long Hot Summoning - (Jan / Feb 09) entertaining fantasy stuff, good v evil, talking cats, ghosts, etc.

John Masefield Midnight Folk and Box of Delights (Dec 08 - Jan 09) - strange books, the narrative tends to get a bit lost in flights of fancy - still enjoyed them, probably more now than when I was a kid (some of the language and content is very much of its time and I probably just didn't understand what it was going on about!).

Fire and Flood

We got off rather lightly in the so-called 'big freeze'. Although we had a good couple of inches of snow at the beginning of January (and it's stuck around pretty much ever since) we missed the worst of it. And we'd got ourselves a bag of 'grit' before the stocks ran out so we could get up and down our path / drive.

The new porch (pictured) which I never really got around to blogging about - something we had done, in addition to the roofline, guttering and some double-glazing back in September / October - has helped insulate us from the cold. In due course it will hopefully be a nice place to sit, but at present it's providing a good place for stock-piling some handy wood for the stove during the cold snap.

While awaiting Sunday's snow - which never really arrived with us, although some of the surrounding villages have been badly hit - we decided it would be a good idea to give the stove's chimney a mid-Winter sweeping. All went very smoothly this time - on the previous sweeping, back in October, we managed to dislodge the chimney cowl! So we hopefully have nothing to fear in the way of chimney fires for the rest of the winter.

Still awaiting the snow - the following day - when our neighbour called round to say they could hear running water coming from the back of our house. It wasn't so much a 'flood' as a 'fountain' as it turns out. We thought the pipe to the outside tap had burst to start with, but luckily the tap had just popped off the top, so didn't take too much replacing. Hopefully that's the last water-related drama for some time to come . . .

December's Weather

December was a distinct improvement on November on the weather front - it finally got a bit colder, and we had that nice snowy Saturday just before Christmas (shades of things to come):

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

2010 - Make it a Good One!