Three Freezing Days

Its been a very, very cold three days with a mixed bag of weather. Monday we thought we had better make our Christmas visit to the Cemetery in Spalding to put a wreath on 'Himselfs" Ma and Step Pa's Memorial stone. The morning was cold -8 when I got up and everywhere was a white out with a hoar frost covering everything. We wrapped up well to keep out the cold and set off. By the time we reached the other side of Peterborough we had hit thick fog. Undaunted we carried on. The fog lifted just slightly and briefly around lunch time but soon descended again. The temperature never got above -6 degrees with a chill factor of several degrees lower all day. The only good thing about the cold frost was the roads were clean and clear.

The cemetery was an eerie place, the white frost piercing the grey gloom of the fog.

We didn't linger this visit, too cold, and we decided not to go for a wander around the town this time either. Even the River Welland had frozen over through the town. The butchers where we usually stock up on our favourite sausages was closed. Strange to be closed in Christmas week. I expect they'll be heaving on Friday with every one collecting their Christmas meat orders. Dissapointed we decided to head for Market Deeping for a warming Fish and Chip lunch at the River Restaurant.

The Boundary Fish and Chip take away has been on this site for many years . Its called the Boundary because it sits astride the Parish boundary of Market Deeping and Deeping St. James The ever so slightly posh River restaurant behind the Chip shop is a fairly recent addition. It looks out over the river Welland and I guess it's nice in the summer but today the partially frozen river looked too murky and cold.

Tuesday dawned cold and frosty but no fog. The sun soon broke through the high cloud cover and made the hoar frosted trees look breathtakingly beautiful.

I had lots of jobs to do today. First a visit to the New City Hospital once more. Parking is a nightmare still but I managed the Disable parking bay this time. My passenger has a valid Disable badge but on the previous two visits there the traffic visiting the new premises were all unsure about parking so it was total chaos.

The new Costas coffee cafe had opened since my last visit so armed with my Kindle a cappuccino and a festive toasted brie and cranberry pannini I waited on a comfy sofa while my friend had her Physio session.

My swimming friend took this photo of the Lido and Cathedral from the cycle track on the river embankment.

Wednesday morning we woke to a fresh covering of snow. I suppose we can't complain as all week the rest of the country has been struggling with several inches of snow. We've only been freezing. By mid morning the snow was coming down heavily. It continued snowing until mid afternoon when the sun managed a brief appearance.

Today I had a lunch date at a friend house. My fellow diners are all the early morning Lido regulars and as one of our group is now wheel chair bound with limited movement we asked David from 'Sundays', the cafe we have our coffee after swimming , to provide our lunch. He arrived with a hot, full festive Christmas roast dinner and stayed to carve and serve the meat. Not many cafe owners would do that.

Our friends live by the river and their sitting room overlooks a marina cut away from the River Nene. They have a little wildlife haven in front of their window. In the summer a visiting seal who swam in from the Wash was not too popular with the fishermen around but provided entertainment for the homeowners. Today the river is frozen over and the resident Moorhen population are running all over the ice trying to find open water to swim in for food.

I expect we'll now have another white Christmas. My Christmas roses in the garden were looking as if they would be just right for picking for my festive table decoration, but now with the frost delaying them and the snow covering the emerging flower buds there will be no chance for the cheerful little flowers gracing our table this year. We're having a quite Christmas this year with just the two of us. Still no festive baubles have been retrieved from the depths of the attic but the cards are all adorning their usual place in the conservatory.

The Freeze Returns

The Christmas preparations at No 20 progress at a snails pace. All the purchasing is done. The cheats way of course, cards for the Queensgate shops. So much better than getting gifts that are politely received and quietly stuffed in a draw! No decorations have appeared though, just the festive cards blue tacked up around the conservatory windows.

Yesterday we went for morning coffee at the Farm shop and bought our festive meat to cover the holiday period. It was snowing as we drove out there and was settling at a disturbing rate but luckily it stopped quite quickly. All the heavy snowfalls of the last few days have missed us as usual. The frosts are bad enough.

All the hard work we put in cleaning and repairing the pond for the winter have been in vain. The water is escaping at a worrying rate after this last few nights of freezing temperatures. The ice sits over an empty space as under it as the water levels drop. We are at a loss as what to do. The little wooden bridge has given way as well so much that its not safe to walk over any more.

I think theres a distinct possibility of there being no pond, just a water feature, by the spring. We're getting too old to keep up the maintenance it requires

There's a little Pied Wagtail bobbing about on the ice. It slithered and skated right across the pond looking for water to drink, just before I took this photo. Below the squirrel masters the art of eating the bird food while contentedly swinging. The large box of 'out of date' biscuits 'Himself' brought home from EN offices are being ground down into crumbs along with some peanuts and are being pecked up at speed as soon as it put out in the mornings

A Break in the Weather

We're slowly getting infected with the spirit of Christmas, but still not enough to get in the attic and dig for the decorations. The cards are all made, addressed and posted. Just a few local ones to complete now. A trip into the city is planned next week to finish the shopping. I may cheat and take the car down halfway to a Valley Park car park and get the bus from there. That way I don't have to pay for car parking or queue to get into the car park then try to find a space.

Yesterday was Saturday and the expected break in the freezing weather duly arrived. So with sunshine and the temperature an 'barmy' 10 degrees we decided to go to the Farmers Market in Oundle. I like Oundle it's a nice little town. Easy to park easy to walk around. Beautiful architecture and NO global super stores.

The Farmers Market is every month on the second Saturday. It starts early at 8.30 in the morning and finishes at 1.30 in the afternoon. It's usually well attended and has a good variety of farm produced foods. Being near Christmas there were stalls selling trees wreaths, holly mistletoe and Christmas table arrangements as well as other seasonal foods. Carol singers completed the seasonal buzz.

The town centers mellow Barnack stone buildings glow in the sunshine.

The shops are small and interesting. A nice eclectic mix. Two extremely good butchers, a trade sadly lacking in Peterborough. There's a decent bakers and some good boutique clothes shops. An old fashion Ironmonger and an independent book shop keeps 'Himself' happy!

The town also has an small active theatre, converted from a defunct chapel and further down the street another chapel provides a space for a craft fare along with a comfortable relaxing space for coffee and mince pies. 'Himself' bought me some lovely glass coasters from one of the stall. We had just been admiring the artists work in the Gallery along the road!

Several coffee bars to choose from to take refreshments in or the menus in the pubs or the towns historic hotel, the Talbot, look very interesting. Today though we opted for a snack from the hog roast in the market. The smell was irresistible. The hugh pork with stuffing and apple sauce baps were worth the short queue for. Can't beat a little alfresco grazing!

This is one of the Art Galleries, something else Peterborough lacks. Its small but with some lovely pieces hanging that I would love to see on my walls!

A Frosty Birthday

The 7th of December dawned frosty white, the coldest day of the year -9 degrees Celsius when I emerged from my warm cocooned duvet. As usual in this really cold weather I have been late rising and missing out on my early morning swim. This leaves me with mixed feelings...... Guilty cos I should be up and organised to get out to get some exercise and then relieved not to be freezing while defrosting the car then fight with traffic to get to the pool. Anyway this morning I was later than usual and before I managed to get down stairs the doorbell rung. Luckily 'Himself' was way better placed to answer the door. A city florist was delivering a lovely bouquet of flowers from a friend. It was a joint birthday gift and a thank you for helping with her convalescence.

I ventured outside to feed the birds and the cold really smacked you this morning. The waterfall had ice all around it. A sparkling white hoar frost covered everywhere.

The recently cleaned pond was completely iced over and the fish still visible stationary beneath the ice. Remnants of the snow from last week still lay around.

We had planned to go out for an evening meal to celebrate my birthday but as the weather was so severe we decided that would be rather silly so wrapped up in our Canadian winter coats and hats we headed off into the countryside to have lunch at a restaurant in Ramsey.

The drive out was uneventful as the roads were clear and easily driveable not like the north of the country and Scotland where they were bogged down with snow and ice and roads were treacherous. The sun shone and caused the hoar frost over the countryside to look quite beautiful.

I discovered I had forgotten my camera so the photo is not mine but you get the picture. Endless fen landscape shimmering under a thin layer of snow and thick layer of hoar frost. The temperature never got above -2 degrees all day.

We arrived in Ramsey a small town in the Fens that I had thought was going to be interesting with lots of small shops. In fact it was a disappointment. Uninspiring buildings with many empty shops. It had no redeemable features so after a quick walk about we headed for the restaurant. It was called The Bow Window a pretty looking place from the outside, white painted walls with bow windows of course, and a thatched roof. It had been given a good review in the local press so we were looking forward to trying it out.

I'd checked it out on the web site and yes it was opened Tuesday to Saturday. The day was Tuesday so that was OK. Er... what it didn't say though was that it didn't open for lunches.

Thoroughly disillusioned with Ramsey we doubled back to the small village of Holme where we stopped at a Pub cum restaurant called The Admiral Wells. It was supposed to have a good reputation. The food was hot tasty and adequate nothing special though but we enjoyed the meal and met a very chatty lady called Grace who I discovered was once a receptionist at a village surgery where I use to go occasionally to do the Ante Natal Clinics.

Back home and watching the evening news on the TV there was a News report on Fen Skating. The cold temperatures has frozen the flooded fen fields and for the second time this year the fen skater were out on the ice. Made me feel nostalgic for my old fen skates. As a kid I use to look forward to the frozen ponds and dykes when I could don my skated and whizz round the ice in the frosty open air.

A Rocking Christmas

It's a cold frosty day today. Minus 1.5 degrees when I got up this morning. Every where covered in a hore frost. Despite the cold we decided we'd have a day out and as Rockingham Castle is fairly close by and was open for it's Christmas event this week that's where we headed.

Rockingham castle is 900 years old! Commissioned by William the Conqueror and for 450 years it was a royal Castle followed by 450 years as a family home, belonging to the same family for all that time.
The castle sits on a the top of a hill with sweeping views all round the Welland Valley. From the Gardens you can see across five counties.

Henry VIIIth granted the Castle to the Watson family who have lived there ever since. During the Civil War the castle was a Royalist stronghold causing the family to loose much of their wealth. The castle was badly damaged by the Roundheads. Thirty feet of the long gallery was totally destroyed by shelling and was never rebuilt. The long Gallery has still the original 1800's maroon curtains and wallpaper. It's lit with three hugh Murano Venetian crystal glass chandelier.

Ancient Norman door arches and slit arrow windows survive century's of alterations and modernisation.

Views over five counties in the Welland Valley viewed from the gardens.

During the Victorian era Charles Dickens was a frequent visitor. His novel David Copperfield is dedicated to Sir Richard and Lady Lavinia Watson and much of the novel Bleak House was written while he was a guest in the house.

The house was opened this week as a Christmas event. Staff were dressed in the costumes of 1849 and the rooms dressed for Christmas. The dinning room is all set up for a banquet, 1849 style with some magnificent silver center pieces.

It's been sunshine all day so we walked around the gardens first before the sun moved and sent them into shadow.

The gardens stretch around two sides of the house and the most impressive part is the 'Elephant' hedge. A double hedge of clipped Yews

The Kitchens are set for a magnificent Christmas feast 1849 style. Not a kitchen I would relish working in. Very labour intensive.

By the time we emerged from the castle grounds the sun was setting over the valley and the frost was returning covering the grass with a hore frost.

All Clean and Sparkly Again.

Rectifying the leaking water from our pond took allot of our energy. For a start there were many more tears in the liner than we had first thought. The thick clay soil we dug through to make the pond must have been the reason more water hadn't leaked out. I suspect the wretched heron is the culprit.

Anyway fish, water and mud removed the liner got jet washed and after much deliberation on how to proceed with curing the leaks, we ...... well 'Himself' really, found the unused liner from the shed and sourced some 'fish' safe silicone sealer and set to work patching all the tears and splits. If this didn't solve the problems then a much bigger task of replacing the liner was the only answer!
While the pond edges were accessible we decided to remove all the plants from the edges. The tiny leafed 'Mind your own Business' plants we planted to cover the edges had been over taken by a plant we bought years ago that is now banned for being such a 'rampant thug' When we bought it we didn't know it's awful spreading properties. I've sent ages on my knees ripping it out to try to control it to no effect. I know we still haven't got all the invasive roots but hopefully it will be easier to tackle now.

The fish, bless 'em, have been quite happy in their temporary homes, along with water beetles, rams horn snails and various other aquatic bugs we carefully saved from the mud off the pond bottom. So many fish thought. I thought only rabbits breed like that!

Water, fish, bugs and snails are all back in a pristine pond. Touch wood the water seems to be staying put. The only problem so far has been the wretched heron. This lunch time he had landed and was in the process of wading into the pond once more for his lunch before he was spotted and shooed off.

Now the pond has a random network of fine fishing line criss crossing the edges and the water. I hope he is suitably deterred otherwise I'll have to think up a more devious deterrent......

A Wet Affaire

The Pond in our garden, lovingly dug by ourselves over a month back in 1994, has been a source of delight, amusement, education, frustration and calm contemplation over the years. Many a cup of coffee has been drunk while sitting watching the wildlife it attracts. An emerging dragonfly was the inspiration for the design of a cake during my City and Guild Design course back in 1998. Grandchildren and friends children have sat on the little bridge over the stream with their noses a few inches from the water looking at frogs, tadpoles, beetles, dragonflies and even a snake.

Over the years the vegetation in and around the pond has grown increasingly luxurious. Each spring and it becomes more dense and each Autumn we struggle to reduce it.

This summer though we have had increasing problems with it. A pump failure in mid summer started the catalogue of woes. The pump wouldn't come out of the water. The water lily roots had escaped their container and trapped the electric cable to the pump. The only option was to destroy the beautiful waterlily to be able to lift the pump. Sorting out the pump made us realise that a deep cleaning operation was required to remove the silt and dead alga. We also became aware we had a water leak. Over the sumer we tried different strategies to try and define which part of the pond the leak was in.

By Autumn we decided their was no option but to drain and clean the pond out and hopefully find and rectify the leak.

Himself set to work draining the water levels to make catching the fish easier. Ha!!! The fish thought otherwise and did their best to evade the net. Three tubs of fish sat on the patio. Had he caught them all? Eventually the silt in the water was so dense he had to give up until the next day to give it time to settle.

It looked an extremely sad sight. Still no indication of were the leak is yet.

Next morning there had been a frost the temperature recorded -2 degrees when I got up. The fish in the tubs hadn't appeared to have suffered any ill effects. The water left in the pond had settled somewhat and it was obvious that there were still fish to catch!

I set about catching the remaining fish, not easy, the mud soon stirred up and they came up in the net along with masses of smelly mud and I had to get them out quickly and into fresh water. Thank god for rubber gloves!

Power washing the sides to clean it the pond liner showed up our leaking problems. The liner was deteriorating and splitting. It shouldn't be, it was guaranteed for many more years yet. Now we need to decide what's to be done. Neither of us have the energy or strength to completely remake the whole pond and with last nights frost it's not the time to be doing a job like that. We decided to finish cleaning it out and refill to the split line, replace the fish until the spring.

Now, no one has ever fallen in, not even the grandkids, as I designed it to be as child safe as possible, but, while trying to remove some roots from the side 'Himself' slipped in. He was not best pleased. God that mud does smell!!! Hopefully that will be the last of our woes but the saga will continue

......