A Cold Winter Shock

I've just downloaded the January fuel bills and did some comparison with last year’s usage. Oh my goodness what a shock. The cold weather has played havoc with our fuel consumption and hoicked the bills up to toxic shock level.

Even taking into account the fact we were not here last December and only Dave was here in January last year they did not look any better. Then I compared the actual fuel prices and got another shock by how much they had risen

All our efforts to reduce our fuel usage seem to have been in vain. This is despite our new efficient gas boiler, up to date replacement electrical equipment and lighting the lounge fire and burning wood to save the daytime gas heating

I think I'll just have to turn off the conservatory heating and our orchids will have to take their chance on surviving the cold. If we have much more cold weather maybe we ought to do what many Seniors do and decamp to Spain for the winter!

Global warming………what global warming. We haven’t seen much of it during the last year!

Sun Sea & Snow

Sunday was a beautifully blue sky day, but boy was it cold. In need of a change of scenery and R&R we decided to have Sunday lunch at the coast. Winter togs loaded in the car we headed off for our favorite county and coast destination. Wells Next the Sea in Norfolk.

As we cruised deeper into Norfolk it became obvious that the east coast had suffered overnight snow. Just a light dusting in most places but a slighter deeper covering in some places. During the day we were grateful for our warm coats, gloves, scarves and hats. The north wind was raw.

It was one o'clock when we arrived in Wells and our stomachs were grumbling so we headed straight for the Village Green and a Hotel called 'The Crown'. The hotel had been renovated by a Kiwi and called Chris Coubrough who had a successful television cooking program a couple of summers ago. He went along the Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire coast meeting local people and cooking local seasonal food. On previous visits we had favoured The Globe hotel as a food stop, the other pub on the Green but today we thought a change was in order. Good choice, the food was top notch. Cooked to perfection as delicious.

After lunch we walked along the quay side watching all the different the sea bird feeding on the sand banks of the estuary while the tide was out. I was glad we had eaten our lunch or we would have been tempted by the smell of the fish and chips frying and being eaten alfresco on the quayside.

We then wandered up the village shopping street. Not many shops open on this cold January day but alterations and improvement were taking place in several of the old shops ready for the summer season. For a January Sunday there were a surprising number of people about enjoying the sunshine and the bracing air. Although the street looks quite empty in this photo!

Just to prove there was snow! It was still lying, late in the afternoon, on the book shop roof, as fresh it had fallen the previous night.

We thought we'd better drive to Sunny Hunny, 23 miles is a bit far to walk!

This old bird was enjoying the air!

A bit cold for messing about in boats today.

Crab pots piled up on the quay side.

Later in the afternoon we drove north towards Hunstanton along the coast road and had a walk along the Cliff top in Hunstanton

and watched the sun go down over the sea.

To a beautiful red and orange sunset.