Family

My father in law died peacefully on Tuesday of last week at the residential in Oxford where he’d been living for the last six months, he died the day before what would have been his 91st Birthday.

Up until recently he had been in very good health, fit and very active. He loved to travel, one of his favourite places (and he’d travelled to many) was the Isle of Eigg on the west coast of Scotland, he returned there many times.

It’s been a difficult time, regular readers might remember my mother in law died last September followed by the untimely death of our friend Darren just a few weeks later. *Sigh*.

Family Tree

We spent yesterday morning felling a tree. We’ve had chainsaw adventures before, but this was a different beast to slay. Mainly because of its proximity to the house, the oil tank, two drystone walls, the telephone line and us! Also to be factored in to the equation was the size of the tree, 44 feet.

It was a carefully researched mission, there was only one way it could fall.

There was much measuring of angles, a rope attached with a couple of strapping teenagers hanging on the end.

A ‘cheese’ taken out of the trunk, some strategic cuts and then, with some tugging, down she came.

It is hard to remember that when we first moved into the house,  this tree was so small we used to drape the it with lights at Christmas, an exercise that needed no ladders.

 

It was quite a nerve wracking task. The boys were quite giddy when the mission was accomplished.

 

By the end of the morning, we’d worked it down to just the ‘spine’.

The Village

The Village starts tonight on BBC1 at 9pm.

I’m sure you will enjoy the scenery, it is going to look more than a little familiar to regular readers of this blog. Enjoy.

The drama sets out in 1914, here is the Uphilldowndale homestead in around 19006-1910

I’d planned a longer post with a few links to ‘The Village’ landscape, but  that will have to wait. I’ve not been so well for the last few days, all those antibiotics came at a price, Joe tried to cheer me up, ‘At least it is better than the tooth ache Mum’. I certainly hope the reaction doesn’t last as long as the tooth ache.

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog, March 24th 2013

Well you can guess who has enjoyed this weather, Spud the warrior dog with his icy  breast plate.

The rest of us may be finding it all rather difficult, not Spud the adventure dog

I know that in many parts of the world, this amount of snow is not a big deal. But it is here, and so late in the year,  I’ve not seen this much snow in the lanes since my childhood

(which wasn’t 1947 since you ask).  It is the winds that have caused the drama, Tom  and Mr Uphilldowndale spent hours digging out the lane yesterday, it was all back again in a few hours. As Tom wryly noted, it won’t stop filling in until every field east of here is empty of snow or the wind drops.

We went to visit Mrs Bee and her boys, they are not  very happy. Mrs Bees road is worse than our lane, it is not going to plough out, it will be a snow blower, digger or a long wait for it to thaw.

We took emergency supplies of cheese and wine (essential do you not think?) and Tom helped carry a bail of hay for the farmer whose sheep are in the next field. Brownie points all round.

The space between these two drystone walls is the road, the walls are about five-six foot high at this point, full to the brim.

Snow Spectrum

It’s March for goodness sake, not even early March come to that, frosts and snow showers are acceptable but not blizzards.

I’ve been feeling a bit better today,  I felt inspired enough (from the warmth of my desk) to get the camera out of the bag  and capture  the snow, as seen through a bowl of iridescent glass baubles

 

 

I was less keen about Jammy the kitten-cat and a bowl of baubles though.

Mum’s the Word

Happy Mothers Day.

I’ve been keeping a low profile this week,  it’s week two, of gnawing tooth ache. A couple of trips to the dentist, painkillers a plenty, plus a course of antibiotics  and oil of cloves and I’m not sure the end is yet in sight. I’m feeling rather weary of it.

Today we have been sat well and truly on the snow line,

 

we often are, live in a place long enough and eventually a pattern emerges. It has been bright and clear, but with a very sharp, bitingly cold wind. No way was I taking my ultra sensitive tooth out side for a dash of photography, oh no: I can wince at the mere thought of it, it is bad enough having cold air blasted on each tooth in the name of a diagnosis (it gave new meaning to the expression ‘upwardly mobile’!)

Photos taken from the bedroom window are as good as it gets today.

A few minutes later, a squall of snow flushed through the valley and finished the show for the day.

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog, March 3rd 2013

Spud the dog, retrieved a toy Landrover  from the rock pile* today . Goodness know how long it must have been there,  it must be years,  it’s a long time now since the boys played with such things.  It must have been pre Spud, which is just as well, seeing Spuds enthusiasm for  trying to chew the tyres off  it this morning.

‘Back in the day’ there would have been endless opportunity for Spud to have devoured all sorts of toys. I can’t but wonder what made him dig it out today, for he must have passed it a thousand times before.

Just as the boys specification for toys has changed, its all mountain bikes and computer games these days, so has the families idea of a suitable car. Our trusty family estate car, age 17, and with generous 290,000 miles on the clock will be off to pastures new any day soon.

I know, this post is a day late, I’m afraid  toothache got the better of me last night.

* All the stone, we’ve ever dug up,  or pulled down, since we moved here over twenty years ago. We have aspirations to make it into something more than a cairn, one day, one day.

Winter Walk

Nothing finer than a  winter walk for  the restoration of equilibrium, Mr Uphilldowndale and I were both in need the other afternoon. We went down by the river, always a good move.

Up through the woods and across the fields.

Spud had a high old time, you can just see him here, heading off  towards a rather handsome wall, that’s topped with snow.

At the moment freezing rain is hammering against the windows and the rising wind has been piling snow back into the lanes this afternoon. The forecast is for the weather to get warmer over the weekend and for the snow to melt; we’ll be glad to see the back of it for a while I think. The weather conditions have led to tragedy.

We walked back past the church, not a bat or a bear in sight.

I saw some photos of ‘ zombie snowmen’ in the press this week, I had to admire the skill in their making, their location was described as a disused graveyard in Bristol,  it led me to wonder, how can  graveyard be disused? Its not like a factory is it? Isn’t always going to be ‘in use’ by its residents?

The Further Adventures of Spud the Dog, 20th Jan 2013

Spud likes the snow, he even manages to look tidy in it.

Snow is more user friendly to a dog than mud. (Did I ever tell you about the time an neighbours Chow Chow dog, wallowed in the outfall from our septic tank, one hot summers afternoon? There is mud and there is mud, there are muddy dogs and there are muddy muddy smelly dogs.)

Snow is a new adventure for Jammy and Dodger the kitten- cats

But, at the end of the day, keeping snug and securing the lions share of the sofa is the priority.

 

‘Mum! The cats have got a mouse in the porch!’ Said the boys.

‘Well go and get it off them then’. said I.

No one volunteered.

Ever helpful, Spud the dog stuck his head out through the cat flap, from the kitchen into the porch, and stretched as far as he could, and a bit more besides. He plucked the now deceased rodent from off the door mat in the porch and brought it back through the cat flap into the kitchen and presented it to me.

‘Well thank you Spud, what a helpful doggy you are!’ Now what do I do with it?

Indoors if Wet

It would be very nice to be out and about,

after all, ‘Operation Cosy Christmas’ is a wrap, and whilst it got a bit fraught at times, getting everything done (Joe reupholstered six dining chairs on Christmas eve, he’s the fastest teenager in the north west with a staple gun)  we did it, and had lovely time. Now our guests have gone, all is quiet and still; it would be a good time to be out and about, mooching around with the camera, but it is just so, so, wet. So I’m pottering around with the blog instead, a new look and a review of the links in the side bar to follow. WordPress tell me my chosen new theme can morph itself to suit what ever device you chose to read this blog on, phone, PC, tablet etc, let me know how it shapes up especially if it is not delivering the goods.

It is not a bad place to be spending the darkest (I hope) of the winter days. Warm and cosy and in good company.