Friday 17th March - Blue crocuses at last

Not a bad day at all. We decided on a Rest Day. Unfortunately I had to spend hours messing about with the computer which had developed all sorts of glitches. I couldn't print, had loads of serious sounding error messages including a 'export1exe ' warning which looked worryingly like a virus. In the end I found that the lead to my printer which was connected via a cheap freebie hub was insecure in the socket causing a bad connection. I changed it and, I hope, seem to have solved the problem.

Picasa isn't working right either. I selected this picture only to find that when I blogged it, I'd got a picture of a sparrow in the bird-bath. Let us hope that the prob is at their end not mine. In the end I had to import it from My Pictures and start again. I'll probably go on the Picasa forum tomorrow and see if others are having similar problems. One sign of Spring, apart from blue crocuses, is that the 'morning chorus, is strengthening. I can recognise robins and blackbirds but not the others. Last year the BBC let you download little samples of each common-bird's song but I didn't memorise them.

David sent me a link to an interesting 'mind reader' site. You work out a number, look at a symbol next to it, on a chart, click on a crystal ball and lo-and-behold your symbol appears. Ray knows how it works (mathematics) and others on the WUforum have worked it out too. I think I understand the maths but how it knows which symbol you have been looking at, eludes me. David didn't comment on the 'blog' but it has been pointed out by a good friend that I was including too much personal detail. And alth0ugh my 'settings' don't allow the blog to be 'listed' and in theory only accessible to people to whom I have given the address, Steve says that a determined computer person wouldn't have much trouble finding it. I therefore reviewed all my 'blog' posts right back to the start, fortunately not that difficult, and decided that the point was well made. Blogger makes editing a doddle, so I went through each post and amended it accordingly. The last thing I want to do is give cause for concern.

The weather is still very cold with the temperature hovering between below freezing and about 4C but it isn't unpleasant. Once it gets to around 10C I need to get out in the garden. Yvonne braved it during the afternoon to do some much-needed cutting back (one of her favourite garden jobs) and quite enjoyed the fresh air.

Tracy is still working very hard and very long hours but she says that at the weekend when she is alone in the office, she can really get on with things. She is coming over for a meal soon and has opted for sausage and mash, with onion sauce. Not lamb which she usually picks. Mind you, everyone waxes poetic over my onion sauce. For us today I made a chicken-casserole which will do for tomorrow as well. It was a success. I used plenty of tarragon - I had to eke out my own fresh, from my window-sill pot, with dried. Tarragon and chicken are made for each other, like tomato and basil (which I have loads of, on the window-sill again).