Cold Day - buts lots happening

With so many tulips in the garden Yvonne decided to cut some for the house and it was a toss-up whether they looked better on the window-sill with the light on them, than they did in the garden. As Chazal said :-

"The flower in the vase smiles but no longer laughs"

Once read, never forgotten I suppose. But they do look nice and they can still see their siblings a few feet away can't they ?

The day started out quite cold, around 6C as I remember and remained predominately dull with the odd flash of sun. But at least it hasn't rained and Steven and family at Alton Towers are having a whale of a time. Yvonne rang him on his mobile and we wished him 'Happy Birthday' and the children came on and sounded very excited. Hannah was keen to tell us all about a water-ride and they will have much to entertain us with when we see them.

John rang and I had a nice long chat with him. I told him how well his Millau Viaduct picture had been received on my Photo Forum and he said that in life it was stupendous, and very difficult to photograph due to it's size. If you got far enough away to include the whole structure, you were too far away to do it justice. I can't wait to see it myself and Yvonne and I have put it on our 'things to be done' list. But she says she won't countenance me driving on the continent. We could do it in easily manageable bits !! John said that everyone was fine and that Philip had his firm's van with all up-to-date audio and IT equipment because he had some Cruisers to visit. I assume either to fix some problems or to sell them stuff. Sounded good whatever. No word from David so I guess they are away too. Tracy rang and she said she was going into work - mainly because there won't be anyone else there, and she can get a lot done. Ah well ! These conscientious young people.

We had a gammon joint for lunch with all the trimmings plus veg. and, of course, the traditional broad beans and a savoury sauce. I boiled the gammon and, relying on my trusty meat-thermometer, I'm always surprised that it takes less time to cook than one would expect! We wouldn't be happy about it under-cooked but it is nice to have it just right and still moist and tender. It will be lovely cold tomorrow.

After lunch and a rest we decided to go over to Arnold for another 'mooch'. We stopped at Dorkett Head so Yvonne could explore the footpath on the right hand side: the one on the left being so dramatic. But it was a disappointment. No magnificent view as I had predicted just high banking and a wire fence surrounding some quarry working. Yvonne had a good legstretch and a blow though while I managed a few yards. Did me good though. Then we had another generalised cruise around looking for suitable bungalows. We can't really get excited about any though, until we have a firm buyer for ours. Let us hope that changing agents changes our luck.

This evening on Tv there was the first of a three-parter, a docu-drama about the Impressionists and it was great. Well cast, well acted, and well written (from letters, diaries and contemporary records) and such a pleasure to be on BBC and free of adverts. In one of my web-magazines the start of iMP is predicted within a few months. This effectively means that BBC TV will join their Radio output and be viewable again and downloadable for up to a week after being broadcast. The final nail in the VHS-recorder coffin! And once BBC are doing it the commercial channels won't dare be far behind.