Wintery weekend

This is the wintery scene that greeted me as I left home to go to work on Friday morning. Walking to St Albans station was like walking through a blizzard – I was wearing wellies and my ski jacket and was white with snow when I reached the station. There the staff were advising us not to venture into London as there could be no guarantees that we'd actually get home again. I pressed on though and actually felt quite silly by the time I got into London as there everything was just grey and miserable looking. My colleagues had a good laugh though when I appeared in the office dressed for blizzard weather conditions!

On Saturday Mr C and I took a trip out to Oxford to visit my brother-in-law J who lives there with his girlfriend A. The main roads were pretty clear, but from the motorway it was clear to see the difference in the amount of snow that had fallen to the west of London on Friday. After all the busy travelling of the last couple of weeks it was lovely to be able to curl up Saturday evening, with Mr C and a bottle of red wine, and watch Monty Python's 'Meaning of Life'. Shockingly I'd never actually seen this film before, but thoroughly enjoyed the slightly surreal nature of it all. 

This also gave me time and opportunity to create a new dishcloth – the current one having finally worn through. My Nan always used to produce bundles of these for my Mum and when she died I inherited her collection of knitting needles and also several balls of dishcloth cotton. They're so easy to make and perfect for providing something to work on whilst watching a film.

Today's been a bit of a lazy day at home and the local area. For a lazy day though we seem to have managed to get quite a bit done. I thought that the supermarket opened an hour earlier than it did today, so we were in the very rare position of arriving 10 minutes before opening time and sitting in the car park in shock at all the people queuing up outside, waiting for the doors to open. Having had no success so far in our house hunting we then headed off on foot to look at a couple of houses that have just come on to the market and work out if they were walkable from the train station or not.

After a spot of lunch back home we then headed down to the WWA to see what wildlife was around. It was great to be able to use my binoculars again and the resident kingfisher was very obliging and sat on a particular branch for quite a while so I was able to get a good close-up look at him. Generally there were loads of tits about on the feeder which at one point also had three goldfinches on it. I'm always surprised at how long the goldfinches hang around. Once they're on the feeder they just seem determined to hang on there until they've had enough to eat. Very different to the tits and robin who just come and grab little bits before flying off. It was freezing cold sat in the bird hide though. The walk round the reserve itself felt even colder, mainly due to the cold from the snow penetrating through my wellies I think. They seem to be forecasting more snow for tonight. I've no idea if we'll actually get it or not, but it may make for another interesting Monday when it comes to using public transport!

Now I just need to motivate myself to do some paperwork this evening. I've got the monthly expenses and invoices to sort for work and also need to make a start on all the paperwork associated with our extended trip to Vienna and Brussels so that I can get a travel insurance claim in next week. Please cross your fingers that they decide to pay out for us!