More winter, eh?

For several days lately, the sun has been strong enough to warm the sitooterie enough for us to have lunch out there, and then sit oot and snooze/enjoy the daylight until late afternoon.  Not so today: although, as I write, the snow is only lying on the frozen pond, we've had quite a few flurries of increasingly powdery snow, and wouldn't be surprised to wake up to white surroundings tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I've been able to garden a bit more, and by the time the composting bin went last Thursday, it contained not only the Bramley apple tree prunings but also the top hamper of the cornus at the front, the lethal berberis (beautiful plant, but I made the mistake of planting it too close to the general public), and a mile or two of brambles.  The cornus we see from the back of the house still has its crimson stems on view, but they'll have to come down next time the weather allows old bones to be outside for half an hour. 

Meanwhile, back in the sitooterie, I have stoked up the hotbot propagator and sown sundry rudbeckias, sweet williams and hollyhocks.  And the charlottes are chitting away nicely on top of the tumble dryer in the garage.  We have spent an outrageously extravagant fiver on a couple of trays of primulas from Fortnums, and will get them out into the containers once the Beast from the East has passed over - assuming they survive its ravages.  They are outside at the moment in a sheltered corner.  The time will come when we need help in the garden, but meanwhile we shall enjoy doing it ourselves.

There are moments when one seems to be surrounded by bureaucracy, idiocy and incompetence.  I've been trying to do some efficient things with investments that require registrars to send me forms for completion.  Registrar 1 had to be asked twice to send the forms relating to two instruments, and sent one lot in duplicate.  Registrar 2 said, 12 days ago, that they'd send me the requisite bumf, but confirmed today, on being prodded, that they had not, but would now.  Watch this space - oh, don't bother, for goodness' sake.  And just don't ask about the hobby.

Martyn, meanwhile, is working on the nth incarnation of the railway network of the 27th Canton of Switzerland up in the attic.  The sunny days have made it quite bearable up there, he reports, so he is getting on with replacement canopies for the station platforms, complete with lighting.  I worked a bit on a little acrylic last Thursday at art class: the view from the spare bedroom window in Another Place the day before I sold it last autumn.  It may come to something, but is more likely just to languish in the portfolio of the unfinished.