Spring Blossoms

Being a grouchy old so-and-so today so best left to mumble alone. Pretty pic for the day, Spring blossoms. I've always wanted a cherry blossom tree but thanks to Nutty Neighbour's enormous leylandii trees sucking up all the goodness from my garden I have no chance of growing one so I'll just have to appreciate them elsewhere.

At the same point, beautiful weather today gave me an excuse to enjoy some time in the garden and those blessed leylandii were full of birds. Just a pity they are so over-imposing and over-imposing into my garden.

Storm Henry - Just How Many More Letters Are We Going To Go Through

Once again a journey outside may end up with you being blown all the way to Norway.  It now seems relentless and although the skies are intermittently blue, the gale force wind means we can only gaze at them from the comfort of behind the double-glazing.

Storm Gertrude gave us a thump on Friday, Henry today - I am mindful that we are not yet halfway through the alphabet and while I'm sure the intention was not to utilise every single letter, it doesn't bode well.

Poor dog ventured into the garden, the wind not-so-gently ruffled his ears and now he looks at, or rather ignores, the offered lead like this -

"You saw what happened to my ears just then, right?"

So that'll be no walk today then pup?

The neighbours have the lovely task of clearing out their house today - or rather everything that was damaged when their boiler burst on Saturday night. I don't think I have ever seen quite so much water pour through someone's ceiling.  They asked for help in locating the stopcock, useless as it turns out theirs wasn't where mine is. Interestingly as they were calling their insurance company 24hr emergency hotline, with no electricity, snow outside, kids wrapped up on the sofa and Niagara Falls in the hallway, it turned out that 24 hours call out means 9 am the next day. Guess what the first thing I checked was on returning home.

The fire brigade were able to help, after no other plumber wanted to come, unfortunately it meant their kitchen was ripped up in the process.  Hats off to the guys as within minutes they had the water stopped and the flood drained.

The saying it never rains but it pours has never been more appropriate!

Keeping in mind that today is Imbolc - if you were in the pagan habit of leaving a white cloth out for the goddess Brigid then good luck finding that this morning.

D'you hear that Henry, it's Brigid's day so bugger off and take whatever storms are coming next, with you!

Breathe in/Breathe out/Repeat

The hedge still lives...for now.  Nasty neighbour's daughter spent the day hacking into the existing hedge ensuring the height and all the greenery ended up in a pile of cuttings.  Sad and I'm trying not to let it bother me, trying not to really mind the loss of privacy as they now have a grand view of our every movement in the garden.  Trying. Trying.

Most anti-social neighbours build huge tall fences.  Sigh.  I fear I may have to write a note (yes a note because I'm not stupid enough to go to her door and give her the opportunity for another shout) regarding them hacking in to the new hedge when it grows - and they will.

Ex had offered to build a fence, knowing his capacity for letting us down I said no.  It would probably have been better to wait ten years for the joy of a fence they couldn't peek over.

God but it's petty and I hate it but they have very little in their lives to contend with so this is their sustenance.

To think of better days and not care, not be pulled into this nonsense.  I need some good luck to come our way.

There Goes The Neighbourhood

Nothing changes the mind over a situation as quickly as discovering this has happened at some point between coming home from work and our attempt to leave for the school run this morning:

So as the Narnia winter keeps this crappy little town in its grip the intelligence of certain individuals shines through and we are £75 worse off plus a planned trip to the craft fair is on hold until tomorrow smashed windscreens notwithstanding.  Throwing snowballs at cars when the snow is more like ice - that about sums it up.

This new place I had looked at, it isn't perfect, it is far from perfect.  It is also far from here and that can only be a good thing.  *sigh*  Sometimes things roll on and it is hard to see a clear picture.

36

Lets try on 36 and hope it is a better fit than 35 was because, seriously, that was not a vintage year.

Yesterday was my birthday, if you live anywhere near us you would probably know that as the Hobbits delighted in telling anyone and everyone that it was my birthday - and mummy is 36 dontcha-knoo!

At least it is kinder than at the weekend when, on the packed full bus heading to Edinburgh youngest Hobbit asked if I was going to be 51. Where he got that from I don't know but I did see a few discreet and not so discreet glances from the other passengers.

I hear the neighbours (who incidentally haven't spoken to me since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named left) have bought a kareoke machine for Christmas. It is going to be very much the case of guess what it is they are singing.

I Didn't Forget...

Not to mention the fact I failed to write a post on Hallowe'en, with the Hobbits looking so fine in their pumpkin outfits. We are working our way through the haul of teeth-rotters, a little each day.

Last night, yes, the 5th November.

Time for the next-door neighbours to re-enact the Battle of the Somme again. It wasn't so bad this year, it only went on for 2 hours as opposed to the 3 hour endurance test of last year. This will be the only time I am glad Alex the dog is not with us anymore, it was torture for him last year, stayed in his crate shivering, wouldn't come to another room with me so I spent the time in the kitchen with him. Out of badness over what they were doing to my dog I kept the kitchen lights on. Well.....

According to the Hobbits version of history Guy Fawkes actually managed to make "the castle explode and he killed the King." Almost babies, almost! I tried to explain what really happened, short of going over the whole death thing, didn't really work out! How gory do you go with dealing history to children?

Hmmm

October gave me one last kick in the ribs when I backed out of our drive only to end up in the side of a neighbour's car as she hurtled past. Only the car didn't belong to her, it belongs to her friend, a mobility car (don't get me started on that subejct!) as well, and apparently she doesn't have a licence. And she kept insisting on giving her friend's name rather than her own (6 years as neighbours and I don't know her name says it all really.) Through other neighbours it is passed on the info about her non-existant licence and well-known reckless driving. Which I guess makes sense if she never sat a licence!

First accident I have ever had and it grinds at me that I have to be made liable because I was reversing. Never mind the fact that there was no way she could have missed seeing me move out of the drive, never mind that she sped past in an effort to get by me despite the fact I was fully out of the drive and...ah what the hell, it doesn't matter. It happened and that is that and at a time when I have been squeezed financially to the point of extinction so the excess is an unwelcome burden.

One thing after another, after another, after another.

So I duly tell my insurance company that I do not have the driver's name but only that of the car owner, I give them all the information I have and they don't seem really bothered. I guess I was wrong in thinking you weren't supposed to drive without insurance or licence.

A Damp Squib

Oh don't get me wrong, I enjoy fireworks as much as the next person but I view Bonfire Night with the same dread as some see Halloween. Only rather than feral teenagers egging the door it is over eager neighbours spending a small fortune on hosting a fireworks display for their little darlings.

As far as I can see fireworks loose their appeal after about 15 minutes, *bang* *flash* *ooohhhh.* You get the drift. So far I have endured over an hour and a half of the damn things from a neighbour who is holding the fireworks in one hand and the lit taper in the other. I say endured because every year since they moved in they have had fireworks on Bonfire Night, I was prepared, let the cat out early to get him back in before it started, get the dog out in the garden for some exercise. Also I needed to give him (the dog) and try and give the cat some Rescue Remedy to make them calm.

Only they started early...

Husband of course is at work. The perils of shift work, in fact he has never been home a bonfire night which has never been an issue before. The hobbits have school in the morning, I like to get them into bed and unwinding by this time.

I am getting to the stage where I am going to be sticking one of their fireworks up...you get the point.