The start of winter

The back garden under a bit of snow

Fairly low temperatures and snow arrived in the New Year. As we have been here for for over three weeks, the big stove has been properly heated through and maintaining that lovely, slightly smokey smelling heat that is such a comfort in the winter. We still use the central heating too, so the cold didn't bother us.  Interestingly, inside you can always tell when the temperature is plummeting outside, as you start feeling little draughts. The forecast was for -15 at night and one day it went that low even before it got to night time. Brrrrrrr! The amount of snow wasn't much, at most about 2 inches, but it made the garden look pretty.

The seismograph during one of our eqrthquakes

On New Year's Day we had 8 earthquakes right through the day, starting around 7.45am and finishing in the middle of the night. 4 of them could be felt and the first one was really weird as it felt like somebody kicked my bed. I knew that this region is quite prone to earthquakes, but this is the first time I actually felt any of them.

Most of the first week of the new year was spent partially in bed, because my cough and sinusitis is still with me and partially because it was so perishing outside, we didn't venture out even on the days there was a sparkling sunshine.  That is actually very aggravating, as I love being out in snow, cold and sunshine, but whenever I tried it my face started hurting.  The latest is that all my teeth are hurting, which is probably also caused by this virus, although I do have a couple of upper teeth on the left that have been giving me niggles in the last few months, so we decided to find a new dentist.  The old one has gone abroad to work and thankfully some friends of ours passed us the details of their dentist to us. We both have an appointment in a couple of weeks' time.

Our Lutheran church

On one of those really sunny days I couldn't resist at least a little walk in the village and took my new camera for an outing. I am learning its tricks slowly, mostly by pushing buttons and seeing what happens.  Reading those 60/70 page long instruction booklets is such a fag! As you can see that was still before the snow arrived, but the brilliance of the sunshine made it worth getting out there.

Otherwise, we mostly engaged in indoor pursuits this last week or so.  We made another batch of mince pies and presented Nelly with two of them this time.  Subsequently she told me that they were too fatty and too sweet, which they actually were.  Oh, I said, what's happened to them? I ate them both straight away, she said. That, apparently, was also my fault, as she can't resist anything sweet and eating them all at once is not good for her.  Ahhhhh! I think she'll only get one next time. :-)

Mince pies

Once the holidays were over I started trying to organise some entries to O events and accommodation for them. The Hungária Kupa is held near the Slovakian border in August and while we were considering commuting, we decided not to as that would stop us from taking part in communal activities, dinners together etc. with our O friends. I spent hours combing the net for a nice little guesthouse that would be suitable and picked one which was in a pretty village near the plateau on or near which most of the events will be held and was reasonably priced.  Would you believe it, it was already booked? So I had to start the the search all over again.  Finally, and after talking to our friends we wanted to share with, we booked a small bungalow, which is just about big enough for the 5 of us and which is near the main city of the area, so going out to dinner should not be a problem. Also, the sprint event is in that city, so at least one event is close by. AND, it has a sauna, which should come in handy for our aching joints after our runs.

The Apple Guesthouse

This week we only had a Skype call from Callum and he was not exactly playing ball for my photographic efforts by having his head down into his brand new Christmas present of a tablet. He is however, still heavily into Star Wars and managed to put in a request, via his father, for the rest of the Star Wars stuff. Considering that those are in a couple of boxes in his Uncle Stephen's loft space, those will have to come out anyway as Stephen and Lucy are planning a loft  conversion which is due to be installed in the spring. I know that there is some emotional involvement with those starships, as they were his fathers back in the 1980's, but the cost of posting them to Canada might be a bit steep.  Perhaps we can pay for an extra piece of luggage for Meaghan in the summer and she could take them home then.  We'll see!

Close-up of the fire

The stove still gives us a lot of pleasure.  It is hard, physical labour to carry the logs, set the fire, keep feeding it with logs, clean out the ashes etc.,etc.  But the warmth, scent and comfort it gives is more than enough compensation. The other source of never ending pleasure this time of year comes from the bird feeders. As it is really cold, they feed practically all day and it is quite normal to have a dozen or more on and in the bowl as well as up on the piece of fat at the same time. The latest list of birds seen is: blue, great and coal tits; gold, haw and green finches. I have not seen the woodpeckers for a while, but I can hear them often.

Honeysuckle Weeks and Michael Kitchen in Foyle's War

On the TV front there have been some welcome developments. It being the new year, some old series have returned much to our delight. Foyle's War has been one of our absolute favourites.  Historical accuracy, good scripts, excellent actors and generally such a fascinating atmosphere that both of us love it. Unfortunately, it is only 3 episodes, but they are 2 hours long and the first one didn't disappoint.

Last Tango in Halifax is also very enjoyable, although not all the characters are amongst my favourites. Anne Reid plays one of the leads who reminds me of someone I knew in the past and loathed. Spoilt, obsessional, bossy and the type that would not let go.  Do you know what I mean? Still I enjoyed the first episode.

The principal actors of Last Tango in Halifax

And then, Broadchurch is back. Broody, secretive and full of slow, smouldering passion. I love David Tennant and Olivia Coleman, so whatever is the storyline I will watch it. With the weather being as it is I think we could spend a lot of time in front of the telly this month.

Olivia Coleman and David Tennant in Broadchurch

I am off to a concert and to do some food shopping tomorrow on the morning bus. Should be back on Saturday afternoon. After that we are in the village until next Thursday, when we both will depart in the direction of town.  That would make Roy having spent one day short of an entire month in the village. We might be away for about a fortnight, as we have lots to do, I have some concerts and a theatre night, plus our Scots friends are in town whom we would like to see. Bye for now and talk to you later in the month!