More snow last night and freezing temperatures does not make life any easier, however, I managed to get the post to the Post Office yesterday so I know that Father’s parcel should be with him soon and I also collected the delivery left at the Newsagent. The Home should be open again to visitors on Monday so hope to see him again soon.
My Mother ‘phoned yesterday – she had spoken to the Home to see how Father was- and they reported that he was not missing us, I am not convinced, one of the problems he has is a brain tumour called a ‘Gliomas’ so his mental health is fragile to say the least and what he says one minute cannot be recalled the next. The sooner I can see him again the better. My Mother was not too happy as my brother had called her ‘old’ – not sure how old you have to be to have that label these days....
John and Stuart had another busy yesterday – one of the jobs on the Farm that can only be done in when the ground is frozen is cleaning out the cattle sheds. It is usually too muddy to do this so a good freeze makes sure that the ground is nice and solid if somewhat ‘slippy’, the only trouble was that the tractor got stuck and had to be freed with the only remaining bag of grit we had left. Stuart then had to go to the top of Sutton Bank on the forklift to collect feed supplies from the delivery lorry. Stuart commented this morning ‘ you know that tv programme Escape To The Country’? well I wish I could escape from the country!’ I am sure he does not mean it really.
The Amplebosom.com staff all made it in yesterday – Jill had to have a new wheel for her car – the cost of this weather is racking up daily, I am driving down to collect Betty and anybody else that I can collect on the way this morning.
John did not get to Thirsk market yesterday but Stuart went in, he went to the Bank and got the shopping in. He bought back ‘Breakfast Pie’ and if you are not familiar with this delicacy it looks a bit like a quiche. I for one, was not impressed with his choice and although grateful for Stuart’s endeavours on the shopping front will not requesting this again – I am not a lover of the sausage and black pudding mix that makes up some of the content.
I was, and am still, in a state of shock over the price of cotton thread – I asked Stuart to buy 2 large and 1 small reel of cotton thread – I need this for the pockets that are sewn into the bras when needed by customers who have a prosthesis - and some beads to fix a necklace. Now I know that the beads are only 99p so thought £10 was a generous enough amount, not only did I get a surprise but Stuart was non too pleased either as the bill was over £15 by my calculations that means ½p a metre for a 1K metre which was £5.60!
So talking about prudence, I am going to switch off some of the radiators in the house today to conserve oil, and if needed put electric fires on – the forecast into next week is not looking great and would hate to run out of oil. I am horrified at the thought of all that milk that has had to be dumped as the delivery lorries have not made it to the farms and I am going to ask our suppliers to start delivering to the newsagents in Helmsley and go down and collect in the 4X4.
Thursday night is Domino night for John and he went off for his away match in Thirsk and although quite snowy it was not going to put him off, and he was pleased to report back that he won both of his matches.
Although the snow has caused problems I have to say that everything does look quite beautiful, especially when you are the first one out on the road after a new fall of snow, fabulously clean and startlingly white. Wildlife appears to be attracted to the road for the salt I would imagine – not the safest of places to find, pheasants. partridges, crows, hares or deer when stopping is a problem! The first gate onto the fields is left open at this time of year, and as I set off to feed the sheep across this new snow, I had to stop to open the second gate and then continued down a green lane towards the field where Stuart’s sheep are for the time being – don’t tell John, but I have to tell you it is very exciting going a little too fast for my own good – but slower than the boys would have gone – it did cross my mind at one point that this was a little dangerous but my theory being that as long as I could see the ground and it was not falling away from me, I would be able to stop and I would come to no harm, it also occurred to me that if I should go through snow so deep and got stuck there was only me there and it was a fair stretch back to the house and mobile reception is not good – not that I had brought my mobile with me! Stopping again for another gate and through onto the hilltop – you can see the PowerStation over at the coast from here if you really look, I did not look as I was looking for the sheep – no sign – but then again 2 fields does cove 50 acres, it is ideal for the sheep as this acreage is too steep to grow crops and plough. I had a good shout and then saw them hurtling towards me – 200 pregnant ewes all very hungry. I had three blocks of food concentrated lick, about the size of a car tyre, I took the plastic wrap off and tried to roll them down the hill with no success – it would have worked in a cartoon or a movie! I then tried to get one of the 4 bales of hay out of the back of the 4X4, Stuart had wedged them in so hard I had to cut the band and pull out sections and throw across to the sheep until every nose has a piece of hay, as you would imagine the flock get closer and closer – Stuart manages to kick the hay quite a distance but I find it easier to move the vehicle. 3 drops later everyone is happily munching, so off I go to pick up Kelly from the top of Sutton Bank – if you do not know this road it is a steep gradient one in four – which is usually passable because it is well gritted. Back to the office and then on to Helmsley for a quick shop bread etc.. pick up the rest of the girls then back home for a coffee and a hot cross bun (I ask you) before I start on the rest of the day.
Red sky as I fed the sheep this morning and collected Kelly from Sutton Bank and I was reminded of that old saying ‘Red sky at night shepherd’s delight red sky in the morning sailor’s warning’
One of the’ must do today’ jobs that has been put off long enough is in the house – we have had a leak for quite some time - there has been a damp patch on the ceiling that has bubbled and developed a black spot, we thought it was a leak from the bathroom, although not evident on inspection, we got the bath panel off to check , nothing there, we then got the rods out and ‘rodded’ the pipes from outside but no blockage. So when you think you have done all you can it goes to the back of your mind but when I was hanging the Christmas decorations I moved one of the armchairs and noticed that the wallpaper was coming off and the internal wall was damp, this leak was clearly not going away and now getting considerably worse. We have now identified this leak coming from an old pipe in the bathroom and must get this pipe bought soon, so this job has rapidly moved up the urgent to do list. Thankfully this leak is not in our beautiful cottages.
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