Chilly....

Bitter cold spell - polar north east winds and rain, with snow in London a few days ago. Inside our nicely-insulated house stays equable, with central heating purring into action every now and then -- but no cold striking in through the walls. Last night we hauled down the big brown winter blanket for our bed, and this morning I woke up nicely warm instead of slightly chilled (but just as reluctant to leap out of my cocoon). We have the central heating on both thermostat and timer, so at night it will only fire if the temperature goes down to about 12C, then it wakes up just before the alarm goes at 6am.

Yesterday, we stayed inside the house. JN painted upstairs hall wall, so our picture gallery can be re-displayed without intrusive blobs where blu-tak was. I planted up three window boxes with spring bulbs (layers of tulips, daffs, winter iris) topped with pansies (Karma Blue, Amber Kiss, Ocean Mix) I grew from seed, operating from one of those handy plastic 'potting station' trays on kitchen table, with forays outside. Despite the cold, snails were still crawling about, as was a small frog I found sitting on the front doorstep when I took out one of the finished window boxes. They have to go out the front, as the squirrels that frequent the back garden treat bulbs as tucker.

Last week, I lunched twice at the St James Park cafe by the lake: glorious sunshine on the autumn trees. I'd made the dates expecting the cafe to be pretty deserted, not reckoning on the clear (though cold) spell coinciding with half-term, which brought the crowds back to the park.