Snippets from January - Part 2

The theme for the second half of January was snow, rain and flooding. I cannot tell you how much I would have preferred to have been in southern Spain! 

16 January

I finally finished the jumper I started knitting in the middle of last year. Being distracted by Erica caused the delay. It's remarkably similar (i.e. same colour and pattern) as the jumper I finished in Germany in the summer of 2019. The only differences are: 1) this one is made with pure wool (c£32 vs £4 for the original cheapy acrylic/wool mix); and 2) I made it too small. Given point 1, point 2 is somewhat annoying. I'm yet to wash it to see how much I can reshape it to a bigger size.

As much as I enjoy cables, once I'd finished this one I was ready for some plain knitting for a while!

17 January

I must have taken a long run on this day, because these snaps were taken a good few miles away from home. A lovely day for it, but there was a lot of water around. Believe it or not, the second snap shows a public road, not a farm track!

21 January

Every couple of weeks we've been nipping up to Mick's mum in Halifax, to take her shopping and help her out with anything she needs doing (she's approaching 96, still living completely independently and, understandably has been rather fed up with being so confined to the house), and throughout late December and January all of our trips seemed to coincide with snow. On this day the snow was accompanied by high winds, and I hadn't taken any sunglasses with me, which meant that the first half of my run (during which this photo was snapped) was carried out with awful posture, as I kept my head down and my eyes scrunched into slits against the conditions. 

22 January

Whilst it had been snowing in Halifax it had been raining at home. A lot, and for days. On this lovely sunny day I ran down to the canal to see how flooded it was. Gosh! I've never seen the water that high! The lake you see in the first snap covers the slightly-flooded fields shown in my photo from 1 January. The second snap shows the stile used to access the tow-path (which on this day was underwater). The third snap, if you look carefully, shows a car up to its doors in water on the other side of the canal. As I returned to the road, Postie stopped me to ask if he would be able to access the moorings; I described the conditions and he decided against.

24 January

A sub-zero morning with ice-rink streets, so surely the mudfest of the estate would be frozen? It started with promise as the open ground was solid. However, the muddy sections are protected by trees and were just vaguely crispy rather than having reached the level of solidity for which I'd hoped.

Then, in the afternoon, it snowed and accumulated with rapidity that's unusual in these parts. 

I distracted myself by improving my crumpet making skills:

25 January

I went for a run in a winter wonderland. And got abused by a dog walker for having the temerity to ask (politely!) if she could call her dog off. Then I baked some banana muffins because the boiler was being serviced the next day and I can't have the boiler chap around and not give him cake. 

26 January

There was excitement in the morning when both Erica and Bertie went for a drive (and all perfectly legally, even though Bertie was untaxed). I think I'll tell that tale in a separate post. 

By late afternoon the temperature had risen above freezing and rain had washed much of the snow away, so I nipped out for a little jogette, splashing my way through slushy snow and getting cold wet feet almost as soon as I'd set off.  

28 January

It had rained quite a bit overnight, but even so it was unexpected to find part of that morning's running route cut off by a deep flood. I've never seen that area flooded before and it wasn't apparent to me how it had come about. I'd run speed reps along this road the day before, and there'd been no hint of a drainage issue then. 

29 January

We'll finish the month (because I didn't take any photos on 30th or 31st) with the contents of another good £1.50 veg box!

Snippets from January - Part 1

Whilst I wasn't naive enough to think that on the stroke of midnight on 31 December Coronavirus would go away and all freedoms would be restored, but I did have some optimism as to the year ahead. On 4 January, with the announcement of another prolonged lockdown, the wind was whipped out of my sails and, in combination with the cold weather, I found myself lacking any motivation to do anything other than a bit of daily exercise. Excessive amounts of sitting in a chair have ensued ever since. I thus felt there was nothing to witter about. At the same time, I know that in the future I'll be happy to be able to look back on what was going on at this time, so rather belatedly I'm going to tap out a few posts by way of the briefest catch-up I can muster.

What follows is all based on photos snapped on my phone. You can read the word 'apparently' into most of the accompanying statements, as I've deduced what I did based on the photo, not based on a precise memory!

1 January

I ran along the canal and found it not to be as flooded as I'd expected:

(I'll be referring back to this snap on 22 January)

2 January

Another run along the canal. Must have been sub-zero because I wouldn't have been on this section if the mud hadn't been frozen!

3 January

A coffee and crossword date in Bertie. We'd plugged him in and put a heater on a few hours earlier, but such was the temperature that we still needed to wrap up warm.

4 January

After spending the previous evening reading not just the government guidance but also the Covid legislation, I decided that we could justify driving to Cannock Chase, so as to get some hills into our exercise (a run for me; a walk for Mick). As the snow had thawed at home and Cannock Chase isn't that far away, I'd not expected to find huge swathes of the tracks doing impressive impressions of ice rinks. The photos are deceptive; snow had been compressed, then thawed, then frozen again. I had a great time, but did a lot of tippy-toeing and arm-waving.

As we left the Chase and headed homewards our intention had been to return weekly. A few hours later the government announcement of a lockdown that was going to last until at least early March put paid to that intention. 

7 January

Another run in cold weather. Here's one of the local ponds, frozen over. (I also have two canal photos from this day and it took me a worryingly long time of staring at them to place them; they're taken from a bridge on what has lately been my most repeated route - it seems I don't usually look left or right as I cross that bridge!)

9 January

I remember this one! I set out before sunrise and in clear weather that wasn't as cold as forecast. It got colder and foggier as I went, such that when I got home the pavement, which had been ice-free when I'd gone out, had become a veritable slip-hazard.

13 January

We had pizza for lunch! This is not unusual (indeed, we had pizza today as well), so not sure why I took this snap.

(edit: I've remembered. It was because we used Stinking Bishop cheese. The snap was for the gifter of that cheese.) 

15 January

Every day Lidl sells off a handful of boxes of fruit and veg for £1.50 each. They contain a random selection of stuff, some of which will be on its last legs (or slightly beyond) and others will be perfectly fresh but victims of split packaging. We've had lots of these boxes since last summer, but the box contents in this snap win the 'best yet' award. 

Yep, all of this for £1.50!

As much as I love these veg boxes, they always present a challenge as to how to use all of the contents before they go off (I often spend the morning the box is bought 'processing' and freezing stuff). As you can see, on this day the haul included eight packets of asparagus ... and we managed to eat all of it in the space of five days. 

I'll be back soon with Part 2 of January...