More Snow

We had a bit more snow yesterday but no more today so far, although more is forecast. I ventured out on Friday when there was a light covering, but only went as far as the Best One shop on the front near Warrior Square to ensure I had enough bread for the weekend, and to pick up the local paper to see if my press release about the Hastings Humanists meeting was included, which it was. I don't usually buy papers at a supermarket, since I object to the way many newsagents have been forced out of business, but it is no longer so easy to distinguish between them, they are all now mini-supermarkets.

The TV reports and papers are full of reminiscences abnout past years when there was heavy snow or long cold spells. I have reason to remember 1947 because I broke my right arm when I fell in the snow, coming down the steep hill from Purrett Road school in Plumstead. I remember it as quite a pleasant time, playing with my meccano set and learning to write with my left hand. I'm still somewhat ambidextrous.

When I moved into the flat here last December there were just lace curtains at the high windows. There were curtain runners above the windows, but no runners to slide on them, and I found they were obsolete. Curtains of the requisite length seemed not to be available off the shelf, and having them made would have been very expensive. In any case I wasn't convinced that they would give sufficient privacy, or be easy to open and close without having to get up on a chair or ladder.

My solution was to make a set of blinds. I bought some lengths of 1 by 1/2 inch wood from Winchester's at Ore to make the frames, and some good quality coloured sheets from the warehouse shop in Cambridge Road, and fixed them together using an upholsterer's staple gun. They are only flimsy, but have stood up well. I've just had to replace a few of the staples that were coming loose.

A Flurry of Snow

This morning I tried putting on the gas central heating for the first time. I had been nervous about trying it, not having used a system like this before, but it worked fine. There are just four radiators of various sizes, in the living room, bedroom, bathroom and hallway. The pipes connecting them to the boiler must all run under the floorboards. I've got no instructions about how to adjust the radiators, but fortunately they worked OK as they are. I turned the system off when I went out. I'm wondering how much gas it will use if I leave it on for any length of time. There is just £20 on the card that I have to put in the meter in the basement. Now I hear on the News that the UK has only 8-days supply of gas, and we are heading into a cold spell!

In the morning I took the bus to the Ravenside Retail Park at Glyne Gap on the way to Bexhill. This was to take a portable DVD player into Curry's. I'd bought it in Leicester in April 2008 but it has developed a minor fault. It keeps going back to the start, or comes up with the message that the cover is open when it is not. After an exchange of a chain of emails with Curry's Customer Services department it was finally established that it is "a code 5 product", which means they are unable to service it. Why this might be they haven't said, it probably just needs a stronger spring to keep the cover shut. All they offered was a gift card, of unspecified value, as a contribution towards a replacement. To get this I had to take it to the nearest store and demonstrate the flaw to the staff there. Of course it worked perfectly there, so it was a wasted journey, though it was a nice bright morning.

Later I went out again to get in some food and a paper. On the way back it bagan to snow very lightly, and this was soon followed by a heavier flurry. This is what the photo shows. It didn't last long here but it has been very heavy in other parts of the country and more is forecast for the next few days.

In Wintry Mood

This is a photo that echoes the first one that I posted here, on 2 February 2009, of the famous tree opposite my home, with snow on the boughs.

The people in Flat 2, on the ground floor next to mine, moved out a couple of days ago. They hadn't been there for more than six months it seems to me. Why they chose to move I've not found out. A better home for their cats and dog perhaps.

The bin-men seem to have adopted a new method of collecting the rubbish. Instead of wheeling our bins to the dust-cart and emptying them they now seem to take the bags out of our bins and put them in their bin and then empty their bin into the cart. This means that they leave behind any loose unbagged items in the bins. It will probably be up to me to put them in bags to ensure they are collected.

They have left one black bag however that appears to contain human excrement. Not that I've yet looked too closely at it. Why anyone should have put this in the bins I don't understand, nor who has put it out. I suppose it will be up to me to clear this away as well, but I'm not sure how to deal with it; empty it down a drain perhaps? More important to find out who did it and stop it happening again.

All this, and other occurrences, has left me feeling distinctly down this week.

December is Here, or has it Gone?

Our tree has now lost all its leaves, but still has a couple of plastic bags tangled in its twigs. This is now back to the way it was when I moved here in December last year.

An invitation has just come through the door "to view proposals for a new development at The College of the Holy Child Jesus" which is the building behind the tree. "Proposals include conversion of the historic buildings into residences, additional new residential development, a new open space facility and enhamced landscaping." The exhibition is open Friday 11th December (1 - 8 pm) and Saturday 12th December (10 am - 1 pm).

I suppose it is still December, and I haven't dropped off into a coma for a month? The date according to the read-out on my BT phone now says it is "Jan 2"!

Falling Leaves and Litter

Our tree is now rapidly losing its leaves. Some of the other trees have already lost them all. They are forming piles in on the pavements and in our garden area, blown there by the wind.

There is a supermarket plastic bag caught in the upper branches of the tree that has been there since last year. There are also large lumps of light polystyrene plastic that have been blowing down the hill and cluttering the place up. Where they have come from I don't know. Probably some black waste bag that broke open.

Someone, presumably in one of our flats here, has left an old door-frame in the front garden. It has been there several weeks. It will probably be up to me to arrange for it to be taken away. More recently someone has also left some bits of wood from carpentry work lying about, still with nails sticking out of them. I'd have thought any competent carpenter would know to remove the nails and dsipose of the waste safely. I find such carelessness annoying, especially when it's left to others, i.e. me, to tidy up.

Autumnal Attitudes

With the putting back of the clocks I'm feeling rather depressed and autumnal. So I thought another photo of my favourite tree would be appropriate to mark the passing of the seasons. Its leaves are distinctly yellowing and thinning out, but at least the sun was shining which prompted me to take the photo.

I seem to be getting more and more buried in papers. My solution to depression is usually to tidy things up, but I seem to have been tidying things up for years without much result.

Since I installed the new version of P C Guard on my computer everything seems to have slowed down considerably. I suppose it is checking everything more thoroughly behind the scenes, but more probably its just dithering about. It also seems to decide to make virus scans always just as I'm about to switch off. I suppose everyone has got to change over to Windows 7 next.

Autumn is Here

I took this photo of my favourite tree as I went out for a walk along the front as far as the old bathing pool site at the end of Sea Road. I have been thinking of getting out on my bike and going perhaps as far as Eastbourne, but left it too late to do that today. It was a very sunny afternoon. The other pictures I took haven't come out very well probably because the light was too bright and I couldn't see clearly what I was focusing on. The leaves on the tree are starting to turn brown, and some of them may have been shed already. There are a lot of leaves from other trees blowing around.

When I turned on my computer and activated the PCGuard I got a message "Rps: The parameter is incorrect" with no further explanation. Checking it on Google I was led to download a thing called RegistryBooster costing about £20. Whether this does any good remains to be seen. It claims to have cleared up a lot of errors in the Registry, but whether they are really significant or just listed to impress I don't know. Perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical.

It's That Tree Again!

At the risk of appearing obsessive, here is another photo of the tree opposite my front door. From the small shoots in the last photo a month ago it now has a full complement of leaves that glow yellowish in the sunlight.

There is occasionaly a squirrel to be seen running along the branches. When the traffic is quiet it sometimes runs along the wall, jumps onto a telegraph pole further up the hill and crosses the road to explore the back gardens.

When I was in Leicester the view from my front windows was just of other houses, so I suppose I appreciate being closer to Nature here. I also try to go down to the sea-front every day if I can, to see what the sea is doing. Yesterday there was a strong wind blowing inland, making the sea choppy and leaving foam on the shore.