Fiona always wanted to work from home, and often expressed a wish to be able to sit in the garden with a computer and a glass of wine. Well, I've cleared her a space, there's a wi-fi broadband link and lots of natural light. The wine seems to have gone solid, so I'll put a lolly stick in the next one. I tried drilling a hole in the first one, and put a wet stick in it, but the glass was curved, so I couldn't get it out.

Perhaps a higher alcohol content is the answer, that should stop it from freezing.


Personally I prefer outdoor work, so I've been cutting down a few trees in the back garden so as to keep warm. The exercise keeps me comfortable for quite a while although the first one did put the lights out in the street. I think that must have been a coincidence, though I can't explain the lengths of copper wire in the vegetable patch. Perhaps it'll keep the rabbits off. 
Odd though, speaking of rabbits, the only one I've seen there recently was twitching a bit. Perhaps having 2 tons of tree land next to it came as a bit of a shock.

The cats have taken to the fire, a nice by-product of the wood cutting. They probably need the extra rest from the extra work involved in going outside in twice their height in snow. I had to trench out a couple of cat-paths through it so they could get to their designated toilet areas. Seeing Errol (grey cat on the left) leaping in foot deep powder snow to get back in was very amusing for us, though I suspect less so for him. The snow was light enough for him to submerge, leaving a rather irritable tail tip twitching before the next dramatic leap.
Perhaps I could make a cat path maze between the catflap and the garden to keep them entertained.

The primary reason for taking the larger trees down was to get a bit more light into the vegetable patch. It certainly did that, though it'll be difficult to see how much before the snow has gone and the deciduous trees are in leaf again. The reduced heating bills are a bonus and the exercise is supposed to be good for me. 

The trees getting my attention, mostly not seen, because they've been cut down, chopped up into 9" (225mm) chunks and hauled away for seasoning. (That means they get dried out, not salted) this photo shows the South side of the garden, where the Norway Spruce and something spikier, possibly Sitka, were. Larch was more common on the North side. None of the above are really suitable as wood for a stove, as they burn too fast and tend to tar up the chimney but they are free, which gives them a considerable advantage.
The majority of the trees (20 to 30 metres tall now) were planted 30 or 40 years ago, presumably to get some shelter up fairly quickly. There are a few 10 and 20 year old 2nd generation seedings, but these fast growing varieties need replacing with slower ones over the next decade or so, otherwise we'll be surrounded by a gigantic light proof wall all year round. I don't want to be dropping trees of twice this  size in twenty years,- I'd need a longer chainsaw blade for a start,- but I'll be able to thin the ones in the wood we planted fifteen years ago.  
Because the trees are relatively young they are fairly spindly, the wood looks much denser in Summer.

The winter here has started quite well if somewhat earlier, and although a few folk had difficulty getting home from work, our main challenge has been getting through town rather than to it. Edinburgh has no spare space to put the snow, and the abandoned cars means they wouldn't be able to get the JCBs in anyway. Edinburgers are unused to the sheer quantity of snow, they generally don't get much. To compound the problem, over the last few years cars have become larger and more plentiful, so the drives are full of second cars and/or snow, and the roads full of 4 wheel drives, almost buried in what the snow ploughs have thrown at them.
The drivers are discovering that low profile street tyres are no good in deep snow, or on sheet ice, a feature that BMW salesmen failed to mention. I think there may be a good sale of winter tyres and for the very rich, limited slip diff conversions, as found on higher price or agricultural bracket LandRovers.
Tarbraxians have had it fairly easy as yet, it's when the snow gets blown into drifts that we get stuck, and that hasn't been too bad so far.  In 1963 the road was blocked for six weeks, though that might have more to do with the snow clearing tractors than the depth of snow. At the moment we've had about two feet of snow, but most people have cleared the snow from their roads and drives, so it's not a problem. Ah, the good old days, when man was more connected with nature, and we didn't have all these new fangled contrivances, like central heating, TV and electricity. 
Jim.

Nice to get out of that stuffy Office.            Newsletter Dec 2010
I've reverted to the practice of putting thumbnail images up rather than having the script flow round the pictures. I found that Microsoft Computers and Mac Computers were not putting them in the same places. Just click the thumbnail to open it. 
To close it, go back a page.
Night, but with most of the street lights out.