Christine's space

Yesterday I managed to find enough dry minutes to add spring bulbs to the tubs in the yard by the door and plant twenty daffodil bulbs in a corner on the allotment.

The bags of bulbs had sat rather to long in the garden centre and both crocus and narcissus were already showing shoots. As there has been no frost one can only hope that they settle down at the front door before winter chill becomes serious and the soil turns seriously cold. The twenty daffodils look to be fine if a little late planted on the allotment. They will either grow or not as may be. It would be nice to see more spring colour at the door and any at all in the spring on the allotment. We shall see.

It is too damp to do anything more useful on the allotment than to add to the compost heap as ever and find a spot for the daffodils.

There are two compost heaps which could do well with a turning, merging and moving over to be ready in the normal spot where marrows and courgettes seem to thrive. If we have a couple of really cold, deeply frosty weeks like we did after last Christmas, the ground will drain relatively rapidly and allow this work to be done. Last winter was seriously dry from the start of November through to February which meant that we had very solid dry soil before it froze.

Who is to know how hard the presently totally sodden ground will be over the next seven or so weeks if we do get serious frost. I’m bored with being housebound though, would like to get out in the fresh air and take some exercise. But it is winter. And winter is apt to be very wet, very windy and very cold if we get a classic winter. Such is life.

Flaming Christmas!

It’s that season again. The one of spendfest, running up debt, buying and trying to eat too much food, visiting relatives that you haven’t seen for the last twelve months, giving too much to children ….

Yep by the end of the week most places will have had the big switch on of the Xmas lights, organised late night opening of shops to get people to spend their last coppers and then some more and generally be pleading with us all to go and and spend everything we have and more to save the economy.

Whilst of course the powers that be are holding climate change conferences where the basic premise should be that for the good of the planet we should all consume less in the wealthier parts of the world (I would hate you, dear reader, to think that I’m suggesting that those without adequate food, clothes, heating, housing and clean water should consume less). A simple premise that would help both the environment and the climate.

We’re a small rural town with a small library – and as a result not a lot in it. So of course it’s well supported – not.

There are fewer newspapers than there used to be and the replacement books are the cheap paperback books of lightweight reading.

Now I’ve nothing against Jilly Cooper, Mave Binchy, Sophie Kinsella and others such, but our library is not even a great stockist of such books as The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Other Boleyn Girl or any of the other books that have caught the nation’s fancy and become well read.

As for going into the Science Fiction area and finding more than one of Anne McCafferty’s Dragons of Pern series (and that will be one in the middle which gives you no clue as to anything), or any of the Terry Brookes series of books (well maybe number three of a series of five) ……

So there is a well stocked shelf of spoken word (limited selection again mind), a few very old CDs and DVDs (but more taped videos). Most of us want books not Queen CDs or Teletubby videos.

Perhaps the fact that the central library in Morpeth suffered badly in the floods last year could  be used as an excuse. I fear not though as I came from a well stocked town library and found that I had read most of the limited offer here when I moved in 5 years, 5 months and 1 week ago.

So what do I do? Rely on the family to buy me books, buy books for the family that I want to read when funds allow and borrow from them when they buy books. The whole new swap share scheme then. Now that says it all that in a reading family we actually have to buy books if we want them. I thought that libraries were for people like us who wanted books to read for pleasure or information. Seems not. Sigh.

Yep, the River Tyne in the valley down the hill is over it’s banks and all over the place. It must have been raining a lot.

Let’s just say it rained so hard last night that I jumped out of bed at about 3.30 am thinking that the flat was being flooded again. But no – only wind blown rain lashing on the windows. Outside.

Hey ho, with more to come over the next two or three days according to the weatherman, it’s good to live half way up a nice steep hill well away from the offending river. There are flood warnings on all the usual bits in Hexham, Corbridge and the Riverside Park in Prudhoe. From here I’d say that the last one is fairly well under water.

I don’t know that I will be going to the allotment for a day or three from the looks of the present forecast. Perhaps the forecast is wrong. Hmm – unlikely.

Home with a pile of housework, knitting and books to read seems to be the answer till Sunday.

Well this one anyway. It was nice and sunny at 08:45 so the team of us went litter picking. At 09:30 the rain started so we came home half an hour short of our allotted time despite having moved a damaged child’s paddling pool, a wrecked tent and three or four bags of rubbish.

So I merely changed shoes and dropped into the garden centre for a couple of items for a Christmas present along with tea and cake. Hmm – thank you George for the greeting of “I came in here to get away from you” said with a big grin. He did offer me a lift home which was very nice of him but I’d not done the shopping.

Whilst still dampish, I decided to visit the housing office to see if I could get a cash donation towards the cost of using the dehumidifier that was required to dry the flat out after the last flood. Hmm – housing officer due back in about twenty minutes they said on the desk as her superior, the team leader, didn’t want to deal with it. So I went down the road to the library and found one book to read as well as getting a couple more items for a Christmas present from a nearby shop.

I walked towards home and stopped off again at the housing office. Still no housing officer but I was prepared to sit and wait as I had a book to read. Eventually said team leader gave in and came down to the interview room. It was a very simple explanation of the damage done by two overflowing baths from the upstairs flat.

There was some buck passing back to the repairs department over the electricity payment and not a lot of happiness over a request for help on decorating. “Haven’t you got insurance?” was the question. “Well yes, contents but the insurers say that decorations count as buildings insurance because you can’t take them off the wall and move it if you leave the property and you carry the building insurance” was the simple answer to that one. As I said, it’s not the cost of the paint but the man to go up the ladder and do the decorating as ceilings are involved.

I’m under the physiotherapist with a balance problem involving the ankles so no chance of catching me up a ladder doing decorating. How very convenient. Well for me.

Perhaps other people hate Mondays more than me. Well this one anyway.