Baby, it's cold outside...

Do you remember that Dean Martin song “Baby, it’s cold outside.”? Well it sure was cold outside yesterday morning.

Despite the air usually keeping a small part of the ponds clear they were all just sheets of ice. It took quite a while to break the surface of the fish pond to make sure they had enough oxygen to breath. I’m sure they could last all winter under the ice because there are so few of them and the volume of water is great but I always feel I should keep the surface clear for them. This morning they were hanging around just under the ice – whether that was waiting for their food, because it was the warmest water or simply to amuse themselves I do not know.

We live on the Wirral so the gritting lorries have been out. But Jo works in Liverpool and they have run out of grit. More seriously, they have run out of money and cannot afford to buy any grit. As mismanagement goes that takes the biscuit.

The frost made some delightful patterns on the plants but thanks to our central heating the good old days (Duh!!) of frost patterns on the windows have long since gone. So here are a couple from the 1960s:-

I hope you are curled up nice and warm this morning.

Happy Monday - The sort of response Jo would make...

With thanks to Granny for the cartoon.

Soon be time

It will soon be time to take the tree down and get the house back to 'normal' - whatever that might be. In the meantime I can still enjoy the decorations for a day or two more.

This one came all the way from Vermont and is as wonderful from behind as from the front. (Thank you, kind sender.)

What year is it?

Questions I need to answer fairly soon...

Is it twenty ten or two thousand and ten? I haven’t decided what I’m going to call it yet. I expect I’ll wait a few days and find out what everyone else is saying and then go along with the majority.

Is my cold bad enough that I have to put off my forthcoming appointment with the nurse for pre-op routine tests prior to my heart surgery? I think the last time I had flu was about 1978 – certainly the last bout I can recall. I have had a cold more recently but not in the last ten years or so. Now I’ve gone and developed one just when it matters – they won’t do routine heart surgery if you’ve got any sort of infection. It’s slightly ironic that you have to be well before they’ll admit you to hospital! If the garlic and Vitamin C get rid of the cold I’m due to have appointments with the nurse on 5th Jan and the consultant on 7th Jan after which I get my date for admission.

How many books did I read in 2009? I want to do an article on my book blog summarising the totals and the best reads of the year. I’ve only got ten fingers and ten toes (though two of the latter are always breaking so I could count them as twelve if need be). I think I had read 22 books before the end of February 2009 so I‘d better see if I can find an abacus anywhere.

Bugger. I make no apologies for my language – I’ve just typed about four more questions and then pressed that magic button which deletes everything back to the last save. Needless to say I cannot recall what they were...

What am I going to do with my Project 355 Blog? It was originally designed only to run until 31st December 2009. Do I continue it and post one photo a day on it in 2010? Do I allow myself a change of rules?

To how many people do I owe e-mails? I really must spend some time on the computer and get up-to-date. I’ve done very little on the computer over the Christmas holidays and am behind in e-mailing and in keeping up with the activities of my fellow bloglings. I hope all are OK. I pre-scheduled most of my own blog posts and need some discipline to put down the Christmas present books I am reading and get back on the keyboard.

Would Jo like a coffee and a crossword yet? Probably the most important question of the morning.... Bye.

Happy New Year