Perfect Answers

Me - Confession time - I have lost a Christmas present.  I know I have wrapped it up, but it isn't in the place that I thought I put it!
Disappointingly no-one was surprised at my predicament, but there was one ray of light...
Helpful person - That is because it is in the china cabinet!
How did they know?
Well, maybe the gift tag was a clue!
I am very grateful for their powers of observation as that saved me turning the place upside down, and a good job too, as I wouldn't have found it, so I wouldn't have known when to stop searching... Oh, it doesn't bear thinking about!

Great service at church this morning - with a surprisingly good attendance given the frost on the ground.  As it was the first service of 2018, the service leader asked what New Year's Resolutions people had made.
KHT - I am going to stop being ill!
Service Leader - How are you going to do that?
Me - Eat your greens?
Service Leader - So are you going to eat your fruit and veg?
KHT -  No! I am going to stay away from Mum and her lurgi! With that pronouncement, she moved a place away from her unhealthy mother. I did my best not to cough.

It was a beautiful day - deep and crisp and even - well actually, bright, boggy and bitterly cold!  At lunchtime, the sun shining into our kitchen made it lovely and toasty.  We had to open the door into the hall to cool the room down a bit, and warm up the hall before the thermostat kicked in and decided the house required additional heat!  Now the cat is not normally allowed free reign of the house and is restricted to the kitchen and utility. She kept looking askance at this unusually open doorway to see if she could sneak through, but to her disgust, we were keeping watch. Eventually, she stomped off outside to attack Donald Trump - the lesser well known Donald Trump the plant, not his more famous namesake.

I am sure you can work out why this particular piece of vegetation has been so named. It came as part of a landscaping package of interesting plants when the pond was installed. As it was not one we had picked ourselves we had no idea how it would develop. We nearly chucked it on the compost at the end of its first season, assuming by its colour that it had suffered a premature demise. We only realised the error of our ways when we observed a display of the very same plants in Kingsbridge. We were somewhat surprised to realise that it was actually was supposed to look dead even though it was still living. Poor Donald, was so very nearly murdered by the weapon of ignorance.

Temporary Art Installation

I wandered outside to inspect the progress of the spring bulbs. We fear, the snowdrops may have been lost in the last garden reshuffle, but the other bulbs seem to be doing well. Then I discovered it - partly thawed ice in the bird bath! Great joy! I removed the almost complete disc and put it on the table on the patio.

'Ice"

It was fascinating to see the ice instantly begin to melt, where it came in contact with parts of the table that had been warmed by the sun. Then the sun disappeared from view and the circle of ice stopped melting. Looking at the forecast it will be sometime late tomorrow morning before it finally defrosts. Meanwhile, we have our very own art installation, title 'Ice'. It appears to be a very accurate interpretation of frozen matter, complete with realistic-looking bubbles of air and the odd trapped leaf...








In the evening we went over to ring at the parish church.  It was well chilly.  By the time we came home the temperature had sunk to two degrees centigrade. By the time we passed the supermarket it had dropped to one degree.
"Watch as we cross the river," I said to the KHT, "It should drop to zero."
We watched, and it did.

Driving up the hill a cyclist appeared in front of us - no lights, reflective gear or helmet. He then crossed to the other side of the road, proceeding to ride up the rest of the hill on the wrong side of the road, facing any oncoming traffic.
"What sort of idiot is that?" asked DH incredulously.
"One who knows what a cyclist looks like" was the literal response of the KHT.