March visit 1

Journey down

On the journey down, we were amazed at how much standing water we saw. We’d just missed the rain, judging by the road surface, but fields were absolutely sodden, once more, and streams had overflowed their banks. England has had plenty of rain, but had been dry for a while before we left home, so we weren’t expecting that.

Needless to say, the garden was, still (again?), so soggy that we couldn’t get on to it to weed! Boo… It needs it, desperately.

When we chatted with the neighbours, they all told us that the rain had only just stopped before we got there – we’d missed the flooding, but still saw the evidence of enormous rainfall when we were leaving four days later, so they really did have it come down.

My obsession with how cold our house gets was fuelled by a look at the thermometer… –11°C, inside, of course. I think it was down to –15/16°C outside – really must buy another minimum/maximum thermometer!

One thing I found upsetting, not in itself, but in case it had been left for us, was the mummified cat I found upstairs. Thinking it over later, we think it had probably got itself caught in the rafters and an owl (or another cat) had knocked it off much later. I know the wind can’t have blown it, because the house has been shut up, and in the summer I had all the doors and windows propped open, letting a howling gale through on some days. I know it sounds paranoid to think someone might do something as nasty as leaving a dead cat in our house. Until last summer I wouldn’t have thought of such a thing, but we were talking with M. Lorin about his tractor (we’d said he could leave it in our barn again if he wanted), and he said thank you, but no. The last time someone had put sugar in his fuel tank. The thought of someone trespassing on our land to do something that mean was disquieting. Oh, well!