I was driving home yesterday afternoon, recovering from having been caught up in the end of the Sheffield United football match traffic (took nearly half an hour just to get out of Sheffield!). Came down Hagg Lane, which becomes Bridge Street, from Grassmoor. By heavens there were lots of cars parked in the lay-by by the railway bridge. Good heavens. Look at all those train spotters lurking on the bridge. It is normal, indeed almost expected, to see one or two or even three. But there must have been 15-20 people all looking up the line towards Chesterfield. Wonder what they’re all up to.

Ambled in and asked The Builder if there was anything exciting happening on the railway that afternoon. Nothing in particular, apparently. We were just pottering about, inspecting the garden and waving at the toddler visiting next door, when The Builder pointed out that the train that was coming down the line sounded a bit odd. We looked over. And it was a steam train!!!!!!!!! A very pretty steam train, with brown and cream coloured carriages. We’ve never seen a steam train on our bit of the line before. Reckon that’s what the spotters were waiting for. Very exciting. Sadly, I couldn’t see its name. I have found out why it was there (an excursion to and back from York) but the website didn’t say which train it was. There are, mind you, lots of excursions on steam trains dotted about the country. I must look into getting us onto one.

It had turned out to be a lovely day, and I had been stuck inside for all of it. So we decided to light the barbecue. It didn’t seem to enjoy it much when I put an enormous onion, wrapped in foil, into the centre of the fire!! And I hadn’t realised that Debbie-next-door still had her washing out, until she came out to bring it in. I fear it might have been a bit smoky by then :-S. Oops. (I had brought mine in before we lit the first match!!) It was rather nice, if a bit windy. We had onion and potatoes, done in foil in the fire (some of the potatoes were a bit crunchy, but the onion was fantastic!), with chicken and mushroom sausages and Chatsworth lamb chops, with a salad made with leaves from my salad box and herbs from the garden. We decided not actually to eat outside, though. It was getting a tad chilly. So we took our plates and wine (well, you can’t barbecue satisfactorily without a plentiful supply of wine, now can you?) inside and watched the cricket.

It can’t have been the fault of the cricket, which was quite exciting at that point, but I was very, very sleepy. I gave in quite early and took myself off to bed. At about 4:00 this morning, I woke up and ambled off to the loo. I was going to poke The Builder and find out who had won (the result was by no means a certainty when I went to bed) but decided that would be cruel. And it would have been a complete waste of time. He found out who won when I did, when the result was given on the early morning news (that’s the half past five news!). It appears he had drifted off in his chair and not woken up until motor racing had started at 1:00 and jolted him awake with the noise!!!!! Probably just as well I didn’t poke him at 4, then!

The pigeon man on the allotment assured The Builder that there would be a frost last night. Didn’t seem entirely likely (it was a bit cloudy for frost) but I battened down the propagating tents just in case. And there wasn’t a frost. But it must have been chilly. The radiator in our bedroom, which is turned down very low and which only came on two or three times over the whole of the winter, was warm this morning. I may need to go back to my winter jimjams. I was a touch chilly sat up, drinking my tea!