December snow

We walked out of the house yesterday at just before 07:00 and crossed over to Ward Street where Oscar was parked. He wasn’t in the driveway because the skip was still there. Mercifully, there was no need to scrape quite so much ice off the windows as there had been on Monday morning! It was just starting to rain and icy rain as we got to Ward Street

We were just getting into the car, when I hear a miaow. I looked around, and there was Marlo, looking at us, as if to say: Where are you going on such a dark, cold morning?

I didn’t want him following the car and getting lost or run over, so while The Builder was sorting things out, I picked him up and took him back to the house. He was encouraged to stay inside by the appearance of kitty treats on his food mat!

As we were approaching the house, it had started to snow slightly. Marlo was dotted with flecks of white as we went in. By the time I got back to Ward Street (tripping over the diversion sign on the pavement as I went), it was snowing with determination and starting to settle. Chesterfield was positively white. And the A61 bypass had snow to either side. It was all very pretty.

Sheffield had no snow. It was just damp and cold and miserable! Although people I work with who live in Sheffield reported that the pavements were very icy and they had had trouble walking on them.

Melbourne has had a smile in the sky this week. America, I am given to understand, has had a sad face. We couldn’t see anything on Monday evening – it was much too cloudy. But yesterday, as I walked out of the Adsetts Centre, you could clearly see the crescent moon in the western sky, with Jupiter and Venus much, much lower down. Probably too far apart to be a sad face, but very beautiful nonetheless. I tried to take a photo of it, but the street lights obscured the planets and you couldn’t see them. By the time we got to Sainsbury, the planets had been eaten by clouds. And by the time we got home, where there were no clouds, the planets had set.

It looked a bit like this :

Except of course the sky was black and the moon and the planets were shiny white!

We dashed home on Monday evening, early for us, so The Builder could visit his doctor who has been treating him for a manky rash with very slippy creams and unguents. The appointment was for ten to five, which was always going to be a rush. We got there a little late, he leapt out of Oscar and hustled into the surgery. I hopped into the driving seat and took Oscar down to Ward Street. Got home, was just talking to and thinking about feeding the cat – when The Builder came in. That was quick, I thought. Alas. His doctor had had to go home poorly sick :-S He has another appointment just before Christmas. Later than Monday's to avoid having to dash home from work like that. Only – we’re both on holiday that week!!!!!

The radiator in the dining room appears to be leaking. The carpet is all wet. I think it’s only leaking when it’s not on, though, which is why we have failed to notice until now. That and the fact that if we are at home at the moment, the heating is on downstairs! The weather man said that he thought that winter would maintain its grip at least for this week. Funnily enough – I thought it would hang about really until the end of March or so! Fortunately, from a leaking radiator point of view, we have a maintenance contract with our gas supplier. An engineer is coming on Monday morning when I happen to be at home anyway.