In amongst the freezing cold, bringing snow and the ice,  and the milder thaws, bringing rain and grey skies, we've had some beautiful winter weather and some glorious sunrises and sunsets. This was the view at dusk from our lounge room window the other evening. I couldn't get the beautiful pink of the sky - but the splendid sillouhettes of the winter-bare trees in the twilight are represented by our across-the-road neighbour's splendid tree. I mostly focus on the country view at the back of the house - but we also have some equally beautiful but more suburban views at the front.

We went to visit The Builder's mother on Sunday, heading down after lunch on the Saturday. We prefer not to make day trips to Salisbury if it is at all possible to avoid it! We had an amazing trip down.  There was virtually no traffic, almost no hold ups and everything went very smoothly.

I wonder where everyone was!

We stayed at The Swan (of course). 

And I, on the whole, had a very fishy day :-)

Lunch at the Nettle, before leaving: Haddock and chips.  Possibly the best fish and chips in the world!

Dinner at the Swan. Potted (English, so therefore very tiny) crayfish to start and hoki (which I would call blue grenadier - not sure why it's called hoki here) and crushed new potatoes for the main.  Extremely delicious.  I managed to find the tiniest bit of room for some chocola ice cream.  Unusually, The Builder decided that he didn't even have any cracks for ice cream!!

Peacefully eating my cooked breakfast was I on Sunday morning, accompanied by The Builder and the hippos, when a man approached me.  What, he wanted to know, was the significance of the hippos on the breakfast table?  Significance?  They're supposed to signify something?  Don't most people have toys at their breakfast table?  Apparently not.  He was asking because his wife is a HIPPO COLLECTOR and had been eying them off from their breakfast table and wanted to meet them!  Who would have thought there would be two avid hippo collectors about the place?  We discussed hippo (and camel) collecting for a bit, while the lady patted Bernard and Sleepy Hippo. Then they went away and I resumed my breakfast. I think the lady might have been a bit shy.  She didn't want to have her photo taken with the hippos.  And she didn't approach us until her husband had been talking to us for some moments.

Then we went out exploring.  Well, I was exploring.  The Builder knew where he was and where he was going.  He and Jeanette had been discussing on Saturday evening (while I was messing about playing games on my iPhone - did you know there's a Where's Wally app?) some of Jeanette's latest discoveries in her genealogical researches into The Builder's father's family.  This led to a discussion of some of the places that The Builder had lived both before and shortly after he and Pip were married.  We decided to go and look at them and take a few photos for Jeanette. 

It's funny, you know.  Set me down in a picturesque village as a tourist and I'll happily meander about, taking photos of buildings and views and things.  Tell me that I am to take photos of specific houses where people have lived or stayed - and I can immediately hear the incumbents wondering who I am and what I'm doing and why precisely I might be taking photos of their houses!!!  I took lots of scenic pictures to mask my attempts at espionage :-D

Then we ducked into Salisbury for a bit of shopping and collected Gwen and headed out into the New Forest for another lunch in another pub.  She seemed quite well and cheery, which was nice because she has been beset by a rather nasty cold this year which has lingered and lasted and loitered.  It seems to have wandered off now.

We came home via Warminster, where Barb's brother Greg had a garden shredder that was surplus to requirements.  We admired his new-ish abode, admired his new microcar, kidnapped the shredder and headed home.

Where we found Marlo lying in the lounge room window, gazing disconsolately out.  I hadn't organised for Tammy to feed him on Sunday morning because I'd fed him before we left and had left extra bowls of biscuits. As soon as he saw us through the window, he was off the windowsill and at the door as fast as his legs would carry him.  I think he was pleased to see us!