Dudley and Eunice paid a visit this week. Not a nice, benevolent old couple with stories to tell of better times, but two violent, named storms, one from the north and one from the south, with destruction on their minds. The canvas canopy on London’s Millenium Dome was torn off, trees have been uprooted, trampolines have been lost and found. I just stayed indoors whingeing about the wind and the rain, happy that I had been out for a long walk the previous day. For entertainment, I watched TV. I was flip-flopping between the Winter Olympics, watching the GB women’s curling team in the semi-final match, and watching BigJetTV, planes landing at Heathrow Airport in horrendously windy conditions. And to be honest, I’m not sure which of these two streams was the more stressful.
A group of three of us walked to Wythenshawe Park where we met up with a couple of others. When I first left the flat, the wind was quite cold and I thought I would have to contend with my nemesis: cold wind in the earholes giving me earache. But it soon calmed down. Over the next few hours, we had a couple of short, sharp showers and even hail a couple of times. There are still parts of Wythenshawe Park that I hadn’t explored until this visit.
There’s a new circus in town, well, in the park, just setting up for halfterm. I don’t want to think what state the grass will be in afterwards, especially after all the rain.
Things are looking up though. Signs of Spring poking through.
After walking back to Northenden, we enjoyed a coffee in Quirky Misfits. A place not to leave your little ones!
It is quite funny watching other people as they come in, maybe for the first time, when they suddenly realise that one of the coffee tables is, in fact, a coffin.
Since the weather hadn’t deteriorated as much as we’s anticipated, Steve and I walked along the river to Didsbury.
The Mersey was high, covering the island, and flowing fast. I realised I hadn’t seen the heron for a while, but then, it had gone on holiday this time last year too.
The river bank wasn’t too muddy, Didsbury was busy, Steve left to take the tram home, and following a downpour, I decided to walk home again.
Drainage on Ford Lane hasn’t improved and I’m so glad I kept up my long jump skills so that I could leap over this road-wide puddle.
What’s nice about this puddle is that when people are driving by on their way home from the golf course, they slow down at this point so they don’t splash unsuspecting pedestrians. No, of course they don’t.
This week marked our wedding anniversary. Liesel sent me some chocolate truffles and I’m glad to say that the flowers I sent her arrived safely.
I sent them to Liesel’s parents’ house, hoping and assuming that Liesel would be there for at least some of the day. But the weather in Anchorage has been a bit challenging too. Eight inches of snow overnight is bad enough. But when it rains and turns all the roads into ice rinks, you just don’t want to drive anywhere. Liesel’s staying at a friend’s place so that she can do lots of work.
Dudley and Eunice came along and apart from keeping me indoors for the day, they manged to knock off a few branches from our oak tree.
Earlier in the week, I’d joined Jenny and Liam and the grandchildren for a meal, thank you for having me!
I’m so pleased that Martha and William enjoy gymnastics and swimming, but they must be tired after such a busy day.
Meanwhile, in Anchorage, Liesel has been skating on a frozen lake. This is just 16 years after she and I were married on a jetty above a frozen lake.
On my radio show this week, I spoke to Andrew again from Northenden Players Theatre Group. The next play is Educating Rita which I’m looking forward to. The music was mostly Medleys and there’s an extended version of the show here:
ow
Mick and Liesel's Antics 