Blue Witch

Fencing

Last autumn Mr BW replaced the old fence that forms the top edge of our property. When he had finished, he scattered some surplus flower seeds we had collected from our garden plants over the past few years into the rough grass. Mostly poppies, but also some lupins, forget-me-nots and other assorted things that were unlabelled so will be a surprise if/when they appear.

This is how it looks now:


Replacing the old fence was a huge job as the uprights were in gigantic lumps of concrete, and many bits had rotted off at ground level, so it all had to be dug out with a kango hammer.

For once, we wanted to get someone in to do the job, but none of the local fencers would agree to replace the style we had, and they all wanted huuuuge money and would only agree to do the job with untreated all-wood, which would rot off again in a few years. We wanted metal uprights and concrete gravel boards, and galvanised anti-bunny mesh, which would last many years, and hopefully see us out, but they wanted to guarantee themselves work in perpetuity. We decided we didn't need the upheaval or the expense every few years.

We considered a metal fence, but decided it looked too industrial, and out of keeping with the rural landscape, plus it was £13,000 and looked (from the sample in the salesman's car) like the surface would scratch and the sections would rust through in about 3 years. Plus he wouldn't guarantee that the workmen would keep out of my flowerbeds.

We considered making the fence into a drystone wall, and approached the company who put up the summerhouse/museum, but they wanted £17,000 for 22 metres, plus another couple for the top stones, which would have to be specially worked, and that was just silly.

These photos are from this time last year when the slate roof on the original two-storey part of the house was being replaced, and shows the old fence, propped up with supports made from the old roof removed and saved when the single-storey part of the old house was redeveloped. I might have given up writing words about our projects, but I will never give up taking pictures, and a picture is worth hundreds of words.


This is the fence part-way through Mr BW's replacement:


Anyway, Mr BW did a fantastic job (much better than any workmen ever would), no trees or plants were harmed and no creatures got into the garden, and the whole area looks nice and natural now. While we agonised over the colour to paint the fence, the dark grey we eventually chose (which I was originally convinced would be too 'trendy' and/or 'urban') blends into the landscape and is a perfect foil to both the grasses and poppies outside, and the cottage garden plants inside:

Now, this autumn's job is the back stretch. Fortunately, 'out of sight out of mind' currently, but double the length. We need to hire a bulldozer to shift around the soil, stone and rubble pile in the orchard that was left by the builders, and Mr BW has found a local company that hires ground hole boring attachments for bulldozers that will make digging the holes much easier.

And that's how you get from a post that was going to be about bricks found on beaches, to replacement fences, when you alight on a photo that you just think, "Oh that can be the first photo." Ah well, the bricks will keep for another time...

Karma

To punish me for gloating about cooler temperatures in the North, at ten to eight this morning our power went off.

It's still off now.

It has been 32.5°C today, the hottest day so far, and all I can say is thank goodness for generators and changeover switches. It started as 'restoration due between 9 and 10', and now, by hour stages, is estimating 18:15. I'll believe it when I see it.

No reason has been given or is apparent for the power outage, which is very localised - it was 73 properties, but is now down to 22, but those are spread over 20 square miles, so we're not high priority. We've not had thunderstorms, and had 6 drops of rain at 8am and 106 drops half an hour ago.

As I said, thank goodness for generators, because we would potentially have lost a lot of fridge and freezer food today.

As it is, I've made lemon sorbet - if the generator is running, it costs little (if any) more to run the ice cream maker. It joins the other home-made flavours in the freezer: mango and lime sorbet, mint choc chip, ginger, apricot and pistachio, vanilla, rhubarb and orange and maybe a couple of others I've forgetten. All very low-sugar and with no nasty ingredients.

I didn't tell you before, but on Wednesday we had no water for most of the day, having had very low water pressure since the previous Thursday. It is likely this was due to a demolish-and- rebuild project on the top of a hill a few miles away, but their workmen won't admit to having gone through our water supply pipes while putting in a new septic tank. But, one of them has previous: he went through our telephone line while installing our gigabit broadband a couple of years ago. This was the water from our taps as it eventually returned:


Oh, the joys of rural living.

Is it hot enough for you?

Our 'in the shade' thermometer tells us that the temperature has been:

Tuesday: 31.8°C
Wednesday: 31.9°C
Thursday: 32.1°C

The in-the-sun wall thermometer has been in the mid-40s, but unlike Mr BW, I pay no heed to that.

However, my daily records since we moved here show that these dates in 2021, 2022, and 2023 were within 2 degrees of these temperatures. Mind you, this time last year we had the main house roof off and it was ten degrees cooler and we were worried about impending rain.

The seventeenth and eighteenth century Northern farmers understood the climate. In these parts they built their houses of thick local stone on high ridges on a north/south axis. Prop open a front door, prop open a back door and even when there is no breeze, there is a cool current. Bliss.

I don't watch the news on television, but occasionally we accidentally catch a few minutes while lining up programmes to watch that have been recorded. "What we need is to be looking at air conditioning!" declared one interviewee. Erm, no, what we need is to build every new home, social building, industrial building and warehouse with enough solar panels and grey water storage/recycling to meet its own needs, and to design houses to cope with the rising temperatures of a changing climate rather than just to build them as cheaply as possible. And we need to teach people how to use curtains and blinds and differentially open windows for temperature control.

Friends from down south sent an email saying it was too hot for them. These are the people who have taken 10 flights each in the last year. I can't be bothered to reply to them.

I remember saying to Dave (he of the self-confessed-in-the-comments dubious habits) who lives about 30 miles east of us, but used to live in London, that the only thing that worried me about moving North was the cooler summer climate. He said to me that I would find it pleasant compared to the South. He wasn't wrong.

We've been less hot than we often were in a 'normal' summer down south prior to 2020. But, we have planned for these conditions. We now have storage for 7.5 cubic metres of rainwater to use for watering our veggies (of which there is perhaps currently a half left). We have spray bottles of cold water (repurposed plastic bottles from cleaning products) to mist ourselves or greenhouse plants, bottles of tap water cooling in the fridge, and outdoor chairs in north-facing places to enable us to be outside but avoid the sun.

We haven't had any rain for a couple of weeks and I expect the predicted thunderstorms over the next couple of days will avoid us. But, the forecast is for ten degrees less from next week.

And I remember the summer of 1976. In fact, we saw a programme about it recently.

How's it been where you are?

Missing identity

Despite all banks repeatedly telling us as customers about being wary of unexpected calls, and not giving out personal information, I was dismayed to receive yet another phone call a couple of weeks ago from A Bank, who expected me to give out security information before they would say what the call was about, and refused to answer a question to enable me to be sure it was actually A Bank calling.

I had an identical problem with this type of out-of-the-blue call from them wanting my security details before they would tell me anything at all, maybe 8 or 9 years ago, and think I raised a complaint about it at the time, but was fobbed off with a 'that's our system and if you don't like it, you can take your banking elsewhere' type response. I have had an account with A Bank since they first started over 35 years ago now (although I do now have several other current accounts to keep my options open as I feel their service has deteriorated hugely over recent years).

The conversation went something like this:

Me (answering my ringing personal mobile phone): Hello?

Bank: Hello, this is Fliss from A Bank. I have some information for you, but I need to take you through security first.

Me: Hmmmm, yes, that's what all scammers say. I'm not expecting your call, so I am not going to do that.

Bank: I quite understand. It's OK, I'll give you part of some information we have, and you can give me the rest. For instance, if I say your birth day is the 9th, you can give me the month and year...

Me: But don't you understand that that is exactly what a scammer would do, to cross-check or complete partial information they have already obtained somewhere?! I've got a better idea, I'll ask you a question that only my bank would know and you can give me the answer to reassure me it is actually you.

Bank: I wouldn't be able to do that.

Me: Why?

Bank: Our systems won't allow me to.

Me: OK, well tell me what the call is about or which department you are from. I'm concerned now.

Bank: I can't do that until you have passed security.

Me: OK, I'm in front of my computer, please just send me a quick email with A Bank branding and your name and details, to the email address registered on my account and I'll quickly check the properties to determine you are who you say you are.

Bank: I can't do that.

Me: So, let me get this straight. You are calling me on my personal mobile phone, claiming to be from my bank, and I am not expecting your call. All you will give me is your first name, you won't send me an email to confirm you are genuine, and you expect me to give you my security information before you will tell me anything else?

Bank: You have to pass security first.

Me: Ah, wait, I am registered for Voice ID, so not only are you calling me on my personal mobile phone, you can also get your system to identify my voice.

Bank: We don't do that on outgoing calls.

Me: Why not?

Bank: It's not something we do.

Me: So, you won't talk to me because I won't give you my security details because you banks always tell us customers not to give our details to people who ring out of the blue claiming to be a bank they bank with? Can you not see how stupid this is?

Bank: Well, I'll leave notes on your account and you can ring back on a number you are comfortable with and the advisor will be be able to tell you what it was about.

Me: No, I'm not going to do that. The advisor will not know what it is about - I've had many past bad experience of this type of thing. You will have to write to me, or send me an email about whatever it is that you want to tell me.

Bank: I can't do that.

Me: Do you know how stupid this sounds to me? Scammer. (put phone down)

Surely, in this day and age, banks should be doing better than this? What do you think?

I have, in the past, had similar calls from other financial institutions, but not recently - I thought they had all stopped this kind of silliness. I do think this call was probably from A Bank, but I've heard no more and I couldn't be bothered to ring them to try to find out what they wanted to tell me.

Only 4 hours of night tonight

Happy Solstice.
Happy Midsummer.
Happy Longest Day.

Now we are 6

Six years ago today we were on the A1, travelling north, towing Bri@n, who contained a few basic things to get us through the first week. Sometime early afternoon we got a phone call, just as we were passing the Angel of the North, confirming that we were now the owners of a new home. A house in a beautiful position on a windy ridge that needed an awful lot of work before it was comfortably habitable and could be future-proofed to meet our needs for our retirement.

That was ten days before the first Covid lockdown. Nothing could have prepared us, newly returned from South Africa where we had spent a tense month on holiday, planned a year before, for what would follow.

It feels very similar now - no idea what the next few weeks and months will hold; the world in uncertainty.

But, this time, rather than being in the grip of a virus of unknown origin, potency or magnitude, where everyone seemed to be on the same side, this time we are being held ransom by our dependence on Gulf Oil and a load of foreign megalomaniac men who are playing "my dick's bigger than your dick" with the future of humanity.

And then, if there is anything left once they have finished, the joy of a world controlled by out-of-control machines, who have been learning from their own misguided and misaligned information.

Honestly, I despair. There is so much that needs saying, but I honestly do not have the strength or stamina any more to say it.

Unpowerful

Today Radio 4 and the government finally caught up with me on oil prices.

The owner of our nearest petrol station (13 miles away) told me on Saturday that he is expecting a litre of petrol to cost £1.74 by this coming weekend. It was then £1.379. That is $8.85 and $6.52 respectively per US gallon.

But, as Mr BW reminded me, 4 years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the litre price was well over £2 a litre for several months. Now Russia are offering to help Europe out with supply of oil, providing the agreement is long-term. Well, that will be interesting...

No supplier will currently deliver heating oil in this area, at any price. Luckily we don't need any urgently - with the central heating off now I think we are OK for about 30 weeks - but it might be a long time before this war is over, given that the population of Iran is around 93 million people (the 17th country globally in population and the sixth-largest country in Asia). The population is largely urbanized (over 73%) with a median age of around 32 years.

I always believed that our own North Sea oil was the 'wrong kind' of oil for most uses. I'm sure that is what we were told last century. Well, that is what I have written (from the blackboard) in my 3rd year geography exercise book. Miss Agnew must have got it wrong. Now it seems that the reason 80% of our own oil production is shipped abroad is simply because we don't have the refinery capacity to process the raw product in the UK. Given that last November the UK government effectively banned new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, our dependence on other countries for the power we need is very scary in these times.

Over the past few days, I've asked everyone I've encountered about the past history of oil and petrol shortages in this area, and have been told that panic buying and queues at petrol stations have never been seen - compared to what happens in the south east - but times are different now, so I shall be watching closely.

From warm to cold

Heating oil price is up again to 142.20ppl today.

That is ridiculous given that petrol is 135.9ppl and a lot of that price is fuel duty and 20% VAT, whereas only 5% of the heating oil price is VAT.

Boiler Juice have answered the obvious question, Why doesn’t heating oil move in line with crude oil or petrol prices?

"Heating oil prices do not always rise or fall at the same rate as petrol, diesel, or crude oil. The delivered price of heating oil includes several additional factors, such as:

Because the heating oil market is more localised and less standardised than petrol, prices can move faster or appear more volatile."

Yeah yeah, if you say so. We never buy from Boiler Juice (although it's the easiest site for checking prices), not least because they charge a £12.99 service charge on every order, no matter what size. We are part of a local group who place an order on the last Friday of the month and generally get a better price than I, as an individual, can We did feel sorry for the new-to-the-area person who last month wondered aloud if he could place less than the minimum order of 500 litres because he didn't have the money to pay for that amount. I guess he's very cold right now.

We have discovered that, at this time of year, our now super-insulated house (well, as far as we can be in a property made of stone with its origins in the 17th century) can maintain a temperature of 17°C at this time of year, despite an outside temperature of 6°C maximum, given that the Aga is in the central part (that's not going off), and provided we have the wood burner alight down the far end. That is more than acceptable.

After a few days of warm weather, including glorious sun and 18 degrees yesterday, it was around zero overnight with flurries of snow (which didn't settle) this morning. We could see snow on the other (north) side of the valley (about 30 miles away), which is a hundred or so feet higher than us, until late afternoon.

First snowdrops appeared here on 21st January. First Iris Reticula soon after, first crocuses last week, and the first daffodils at the beginning of this week And, exactly a year after the first paths were cut in the orchard by Vroom Vroom, the (then) new ride-on lawn mower, I re-cut those paths yesterday. Let's gloss over how I got VV stuck in the b33 enclosure, so that Mr BW had to remove the grass box and then lift it round so that I could get it back out. Oops. Luckily those b33s flying were in a good mood and didn't give me any trouble.

Shep and I are having a competition to see who is most lacking in energy this week. I'm not sure who is winning.

Up up up

Heating oil is 134.90 pence per litre this morning. Up from 57.00 pence per litre two weeks ago.

Right, the central heating is already off, but water heating now changes to electric for a while at The Coven. Thank goodness we have a huge wood pile (the old roof timbers) and are on a fixed price electric tariff until November.

We were planning to have a week in the Scottish Highlands at the end of the month. I think that's getting cancelled now, as, even from here, it is a 500 mile round trip, and fuel stations are few and far between and may not have fuel by then. I wonder how delivery companies are going to cope?

We haven't been out to know if petrol and diesel have gone up in price at the pumps. The internet says that petrol is averaging 132.9ppl, but that seems like last week's price (plus much of the price of petrol is tax anyway). Maybe it's just the heating oil suppliers who are profiteering?

Tuesday

Lovely and sunny and warm here today - which is just as well as the heating oil price has gone up from 57.0ppl a week ago to 61.0ppl last Friday to an unbelievable 102.18ppl today! Time to turn off the heating methinks.

Shep doesn't have any interest in sheep, or rounding things up, unlike any collie I have ever met.

Marching on

We managed to see Neptune Uranus and the Orion Nebula through The Big Telescope on Saturday night. Unfortunately the 4 planets meant to be visible in alignment on the western horizon proved invisible behind the only cloud - a low band.

Today we had to take Mr BW's Broom (one year and one day old) for its first service. "Do you like it?" asked the service desk woman. "No, I hate it, it's too bossy in its on-screen messaging, you can't turn the so-called lane assist off permanently, and if you play with the radio's tuning from the passenger seat it tells you to keep your eyes on the road and locks the radio until you stop, turn off the engine, get out, lock it, wait 5 minutes, then get back in again."

I suspect that all modern cars are as bad though. Thank goodness for the simpler cars of yesteryear. Mi1dred is 93 in a few months' time. We've just bought her 5 new tyres as the ones she has on are about 40 years old. Fitting those will keep Mr BW occupied for a few days. Given that he has 10 tonnes of 20mm gravel (or 'stone' as they call it in these parts) delivered last week, to move, by the wheelbarrow, round to behind the Big Greenhouse (to tidy that area up), he probably isn't short of things to do.

We went to a couple of seasides on our way to the service garage. We are slowly discovering all the lovely small beaches that most people never find. Luckily we didn't take Shep (as he was feeling quite fragile) as we might have felt the need to put him in the new doggy launderette. Do watch the short video in that link. It is hilarious - and probably not for the intended reasons.

Nine quid for a 10 minute DIY dog hosedown on the seafront. Sheesh. Mind you, I can see stag parties finding this a fun thing to do.

A quick post before February is out

I have been hibernating.

Not since 2011 has the winter seemed so long, so bleak, so grey, so wet, and so dismal.

From 2012 to 2020 we spent an increasing amount of time during The Dark Weeks in South Africa, then we were busy doing renovations and extensions up north, and finally (in autumn 2024) finishing relocating, so this is the first year for 13 years that we have had nothing major going on at this time of year to distract us. I did not enjoy it.

We have occasionally ventured out to collect glass (beautiful remnants of the north's industrial past), on beaches, from junk shops and from auctions. And we've been making our own marbles to make up for the lost ones.

Mr BW is currently outside triangulating his new all-singing all-dancing auto-finding, auto-tracking telescope - which arrived on 18th January - to see tonight's planetary alignment. This is only the third night in the last 6 weeks that the skies have been clear enough to see anything.

The amaryllis (*nods down*) has only just finished flowering. 5 blooms on one stalk and one on another. 2 months. Must be a record.

We have also adopted a dog. An old collie, that I found sadly abandoned in a cardboard box in a big shed. Mr BW has named it Shep.

The Amaryllis returns

Last year we had the most amazing double red amaryllis that flowered and flowered with multiple heads on multiple flower spikes for weeks and weeks.

Mr BW decided to see if he could feed it up and get it to return this year. We've half-heartedly tried in the past, but never succeeded, whereas my Grandmother somehow always managed to make them flower year after year.

Today it proved that enough nurturing can pay dividends:

Happy New Year!

It being 1st January, it was time to take Mi1dred out for a run. This was a traditional pastime down South, and old habits die hard.

It was very cold (3 or 4°C), but no frost, and the roads were dry and hadn't been gritted for a while, so probably the best conditions available for the foreseeable, judging by the weather forecast, which is for it getting colder, snowier and rainier.

We wrapped up warmly and headed for the river, because it is too far for Mi1dred to go to the sea in wintertime. I wanted to take a photo of my latest blanket - this time in my 'Beach' colourway - for use in the not-a-conservatory in colder weather. Well, everyone else takes that sort of picture these days, so why shouldn't I? The river had to do when the real by-the-coast-beach was too far.

Mr BW scrambled down the bank to stage it, and, as Mi1dred definitely can't go as fast as the river, was ready to jump in after it if the wind carried it away. Well, he probably wasn't, but where's the story in that?

Mi1dred posed on the bridge:

That isn't a pond on the right in the picture below, it's a big puddle, caused by lots of rain in the first 3 weeks of December. The puddle is also visible on the left, but not, for once, on the road.

Home to mulled wine - because we had an awful bottle of undrinkable Californian red that needed to be used for something. Once a year is enough - I don't think we had any at all last year. There are definitely other festive foods that I no longer like: mince pies and brandy butter, so I didn't make any, just as I no longer make festive cake or festive pudding. I actually think we eat and drink less in the last week of December than we do the rest of the time.

Talking of time, I have no idea where the days between 25th and today went. I went to sleep soon after George got beaten up last night (although it wasn't clear to us at the time that that was what had happened, particularly after the way it was trailed in the Radio Times, despite listening to it twice), but I did wake up at 11pm and then at 11.57pm last night. And then went straight back to sleep.

We watched 'Love Actually' for the first time in ages yesterday afternoon. Actually, probably only for the second time ever. I thought that we originally saw it on a plane, but I doubt they could have cleaned up the language enough for that, so maybe not.

Do they even make sweet films like that any more? If you know of any, do tell. I just can't cope with the murders and violence that seem to pervade screens these days.

We wish you all a Happy New Year, and thank you for reading and commenting, even if I don't post as frequently as I used to.

Once Upon a Time in Space

We (that is the Royal 'We') record interesting TV programmes to watch at times of the year when we are less busy. Now, for instance.

We've been watching a fascinating 4-part series about the space programme - both from an American and from a Russian perspective. Of course, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the perspectives are quite different.

If you like space and human stories and have a spare 4 hours, I can highly recommend this mini-series. It was first shown at the end of October 2025 and is a joint production between the BBC and the Open University.

But hurry, it's only on i-Player for another 6 days - although in another place it says it's available for 9 months...

It doesn't seem to be available outside the UK yet, but as it's a BBC production, it might soon be bought by commercial networks around the world. But, for now, the accompanying booklet produced by the OU is available here (although that doesn't bear a lot of resemblance to the series!),

Sunday 28th

There is a trailer wheel in my craft room.

Next thing there will be a Mi1dred engine in my kitchen.

What did you do on FOTCR™ day?

I spent an hour before dinner digging thistles out of the orchard.

This is a job that has to be done while all the grass is short (so, only in winter, as the rest of the year it is uncut wildflower meadow with paths), while the ground is wet but not frozen, while the thistles are still relatively small, and which had been at the top of my 'To Do' list for weeks.

There was 5kg, or over 20 litres worth, in total. It's a pity I don't have any good recipes for them.

Mr BW was concerned that the brussels sprouts weren't up to much, but the unseasonably warm weather in the past month brought on just enough for our festive dinner.

As an experiment, he also planted some mange tout in the greenhouse in September, and there were some of those ready too, and a couple of dozen more flowers, so promise of more to come. Who'd have thought that you could grow mange tout for December in England's most northern county?

Having picked lots of thistles, I considered that I deserved some South African Klein Constantia Estate Red 2017 ("a sophisticated Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and, Malbec, known for dark fruit, spice, and oak notes"), probably my favouritest wine still in production, and one of three bottles remaining from those we brought back from our last trip to SA in early 2020. But, I have just discovered it can now be bought in the UK, which is of great joy as previously it could only be sourced via Germany, which made it 'ridiculously expensive' rather than just 'jolly expensive'. However, I note that they currently seem to only have the 2018, which is nowhere near as good as the 2017, and will probably never be, but is still a better red than most of what you can buy in the UK these days.

Because I failed to find the recipe for the nut roast that we enjoyed on 25th December last year (we only eat nut roast once a year), and because it wasn't in my recipe file, my recipe box, or any of my hundreds of cookery books, or linked in the BW archive from earlier years either, for posterity, the one we had this year was this one (but using fennel rather than celery as Mr BW claims not to like celery, and using brazil and raw cashew nuts).

All the veg were from the garden, including the onions for the onion gravy, except the potatoes, although they could have been, as we do still have some of our own in store, but ours are nice enough to boil rather than roast.

And yes, as we have no-one to please but ourselves, we do eat off 30 year old tin trays, on our laps, in the comfy armchairs that used to belong to Mummy Mr BW, that we saved from the tip as a stopgap and will probably now never change. If you look carefully to the LHS of the photo, on the floor you will see the 'beach' coloured blanket that I am currently making.

That is a very strange evening-time picture out of the window of the once-a-conservatory, which should probably now be known as the 'garden room' as it now has a solid roof and insulation, but we'll never remember to call it that.

What did you do on FOTCR™ day?

Here are my two favourite things right now...

The telephone box, from inside, with lights:

And, from outside, Mr BW working on his latest wood carving, 'The Enduring Present', late this afternoon:

It's 33 years today since we met. The Enduring Present.

Now, why is it that we have lots and lots and lots of festive lights, almost all of them running in a more environmentally friendly way on rechargeable batteries, but we discover this afternoon that the battery charger (4 years old) is dead, and Amazon Prime (another free 30 day trial offered on my Witchday last Wednesday, which is already in the diary to cancel after 29 days) apparently cannot get anything here until Saturday now.

Never mind, we still have plenty of 'proper' batteries. But why oh why is nothing made to last these days?

Autumnal

Finally, 14 days on I am emerged from Ill Land. It has been a long haul.

For the past couple of weeks we have had crazy warmth for the time of year (often 18°C by day and 10°C by night) - the Atlantic-passaged end of Hurricane Melissa. On Friday morning we were outside gardening in t-shirts and my face got sunburnt!

On Wednesday evening we sat at the top of a hill in the car to watch the localish school fireworks - the same ones we have been to almost every year for the past 20 years as this last week - the week after the schools' autumn half term - was the week we always came north for an autumn break. We used to go into the school field to watch, but now the kids running around waving light sabres and screaming (which they never used to do) drives me nuts, so we now have our own quieter viewing from above.

We therefore have a mental 20 year history of exactly the usual weather and temperatures for this week - something that no other local residents can have. It certainly has never before been 14.5°C at 7pm on 5th November. Even 10 years ago we often had to scrape the ice off the car windscreen before we could go out to the fireworks.

Yesterday we were taken back (or maybe that should be aback) 27 years by an account of what we were doing on 8th November 1997. That made me feel really old - how could that have been almost half a lifetime ago (well, give or take 4 years)?

Originally, the weather forecast for this weekend and next week was zero overnight. But, that time has now moved a week further forward. However, Mr BW was working to the original date, and so most everything that needs protecting over winter is now safely tucked up in the greenhouse, in the cold frames or inside. He has also managed to get the 'allotment' (what we call the subsidiary veg plot in the orchard field) cleared and covered ready for the winter.

There are small violas in the tops of the pots of bulbs that we have planted as hope for the spring. We find violas much hardier than pansies.

There were queen bumble bees supping from them on Friday - presumably stocking themselves up before digging in somewhere to hibernate for the winter. Not quite as good as the hummingbird hawk moth we saw a couple of times a couple of weeks ago, but, who'd have thought this is England's northernmost county.

I'm delighted by the cornus (dogwood) stems visible from the conservatory window. Actually, I'm delighted by how the whole garden looks. Mr BW has worked so hard to make my vision become reality. I can design, pick a colour pallette, choose and order plants, and direct, but I don't have the energy or balance these days to do the manual work required to plant and maintain. Thank goodness he still does.

I can't bring myself to cut down perennial flowers that are still blooming yet, so hope the frost hurries up and kill off the tops as it will be good to get it done. All the seedheads will remain until the birds have eaten them all and they look a dishevelled mess.

In addition to fireworks, our week has also been full of unexpected grenades.

Regular readers will recall how part of why we moved north was to get away from the need to be constantly fighting planning applications for new towns, airport expansions, and inappropriate developments in the countryside. Well... this week has felt like back to the future.

What is proposed by one greedy person (probably financially backed by one of the 10 'big players') won't affect us directly - we are too far away - but, if approved, it will undoubtedly be followed by tens and eventually hundreds of further applications which could potentially affect the whole county's landscape and challenge tourism and the livelihoods of many others who have chosen sustainable diversification and worked incredibly hard to make their schemes work. Some serious brainwork, research, investigation, writing, and networking has been required to develop appropriate responses. I've been madly loading bullets for others to fire, but it will be months, maybe years, before it is decided.

Apologies for being cryptic, but I don't want to say things that can be picked up on searches. All I will say - and I never thought I'd be saying this - is that Google's AI has made the task so much easier. Once one has learnt how to tame it by asking the right questions, and then to interrogate it thoroughly to check sources, it is so helpful to quickly gather and sift vast quantities of information. Who'd have thought it was only May this year when it started appearing at the top of search results in a very basic form?

I don't see myself ever allowing AI to write things for me, but for identifying and then crunching information, it's been a godsend. Thanks to those of you reading who live in areas already blighted who have found an unexpected email from me in their inboxes and who have kindly shared their thoughts.

There was a very interesting programme on Radio 4's the Bottom Line a couple of weeks ago about how AI can be used to boost productivity in the UK. Worth a listen, if you haven't already heard it.

I couldn't believe the carrots Mr BW pulled for tonight's dinner.

How I miss Johnnie Walker and SOTS on a Sunday afternoon... it's just over a year since his last programme now.