Marie's Web Log

My apologies to those who don't get the joke in the title. (Chad, if you're reading this, you should!) I looked out the back patio doors a little while ago, and saw big fat snowflakes blowing around in the glow of the streetlamps. There is some snow on the ground, too - about an inch or so. If it keeps up, and we get a couple of inches, Amelia's nursery school might be cancelled tomorrow. (No, you diehard Canadian types, I'm not kidding.)

The weather has been strange lately. A lot of hail, cold winds, rain, sun, everything really. It has been much colder than it was last winter. Serves me right, I suppose, for being so smug. Still see people in shorts nearly every day, though.

On the other hand, my crocuses by the front door were in full bloom this afternoon. If I had a digital camera, I'd have taken a photo for you.

We made the momentous decision the other day to rent an allotment. For the uninitated, these are plots of public land leased out to people to grow vegetables on. Ours is in a really big site on a slope on the other side of the river, with beautiful views of the city. Apparently it used to be a plant nursery, and was left to the city with the proviso that it would be kept as allotments. I bet the city would love to sell it to a housing developer.

The usual size of a plot is 250 m by 10 m. This is quite large! Ours is only a half plot, luckily. The one next to ours has a full-size plum tree on it, and ours has brambles and some other things growing. Judging by the plants and trees on the other plots (the genial allotment officer took us on a guided tour) the site has been there for quite some time. Unfortunately it's been too cold to actually do anything with it yet.

Ian has to go down to Plymouth tomorrow to talk to someone at the university there about maybe doing a PhD with them. They already have grant money available for his type of subject. I hope the snow isn't too bad.

All for now.