Neil behave your self, leave Cherie alone, this is the time of the year for Muled Wine, and Spiced Cider, Yummy.
Love Mum 2

Dear Muriel, we all love Cherie she is special and we have missed her.
If I was ultra nice to her she would think something was wrong with me. If you look at her Facebook page, there is more Southern comfort on that than you have ever seen!
Hugs.
Neil.

Peter likes Southern Comfort, I like it with Pineapple Juice. But since it has been so cold, we have been having Whiskey and Lemonade at night.
Peter went to lock the back gate, and had to get a screw driver to release the ice so he could use the lock.
We now have been informed tomorrow morning will bring freezing fog, Great! on top of the snow.
Take care everyone when you go out in the snow.
LOL Muriel

Okay now Neil ENOUGH!! I happen to like Southern comfort. Okay everyone I am hoping I found an easy fix for this blasted computer. I called service/repair people via the yellow pages. Spoke with 5 different people. They were all wanting hundred hundred fifty an hour to look at the lap top. The one person I had to leave a message for to call back told me Take some compressed air and spray it in the vents a few times over the next few hours. Then get yourself a stand that has a fan in it that wil connect to your laptop via USB. Went today and for 40 bucks got one Set it up turned on the computer and it has NOT popped out due to overheating ALL DAY! I am a happy camper. Even got to play a couple games on Pogo for a bit today. HIS information cost me only a phone call. "Who do you think I will call automatically with any other problem I may find in the future? hmmmmmm?

Cherie.
Well done, it pays to shop arround, somepeople do like to rip you off if you are not carefull.
Muriel

Some more heavy snow.
Regards.
Neil.

Minus snow so far, but that also can give us a lack of winter moisture & it was quite dry all summer.

Woke up this morning to find Freezing fog, everywhere was so white, it looked like it had snowed, -7 this morning when Peter left for work, fog never cleared untill lunchtime, bitter here.
Ice on the windows, that was inside the house.
Take care everyone.
Muriel

22F last night and Phoenix finally came back this morning and wanted her breakfast after four days missing outside. Where she has been is anyone's guess, but i went to check to see if she had got locked in anywhere and hurt my ankle as I slipped on the pure ice. Snowing heavily here now and the Airports are closed. Even our Chancellor is stuck in the USA as he cannot get back to the UK!
Then they say the temp is going to drop once this snow has finished so it will ice up again for the morning, sick of it!
Regards.
Neil.

Hi Neil,
Had to go out this morning to deliver some of thr prizes from the raffle i did, my hands have still not warmed up.
It makes a change to have a cheerfull Bus Driver, came over the speaker, Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your driver speaking, on behalf of myself and Stage Coach we would like to wish you all, A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Peter said, "He thinks the driver was asked to do it, as many passengers have had to wait so long for buses", still the thought was nice.
All parcel's have now arrived,
We have seen the news about south East London and Kent, we could have snow as it was -2 at 11:30 so it has warmed up since this morning when it was -7 here, ice again on the inside of the windows.
Well how about this, A delivery of Hellabore's arrived this morning, with a tag Wishing you a Merry Christmas, the only thing is, it does not have on it who it is from, so untill someone phones us to see why we have not thanked them, we are mystified.
Sorry to hear about your foot, hope it will heal soon, keep warm.
Love Mum 2

Sorry I have not been around, not too good at the moment! Lot of bugs going around as the weather suddenly got warmer 40F then dropped to a new Record cold, then went warm again and back to cold. So lots of flu and colds around at the moment, everyone seems to have caught one!
Glad you all had a good Christmas.
Regards.
Neil.

Take care Neil, and Sarah,
Stay in the warm where possible, plenty of hot drinks and soup.
Love Mum 2

Hot toddy's will cure what ails ya I bet. with Chicken soup.

Sarah's Rhododendron indica still giving us some Christmas colour!
My elderly neighbours did like their meal, my immediate neighbour said it did it her two days, as she is quite elderly and does not eat as much as she used to. There was a whole Duck breast on each plate so I suppose there is quite a lot there and they had Christmas pudding as well.
Glad you all enjoyed yourselves and lovely to hear from you Cherie.
Regards.
Neil.

This is snow joke! The first time I have managed to get out in the garden, only to find this damage. My Canary Island date Palm Phoenix canariensis with a rather broken bit after getting hit by the snow. The weight on the branch has also snapped the washing line and collapsed my Clematis armandii into a Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Boulevard'.
I dread to think what else I might find! Two of the above plants are said not to be Hardy in the UK, the palm and the evergreen clematis are said not to like the cold. Has anyone told my ones that?
Luckily my Australian Bottlebrush is OK, and they are not supposed to be hardy either. Surprisingly the two Olive trees in pots on the left are fine, how strange!
It is still bitterly cold and it is going to get worse again over New Year, not any more please!
Now we have freezing fog as well, oh what fun!
Regards.
Neil.

Hello All,
Neil has just been on the phone, this is his message to you all,

Sorry! But my router has decided not to work, have been informed that it will be 4/5 days before it can be sorted.

Hello all,
The Hellebore that I had as a present at christmas, is now loving being in a large tub now with plenty of white flowers and buds on it.

Lot of my other plants look a little sorry for them selves, after all the bad weather we have had.
the weather is surpose to be in double figures by the weekend, so hope that I will be able to get in the garden and see what I can save.

Heavy snow is still weighting down the shrubs. I hate to think what our 'nova zembla' rhodie will be like when it melts; the same goes for the carnelian cherry (yellow flowered dogwood relative.)

Dear Lucy, warm at 50 F but very windy and wet here! Everything is soaked as usual, when will it ever stop?
Hope you are well.
Regards.
Neil.

Hi Neil,
At last my dogwood has red bark again, after it's heavy pruning earler in the year, my winter heathers are trying to bloom in the front garden, and the creeping rosemary has flowers on it, even if it has gone black due to the bad weather we had, I have not been ablle to get into the garden, back or front, because of all the wind and heavy rain we are now having.

It is the WRBL lunch tomorrow at Age Concern building which have a large function room as well as the normal activity room, were they have dinner's everyday and Bingo etc, for those that have time to go everyday, ours will be in the function room, this is in place of the Christmas dinner that was cancelled to the big freeze last month. we are all taking a present with us, which means we all go away with a gift, much cheaper that having to buy everyone a gift, which would work out expensive.

Take care.
Muriel