The days have started to warm up and the ride home from work is much pleasanter although still chilly , the early mornings still require gloves though. Liz had to move Catriona's car this morning, as it was parked behind our car and she needed to get to work, the car alarm went off, this at 05:30 am, the cats shot in through the cat flap and went thundering up the stairs and dived under the bed, they must have thought we were being attacked. The cat's ears were right back and their bellies dragging on the ground with eyes bulging in fear, after a frantic search we found the right keys and disabled the alarm. I gather that none of our neighbours were late for work this morning.

I finally cut the grass on the front lawns and hedge as well, the rest will have to wait until tomorrow as I am working tonight. I had to cut the grass because we lost a cat in it yesterday, and we were quite fond of it, we found it! The back lawn is now done and Liz is so pleased she wants a party, although there is rain forecast for the weekend. There was one black mark against me as I 'strimmed' the bottom of a clematis, damn, I guess I'll have to open my own beers for a bit. We fire up the braai to celebrate and even ate outside, it was quite a pleasant night, Liz knocked up a nice Victoria sponge cake with jam and cream in the centre for dessert. Liz decide it was 'spot on' time for the cats again! The fluffy cat didn't think this was the right decision, but she got done anyway. We sent Catriona in search of Sooty, she was sleeping happily on our bed, but came down when called, who says cats don't come when they are called. I had the job of holding her while Liz put themuti on her head, Sooty was not interested and put up such a fight that I thought her head would pop off, as she tried to back out of my 'death grip' around her neck which seemed to be stretching, if I didn't let her go, so I released her and we had to catch her again. The cats were finally done an they still 'speak' to us. The road to work is now quite picturesque, with everything in bloom. I now get to ride to work in daylight as well and as the weather has warmed up we are feeding the fish once again. The wild life has perked up around here and on one of my trips to work I had to wait for a pair of swans to cross the road, not a bird to argue with when you are on a push bike, they did give me the fluffy eyeball, but carried on anyway.

March,spring!

Well I have had a few days off, go to finish leave before the end of March. It will soon be May and a trip to South Africa. I finished chopping up the two trees we cut down a couple of weeks ago, I managed to get all the small bits into three green bins, and the other bits are chopped up for firewood for a friend of ours, who has a wood fired stove. The garden now looks clearer, so I guess it is almost lawnmower time, argh! The birds were fairly chirruping while I chopped up the trees, so I guess they were a bit fed up with the destruction of their perches. I spent the day going to Cambridge and Saffron Walden, what a lovely day it was too. It as the first time I had actually been in to Cambridge for many years, boy had it changed, I wandered around the city for a bit enjoying the lovely warm weather, along with quite a few other people. I went on to Saffron Walden in the hopes of getting some boerewors from a butcher there, but they had none until Thursday, damn! I went in to one of the butchers in town and found that they could do some for me, I collect it tomorrow and start braaing Friday night. Got the wors, three kgs, it lasted about 5 minutes, it was very good and we braaied it over the weekend and during the week. Liz stood inside and watched, the weather was still a little fresh, overcoats needed whilst braaing.

We went to a couple of auctions during the month and now have a few more items we can't live without, ornaments etc.(sigh!) We went to Asda at Corby after one of these auctions and had the joy of experiencing a fire alarm. The people shopping were not disturbed and didn't even rush for the doors, we moved to the doors and out whilst the locals just moved outside and stood right at the doors, talk about death wish. The fire brigade was pretty quick in arriving and we were soon back in and spending our money, quite a few folks had abandoned their shopping and left the shop all together.