Goodnight Squiggle, enjoy the rest of your book.

good evening & goodnight I've had a busy, tiring and surreal but lovely weekend, hope you've all had a good one and I'll catch up properly with you tomorrow

Glad you had a good weekend, goodnight Summer.

Signing out too, goodnight Ros.

Good morning everyone

 

So far there has been no snow here, but there is still a threat over the next couple of hours.

Certainly it's going to be a cold week - Wednesday night looks to be the coldest in Gloucester at -4.

 

Agatha Christie wrote Curtain in 1942, some 30 years before she wrote her last book. She realised that she might not survive WW2 so wanted to write the book as a precaution. She had the book locked away in a bank vault and only authorised its publication in 1975. Miss Lemon and Inspector Japp don't feature in the book as far as I know.

Good morning everyone. A bright, frosty day up here.

Talk about thinking ahead, Agatha could teach today's forward planners a thing or two.

Got my eldest son coming to visit soon, but I'll pop back later on.

Good morning everyone, a cold and cloudy day, cold week ahead so I am planning to stay put as far as poss.

 

Hope your visit with your son goes well Yogi.  I loved Agatha Christie books, cleverly plotted, like solving a puzzle, no gory bits , great atmosphere.

 

I was talking to a friend in church yesterday who was actually a nurse in the times depicted in Call The Midwife (and before then too she is now in her 90's) and she says it is really accurate.  She is actually the very picture of someone you can imagine wearing the old uniform of a ward sister.  At the time when she was a young girl there was the Great War and of course many young men of that generation were killed so she and her sister (who died shortly after Christmas) were never married.  She said that a clergyman friend of theirs described them as 'two unclaimed treasures' which I thought was charming.

Good morning *puts extra log on fire* I think we'll be needing that! I didn't know that agatha christie had written her final book all those years in advance, how fascinating. It'll be a bit sad when the tv series ends Yogi I hope you enjoyed your themed evening, I absolutely love doing that, especially if mr summer is away somewhere and I have the house to myself. Skylark I too hope your daughter felt ok after her walk El, well done Cheltenham Squiggle & joyron I hope you both had a lovely weekend too Last nights drive home was problematic; one road was closed and I got stuck in diversion traffic queues, and I felt sleepy half way home so had to pull over for a cuppa tea and a rest break. That was very effective and I got home safely, albeit stiff and tired. I did sleep very well last night though, which was a big help. I think I'll be doing the same tonight too

According to the Met Office, the coldest weather will be on Wednesday and Thursday and becoming less cold by Friday. There's an amber alert for cold across England  - the alerts aren't available for Wales or Scotland but I think the same would apply to Wales, but for once Scotland looks to be slightly less cold.

 

The Met Office says that on Wednesday and Thursday nights, the temperature could be minus 6, and that day time temperatures no more than 2 or 3.

 

No snow has fallen here, so that's some good news.

Thank El I'll be sure to wrap up warm this week then!

In recent weeks there have been reports in the local news about animals such as deer being killed by possibly big cats. Currently, tests are being carried out to see if this is the case. These attacks have been in the Glouceshire countryside but the most recent one has been at Coopers Edge hill which is near Brockworth on the outskirts of Gloucester and is about 4 miles away from where I live

 

Someone has written a book about big cats in this country. He reckons that there are 2 or 3 big cats in the wild for every 100 square miles. He's obviously taking advantage of the local news stories as he is coming to Gloucester to promote his book.

 

This does remind me of something I saw about 10 years ago. I was walking home from my parents and suddenly I saw a black animal sprint across the road in front of me. There used to be an area of undergrowth between the Plock Court playing fields and it seemed to come from there. It was black, the size of a retriever, but cat shaped rather than dog shaped. I didn't think anything more of it at the time, but I do wonder whether I did spot a big cat. A small black panther is about 3 foot long.

I do believe there are big cats living wild all over the UK.  I know some have been spotted on Exmoor and I think the sightings are too often to be just put down to someone mistaking a domestic cat for a puma or something similar.  I think there was some legislation in about the 80's where they had to register if they were keeping cats in the wild and someone mentioned on our local radio station that some owners just released them into the wild rather than register them.

Squiggle, I think you are right about people letting their big cats out into the wilds to get over the law. It's also a lot harder to import them into this country without a permit and avoid being detected.

At the start of Doctors (BBC1) today, there was a bit of music played during the intro scene. I knew immediately that it was from one of Beethoven's symphonies and that it would be from the start of the second movement from one of them. The second movement in his symphonies are always slow. So it didn't take me long to work through his symphonies and found that it was the start of the 7th.

 

In this episode was a guest appearance by a very elderly Edward Petherbridge (he's 75 now). He was Lord Peter Wimsey in the Dorothy Sayers adaptations back in 1987. In those adaptations, his girlfriend Harriet Vane was played by Harriet Walter who nowadays is a regular in Law and Order. My father was a great admirer of Dorothy Sayers' books. He regarded her as the only detective story writer who could be considered to be a fine writer (in terms of comparing writers with the likes of Dickens etc). It's many years since there were any adaptations of her books either in film or television.

Well done on figuring out which symphony it was, El. I wouldn't have had a clue.

I like Harriet Walter as an actress, she's very good. I love Law & Order UK, although I only discovered it during series 4.

 

I'm signing out, I'm not feeling well so going to have an early night, I hope everyone has had a good day, night night

I wouldn't have had a clue either Yogi so I am full of admiration EL.  Funnily enough Harriet Walter was in a lovely film I watched yesterday, Time After Time, a ghost story but not at all frightening rather heartwarming instead.  With a good cast, Timothy Spall, Maggie Smith and that extremely good-looking young man who was in the latest version of Great Expectations, Douglas Booth.

 

Well I'm off to read, have a good evening everyone, speak to you all tomorrow.

 

Oh your post and mine must have been at the same time Summer, I hope you feel better in the morning, sleep well

I hope you feel better soon, Summer.

Goodnight Squiggle.

Leaving a hug for Ros.

aww night yogi squiggle summer

 

summer - hope you feel better tomorrow

Good morning everyone

 

Summer, I hope you are feeling better this morning

 

Dry, a bit misty, and cold today. I hope everyone is able to stay warm over the next few days and that nobody's heating starts playing up

Quite an intriguing cast in tomorrow's Midsomer Murders with some people better known from the 1960s who I have rarely seen since. There's Eleanor Bron who started off with the likes of Peter Cook and John Bird back then. Then there's William Gaunt who I remember from The Champions in the late 60s.

Good morning everyone, another really cold day today.  Summer I hope you slept well and are feeling a bit better this morning

 

I have given up on watching Midsomer Murders but the cast that you mention EL does sound intriguing.  I never think of The Champions when I hear the name William Gaunt, as I have mentioned before I always think of that Victorian detective series ages and ages ago where he played the sidekick, showing my age

Good morning everyone. Its really cold up here. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Summer, I hope you are feeling better today.

I liked The Champions - we are all showing our age in here.

Got to go to the bank and the shops this morning, will be back later.

Good morning it's very dark & cold here! The sky is full of snow but it's not falling, the odd flake flitters down but that's it. Thanks for all your get well wishes, I had a good nights sleep and although I don't feel good, I don't feel utterly rotten- I'll be ok I hope everyone is keeping warm

Glad that you had a good night's sleep and are feeling a bit better this morning Summer, are you getting a cold do you think?

 

I get the feeling that we are going to be hearing from this little girl in the future

 

 

 

         

Yes it's a cold type bug squiggle, my head and ribs ache and I've got a funky throat.. I usually have a bad runny nose with it but *touch wood* I've not got that now though, phew! I'll switch to my web browser to see the little girl, hang on..

Aww Summer, that's not so good. Do you have something you can take, to help with the symptoms??

 

Change of plan, going to the shops and bank in the afternoon.

 

What a stunning and mature voice, in one so young. Beautiful lyrics, too.

Thanks yogi yes I've got ibuprofen with me Hope you find something good at the shops today *wonders what she'll buy us* Squiggle, what a beautiful voice that young lady has, I hope she does very well!

The new mobile version of the site means I can see everyone's pics & vids much easier on my web browser now

Thank you squiggle for posting that video Jackie Evancho has an extraordinarily mature voice for her age - she would be 10 or 11. It's inevitable that comparisons will be drawn between her and Charlotte Church when she was younger, just hope she doesn't lose her talent as she grows older.

Squiggle, that film you saw a couple of days - I tracked down the film with Harriet Walter you saw. Oddly enough it's written by Julian Fellowes - he seems to be everywhere . On s small point, it's called From Time to Time. There is another film called Time after Time made some years ago with Malcolm McDowell, so I thought I'd mention that to avoid confusion. The Malcolm McDowell one is where he plays the part of H G Wells and uses his time machine to go after Jack the Ripper (played by David Warner).

Thank you EL, I had got muddled about the title.  Hugh Bonneville (from Downton) was in it too so I am not amazed to find that it was written by Julian Fellowes.  It was very good.

Signing out early tonight, catch up with everyone tomorrow.

Hugs for the night owls.

Me too.  Speak to you all tomorrow, Summer hope you are feeling better now.  Joyron sending a big hug and hope you have been enjoying your book.

Good morning everyone

 

I don't know if any of you have noticed but it's cold out there. At least it's not like Russia and that part of the world. On the radio this morning they said that it had dropped to something like -43 C in north west Russia. Over 60 people have died so far there due to the freezing conditions.

 

Big for everyone and I hope you are can stay warm.

Good morning everyone, that sounds like a terrible place to live EL.  I am staying in and keeping warm.  Wrap up if you have to go out everyone   Do you have the inside track as to how much longer this cold spell is likely to last EL?

Good morning everyone.

It's very frosty up here, it took me ages to scrape the ice from the car this morning.

I hope you are keepy cosy and warm where you are.

Summer, are you feeling better today?

I've just been out delivering letters to a couple of local clients. The temperature is about 0, but with the wind chill it felt like -4. I was wrapped up and walking briskly but am glad to be back home.

 

Squiggle, the Met Office don't know how long this cold snap will last. There's a battle between some warmer but wetter weather from the west and this huge area of cold high pressure acrosss Europe. This country is in the area between. It depends on which side wins - if the warmer weather wins then we will see it warmer by Saturday, if the cold weather wins then the cold will remain and many of us could see a fair amount of snow over the weekend. Even if the weather does get warmer, it is likely to be temporary with a return to possibly even colder weather which is likely to be here throughout February and into March with snow in many places.

You remember that big job I was working on last October time - I finally received the cheque today So I am going out now to bank it in case I forget to - not that that's very likely as it's:

 

HUGE

Yay, good for you, El.

You deserve it for all your hard work.