Between storms

A day of ... weather. How very British. Except, of course, that our extreme weather is no longer all we know about, all we talk about - because the world has shrunk and we know about heat cones, forest fires, floods, earthquakes and volcanoes and the sufferings of the world. 

Today actually began very calmly - the photo diptych above contains the only viable photos I took today, 30 minutes apart, the upper when I had just got out of bed and the lower when I was in the middle of breakfast and broke off to go to the front of the house to look. Crazy? Yes. And crazily I didn't think it would be cold - it felt ok when I took some rubbish out in my dressing-gown - and didn't put on my puffa coat to church. I regretted it. The damp makes a huge difference.

We celebrated the feast of Candlemas in church today - the actual day is actually 2nd February, but the church seems to have decreed that the Sunday before was ok - so we had candles to hold and the story of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. I hadn't realised I was supposed to be doing the Intercessions, which was annoying, though I was able to produce suitable ready-made prayers from the "old" blue book which I keep in my folder for emergencies. (Piskies will know what I'm talking about). And I sang Geoffrey Burgon's Nunc Dimittis, which was the closing music for the original wonderful Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy starring Alec Guinness: I love singing it.

And that was it, really - excitement over for the day. The rain came on as we left church, grew heavy by 1pm, and was battered along by the rising wind through the afternoon, roaring in the gas flues and thrashing the trees. I had thought of removing the two hanging feeders from the bird table in an effort to prevent it from being knocked over again, but when we looked out we could see each one was covered in little birds, with others swaying beside them on the bushes, waiting their turn. Tits, dunnocks and sparrows, mainly - more than I've seen all year. Were they worrying about when the next meal would present itself?

Right now it's cold and gusty, but not so fierce - I don't know if we've escaped lightly or if it's merely a lull. I spent ages doing Italian (this is relegation day, so I had to be careful) and Sudoku on the computer, having done averagely on Wordle and rather better than Byrdle. (It's as well there's only one of each of these a day).I had a spur of the moment video call to friends in Eastern Canada, who were at breakfast, and a long phone call from the godfather of my younger son.Dinner was left-overs from Friday with a few extra roast potatoes and a bit of broccoli thrown in - perfectly delicious. 

I shall have to do some vigorous Pilates in the morning, but for now I'm calling it a day. I hope everyone's roof/trees/bird tables, flowerpots survive the night ...