This month’s list of things I didn’t write about during February.

Wed 1	Aarrggghhhh! I was going to write about a lovely sunny day, but … yes, it was sunny but ceased to be lovely. N discovered very late in the afternoon that the pond was losing water and was half empty. No idea how or why as by this time it was too dark to do anything much except put a call out to our pond guy.
Thu 2	Crocuses! We have the first few crocuses in flower. Just a scattering of 6 or 8 pale lavender coloured ones in the lawn. No idea how they got there, as I don’t recall we planted any in mid-lawn – but they looked good in the morning sun. No sign of the others yet, but the gardener has helpfully scattered prunings awaiting shredding everywhere. Bloody gardeners, they take no notice of what you tell them!
Fri 3	Even more crocuses! There are now a couple of dozen in flower scattered about the lawn. An absolutely delightful harbinger of Spring. I also spotted a nest high up in one of the silver birch trees; it must be last year’s; I think not big enough for a squirrel drey but it might just be big enough for a woodpigeon.
Sat 4	Weird. The pond having lost half its water at Wednesday teatime, and having been filled up to level in daylight on Thursday morning, 48 hours later is still up more or less to level. It’s maybe dropped at most an inch. Looking at the wetness around one corner, I had suspected that the weld in the liner had failed; but it currently looks as if this isn’t the case. All very odd.
Sun 5	Royal Mail have had international outgoing mail suspended for almost a month following a “cyber attack” (thought to be a ransom demand). They’ve been slowly restoring services over the last couple of weeks starting with the high value, low demand services. At last this weekend they’ve restarted normal “air mail” services. So at last I’m able to ship AP Society merchandise to overseas buyers, some of whom have been waiting all this time. With luck the packages will get collected tomorrow and be on their way.
Mon 6	Awake in the early hours to appreciate a bright silvery full moon, veiled in some ethereal gossamer cloud. And then this evening through the filigree twigs of the trees.
Tue 7	A strange morning. At 06:00 it was crystal clear and beautifully moonlit, with the moon setting to the SW. By 07:00 it was thick fog. And by lunchtime glorious sunshine which enticed two of the cats out to solar charge.
Wed 8	Continuing the moonshine theme … Just gone 06:30 this morning; there’s the merest chink of daylight; it is cold, frosty and moonlit. And there’s already a crow up and doing; sitting on a nearby TV ariel proclaiming it’s territory.
Thu 9	Everyone in our street has received a very snotty letter from the council accusing us of obstructing the highway with traffic cones and threatening us with fines. It’s not addressed individually, nor signed, so is unlikely to stand up in court – indeed unless they can prove one is a culprit they’re on a hiding to nothing in court – they have to prove an offense by an identifiable individual. So basically it amounts only to bullying. I’m very tempted to write them a snotty reply pointing this out.
Fri 10	Now this is interesting, at least to me. I’ve become aware that over the last few weeks the barometric pressure in the UK has been exceptionally high – like up to 1046 hPa (the normal range is roughly 998 to 1032, with an average of 1013). That doesn’t sound a lot, but it’s quite a significant increase and some people have been reporting headaches as a result. Which could explain at least some of why I’ve been feeling so hit on the head, on and off, for the last few weeks – especially as I’ve always been prone to ear disturbance and motion sickness (which is why I can’t do yoga). Having checked back some of the local records it seems to sort of fit, although I don’t have a detailed record of how I’ve felt.
Sat 11	For some while I’ve been thinking about taking part in Postcrossing. It’s a project that allows you to send postcards and receive postcards back from random people around the world. That’s real postcards, not electronic! Why? Simply because there are lots of people who like to receive real mail. Receiving postcards from different places in the world (many which you’ve likely never heard of!) can make your mailbox full of surprises. But I can’t make up my mind whether it’s a good and interesting thing, or whether it becomes just another chore. Anyone out there take part?
Sun 12	So I decided to take the plunge and try Postcrossing. Two cards will go in the mail tomorrow. Then we just have to wait and see …
Mon 13	Lovely and sunny at lunchtime, so I braved the elements and went to photograph the crocuses. But all that bending and crouching down doesn’t half play havoc with my back.
Tue 14	And it’s Valentine’s Day. So what more natural than we have two squirrels fucking in the silver birch tree.
Wed 15	I was lucky enough to be up in time to see a glorious red, fiery sunrise – although it lasted only minutes. Totally unable to photograph it. What a contrast to yesterday’s fog when you couldn’t see the top of the road, so visibility down to about 100m.
Thu 16	I’ve been trying for the last several months to go back to what I always used to do which was to have alcohol only Friday, Saturday, Sunday evenings (well and odd exceptions like celebrations and holidays). I was doing reasonably well until this month when the internal application of alcohol has been necessary at times during the week. Not surprising really when you look at a day like today, which seems to have had an all-round fit of the dismals. I guess we need to get the “worries” over with: that’s “Janu-worry” and “Febru-worry”! Roll on Spring!
Fri 17	Walked into the study to find Queen Tilly Cat sitting, bold as brass, on the printer surveying her empire.
Sat 18	Gah! The perversity of the cat drives you demented. No.1 is given grated cheese as a treat at lunchtime and turns up her nose at it. No.2 is given a teaspoon of cream at dinner time and also turns up her nose. No.3 won’t come for tea when called, remains steadfastly asleep; appears 2 hours later and goes out. There are times – many times – when you do wonder why you bother!
Sun 19	As usual on a Sunday I unloaded the pictures from the trail camera. At one point we have two cats, not much more than a metre apart. And between them a rather worried rat: “Oh bugger; there’s two of them!”. What happened? No idea; no images to tell us; if it was despatched it wasn’t brought home.
Mon 20	A dismal start to the day but nice a sunny by lunchtime, although breezy. So I had 5 minutes in the garden with a point-and-shoot camera catching the last of the crocuses, and the snowdrops which are are out, at last! Also lots of visibly grown small goldfish drifting around the pond in the sun.
Tue 21	The power company were encouraging us to try saving power at teatime today, so it was a good opportunity to audit the cellar (aka. the wine rack in the dining room). Discovered we were getting low on stock: just 5 dozen bottles various plus a dozen champagne. So there’s now a large order in with The Wine Society.
Wed 22	Oi, Mr Magpie! Every year you come and rip bits off my trees for your twiggy nest. I don’t mind you doing a little light pruning, but it would please me if you took only what you need and not drop 2 out of 3 on the lawn, from where you never bother to recover them. The whole garden is littered with bits of magpie-pulled twigs.
Thu 23	Cooked an “omeletatta” for tea (sort of omelette-cum-frittata). A big omelette, with lots of sautéed onion, garlic, spinach and mushrooms; with a bit of Applewood cheese in the egg mix and topped with some grated cheddar. Devoured greedily with chunks of bread & butter. No good for all you unhealthy vegans, but great for the rest of us!
Fri 24	Took advantage of being up early to get ahead and to sort out N’s PC. A couple of fixes needed, new batteries for the mouse, and do all the updates. It took a good 40 minutes plus I didn’t count how many reboots. And of course then I forgot to do the same to my machine! Duh!
Sat 25	Did anything happen today? I suppose something must have done; somewhere. But I didn’t notice. Oh, yes, lamb chops happened.
Sun 26	One of the earliest members of the Anthony Powell Society, from upstate New York, is 101 today. What an achievement! He served in the US military and I believe was part of the US administration in Japan; following the war he was a graduate student and Fulbright Fellow at the LSE; and eventually become Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University. It was initially for him that I created a special membership category of the AP Society: any paid up member who reaches the age of 90, is given honorary life membership – in recognition that Powell reached the age of 94. But 101 is something else!
Mon 27	Today I set myself three fairly chunky tasks to accomplish – with the expectation of completing only two of them. The first was a bit of a slog, which didn’t bode well, but it was killed just after lunch. I then tackled number three as it was time-critical, and it wasn’t too bad. As it was now only mid-afternoon I figured I’d better have a go at number two. Despite having planned it, I was expecting it to fight back. But it didn’t; it turned out to be fairly straightforward, apart from a bit of a fiddle at the end to make the code do exactly what I wanted. So a successful day, and a bit of time to spare to be wasted. Definite result!
Tue 28	So much for a quiet day clearing up odd jobs. All went well until midday when I get a phone call. “Can you attend a meeting at 18:30 this evening? We’re short of panel members.” (I’m on the other panel of this group.) “Yes, but how much is there to read before the meeting?” “It’s not much. I’ll send it over now.” “OK, then.” Not much turns out to be 60 pages, on a scheme I really didn’t want to be involved with; and it’s all marketing bollox. Goodbye afternoon. As it turned out the meeting wasn’t too bad; though I did put the boot in, maybe too hard and too early – I might learn one day.