The snow is all but gone! This morning we woke to grey clouds and rain, turning the snow to mere pools of it’s former glory. Sadly, Mirinda really missed out on the beauty. Last night we walked home via Borelli Walk but even here the snow was vanishing quicker than a ice cube in a microwave. Everything is now looking a bit sad and forlorn. Even my snowman is merely a puddle. I observe, however, that Snowy next door, though clearly dead, is still fairly recognisable as a snowman.
As a side note to this entry, I have just read (completely unauthenticated I should add) that Farnham is one of the most haunted towns in England. There’s apparently several at the Bush hotel and a particularly active ghost in Borelli Yard. Both the Borelli Walk and Borelli Yard are named after Charles Ernest Borelli (1873-1950). He was a local politician who, along with architect Harold Falkner, were largely responsible for conserving Farnham as a Georgian town. We have them to thank for how perfect the town centre can look and the preservation of the ‘yards’ etc.
I’m pretty sure we could draw a line directly from these two guys to the later decisions not to allow too many chain stores and fast food places into Farnham, ensuring it would not become another boring clone town. And here it is, apparently a ghost town instead. Not that I’ve seen any, of course. Or heard any for that matter. Perhaps Bob and/or Claire can comment on the ghosts in the Bush Hotel.
Walking into Farnham this morning was a very slushy experience. Life, it seems, has returned to normal. Traffic once more crowding Castle Street, mobs crowding the footpath in the Borough, shopping trolleys crowding the aisles in Waitrose. The only crowd free place was, thankfully, Starbucks. (Today Alex the Schumanian was wearing an odd glittery Alice band on her head. It looked odd. When I asked her why, she shrugged and said “It looked happy.” I can’t really argue with that.) So, for possibly the first time in two weeks, I could enjoy a relatively noise and people free coffee.
As I entered Starbucks, standing outside all orderly and well behaved, were two Dalmatians. No leads, just sitting, patiently waiting for their owner who was inside buying a coffee. Amazing, I thought. Our two wouldn’t do that. As soon as the door opened, they’d be in. But I walked past the Dalmatians, patting their heads as I did, opened the door and walked in and they didn’t move.
But, continuing on about crowds…for some reason, every time I tried to go down an aisle in Waitrose this morning, it was blocked by two trolleys, the drivers of which were chatting or just generally dithering over product selection. I always use a basket rather than try and manoeuvre anything large around the store but even that was a pain today. I’m sure people do it just to annoy me. They all hide in the aisles until I approach, then, on some supersonic wavelength, a signal is given and they all bunch up, blocking my way. I’m fairly sure they all have a jolly good laugh about it afterwards. It reminds me of flash crowds.
It’s amazing the number of great photo opportunities I miss. This morning, for instance, returning from Farnham and heading up Long Garden Walk, ahead of me I spotted a woman holding an umbrella, standing behind a pram. Nothing odd in that, naturally, but to her right was an upturned umbrella resting on the ground, gloriously open to the elements. I fumbled with my phone, trying to get the camera working as I moved closer. I was ready to take the picture when someone walked by from in front of her and blocked the shot. I tried again but I was too late. From in front of the pram (and out of my sight) was, I assume, the father of the child. He stood up, grabbed the umbrella and they walked off.
“Bugger“, I thought, putting my phone back in my pocket, “There goes the picture for today’s blog entry.”
We walked the poodles up to the castle and back in the late afternoon. All the lovely snow has been replaced by slimy, muddy splodgy, grass. At least that’s how most of it felt beneath our feet.