Below zero but still no snow

I’m very, very glad that neither Mirinda nor I were at Waterloo Station last night. There was a track side fire just outside the station and all trains were stopped both ways. The concourse was wall-to-wall people. There was even a queue out the main entrance. Lots of complaints about rail staff not being very helpful but I’m not sure what they could have done. There were thousands of passengers.

What a way to end a day.

Here in lovely Surrey, the sun came out and the blue sky was pretty widespread. It was a very cold night and only reached -3 in the morning. My walk to the gym was a bit slippy. I had to keep a wary eye out for frost and ice. All in all, it was a bit slower than normal.

Mind you, it was not as bad as Shawbury in Shropshire where it plummeted to -13! Even I think that’s cold. Mind you, it seems that that’s not unusual. Every winter, it’s generally colder in Shawbury than elsewhere in Britain. I don’t know why.

Having had a jolly good workout, I returned home, put the heater on in my office and settled in for a long Skype with mum. The windows around me were delightfully crackled with frost.

After lunch we all went up to the park for a much-needed walk (or run in Emma’s case). The low sun, streaming through some scattered, cirrus clouds, gave Squirrel Tree a splash of autumn colour, almost making it shine. The dogs never see the poetry; just the squirrels.

On the way back to the house we ran into Luna and her owner frantically trying to catch her. Luna was off the lead and came running over to see me. She has become very friendly since the first time I saw her and she backed off. Having let me pat her (she is amazingly cute) she then said hello to the girls who were busy chatting to another cockerpoo they’d just met. It was a bit of dog heaven on the path.

Eventually Luna’s owner reached us and I picked Luna up and handed her over to go on the lead. Apparently Luna had run off and the owner’s mother’s deaf dog had gone in the other direction. The owner decided to chase Luna because she’s so young and the deaf dog is an old hand at walking through the park.

She found the deaf dog happily sniffing things and the three of them wandered off into the Dell.

All was well until we’d reached the house. I was about to open the door when Luna came racing down the street after us, the owner screaming. Fortunately there were no cars. I told the girls to stay and went to collect Luna. After running around me and the girls a few times I managed to grab her. Her owner decided that she wouldn’t be let off the lead anymore!

After all the excitement, we tidied the house, readying things for our end of week visitors. I made sure to wash the kitchen floor thoroughly to save Jenny from being unduly upset.

The garden still looked pretty neat and tidy but the bird bath had stopped being useful as one.

Meanwhile, elsewhere…first thing this morning, the Hassells docked in Oslo.

(For anyone who is interested, the blue boat shape to the right is the Stena Saga, a Ro-Ro (Roll On, Roll Off) ferry from Denmark built in 1981 and still going strong.) Then, late in the day, they left for Amsterdam.

Meanwhile Denise and Jenny toured the beautiful city of Salzburg. I wonder if they had the string quartet playing Mozart under the colonnade like we did.