A Small Update about Tybalt

Those of you who know me on Twitter may recall that I was very worried about Tybalt at the end of last month.

Last year, just before christmas, Tybalt was diagnosed with Thyroid problems, and he's been on medication ever since, and has been doing pretty well.

Then last month he suddenly lost  his appetite, lost a lot of weight again, and was, very definitely, not himself.

When I booked him into to the vet I feared that there was a real risk he might not get to come home with me. However, in the 18 hours or so between making the appointment and attending it, he perked up a little and ate a meal or two. The vet found he was running a temp. so she gave him a shot of antibiotics, and other of painkillers, and booked him back in for a further appointment in 2 weeks time to have the general review, bloods etc that were due in January (with the proviso, of course, to bring him back sooner if he deteriorated.

Fortunately, he didn't - indeed, he got his appetite back with a vengeance!

When his blood and other tests came back last week, they were - mixed.

• His thyroid numbers are are the very high end of normal. Vet doesn't recommend increasing the thyroid meds at this stage, as the numbers may be related to poor management over the last few weeks due to the infection and appetite loss, plus increasing them could push his numbers too low..
• Liver enzymes are higher than normal. This could simply be due to the infection and to his body burning muscle because he wasn't eating. It could be a sign of more serious problems but would need general anaesthetic and biopsy to find out, which would put a lot of strain on him, especially in his current state.
• White blood count up, so he hasn't got rid of the infection altogether yet.
• one of the parameters relating to his kidneys in the blood test is high, the rest at within normal range but high normal. 
• his urine test showed some proteins which could be due to the infection or could mean he has the start of kidney problems.

So. He has a course of antibiotics to get rid of the end of the infection (he was no longer running a temperature, and with him having got his appetite back and being much more himself, the vet was pretty confident that it's mostly gone - the extra course is mainly a precaution.

And he has continued to improve. He is much better in himself, and seems to be regaining  a bit of weight, so hopefully we can both relax for a bit longer.

Tybalt

As some of you know from twitter, I've been very worried about Tybalt. Last week, he suddenly got very sick, was peeing indoors (which clearly upset him; he's generally very good about going where he ought to - and I wasn't overjoyed, either) and generally very obviously not a happy kitty.

We went to the vet on Friday. She gave him an antibiotic shot in case the peeing was down to a water infection, but after examining him said she thought he has thyroid problems, and probably that he'd been under par for a bit, but not showing it, the way carts do (or don't).

She took blood to test, which, like the rest of the exam, Tybalt let her do without even trying to get away from her, which is VERY out of character - usually visits to the vet involve hissing, (which I've never seen him do anywhere else) and strenuous efforts to get away, including that thing cats do where they temporarily grow about 7 extra legs all covered in knives, and show their ability to levitate and to double in size.  So the fact that he was simply sitting there apathetically letting her stick needles into him was a very bad sign.

We also had a conversation about what the next steps would be if the blood tests showed he does have thyroid problems. The answer is that this needs regular meds, which worried me a lot, as Tybalt has NEVER been  a cat who it's easy to get tablets into, and I would have to think very carefully about whether it would be fair to subject him to the stress of forcing tablets into him on a daily basis, as I know from experience that he does get very stressed, and remains stressed for a long time.

On the plus side, he seemed to perk up a lot over the weekend, and the peeing issue stopped, so I think maybe he did have a water infection as well.

This afternoon I got a call from the vet - his blood tests show that he does have hyperthyroidism. They also showed low glucose level so he may also be diabetic (apparently they often go together)  They have suggested starting him on the thyroid tablets - basically, IF he can/will take the tablets without too much stress, they can then do urine tests for diabetes to see whether he does have this, and then monitor  to see whether he needs insulin or if it can be controlled by diet. They also said that if he cannot take the tablets without stress, it would be unfair to him to let him go on. Which is rather what I suspected, from the conversation I had when I took him in on Friday, but not at all what I wanted to hear.

So there's a lot of bad news.

So they have given me 2 weeks supply of the thyroid tablets to see whether he can/will take them (2 weeks due to Christmas. If he doesn't take them, we will have to go back sooner)

The good news is that while he spurned with barely-disguised scorn my attempts to get the 1st tablet into him cunningly disguised in cat-food, or in marmite (vets suggestion), or cheese (end result, one slightly damp and sticky tablet, and one smug cat with a mouth full of marmite and cheese) I then tried a two-pronged approach, involving a sardine, and my sitting at table with a plate (because people-food is always more attractive than cat-food)

So, three lumps of sardine, (tablet tucked into the 2nd and left to sit for a few minutes so the sardine oil soaked in a bit) this actually seems to have worked. He did look a bit suspicious afterwards, but he ate the third chunk of sardine, so that may simply be because he thought he'd got away with more people-food than normal.

Clearly he's not out of the woods yet - I don't know whether sardines will work long-term, and there's still the issue of whether he has diabetes and if so whether this can be controlled by diet, but things are looking much more hopeful than they were 3 days ago.

So, fingers crossed.

And thank you to those of you who've been sending encouragement and sympathy.

Tybalt

I had a day off work today - I have been pretty busy, and not as organised as I should have been, so I have ended up with 5 days of leave to use up before Christmas. when I booked today, I planned for it to be a day when I could make a start on some Christmas shopping, hopefully avoiding crowds, and also perhaps do some baking and cooking meals to stock the freezer.

In the event, it didn't work out quite as planned.

Tybalt was very slighty lame on Saturday, and by Sunday was not putting any weight on his (front) right paw, although I couldn't find any problem with his pads, and nothing seemed to be swollen, or hot, or even tender. So the first thing to do this morning was to call the vet. Of course the only available appointment was right in the middle of the day.

The vet identified that the problem is with his elbow: There is  no obvious fracture or swelling, so it may be that he has jumped or landed awkwardly, and strianed it. Tybalt is nearly 13, and gets very stressed at the vet, so being aneasthetised to be more thoroughly examined would be quite a big deal,so on the vet's advice he is having painkillers for now, to keep him comfortable and  see whether it improves on its own, before we try anything more drastic.

The vet gave him a shot while we were there, and within 15 minutes of being back home Tybalt was using his leg (including bearing weight on it) almost as usual, which I think is a good sign, so I am hoping that it will turn out not to be too serious.

After the visit to the vet, I did make it into Bath to do a little shopping, but wasn't very organised. I feel another expedition will be necessary, although I shall see what I can do online, first. I do enjoy finding gifts for the people I care about, but I hate shopping in crowds.

Its the Weekend!

This week seems to have gone on for a very long time, and I have been sleeping poorly, so I have been tired and cranky. I was, therefore, most annoyed to wake up at 5 a.m. this morning.

And then when I finally got back to sleep, the alarm went off as I had to get up and take my little car to have its MOT. On the plus side, it passed first time, which is nice (and cheap).

But it meant I had very little energy to do anything else, so today I have mostly been sitting about, reading, and watching Tybalt being photogenic.

I also found that my baby clematis, which I planted last year, has beaten the bindwind and managed not only to survive, but to blossom.

It's pretty.

It appears that there is some football going on at the moment. I have absolutely no interest in this, but as long as they refrain from cancelling or moving Doctor Who, or anything else important, I am happy for people to enjoy it.

I do find the flags a little annoying, however. My opposite neighbours have two big flags, both wth the cross of St George and with 'England' written across them, plus bunting. It is a pity that they didn't think to iron out the fold creases before they put the flags up. And I have to wonder, why print "England" on the flag? Do they think people won't know what they stand for without?

For myself, I have my copy of 'Stories' I am pacing myself, reading just one story a day (well, Ok. Maybe two) So I will continue to have new stories for a while.

I have also been watching some random TV. Today, I came across the Trooping of the Colours, for the Queen's official birthday. It's very, very strange. We have a real army, then they come back from Afghanistan or Iraq, dress up in 18th Century clothing and prance around on horseback. Most odd. I also learned that the horses which carry the kettle-drums hold the rank of Major. Sadly no explanation was given as to why this might be, or how they get around the issues of military etiquette which must, surely, arise when you have junior officers riding around on the back of senior ones....

I wonder if they get saluted much. Or, indeed, paid. Still, handy to know we staill have cavalry, in case we decide we need to fight some new wars after all the oil runs out.

Quick Update, easterCon and other stuff

So, this week has been mostly dealing with mundane and unexciting stuff, hence not a lot of blogging.

Monday Tybalt had a visit to the vet, so I was very unpopular - he has been having some skin problems, one place on each of his shoulders, and one on his belly, which looked as though he had perhaps been scratched, and of course he keeps worrying at them, making them worse. So he has been wearing a lovely cone-head collar and being dabbled with antiseptic at regular intervals, as well as having an antibiotics shot. The verdict is that this could be a sensitivity to something he has come into contact with, or stress related, or it could just be that he did have a fight with someone and get scratched. However, it does appear that everything is healing now he can no loger get at the sore areas to lick them to pieces, although I am keeping the collar on for a few more days until they are completely gone, for fear that if I take it off him too soon, simply because I feel sorry for him as he walks into doorways, and complains about not being allowed out, he will undo all the good work.

This weekend I am off to EasterCon in London (or rather, Heathrow) - should be fun. Last time I went (to my first ever con!) was easterCon two years ago, which was at the same hotel and had Neil Gaiman, China Mieville and Charles Stross as Guests of Honour, all of whom are writers I'd go a long way to hear talking about their own work, which is really why I went - in cmbination, they were irrestistable.

This year, the GoHs are Alistair Reynolds, Mike Carey, Liz Williams and Iain M Banks - I have read and enjoyed Mike Carey's 'Felix Castor' novels, and the 'Lucifer' GNs, and I've read Iain Banks' 'The Wasp Factory', but I think that is all. This year I decided to go because o thought the con in general would be fun, rather than going to see a specific writer.

I'm hoping that there will be internet, both at the Radisson (where the con is being held) and the (much cheaper and less posh) Ibis down the road where I shall actually be staying. If there is, I should at least manage to tweet, if not blog. If I go silent, you will know that internet failed to matierialise...

I should be back home some time on Tuesday, probably in need of some major catching up on sleep....

In Which There is Mail

Well! I did have a lovely haul of mail yesterday!

• A post-card, sent to me by my parents (on 18th November!) from New Zealand


• DVDs of the last 2 Doctor Who specials, 'Waters of Mars' and 'The End of Time'


• An unexpected thank-you letter (this could drift into infinity, as it was a letter thanking me for a gift I sent to someone to thank them for a favour they did me....should I now write to thank them for their letter?)


• Rail tickets (of which more later) for my trip to London next month


• a copy of Diana Wynne Jones' new novel, 'Enchanted Glass' which I shall gloat over and save to read at my leisure at the weekend.

And, best of all, a beautiful cat-quilt from Stacy which, as you can see, Tybalt gives his seal of approval!

Thank you, Stacy.

The train tickets are because I shall be going up to London in February to stay with my 2nd cousin John, in order to go to the Theatre (Keira Knightly & Tara Fitzgerald in Moliere's 'Le Misanthrope') and see a couple of exhibitions (Probably the Van Gogh one at the Royal Academy, and the new Medieval & Renaissance Gallery at the V&A) I think the saga of buying them deserves its own post...

Of course, the post wasn't quite all such fun. There was also the renewal notice for my car insurance, which is more than I hoped it would be, and means I shall probably now spend hours getting comparison quotes to see whether I can get a better deal somewhere, which is a hassle. And there was a letter reminding me I have an appointment to go and give blood, which is never what you could call fun..

But on the whole, I think I win!

In which I Survive Shopping

Ooops. No blogging for a while. Mostly because nothing very thrilling has been happening.

The last week seems to have consisted mostly of work, and of looing out at the rain. I am starting to wonder what the going rate for gopher wood and pitch is.

This weekend, for the first time in awhile, I had no visitors, no plans to go anywhere and no gig to go to. I did, however, gird up my loins and head into Bath in order to do those bits og Christmas shopping which can't be done online.

I've been involved in conversations elsewhere about the holidays, and not doing things just from a sense of obligation, so it is relevant to say that I enjoy Christmas. For me, it's always been about spending time with family, and I am lucky enough to have a family whom I love and (perhaps less common) get along well with. I also enjy finding suitable gifts for people - giving things to people can be very pleasurable, if you know the person well and can have the fun of finding something which is right for them, and will give them pleasure.

Those elements I enjoy.

The shopping, however. . . . .

I had hoped that as it is still November, it wouldn't be too manic. I had also planned to go into town early, however that part of the plan was scuppered by the need to wait in for a delivary. Still, at least I was able to get the train in so I didn't have to worry about driving or parking, which when I arrived and saw how packed it was, I could see had been a good choice.

Having a good idea of what I wanted (and a low tolerance for crowds and shopping, particularly together) I only stayed for an hour or two, but it was clear that many people were there for the full day.

I can't remeber last time I saw so many people looking so stressed and miserable.

I managed to find suitable gifts for most of the people I wanted to buy things for, and also had a very soothing time in Mr B's (a *very* good independent bookshop, which will even wrap your purchases, in brown paper and string and selaing wax, if you wish), and a tasty time in the cheese shop. (I wasn't shopping for cheese, but for the very nice confits and chutneys which they sell)

With any luck, I shall now be able to get anything further I want online, and shall be able to steer well clear of any major conurbation until after the madness is over.

Today was much more relaxed, and involved cooking - A big vat of (vegetarian) spaghetti bolognese (to freeze) and a venison stew which is sending delicious smells through the house even as I type. In fact, as it is so miserable outside, I decided to make some dumplings to go with it - should be yummy, and just the thing for a cold, wet, dank November evening.

I shall spend the evening writing my first batch of christmas cards, (this year, I'm sending cards only to those I want to send to, not to anyone (except a couple of very elderly relatives) just because I "ought" to. It occured to me that there are people who send me a card every year, and I feel obligated to send one back (or at least, slightly guilty if I don't) but whom I've not otherwise seen, heard or spoken to for years. It's pointless. So this year, actual friends and people I want to connect with only.

Sometimes, the simplest pleasures are the best. I have been getting a good deal of pleasure from watching Tybalt trying to crawl into a paper bag less than 1/3 of his body size. Simple pleasures.....

And in about half an hour, I shall be sitting down to a delicious, hearty venison stew and a glass of red wine. Another simple pleasure.

A Walk in the Country

It was chilly today, but around lunchtime the sun came out, so I decided to forget about the housework, and to head out for the afternoon.

I went to Stourhead, which is owned by the National Trust, now. The house is not open in the winter, but the park is open all year round, and it's a lovely place to go for a walk. There is a lake, with ornamental bridge, miniature Parthenon, and temple of Apollo, not to mention the grotto, thatched cottage and neoclassical summerhouse.

Its a little late for the best of the autumn coours , but there were still some lovely acers clinging on to the last of their crimson leaves, and plenty of beech leaves in every shade of copper. There are masses of rhodedendrons and although it's the wrong time of year for their flowers they have that dark green, shiny foliage against which the other colours show up beautifully.

I didn't see any deer this time - which probably had a lot to do with the high number of dogs and small and excited children around - but there were ducks, and swans upon the lake.

I saw several robins, and blackbirds, and a few chaffinches and something which may or may not have been a goldfinch.

All in all, it was a very

After my walk, I headed to the farm shop where I bought 3 different types of local apples, and some Medlars (the last, simply because I have never had them before, and know them only from Shakeapeare and other literary sources. They will have to be kept for a while to ripen properly, and it does appear that opinion is divided as to whether they are worth eating or not, but it will be interesting to see what they're like.

And as an added bonus, I got a lovely big paper bag to take my groceries home in, which proved very popular with Tybalt once I had emptied it of fruit.

A Good Day.

Cats

This evening, I was sitting eating supper.

I noticed a squeaking sound from the doorway into the hall.

This isn't unusual. Now that it is getting colder, I am in the habit of keeping the doors and windows closed, so Tybalt has to knock to come in or out.

With the door, he knows that sometimes he can hook his paw under the door and pull it open, so that's what he tries, hence the squeak.

So, like a well-trained human, I got up to open the door.

He immediately sat down (just outside the door).

He didn't come through the door.

He looked at me, with a look of utter disdain, as if to ask why on earth I was standing in the doorway.

He didn't come through the door.

Eventually, I gave up, and sat down again.

As I did, I heard a squeaking sound from the doorway....

Sunshine & Flowers

We have been enjoying several days of blazing June, and I have been wondering why on earth I chose an office based career, and not one whch would allow me to be out in the sunshine. (Of course, I can't think, off hand, of a career which would allow me to spend nice days out in the sunshine while ensuring that I would be snug inside when it is wet or cold - and if I could, I would probably not be qualified for it, but a girl can dream...)

Tybalt and I spent much of Saturday out in the back garden, in the sunshine .

As well as enjoying the sunshine, I was also playing with my new camera, bought in preparation for my upcoming holiday, and on the basis that my exisiting camera was becoming increasingly temperamental. If I am honest, I would probably have to admit that my having dropped it on more than one occasion may have been a contributing factor to that.

I have been planning to get a new camera for some time, and have been going through the process of reading reviews, and looking at different models in shops, and getting very confused because there is so much damn choice.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that if you are talking about a comapct digital camera there probably isn't a great deal to choose between them for the average user (i.e. Me) as everything has heaps of megapixels, and such like.

Which is why I ended up going to the local small-but-knowledgable camera shop, which has the double advantage on being (a) small - so the choice becomes more limted, and thus less overwhelming and (b) knowlegable - so that they can actually give advice when you say 'this is what I have at the moment, and these are the things I like about it and these are the things I'd like it to do better', which of these cameras can do that best?

Of course, what I really want is a camera which will take photographs as if it were a digital SLR, while being as small, light and cheap as an ultra compact camera and with exactly the same controls as my old camera which I am used to, but I don't think they have started making that one yet!

So the one I have actually ended up with is a Panasonic Lumix FS6. So far, it scores on being small and light (with my dodgy shoulder, I have learned the hard way that even quite light things rapidly become uncomfortable to carry, so weight is a real issue for me)

The pictures seem at least as good in terms of sharpness etc. as I was getting previously, and it can get better close-ups, and has a little more in the way of Zoom, which is good.

On the downside, the menus etc. are a little more complex and therefore slower, and also, it is rather blue & shiny. After I had finally decided which camera I was going to buy, it turned out that they only had pink and blue ones in stock, not silver; they could have ordered a non-blue one for me, but my availability and their opening hours would have meant I didn't get the camera until a few days before I go away, which doesn't seem ideal. I suppose I could have gone and bought one elsewhere but that seems a bit unfair, after the small-but-knowledgable had spent the best part of an hour going through the options with me...

Mostly I do not regard my camera as an accessory, so I'm sure I shall get over the blue-ness.

In other news, I am still finding I am very achy and stiff following my RTA - spending 10 mins lying flat on my back on the floor every few hours seems to help, but although I can do this when I am in the office, (although it does attrach some slightly odd looks) it isn't really practical when I am in court, as I was today. *sigh*

Which is mostly an excuse for pretty pictures of flowers

We have had several beautiful sunny days, and the garden, small as it is, is blooming. I have aquilegia (which I don’t recall having planted – perhaps they hitched a ride with something else I transplanted from my parent’s garden), plus my surviving clematis has started to flower,

as have my pansies.
And none of my vegetables have died yet, which is a bonus.
Tybalt has been enjoying the sunshine, and so have I (although I have not (at least as yet) been rolling around on the patio!

In Which there is Gardening, and DIY

I have been in the process of sorting out my spare room – partly because I have been intending to do so far a while, and partly because I shall be having a houseguest for a few weeks.

I have therefore been dredging through the various cupboards and boxes and deciding what to keep, what to throw away, and where to keep the things I want to keep.

Its amazing how much junk I have. There are some boxes which I have carted around through 2 house moves without ever opening, and decided that a lot of their contents could be thrown out. I did however find some much more interesting things – quite a lot of letters sent to me by friends and relations when I first went to university, for instance.

I also found an old school photo (of which the less said, the better) lots of old photos and negatives (must work out what the best way is to get these onto the computer) my exam certificates, old theatre programmes and tickets from my 6th Form days of visiting the theatre for the stand-by standing room every week – very entertaining seeing the cast notes and pictures of the impossibly young Colin Firth, and Colin Farrell, and the like!

Having cleared the room, it seemed a little empty, so this weekend I have been building a (flat pack) wardrobe. It’s a very basic one – wooden frame with a canvas cover, but the construction was not straight forward.

To start with, there is of course my own cack-handedness and lack of coordination, which means that any such endeavour is bound to be slow and tortuous in the extreme…

In this case, things were exacerbated by the somewhat, how shall I put it, challenging nature of the instructions. In particular, whoever drew the pictures had clearly not yet reached the stage in learning to draw where one learns about scale. Either that or they only had one picture of a screw. Which was a little confusing as I had 5 little bags, each containing screws of different sizes,and no clue anywhere in the instuctions as to which little bag contained screws "L", which was "M" and so on.


The instructions themselves (coming after the scale-less picture showing what was supposed to be in the box, which aslo failed to show the top of the wardrobe at all..) consited of a single exploded diagram which sugegsts that you are supposed to construct the thing by throwing the various screws and bolts at the frame very fast from all directions, somewhat in the stlye of the RAF Advert so as to end up with a complete wardrobe (or fighter plane). I chose to build mine in a slightly more restrained way,and ended up with something which was, indeed, recognisablyy a wardrobe. I am not 100% convinced that it will be very useful - the hanging rail sems a little thin and feeble to me, but We Shall See. In the mean time, i am choosing to belive that the 7 screws which I have left over were spares, and it is not that I have faield to attach some crucial parts of the structure to each other.

After building the wardrobe (and having a nice sit down and a cup of tea) I turned my attention to the gardden, as it was a beautiful sunny day.
The kingcups in my 'pond' (which is all odf 18" x 12") have all come out and the plant is clearly flourishing. I didn't rummage around in the water to see whether there are any tadpoles, or frogspawn yet, but I wouldn't be surprised.


I cut the grass - not a major task, as my back yard is very small, and mostly covered with concrete, so the grass only covers 2 small areas, one about 4' x 5' and the other about 6' x 5', so too small to make it worth my while investing in a lawn mower - I have a pair of shears instead, giving the grass that hand-hewn look after I have cut it. The lavender and rosemary are both flourishing, and have lots of buds, sadly the dead-nettles and bindweed sem to be doing well also.

I planted out seedlings of various vegetables, in the hopes that some of them may survive the ravages of slugs and rain long enough for me to eat. This year, I am trying for courgettes (zucchini), lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and,due to an identification error at the garden centre my error, not theirs) cauliflower. It's nnot that I have anything against cauliflower, in fact, I rather like them, but as I do all of my vegetable-growing in (smallish) tubs I am not sure that cauliflower is suitable, as I think it may take up rather too much space, but we shall see.

I also planted some pansies, and having come across an old packet of seeds, some marigolds, so hopefully something may survive somewhere along the way.

And Tybalt provided help and support in his own way.

In which I build a snowman

These posts must be getting a little monotonous…it's snowtime again. We had our heaviest snowfall to date overnight – it was snowing as I went to bed, and by the time I woke up we had about 3” and it was still snowing. I decided to try to get into work, on the basis that once I got out of the estate, the roads would probably be OK. Being fairly cautious, especially where my own wellbeing is concerned, I prepared well, packing up my big bag of salt, shovel, warm coat & boots and a flask of coffee just in case of delays.

I needn’t have bothered. It soon became apparent to me that Smart cars are not ideally suited to snowy or icy conditions – even going very slowly and carefully the back fish-tailed quite badly, and then the gentle turn to the right at the end of the street turned into a full 180 degree spin, at which point I decided that Enough was Enough. Clearly the car wished to go home, and I really couldn’t blame it. So back we went, and slithered gracefully into a space outside the house.

I am sure that if I could have made it to the main road I would have been OK, although even then, thinking of the number of steep hills and sharp bends between home and office, I think it would have been, shall we say, interesting, and I would have spent all day worrying about getting home. Fortunately I can access work e-mail from home, and so was able to get a bit of work done. I also found out, when I spoke to my secretary, that both the client’s who were due to come in today wanted to cancel their appointments as they couldn’t easily get in either, and that neither the post nor the DX arrived today, so there would not have been much more for me to do had I made it in. Clearly the postal workers near the office are lightweights compared to those near my home - I spotted a postamn who was not only out and about doing his deliveries, he was doing them wearing shorts and on his bicycle!

Tybalt was not impressed by the snow (for which he clearly holds me responsible)


After doing enough work to assuage my residual guilt, I ventured out again (on foot this time) The milkman did not turn up this morning (For which I cannot blame him – possibly the only vehicle less suited to the conditions than a Smart car would be an electric milk float) so I needed milk, and anyway, new snow is almost irresistible.

The local roads were still very slippery and slushy – I detoured to take a little walk into the patch of wasteground / nature reserve behind the estate – it was truly beautiful – teasels and rosehips crowned with snow, and a frozen pool with zombie roots under the water.

When I returned home, I went out into the garden where I made possibly the worlds smallest snowman, in my hanging basket, and helped the Poppets to explore in the snow.

The BBC are warning that there may be more snow to come. I hope not, as I have a meeting I must get to tomorrow. . .