Petrol Prices

Petrol Prices are set to rise in the new year when VAT goes up to 20%

At the Clacket Lane services on the M25 on Monday normal petrol was £1.30 a litre

November Snow from around Petts Wood

This shot was taken looking towards Petts Wood yesterday afternoon

as you can see the roads are untouched.

Tudor Way Junction towards Willett Way

The garden looks pretty

Snow sliding off the bonnet of my car - you might like to make the picture bigger to see the thickness of the snow. The bonnet is now covered again. We must have had at least 28 - 30 cm come down in total and we are told more is on the way.

This shot is for Christopher, a lorry load of salt with snowplough opening the road, we've seen crazy things, a guy on a peddle bike fell off right outside the house, and then a Pizza delivery boy (with L plates) went down the hill on a moped and very nearly lost it at the bottom of the hill, plus loads of car drivers sliding all over the road and driving far too fast and too close.

Our house, no hot spots on the roof, thats because the inside is as cold as the outside

The weight of the snow even brought down telephone wires further down Petts Wood Road

Towards the Daylight Inn

Red Berries - we were only saying the other day how full the holly bushes were with fruit and perhaps a hard winter is on the cards and then the snow came down.

This little girl was posting early for Christmas - her father was just out of shot

A Land Rover ticks all the boxes

A Land Rover ticks all the boxes, ABS Yes, Traction control Yes, 4 wheel drive Yes, Air bags Yes, goes fast over difficult terrain Yes, spare brain for driver - err No.... However the airbags deployed and the back window popped out, when we looked inside from the back the interior light was still on. The tree is still upright but had a fair bit of bark missing, hopefully it will survive - not so sure about the Land Rover it looked like a write off.

The battle of Hastings (part two)

Earlier this summer the pirates of Hastings had something else to worry about as Christopher George took the place by storm.

Autumn Colours of Sheffield Park Gardens

Parrots in the garden

We still get the Parakeets in the garden, this one hung around for quite awhile and as I type this we have four more taking the apples - the ones today look like babies as their tails are stubby and are being fed by one parent bird, they are making quite a racket, they snip off the apples without any problem and then pass it to a foot where they eat it; its interesting to watch.

In the background of this shot you can see a yellow banded grass snake; its commonly called a hose, they can be very long but not very fat; more and more are being found in gardens now that the heat is here, some are dark green but nearly all have a stripe or two, all are harmless, this one has its head dangling in the pond.

High Summer Skies

The sky from our garden showing the holiday jet vapour trails we enjoyed record temperatures for about the past 8 days

A walk in the woods

I can't add anything to this lovely picture - it's really nice walking over the woods on a summers evening . Note to self, must do it more often!

Heron Strike

We lost one of our fish this morning, well actually, it happened last night, a Heron must have paid us a visit around 8.30 - 9pm, Merlin went in the Garden and started barking drawing our attention to what he found on the lawn. One of our two remaining Golden Orff had been stabbed by a Heron and lifted out of the pond, it was still breathing but its body was fairly dry due to the heat, I picked it up and put it back in the pond keeping a check on it , it seemed to rally round and started to swim, but, this morning I found him dead under the lilly pad leaves, its a shame as I've had him for quite awhile, certainly over ten years; it was just over 20 inches long and weighed four and a half pounds and far too big for a Heron to swallow, given it's weight and I assumed it struggled, so I'm surprised that it even managed to lift it from the pond.

Because I've been at home and that the pond has cover on it with the plants etc we have not netted the pond and the pumps switch off at 8pm so the water was nice and still. So probably due to the high heat that we have been having coupled with low river levels has meant that the Herons are finding garden ponds easy pickings, we have not seen a Heron flying near here for many months . Golden Orff are a good barometer for the health of the pond and are always the first to take the food. We now have just one left which is almost white in appearance as it's golden yellow colour left it some years ago.

School sports day

Ethan had his school year sports day today and although at one point his team were ahead by just one tiny point the other team caught them up and his team came second, they all worked very hard and did their best.

It was hot watching my brother run his races so afterwards I had an ice cream, so did Ethan, the marks on my nose are battle scars from a fall that I had

Ethan Runs the first race which is the Egg and Spoon race , on his head is a bean bag

Ethan with his best friend waving the team flag

Ethan runs as fast as he can to win the race

Ethan rests up before the Big day starts

Frog Hunting

All you have to do now Phoebe is to give it a big kiss and it will turn into Prince Charming

A walk in the woods

I discovered a new path through the woods yesterday , it has an elevated position for most of its length, I was almost tempted to go back and get my ski's it was that good; and probably stretched for about 1/3 of a mile, perhaps more! The woods looked very pretty with their carpet of snow, there were lot's of animal and bird tracks and it was perfectly silent. It then started to snow again and the light started to fade so I made my way home , I must have been out for about an hour and a half and all of it very enjoyable.

Family tragedy strikes Petts Wood

This young family set out to walk snowy the dog during the recent snow storms when they were overcome by the weather just a few feet from their own front door, they were quickly frozen. Hungry wild birds soon attacked the bodies and ate their arms and legs including the tail of poor old snowy! the bones of which soon blackened in the sub zero temperatures. Last night -20c was recorded in parts of the UK, colder than parts of the Antarctic. Other News ...... Penguins seen on Petts Wood station, others can be found in sweetshops up and down the country sheltering from the intense cold.