Weather permitting, I have been beavering away in the garden, paddock and fields trying to bring order back to the Countryidyll domain since retiring some six or seven weeks ago.  I have to admit that the weather is not helping as it is stopping me from getting on. Not because we’ve had much rain, on the contrary, I’m afraid. But because it’s been so, so windy and cold. I really hate working outside in the wind, it makes me so irritable! My hair blows in my face and I can’t see so I put on a hat.. then I get too hot. Can’t win really. Ho hum.

Max, on the other hand, is really a good boy being ridden on a windy day (not quite such an angel when I’m leading him!) so have settled into a routine of riding four times a week, which we are both happy with.

Yesterday I took an hour or so out of my day to visit the flower festival at our village church. It certainly was time well spent. There were some really splendid flower arrangements as well, I hasten to add, an excellent carrot cake and cuppa. I have to admit that I had two helpings of cake, it was so good!  Didn’t feel too guilty as, on my return home, I mowed the lawn, which is quite a fair bit of walking!

I have posted some photos of the flower arrangements below, so that you can judge for yourself.

Thursday could have been a disaster. Luckily it wasn’t. It was, in fact, quite a hoot.

I had committed to being a poll clerk for the County Council elections on Thursday. Despite having resided in Norfolk for over thirty years the name of the village on my appointment letter was new to me. So it called for a reccie to be sure of where I was going at 6 a.m. the next morning.

What I found was a sweet, corrugated iron village hall that looked pre-war, but wasn’t, but it was not far off! There weren’t many more than 250 voters on the electoral roll in the two villages, so, I thought, this is going to be a long, slow day.

I arrived at 6.30 am  to be greeted with a jolly ‘hello’ and a wave from my presiding officer, who turned out to be a bundle of laughs. As were some of  the residents who dropped in to vote. The average age of the voters had to be sixty.  But then, there were forty or so postal voters, so maybe they were all young. I sincerely hope so, for the villages’ sake!

When we opened the doors, promptly at 7 am, our first arrival was waiting outside. They came in, wandered around and left without voting…

We only had 57 voters all day, but they were well spaced out and we met some really lovely people. Everybody, with only a couple of exceptions, was really jolly and we had some very interesting and sometimes, hilarious, interactions!

Many voters were accompanied by their dogs, of varying heights and ages, but one lady came in with something quite unusual on the end of a lead…

I wonder whether you can guess what he is?  He really was a sweetie. I even plucked up courage to stroke him AND I didn’t get bitten, which is more than that chap on Blue Peter could say. Ha ha.

I took loads of magazines, half a ton of sandwiches, cakes, buns, sweets and my Kindle. Needless to say I didn’t do much reading, but I did stuff myself ! I didn’t however eat everything, so had a lovely lunch today on the leftovers.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day, and I was paid for it too. So that can’t be bad, can it?!

Little did I think that three weeks or so ago, when we had that lovely mild spell, that we would dive head first back into a freezing winter. But we did. It seemed so unfair to be tempted with the joys of spring to come, to have 48 hours of torrential rain, followed by a big freeze and a few days of snow. Max’s paddock was like a frozen paddy field!

Thank goodness that awful, freezing wind has dried the ground out. At least we have to be thankful for that. But it’s still freezing at night and frosty in the morning, with no sign of a change on the horizon.

A frosty morning

365 is kindly hosted by The Boy and Me

Photo of the week kindly hosted by Team Lloyd