At my Dad’s home on a frosty English morning …

Doesn’t happen very often …

This morning the wind is blowing hard from the North, and it’s “really cold”, only just about 40f and even with the sun shining, it’s not warming up very much …

After a 7 hour trip door to door, Margaret and I and Chloe(!) arrived safely at 8002 last night. Chloe meowed during the drive to the airport, once we were on the plane she was quiet – though no doubt quite scared! A half hour incoming plane delay meant that we didn’t reach 8002 till after 1am, and Chloe then spent quite a while alternately exploring the new house, or hiding under beds etc!

The house is still Christmas-decorated from when Joanne and Earle were here a couple weeks ago …

The days ahead, I’ll start setting up the fourth bedroom as a second office – some equipment here already!

The experiment begins!

It stayed cold yesterday and last night, and was below 20f this morning – and that was enough to freeze the pond!

The fish now will have to stay below the ice for a few months …

And in Essex, the river banks now have ice!

Past mid December, almost “true” winter, and still there’s only a hint of ice on the fish pond, just a light coat where the waterfall runs in the summer:

The water is COLD of course and the fish are “hibernating”:

It’s much milder than last year, and look at the river two years ago today …

(Meanwhile, Margaret is sunbathing in the 70s in Florida!)

While we’ve been staying at the Bellagio, many staff and lots of equipment have been completely replacing the conservatory display ready for Christmas – and now it’s finished!

Even finished, it all needs continuous maintenance replacing dying flowers, etc! And the whole display lasts just four weeks, before being replaced!

Suddenly, there’s leaves everywhere …

Almost exactly a year later, the first frost of Winter 2011/12 beautifies the grass and fallen leaves:

We’ve had weather warm enough to sit outside for lunch, and there are Daffodil shoots in the ground, but today we got about 3″ of heavy wet snow – not enough to bother clearing the drive before heading to work, but enough to make Spring seem a long time away!