The BeenThere-DoneThat Blog

No, not Annecyborn ( ) but yesterday – our shortest day.

What a dismal day it was. It was dark when I got out of bed and it was dark when I went back to bed with very little light in between.

We must have had a very thick layer of cloud because, at best, it was like twilight during the day. At least now we can look forward to lengthening days.

Christmas is forecast to be wet and windy. No white Christmas for us. Still we've had no cold weather to speak of yet this winter.

When we were last in Hunstanton I wasn't able to get a photograph of the striped cliffs in sunlight because of the position of the sun. Hunstantons position on the corner of The Wash means that the cliffs actually face west across the water so to get a picture of the cliffs in sunlight it needs to be done somewhere around 6:00 PM.

It also needs a lowish tide so that I can walk along the beach. The weather and tides are, therefore, the limiting factors.

I'm doing this on my own so I don't want to drive and I want to keep expenses as low as possible. I have an old persons bus pass, mainly because I'm an old person (77 earlier this month), which means I have free use of local buses, i.e. not long distance coaches. That means I would have to make the journey in sections. Starting with Tiptree – Colchester then Colchester – Sudbury, Sudbury – Bury St. Edmunds, Bury St. Edmunds – Thetford, Thetford – King's Lynn and finally King's Lynn – Hunstanton. A total journey time of five and a half hours. Each of those sections means a change of bus and, more importantly, a connection to the next bus.

Another added complication is that I'm going to have to stay overnight. I was going to stay in Hunstanton but to be able to get back to Tiptree before the last bus goes I would have to leave Hunstanton before 9:30 AM but my bus pass can't be used before 9:30 AM so that's out. So I'll have to stay overnight in King's Lynn instead which which means that I can get a bus after 9:30 AM and still get home. When I arrive in King's Lynn I could leave my overnight bag at the B&B then catch the bus to Hunstanton, take the photographs, returning to King's Lynn directly afterwards.

The link between Thetford and King's Lynn could be a problem because there are only two buses a day; one in the morning (too early to get there in time) and one in the afternoon at 3:00 PM. If I can't get the later bus for any reason, my previous bus is late or my intended bus is cancelled, then I'd have to turn round and go back. Not too much of a problem you might think because I don't have to pay any bus fares but I probably should book accommodation before I leave home especially at this time of year. If I can't get there then I'll forfeit one night's accommodation costs.

I'm hoping to take some photographs along the route in each place that I change buses and perhaps some through the bus windows.

The journey back the next day is similar but not exactly the same. Instead of one journey from King's Lynn to Thetford I have to go from King's Lynn to Watton first then from Watton to Thetford. One extra section.

Is it just a silly idea or is it an adventure? Should I try it?

 

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.
I wonders where the birdies is.
They say the birds is on the wing.
Ain't that absurd?
I thought the wings was on the bird.

(Anon)

Well, it seems to have arrived but some trees and plants seem to be well behind. Our plum tree should be showing blossom and leaves by now but there are no signs of those.

I wonder if the Bluebells will be affected (late)? Now we wait for a summy day.

 

Software is everywhere. It's in your computer, your smartphone, your washing machine and your television. You are using it now to read this post.

The trouble with software is that it has bugs in it. They may not always be apparent but they are there. There are unpleasant people out there who know this and seek to exploit some of these bugs so that they can then do things that they were never meant to do.

That applies to the software that runs this blog so that when these weaknesses are discovered an update is issued. There was an update for this blog software so I thought that I should update it.

It snowed all day last Wednesday but because the temperature was about 33F none of it settled but it did persuade me that I should do something inside rather than outside. I decided to update the blog.

Needless to say it wasn't as straightforward as I had hoped but we got there in the end. The update has also allowed me to add an extra feature. You should now be able to edit your own comments up to 60 minutes after posting it.

There will be a small link in the comment which says "Edit". Just click it and you can edit the comment. I have also added a 'Quote' link which, if clicked, will add the contents of a previous comment to the new comment as a "quote".

It doesn't get any better than that.

Spring still hasn't arrived.

We are now officially in Spring. Ha b****y ha.

Yesterday the north of the country was brought to a standstill by very heavy snow, a house in Cornwall collapsed because of a landslip caused by heavy rain and it snowed here overnight.

Yes, we do have some Crocuses out (if you can find them).

Incidentally Crocuses is the correct plural for Crocus as Cactuses is for Cactus. Neither word is latin so the 'i' ending does not apply.

The period known as Spring is currently out of stock. Please try later.

As there is nothing much going on at the moment apart from our American friends being buried under 6 feet of snow (yes, I know, I exaggerate) I thought I'd bore you with a cat.

In my previous 'We are Siamese if you plea-ease' post I mentioned that I had been able to get a good view of only one of our two siamese/tabby cats. I managed, at last, to get a reasonable shot of the other cat's face. This is Vee.

It's not as good as I'd like but it will have to do for now. She won't stay still for more than a few seconds when she's awake as she has an over-active thyroid for which we will have to treat her with medication.

And, whilst we're on the subject, why me?

Sandwiched between two cats.

There, that wasn't too much of a bore was it?