End Watch

The weather is gawd awful today. Took Redd for a walk this afternoon and I got soaked as it was 'bucketing' down. There were rivers running down the roads. I passed one particular house at the bottom of a steep road that has new owners, they moved in earlier this year. The house always had a beautiful display of daffodils in the spring in the small front yard that had a raised small lawn on either side of the pathway. Very pretty really. Well the new owners dug up the lawns or rather dug them out and the daffdils as well. The new owners then laid plastic down and covered it with pebbles. Not so pretty any more. They are now the proud owners of a swiming pool. The garden was flooded and the water was lapping the front porch. A young man was trying to clear the drain in the road but it wasn't block just overwelmed by the volume of water. I have never seen that garden flooded before and I suspect they did not consider drainage when they remodeled their front garden.

Another winter in Scotland, will I manage to survive it? I think this could be my last one here. I do not intend dying only returning to Australia. Winter in South Australia can be chilly but no where near as cold...freezing as in Scotland. The other problem is the cost of heating in this damn country. No consideration for the not so well off. The utility companies are greedy bastards, you could freeze to death as far as they are concerned. Their shareholders want big dividends and so the prices are high. I can not afford to have the heating on all day so for awhile I am cold. I put the heating on about 4 or 5p.m. and have it on till about 10p.m. and off it goes. I put it on high just for the first hour to warm up the house and then turn it right down for the rest of the night. I am saving money up for when the freeze really hits in February. Sigh.