Keith & Clare Channing's parking space on the Information Super-highway

Just as well – I have more pictures than words. AGAIN!

Winter arrived at the beginning of the week – heavy frosts, daytime temperatures struggling to lose the minus sign and clear, blue skies. All in all very pretty and not unpleasant, provided you were either well wrapped up or indoors, preferably with a nice log fire on the go.

By a stroke of good fortune, I had quite a lot of work to do indoors for most of the week. The radiator in the study is rarely, if ever, turned on, as the heat generated by computers and their peripherals holds the temperature in the low twenties, even when it is sub-zero outside. Nice.

There isn’t much to say about my work – we now have a new, updated on-line shop at the Hawk Conservancy Trust web site, as well as a few smaller changes. I can’t claim credit for the shop, that was put together by Unstuck Designs; my job was to set up all of the internal links in the main web site.

Clare has been busy, too. As well as her work with cards, she is now also making costume jewellery with Fimo. Her latest creations include the bracelet and pendant below. I have to admit to being pretty impressed with the whole thing.

Nice photography, too. Clare is making very effective use of the portable studio we mentioned a few weeks ago.

Towards the end of the week the clear skies ended and we were treated to very low cloud, fog and nasty stuff like that. Not very nice, but can make a nice photograph, with a small application of PhotoShop (if it is possible to use the words PhotoShop and “small application” in the same sentance without being at the very least oxy or otherwise moronic).

We were terminally impressed with the excellent Stargazing Live on BBC this week. Presented by Professor Brian Cox and craic dealer Dara Ó Briain, it was entertaining, informative and inspirational. Plug over – apart from saying that BBC iPlayer is a wondrous thing.

We have started trying, gently, to bring down the level of the remaining wall around the parking area. The challenge is going to be to do it without compromising its integrity (no mean feat, given that it appears to be standing purely out of habit), whilst keeping a fairly straight top edge, or a level head, as I like to think of it.

That will probably continue this week, between showers and any other excuse I can think of to avoid heavy physical work. There are a couple of structural issues that Rob will look at and which stop us doing the whole thing yet, but we shall try to do what we can, preparing it for Rob to put on the finishing touches. Then we shall look at capping it, before demolishing the monstrosity on its south-eastern flank.

And finally, as they say on the BBC News, it’s census time again. Time for some more fun and games. Just a letter this year – not like last time!

We have been enjoying some pretty spectacular sunrises for the past week, as well as an interesting mix of clear skies and bright sunshine, like today (Happy Birthday, Julie, by the way), and heavy misty, low cloudy almost foggy days. The constant theme, though, has been quite cold. Frosty nights are a here for a while, and I am glad that we have the cover on the camper. No snow, though – YET.

The pleasant conditions have been very good for some of my photographic efforts. There have been a number of occasions when, had I set myself up properly and kept Trevor out of the way, I could have captured some really nice stuff around the bird feeders – times when up to five sparrows have been squabbling over a single fat ball; a robin has been close by, but never actually settling anywhere in our line of sight. On one occasion, a nuthatch dropped onto the feeder when I had trained my lens on the food placed for the robin on top of the balustrade. By the time I swung back to the feeder the nuthatch had gone again. Nonetheless I did manage a series of shots with sparrows and blue and great tits, of which these are probably among the best:

The day was not sunny, so the whole thing is less dramatic than I would have liked.

Work is still going on as far as the garage to parking spaces conversion goes. One of the main reasons for doing it is to give us access to the view across the valley rather than have it blocked by the garage. Looking out of the window in the front room, the view that originally looked like this:

now looks like this:

Once the parking is completed, the next job is to take down the lean-to beyond it, which will complete the transformation. It has been and is a long job, and not a cheap job; but, by golly, it will be worth it!

Click here to see how it all happened (so far)

It has been three weeks since my last entry – weeks filled with festivities, parties, visitors, travel and weather. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Like newspaper headlines, though, the emotive words designed to hook you are rarely matched by the reality that follows. Yes, they are all true, but not to the extent that the headline words promise.

The weather has been all sorts, unlike last December when we had quite a lot of snow. This time, a mix of nice and nasty, sunny and rainy, and a bit cold.

What a change from last December

First of all, let me wish a happy, healthy and, by whatever measure you use, prosperous 2012 to both of my readers.

Let’s start with visitors. Just before Christmas Tania came down for a couple of days to drop her dogs off with us, whilst she was doing some promotional work in a well-known ski resort. It was, as always, lovely to see her (happy birthday for tomorrow, by the way, Tania) and it was good that she could spend a couple of days with us. Whilst she was here our parking, still under construction, was pretty well full.

Four vehicle family

Travel? That was me taking her dogs back to Paris on her return in the New Year. Shitsu, as ever, managed to get herself filthy, running around in muddy fields, so she needed cleaning up before she could go back.

Soggy doggy

Festivities and parties? We spent the evening of Christmas Eve with good friends Heather and Bob, their son and a few others in a restaurant that we had not visited before, but one I am sure we shall visit again. A word of caution to anyone thinking of visiting us – be prepared to sample its delights!

The next bit of excitement was Boxing Day, the afternoon and evening being spent chez Rob and Julie with them; their son, and daughter, and Liz and Terry. Good food, good craic!

New Year’s Eve we hosted a small get-together here for Rob and Julie, with daughter Ashley, plus Liz and Terry. Not really geared up for seven, Clare had to be inventive with table and settings

Ready to party

Again, a very pleasant evening.

Rob has been busy, when weather permitted, on the garage to parking conversion, the current state of progress being what you can see below

Work in progress

I was hoping to put up the latest state of play in a timelapse move, but I’m afraid YouTube upload service isn’t currently available, so I’m snookered on that. As you can see here, though, most of the surface concrete is done, and we are in the throes of moving the winter supply of logs for the third time, to clear the area for the next phase.

In the meantime, in preparation for the hard part of winter, the camper is now under canvas – camping, as it were. OK, it’s not canvas, but grant me a little licence, please.

Ready for winter

Special thanks to Rob and Julie for their help. I’m not sure how Clare and I woud have managed it without them.

Camper under canvas?

Is it just me, or does the camper look a bit stoopid like that?

I am hoping to be able to show the two cars in the new parking next time. Don’t hold your breath, though. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone suffering brain damage through lack of oxygen!