A lovely sunrise, although it does not convince me that the day will be a good one weatherwise. There is now a stong wind blowing and yesterday evening there was a gale warning for our village with wind speeds of 120 kmh building up during the day. That means batton down the hatches, keep windows closed and remove all light weight objects outside. There will also be some rain to accompany it all. I got a warning yesterday when I found the lid of my birdhouse had been blown onto one of the garden beds. The cushions on my chairs outside are tied down, so no problem, but we will remove the small door carpet outside before it arrives in another garden by air transport. The weather warning said “in exposed areas” and we live in an exposed area. I do not plan on going anywhere today except for my kitchen and perhaps outside to gather a few herbs for my meals.

Talking of a meal, I already have lunch simmering in the pot. It will be boiled beef today and I like to cook it very slowly for a few hours to get it tender. I could cook it in the pressure cooker, but it is never as tender as slow cooking. in an hour I will add some carrots, celeriac and leeks as well as a piece of so-called savoy cabbage to simmer for a further 1-2 hours. I will serve it with potato an a good helping of meat broth: just the thing for a cold windy day.

I was a little disappointed with yesterday’s photos. I was visited by a pair of gold finch, such wonderful colourful birds and took some photos. When I uploaded them the photos were not on the disc and I only had the photos from the day before, what a disappointment. It seems there was a problem between my camera, the scan disk and the computer. I had to replace the disc this week and used one from another camera which was probably also not in a good condition. However everything now under control again as my action photo of a sparrow landing shows above.

And guess who suddenly arrived at the kitchen window this morning, waiting patiently outside for the treat of the day. Roschti is a regular visitor of mine, and appears often during the day for an extra treat. The human he owns lives almost next door and I know he feeds him well and really looks after his needs, but cats always like to get an extra somewhere.

So I succumb to his wishes and cannot leave him to plead.

Otherwise no great excitement here. I watched a cookery programme, Master Chef, on the British TV yesterday but was not really impressed. It was followed by a music programme about the singer “Meat Loaf”. I was never really a Meat Loaf fan so decided it was time to retire. Mr. Swiss was already hugging the bed and I joined him. Even the following programme on the songs of Eric Burdon could not entice me to watch further. I really must be getting older joining the mattress at 10.30 in the evening.

And now let us see what the day holds for me, battling the stormy weather. Take care everyone.