Before we get into the grisly details, let's enjoy a bit of serendipity as of this very morning. The following photos are from the hillside in Pant-teg, 3 or 4 minutes' walk away, and feature a remarkable free display of ice-sculpture where a run-off drain down the mountain has sprayed out water which has frozen in mid flight
(Above) From the road
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(Above) the same cropped.
(Above and 3 following) Sundry detailed views
And not least, and gratifying in view of what follows, a shot down the hillside, with Nina in view by the roadside. It was she who spotted the phenomenon, and came to fetch me.
The year has undoubtedly been shaped most strongly by a mishap to Nina. In the middle of June, she fell victim to a slipped disc in the lower back. For a few days it was painful enough to require simply lying on a mattress on the decking in the sun. Within ten days it was a case of prostrate in bed, and so it remained for some weeks. She is now much improved, while still a long way short of where she was before it hit.
Earlier in the year, in April, we had the opportunity to buy at auction the remains and gardens of the two furthest cottages in our row, 8 and 9 Clees Lane. The most crucial benefit of the purchase is that we believe there is now no-one but ourselves who has any claim to right of way along the back and front of the seven cottages of the 'street' - the right of way is effectively abolished.
The gardens of 8 and 9 had been largely untouched for probably 35 years. Even the hedge between them was over 20 feet high, and sycamore and goat willow had run riot , right up the the edge of the path along the front of the houses. So May and June were woodcraft-at-home months, and we certainly have more firewood for this winter than we have ever had for any previous. As we went into summer, Ian turned his hand to stonework, demolishing one mid-row gable wall with toppling chimney stack, digging out the back right of way, and then moving on to re-use some of the stone thus released to add additional layers to the retaining wall behind the houses, which in effect holds back the hillside on which 1 and 2 Clees Lane stand. (You may remember no 2 is where Mum, Mary Graham, lives.) This masonry work has been halted by the onset of winter, but more remains to be done when temperate weather returns. In recent weeks, he has been free for indoor work, making new drawers and wall-units for the big kitchen. The next stage, probably mostly in the New Year, will be doors for all the kitchen units. Now there's posh !
Jenny has also had her health problems this year, but seems to well on the road back. This academic year she is the beneficiary of a Leverhulme Fellowship - in effect, on research Sabbatical.
Emily and Ben and Leo and Angharad moved house in July. They now live on the uphill side of Woodingdean, Brighton. It is a spacious and characterful house they have acquired, which should accommodate and occupy them for many years, other things being equal.
Brindle continues to be one third of our household.
We wish all our friends, siblings, cousins, and the chance dropper-in, a happy and satisfying mid-winter feast, each according to their own rites, and the necessities of life without undue strain throughout 2011.
