It’s been a quiet week overall, work has settled down into a more normal pace again and once more the enthusiasm for the gym has left me! I managed one ride to and from work on the bike - Monday - but after that it was the car every day. It’s not that I didn’t want to use the bike more a case of not being able to because of the weather.

Now that the gales and heavy rain have left us I thought I might able to get back on my bike, having just seen the weather forecast, I may not! Tonight we could be in for freezing temperatures followed by showers in the morning. We might even get the odd flurry of snow later in the day too. How nice.

On Tuesday, the Albannach pendant I won just before Christmas arrived - cracking bit of work it is too. Take a look at Gunnar's Anvil for more information on the jewellery and metalwork created by Rob Stewart over in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Thursday was the day the gales really hit their peak. Locally, roads were closed, trees were blown down, and houses were left without gas or electricity. Nationally, the number of people killed in the bad weather reached into double figures, many major roads and motorways were closed and thousands of people were caught up in the traffic chaos that followed. Four of our staff from work were caught up in the delays as they tried to return from a training course in Worcestershire. The journey home, which should have taken a little over two hours, ended up taking almost six hours!

Today was one of the best days of the year so far weather wise, clear blue skies, very little in the way of wind and no rain. It would have been the perfect day to have been up at the farm putting up all the new bird boxes that my dad wants to get in place before the breeding season starts. Well, it would have been, if it hadn’t been for all the rain we’ve had these past few weeks.

The ground is that wet everywhere that there was no way we could have taken the tractor and trailer, with all the boxes and the ladders, down into the fields. All we can do now is hope for some dry weather so that we can have another try in the next week or two, if not; it looks like we may have to carry everything to where it is needed bit by bit.

This coming week is Farmhouse Breakfast Week, so this afternoon I cooked another batch of my “breakfast casserole”. Any excuse to eat! All I need to do now is manage to get myself out of bed in time to actually eat some breakfast before heading off to work.