What's Going On? Roses in November?

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

The weather continues to be fairly mixed. One day being mild and sunny and another cold, wet and windy. We never really know what to expect.

When I was a child, the winters were hard, cold and snowy and without central heating, or double glazing, I can remember it was really freezing, even inside. We had a small electric fire to get dressed by, while my mother raked out the ashes of yesterday's coal fire and laid another one for the day. We wore layers of clothing and we often got long drawn out coughs, colds, tonsillitis, as well as all the children's diseases that went around in cycles. Some of them such as Measles and Scarlet Fever were killers. However, we survived.

A good memory, from my point of view, was being pulled along on a home made wooden sledge by my Mum or Dad. It might have been a nightmare for them taking me to school in thick snow and ice but I considered it fun.

Those were the days when we knew the seasons and the weather followed a definite pattern.

It is now getting on for December, the Christmas month, the shortest day soon upon us. Today, I'm looking out of the window and the sun is shining. The heating is off and because I'm wearing my *thermals* I'm not really cold at all. Out in the garden I can see a rose bush covered in flowers, a bit tatty by any standard, but quite recognisable as clusters of roses. Don't you think that is remarkable, roses blooming in the heart of the winter in England?

My Pelargoniums that are only hardy if brought indoors are still flowering in their pots outside.

Is Global Warming the cause of this?

The terrible typhoon that has happened in the Philippines is supposed to have been caused by the shift in the weather patterns as well as all the other disasters that have happened in various places round the world.

So I suppose that it's swings and roundabouts, what weather you get, depending on where you live.

There are warnings of really bad weather to come here, so I'm stocking up a cupboard of basic foods in case we can't get out. Salt is at the ready for the pavements.

I wrap up warm and get my jigsaws out if the weather is bad.

The kitten jigsaw was in a big box of 10 different ones that I bought in a charity shop. I'm glad that they seem to be individually wrapped. With second hand puzzles you can never be too sure of what state they might be in.

Imagine trying to sort over 6,000 pieces into 10 separate puzzles.

I recently was told by the doctor in the cancer clinic that we attend, that doing jigsaws helps the brain to get into a meditative state that is very benficial. 

After I have completed one, I don't like to smash it up straight away, like my sister in law does, so I take a photo of the ones I've really enjoyed doing and this one fits that criteria. That way, I don't feel that I've *lost*  what has become a friend during the time its taken to complete it and can recycle the original.