British weather and another big problem to sort out in The View from the Terrace

Yesterday I went to the next village for a doctor’s appointment and, although it was a showery day, there were lovely sunny intervals and I was enjoying the spring blossom, the last of the daffodils and the early tulips. Today when I woke up it was snowing! That’s British weather for you. The magnolia blossom is looking very sorry for itself and our pretty double daffodils are lying on their side on the grass. So far the tulips seem to be surviving.

Snow in April is quite rare in England, at least in the midlands and south, but it does happen. It happened in 1975. I was living in London then and working in the box office at the Royal Opera House. We had a young Australian man working there who was over here for a year. He had never seen snow and had been very disappointed to experience a very mild winter here. He was going home in May and had given up on seeing any. Then one afternoon it suddenly started to snow. He got up from his desk and went downstairs and outside and danced around in it, in the middle of the London street. It was so funny.

It also snowed in April in 1965. I was living in Bognor Regis then and we had a very heavy fall at Easter, again after a mild winter. It is as though Nature has to catch up with herself. I had a beautiful little black miniature poodle called Judy. She was 5 years old. She was a bright little dog and had learned to do tricks like jumping through my hula hoop. Unfortunately she had developed bronchial asthma but we had it under control. Then came that sudden heavy snowfall. She didn’t seem too well one evening, I thought it was just a cold but decided to call the vet in morning if she was no better. When I got up in the morning she had died in the night. Unbelievably my mother had got up and found her ill and called the vet but didn’t wake me. Judy had died before the vet arrived, it seems she had caught pneumonia. When Mum told me the sad news I asked why she hadn’t woken me and she said she didn’t want to disturb my sleep. I then asked where she was and Mum said she had let the vet take her away. So I never got to say goodbye to my little girl. I was a bit angry with Mum. She said she hadn’t wanted to upset me and didn’t seem to realise that not being able to say goodbye was even more upsetting. I would have buried Judy in the garden but Mum thought it better to take her away and try to forget about her. That was the way Mum did things, it was her way of coping and maybe, for her it was the right way, but for me it wasn’t and she was my dog. I found it hard to forgive Mum for that but I knew she did was she thought was best for me. So snow in April has a sad memory and and a happy memory.

We have a big problem. We had a plumber to come and look at our toilet soil outlet pipe and it does need replacing. He thinks it may be leaking underground and it is starting to crack half way up too. He shocked us when he told us it is asbestos and he won’t do the job of removing it. He said we need to get a specialist firm to take the pipe away and then he will come and fit a new one. This will be quite expensive but an even bigger problem is that it is our only toilet. We are hoping to coordinate things so that the pipe can be taken away and the new one fitted on the same day. The lady next door says we can use her outdoor loo but I don’t want to impose for long. I will probably just use a bucket and pop next door when a bucket isn’t appropriate, if you get my meaning! If we can’t coordinate it for the same day it will be more difficult. I may have to move out. That will make it even more expensive as I have no one I can stay with. Chris is in a three bedroom house but the other 2 rooms are let to lodgers. I would have to go to a Travelodge. Right now I am still trying to find an asbestos removal company and the crack in the pipe seems to be worsening but perhaps that is just my imagination.

Well here is a funny story to lighten the mood. I put my head round my Tony’s bedroom door last night to ask him if he had any dirty plates or cups for the dishwasher. He was watching what looked like a group of large apes on his telly. I thought, oh how nice he is watching a wildlife programme, he used to love those when he was younger. Then one of the apes turned to his companion and said, ‘Let’s go!’ he was watching Planet of the Apes. My goodness the make up is good nowadays!

Last updated April 05, 2019