normality returns

Keith came home from the hills today. Life returns to what we refer to as normal. I don't like the run up to these breaks, I quite enjoy the solitude once I'm in it, and I enjoy Keith's return when it comes. Sometimes I'm a bit shocked thathe takes up so much space in the tidy, well organised house. He leaves stuff around and seems to think he has rights in the home!

This was the refreshing snowy, windy walk we grabbed in the last of the light, after his drive up from Stockholm this morning. The snow had been forced into hard as concrete drifts again, and the lovely whiteness was full of natural debris, twigs & branches all over the place. Last night the wind was so strong the whole house was shaking and rattling. The new cladding on the chimney sounded like crashing cymbals - despite earplugs and a pillow over my head. It is all still there but seems to have slipped a bit. Investigations needed when we get up there - at the moment the roof is a snowface.