Very cold day after overnight temperatures down to -15degC with the dove’s water continually freezing all day but Debbie still braved the Baptist Church service and later we tried playing Jackson family videos but gave up to avoid damaging them. More work writing about 1835 Little Paxton and the wartime fires before news of the army recovering the nuclear arms lorry with more than 6ins of snow in Kent and Northern Europe all experiencing record low temperatures and a missing Scottish solicitor is found dead in the Lake District after a massive search by 30 colleagues
A very cold night, with temperatures down to -15degC in some places nearby. Woken by Di and laid in bed a while, listening to the radio, before I had to get up and showered in time for breakfast. A nice fried breakfast for me, but the children were disappointed that they could not have a fried egg each, as Di did not seem to want to cook them any. Settled down in my office and read the Sunday paper cover to cover, as the sun occasionally peeped through the clouds. Out to feed the ducks and doves. Although I had just replaced the dove’s water, by the time I had finished with the ducks, it had refrozen again! It stayed below freezing all day, but, although there were a few snow flurries, there was not much to settle. Debbie went with the Laws to St Neots Baptist Church and found it crowded with hardly a place to sit, Daniel first played a word game with Debbie and then on his computer, occasionally helping a little with Della. I had a coffee with Di and then spent an hour in my office, typing in updates for 1835 Little Paxton on the Anchor site and church restoration.
Then to lay up the dining room table, upon which was soon served a fine chicken lunch; all of the children behaved and enjoyed the meal, for a change, and Daniel helped Di and I wash up afterwards, without a murmur. I think that, after his spell away, he appreciates the home life even more. An afternoon watching sport on the TV. Daniel joined me for the Luton vs Liverpool FA Cup match, which was drawn 0-0. The plastic pitch, and absence of any Liverpool supporters, due to the Luton Town management policy, made for unfair conditions for Liverpool, but they won the right to a replay under ‘real’ conditions at Anfield. Di took the girls to her parents this afternoon to collect the projector and films of her family for copying onto video. Daniel & I tried to put them on to play, but the projector kept damaging them and so we decided to put them away again. They are all from the late 1960s and include our wedding pictures (Di and I). Tea around the lounge of toast and shortcake and then I spent the evening updating my accounts of the Little Paxton fires during the war, from a long newspaper report. Late to bed on another freezing cold night and glad, once more, for our electric blanket. The news today is that the army have recovered the arms lorry that was almost certainly carrying nuclear weapons when it crashed and overturned yesterday and crashed down a bank. The government refuses to comment, but anti-nuclear organisations are in full cry. The freezing weather is leading to icy roads and police are warning about drivers not driving safely and slowly in the conditions. There is up to 6 inches of snow in Kent. Worse problems still in central Europe, with Prada complaining about fuel supply delays in Russia and Finland & Sweden experiencing record low temperatures. It has certainly been a struggle to keep the house warm today. A man and two youths were found dead in a house in Chester, after a build-up of carbon monoxide from ill-ventilated bottled gas heaters. The missing solicitor, revered Davlin of Scotland, has been found dead in the Ullswater area of the Lake District in very suspicious circumstances, after 30 colleagues travelled south to mount a search operation.