Coincidence

I can't resist turning you green with envy: this morning, we have woken up to a whiteout, with the promise of more heavy snowfalls during the day. All that cold wet stuff! All the slithering! And the stinging cold! I feel sorry for any of you who are suffering warm sunshine on the back of your neck.

Yesterday was a heavy socialising day for the OS. A splendid lady from church gave a mulled wine and nibbles party yesterday afternoon. I stuck to the Prince Charles Organic Lemon Spritzer, but most of the rest of the company - about thirty people - got cheerfully legless on mulled wine. Most of the people I met were new to me (locals, nothing to do with church), including a knowledgeable ecologist, a plumber and a professional photographer. The latter immediately identified my vestigial regional accent as West Shropshire, and it turned out that she was originally from Wolverhampton, which is no more than twenty miles from my natal village of Hadley.

In fact we could both see the Wrekin from our bedroom windows. So we had a mega-reminiscence session, and discovered that we had a lot more in common than just birthplace and upbringing. Most enjoyable, and it is mere coincidence that she is also stunningly attractive. Thank you, coincidence.

The evening party was also a cheese-and-nibbles do, laid on by birding friend, Barbara, at which she showed us slides (or whatever is the 21st century equivalent) of her recent trip to the coastal forests of south-eastern Brazil. One of the cities she visited en route was Curitiba, the home town of Bruna, my daughter's best ever nanny, the one who has adopted me as her "avôzinho" (grandpa). She is very attractive too. Thank you, coincidence.

There you are. I thought you would want to know that the OS is still doing his Mehitabel impersonations, though my legs are now a bit creaky for "a dance or two in the old dame yet". So, à bientot. I am off now to build a snowman out of muesli.