Week 4 2026 One Daily Positive and Project 365

The Negatives

Blisters

Aches and Pains

The Positives

Completed a walking marathon and now that I can physically and mentally I'm ready for the Brighton Marathon in April.

Saturday 24th Up at 6am and on the train from Wandsworth to Vauxhall and a short walk to The Oval for the start of the Winter Walk. 26 miles round London. The first half I walked with another woman and finished in3 and half hours along the Thames taking in all the sites with a rest stop after 6 miles to refuel and use the toilets. Peter met me back at the Oval to cheer me on. The 2nd half I mostly on my own and I hit a wall physically and mentally around 20 miles. I had some grit in my boots under my insole and once I took my boot off once, I had to do it several times, I had a massive blister, which then popped and I slowed down. I kept going thinking about all the things Stephanie was determined to do and cried when a mile from the end I spotted Peter who was waiting for me as he'd seen on the app that I was slowing down. I completed the walk in 7 hours and 44 mins finishing 320 out of 849. Evening spent back in the hotel in bed after a shower nursing various aches and pains.

Sunday 25th Awake at 7am and it took a while to get moving. After breakfast we took a little walk to the river and I realised we'd right past the hotel yesterday. I couldn't get shoes on so was in my slippers all day, spent the car journey home catching up with yesterdays messages of support from friends and a long chat with my mum. We did a food shop on our way home as I knew I wouldn't go out again and after unpacking and getting ready for work in the morning, spent the afternoon and evening on the sofa watching TV and reading.

Monday 26th A slow start to the day as in I could hardly move. It was into work which was just as painful setting up and putting away the table tennis tables twice for 2 lessons, running a dance lesson was like pulling teeth with the boys and 2 science lessons. The first science lesson started with me writing the date, title and LO on the board followed by page number and instructions, followed by whole class instructions, then going round handing out pens, pencils etc, followed by individual instructions and finally drawing examples on the board, none of which I needed to do as it was all clearly written on the board. Pages 167-168. Each time having to deal with long drawn out 'six - seven' with each student finding it hysterical. Home, dinner, bath, TV and bed.

Tuesday 27th Stress is not the right word for my journey to work as I drove through knee deep flood waters and roads closed behind me. I managed to find a route home with least amount of pot holes, accident black spots and cars abandoned. We managed to get the final breakdance routine complete and the boys joined in with a successful beat boxing session. A friend invited me out for coffee and I was supposed to go to the gym after but it was 7pm by the time our catch up finished so it was straight home, bath, TV and bed.

Wednesday 28th I took the van to work and only had 1 flood to drive through. Home, changed and off to the gym and Peter walked to meet me after for a coffee. Evening spent sorting out some stuff for the weekend, updating my diary and work emails. A long bath, catching up with the soaps and Stranger Things and an early night.

Thursday 29th Today's drive was a foggy one. Home via the retail and met Peter for a coffee and I did a food shop ready for the weekend. I spent a large chunk of the evening uploading bolster medication packs onto my Boots app ready for recycling and packing for the weekend.

Friday 30th Up a little earlier than usual to pack my bags into the van and a drive into work avoiding surface water. The usual eventful day but a lot of 1:1 tutoring achieved. Book club in the pub after work to discuss Beautiful Ugly for an hour then a traumatic Drive to Monmouth and a relaxed evening at my friends for dinner and a night on her drive. It was lovely and toasty in the van.

On the blog this week:

Post Comment Love - Link up with any post written this week

Word of the Week - Proud

Winter Walk - Marathon Training with Ultra Challenges and Bowel Research UK

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Post Comment Love 30th January - 1st February 2026

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week. If you're new or a regular visitor we're sure you'll find something of interest.

Please leave a comment with the host you link up with and we'd also appreciate your help spreading the #PoCoLo word on Twitter/X tag us and we'll RT. You can find us here: Stephanie - @BosworthLife and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby Please also add our badge to your post.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

We spent last weekend in London where I took part in the Winter Walk, completing a walking marathon in 7 hours 44 mins finishing 320 out of 849 participants.

I entered the walk as I'm competing in the Brighton Marathon in April and there is an 8 hour cut off for a medal and I figured it would be good training for me physically and mentally.

I hit a wall at 20 miles where I just physically couldn't walk any further, but I was spurred on by our daughter's determination to do things despite her profound disabilities and her inability to complain.

I'm very Proud of my achievement.

I'm away this weekend in the campervan on my friends drive ahead of a parkrun in the morning then visiting the grandchildren. Peter is stopping at home, he's looking forward to a rest.

January was a busy time for Birthdays. Child 4 turned 31. MIL, SIL and BIL also had birthdays, as did my friend's twins, the neighbours son and my friend.

This month our grandson turns 1, it's my nephews and my nieces birthday and we will be celebrating Bob the Dogs 'what would have been' 15th birthday on Valentines day and the hardest of all Stephanie would've turned 38.

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Word of the Week - Proud

I'm incredibly PROUD of my achievements this week.

I walked a marathon in under 8 hours.

I didn't hit a wall mentally until I reached 20 miles although I hit a physical wall at 18 miles with blisters due to a boot malfunction.

I'm running the Brighton Marathon in April, there's a cut off time of 8 hours to get a medal. I bloody well want that medal. I now know I'm capable of completing the course both psychically and mentally and in the time I need.

By the time I got back to the hotel on Saturday I could hardly walk, I was crying with the pain and the emotion of the day and on Sunday morning it was a struggle to get out of bed and get dressed.

Peter went to breakfast ahead of me and picked a table far away from the buffet then suggested we went for a walk along the river before a drive home. I realised I'd walked right past the hotel the day before. 

We had an almost 3 hour drive home and I'm glad Peter made me go for the walk before the drive. I kept moving on Sunday by going out to do a food shop, unpacking and getting ready for work before a long hot bath and the evening on the sofa.

Monday and Tuesday had me teaching PE and Dance and I'm back in the Gym this week after a 5 weeks absence due to the Flu and migraines and I'm heading over to Monmouth on the weekend for a parkrun.

Winter Walk - Marathon Training with Ultra Challenges and Bowel Research UK

I've entered the Brighton Marathon on April 12th 2026. It has a cut off point of 8 hours for a medal. So I wanted to see if that was possible for me to complete in under 8 hours and check that not also did I have the stamina for it but I also had the mental capacity to complete 26 miles.

I'm not in it for a fast time, I'm in it to complete the marathon, that's all and to raise awareness of Bowel Research UK, fundraise any amount where possible and create a legacy and keep Stephanie's memory alive.

Stephanie is one of our 5 adult children in a blended family who died at the age of 36 on the 7th of October 2024, without warning from Bowel ischaemia, which is the cause of death of around 3000 in the UK every year. It is almost impossible to diagnose.

We also have a 4 year old grandson who was born with Hirchsprung's disease and spent most of the first year in and out of hospital and had several major surgeries and had a stoma bag which was successfully reversed.

The Winter Walk was not a stroll around London. It was a 26 mile trek around the City and I completed it in 7 hours and 44 minutes according to Strava, although the Ultra Challenge site gave me a different time. I set Strava off as I set off walking and only stopped it as I crossed the line and collected my medal. I didn't stop it or pause it at the rest stops as I wanted it to reflect my time out on the course.

Peter and I booked a hotel in Wandsworth and drove down on the Friday night. I got everything ready the night before as I had to get up at 6am to catch the train at 6.30am on the Saturday morning.

I missed the train and ended up sitting on the platform in Wandsworth Town in the dark on my own for 20 minutes as I'd gone to platform 3 that only ran to Vauxhall on a Sunday, and watched the train leave platform 4 without me.

Well signposted and lots of people heading the same way as me and only a short walk to The Oval and getting light.

I still had time to grab a coffee and a photo.

A warm up session after registration and a briefing and we were off.

I headed off on my own at a brisk pace and the sightss of London kept me focused.

There were plenty of things to see on route.

And it wasn't long before I met up with two women who I walked with to the first rest stop.

The first rest stop and I just used the toilets, picked up some fruit and a drink and was straight back on the route with one of the women.

Now on the opposite side of the river.

Peter was waiting for me at this point as he'd been tracking me on the app, but it said I'd walked past so he'd headed back to The Oval on the train to wait there, we came past a few minutes later. the app was ahead of itself.

The half way point. I checked in, then sat outside with Peter for a quick lunch. Peter headed back into London for the afternoon.

I headed back out on my own and my pace slowed. It took a while before I picked up with anyone and it was a bit lonely.

There was less to see and the distances between the sites felt a lot longer.

I was tempted to detour when I walked past our hotel.

Around this point I developed a boot malfunction and some grit under the insole in my boot came free and was rubbing me. As soon as I took my boot off to investigate I knew I'd made a big mistake and I started to struggle with my walking.

At the third rest stop, I was able to sort my boots out properly, adjust the insole and my sock and put some plasters on, someone offered to get me a drink and some food. I had 8kms to go and I literally just put one foot in front of the other and got on with it.

It was around this point at 22 miles I think, that I hit the wall, where I felt I couldn't go on any more and started to cry. I almost came to a stop. But I kept thinking about Stephanie and how she was unable to complain and how resilient she was and how determined she was to do something if she really wanted to do it.

There was a time when all 5 children were at home and Peter was away working and Stephanie decided she was having the loaf of bread out the kitchen, she spent all day trying to get at it. I'd wrapped it up, put it in the bread bin and put the bread bin in the far corner of the work surface. I'd moved the kitchen table up against the work surface to stop her getting to it.

She kept coming into the kitchen, trying to get past me. She'd had lunch, had snacks, had plenty to drink, there was no need for her to have the bread. I have no idea how it happened but the next thing I knew was she was sitting there on the sofa, loaf of bread in hand, all squashed by now, corner of plastic bag in her mouth, ripping at it with her teeth getting that bread out the bag, with a sheer look of determination on her face, laughing and me just shaking my head and just laughing back at her, knowing that as well as having to make dinner for 5 kids that evening, getting uniforms and school bags ready, I'd now have to add going to the shops for a loaf of bread for sandwiches as well as doing bath and bedtime.

And that memory is what kept me going, it is what lifted the bad mood and the tiredness and what helped me pick up my feet for the next mile as slow as I was.

And as I walked round the last bend towards the final mile, there sat Peter on a wall, waiting for the past 45 minutes and I cried again as he said 'come on, you've got this'

And do you know what?

I have got this. I'm very PROUD of my achievement.

I've got my medal for walking a marathon.

I've got the ability to run one in April.

And I've got the most wonderful daughter who continues to walk by my side whenever and wherever I go reminding me I can do whatever I want in life if I'm determined enough to do it and I start by just putting one foot in front of the other.

You can make a donation here if you'd like to sponsor me.

Week 3 2026 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

The Negatives

Dealing with disappointments, mainly people.

The positives

Overcoming disappointment.

Small achievements.

Saturday 17th We went out for coffee in the morning, followed by a Lidl food shop and I managed to keep up with the scanner and packed into the trolley at the same speed, which made me happy. My friend picked me up in the afternoon and we went to the Eastnor Castle Deer Park for a walk and a natter and a hot chocolate. The evening was spent watching Birmingham on Sky away to Swansea and a 1-1 draw. I was in bed by 9am as I'm still very tired.

Sunday 18th Had a lie in then Peter dropped me in town for 9am for me to join in with a group hike of the Malvern Hills. I was disappointed as it was a slow one with lots of waiting around for others to catch up and I was getting cold, so I left them at British Camp and completed the walk on my own at more than double the speed. Peter met me I town for a coffee. Hoem and straight in the bath, a video call with my friend and a chat with my cousin in the States, some blogging and in bed at 8pm with a headache.

Monday 19th Horrendous drive to work down country lanes with road closures, barely wide enough for one car, let alone the van and localised flooding and foggy. Covered PE with basketball, table tennis and dance. Collected Peter on the way home to buy flowers for MILs birthday tomorrow and have a coffee. home to cook dinner and start work in the attic after planning some dance for tomorrow, I'm struggling with the resources I've been given, thankfully a misspent youth has kept me going so far with the break dancing element.

Tuesday 20th More dance and got some really good lessons going now, finally got the boys fully engaged. Found an alternative route home, even worse, lanes so narrow that both me and another van were in our respective hedges to pass. The alternative route via Worcester is chaotic due to a landslide, so I may have to travel via Hereford tomorrow morning. Peter out visiting his mum for her Birthday. So I put the van on charge, washed my walking boots and trousers, fed the cat and waited for it to come back in then went for a run to the retail park, bought some new boots I'd had my eye on in the sales. Peter met me for a coffee, home for dinner. waterproof coats washed and reproofed. I watched Birmingham in one room, Peter watched another game on the big telly. Had a bath and in bed by 10pm.

Wednesday 21st A bit of a lie in as I had a blood test before work, a longer drive in via Hereford and straight into cover in science. A busy day and home via Hereford. Can't believe we're in the last few days of Traitors. I got my ticket for the Birmingham v Leeds game in the FA cup on Valentines Day and looked into booking the ferry for a trip to Northern Ireland to see the grandchildren in my half term, sadly theirs is the week before. Had a bath and watched Traitors in bed and asleep by 9.30pm.

Thursday 22nd Woke with a migraine. A long drive into work with flood waters adding to the days drive. Home via the retail park to pick up snacks for our day out on Saturday and of course a coffee out with Peter who walked down to meet me. Home for dinner, watched TV, packed my bags, had a bath, watched Traitors, did some blogging and bed by 10pm.

Friday 23rd Child 4 turned 31 today. Finally the road to work was open. An exhausting day mentally. Home to pack and head off to London for the weekend for the Winter Walk tomorrow to attempt to walk 26 miles in under 8 hours as part of my marathon training. Arrived at the hotel, unpacked, found the train station for the early start in the morning, all in time to watch The Traitors.

On the blog this week:

Feeling Unsociable but not looking it.

Word of the Week - Acceptance 

My Winter Garden

Post Comment Love - Link up with any post written this week.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Post Comment Love - 23rd - 25th January 2026

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week. If you're new or a regular visitor we're sure you'll find something of interest.

Please leave a comment with the host you link up with and we'd also appreciate your help spreading the #PoCoLo word on Twitter/X tag us and we'll RT. You can find us here: Stephanie - @BosworthLife and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby Please also add our badge to your post.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

This weekend I'm on a Winter Walk. 26 miles around London on Saturday aiming to finish in under 8 hours as part of my training for the Brighton Marathon in April which I'm running on behalf of Bowel Research UK in memory of Stephanie to raise funds and awareness.

But first, the evening will be spent watching the finale of The Traitors that we've both been enjoying.

Our granddaughter gave us a potted bulb for Christmas, we had no idea what it was, but this morning it flowered and it was a lovely surprise to come home from work to.

I've written a post this week about acceptance and moved a large 'to do' list to the end of the month to take the pressure off myself and have got back into my reading and Peter and I have been spending more time together out of the house, just drinking coffee, reading and chilling out, rather than charging around.

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Word of the Week - Acceptance

There are a lot of things I've had to accept this week.

It's not been easy and I've not been happy about it.

But with acceptance has come a lot of peace and with peace has come - moving on.

Initially I was going with unsociable, then procrastination, but I decided to go with acceptance as it is more positive and being positive is my focus.

I published my post on being unsociable, my initial #wotw if you want to read it, as it's how I'm feeling.

This week I've accepted that I'm 4 weeks behind with my marathon training. As a result I went for a run on Tuesday.

I accepted that my drive to work with pot holes, flooding and road closures is stressful, but it's the same for everyone else and I'm not going to worry if yet another delay sees me arrive 10 minutes late, as I'm arriving 15 minutes before lessons start anyway. Now I've stopped worrying about being late, I've reduced the stress and I'm sticking to the longer detours and the main roads.

Since Stephanie died I've accepted that my friendship group has become smaller, but I've recognised that my smaller friendship group has become stronger.

I had my 6 monthly blood test on Wednesday. I'm now in my 10th year of this malarky, bloods will come back out of sync, there will be a recall, doctors receptionist will have concern in her voice, nurse will tell me tests are for x, y & z and I will calmly just let them take the blood knowing no one has read my notes properly and this is normal. It's amazing how hard it is to get my medical records from Dubai uploaded and merged rather than just attached. I've accepted this, but I am fed up of explaining it every time.

I've accepted that there are a lot of things to be done around the house that just aren't getting done because I've been unwell and my to do list had just grown longer and I was getting stressed and putting pressure on myself to get things done. It was taking longer to get better and I started getting migraines. This was all impacting on my running, my journey to work and being unsociable.

My 'to do' list had rolled over from October, was re written as the pages in my diary were turned and a new diary purchased in January and was last added to on the weekend. So I put a big cross through my 'to do list' and moved it to the end of February to take the pressure off. 

*diary corrections to spelling SOW not SEW.

There were a couple of things that were ticked off this week and a couple of things left to be done in the morning for the weekend and one or two things to be done on Sunday, but the other stuff which is not urgent, has been moved away, out of sight, to take away the stress and with that, comes acceptance that I don't need to worry about these things.

I feel much better now I've accepted there are some things I can do nothing about. I've had a migraine all week stressing over my journey to work, not being able to run for the past 4 weeks with the flu and now a migraine and stressing over not getting the jobs done around the house and garden and I was just spiralling, hence the migraine making everything worse.

I'm now looking forward to a nice relaxed weekend in London on the Winter Walk, raising awareness and funds for Bowel Research UK in memory of Stephanie, celebrating her life.

I'm linking up with Raisie Bay with Word of the Week

Why I'm feeling unsociable, but not looking it.

I'm not unsociable, but I don't always want to be sociable.    

Especially in new situations.

I'm quite an anxious person. I was diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder back in 2017. I don't know if I actually still have it on my medical records or not. I was also diagnosed with PTSD in January 2025. Both related to witnessing sudden and traumatic deaths of my father and our daughter.

I don't receive any treatment for either condition anymore but I still have the symptoms of both, mainly in the form of catastrophising and just not thinking I'm good enough for a lot of things.

I hate doing new things, going to new places and meeting new people. It nearly cost me my job back in September after just 10 days, but I was able to vocalise how I was feeling and I was given a sabbatical, time to reset and restart the following month and things are pretty much ok now. I've even socialised and joined the book club and went out for a Christmas meal, but I left a 10pm and came home. Baby steps. I spend the first break in the staff room which is 15 mins, but for the half hour lunch break I leave site. It's too much for me to be there all day.

I cope better if I do things on my own and if I don't have to explain to people what I'm doing when and where and why. But I'm married, I have a husband who cares for me and wants to help me and when I'm talking through, out loud, all the things I have to do, making plan a, b and x, y and z, he naturally wants to input some advice and take the pressure off me, but it just exasperates the situation and I explode. 

I need to run through every single event, outcome, possibility so I can put it to rest in my mind and then whatever happens I'll be equipped to deal with it all.

When I'm in this mood I just don't want to be around other people, anyone at all.

It could be something simple like going out for a coffee, a walk or as complicated as planning a holiday or maybe something stressful like a medical appointment or trying to work out something that is complicated such as a tax return. The thought process is the same and the outcome is the same.

What if I get hit by a car on the way to the shop? What if that car pulls out suddenly and hits the other car 3 cars in front. Will Peter have seen in and be able to react in time? Will it be better if I sit like this or like that? What would our chances of survival be? He needs to slow down, pull back a bit more. Just let me drive, then I can be in charge of my own fate. Then I end up wanting to just go out on my own, so I only have myself to worry about and I don't have to explain to anyone what I'm doing and why? I can just talk to myself to reassure myself, calm myself down and everything will be ok, it usually is, but only because I run through these scenarios.

I go to the football with 28,000 people a couple of times a month, but I go on my own. I can decide in a split second if I want to walk this way or that way or leave early without having to speak to anyone else and make plans. 

I joined a group on the weekend for a walk. I hate joining things. I joined the gym. I was so agitated when I joined. I got so anxious about it, that when they tried to show me how all the equipment worked I got in a panic and at first just let them show me machine after machine, but I wasn't listening, then I plucked up the courage to say 'no thank you' I hoped I sounded polite when I asked them just to show me the three machines I wanted to use. Then after a couple of visits, I plucked up the courage to ask about another one.

On the walk on Sunday I was agitated, I got on the bus and everyone knew each other, there was talk about all the walks they'd done, they had all the gear. The group info and said you needed to be of certain fitness level, I was anxious they'd make me drop out and I'd have to get Peter to come and get me and I started to panic I'd not be able to describe where I was and he'd be driving around for ages in the wrong place because I wasn't anxious and not able to give clear directions.

We started the walk, it was hard, but I wasn't the one that couldn't keep up and I got agitated. I was agitated listening to some of the people talking, their topics of conversations, the tone of their voices. I put my headphones in and isolated myself further from everyone. I thought we would be walking at a faster pace, a hike it was advertised at, we kept having to wait for people to catch up, I was getting cold and impatient. I left the group at a point where I knew my way home.

I was sad and disappointed in myself that I hadn't jsut been able to enjoy the day and make new friends. 

My whole day was ruined. I gave myself a headache. I thought about all the other things I could've been doing and could've done and instead of getting on and doing some of those things in the afternoon and evening, I did absolutely nothing and just got more and more cross and upset with myself for wasting the time.

But from the outside I don't look unsociable, I don't act unsociable (no one saw me with my headphones in, hidden under my hair and hood) I'm always told how sociable I am. How I'll have a go at anything, how out outgoing I am, how organised I am and often by family how bossy I am, but that's not me, that's not the person I want to be, that's the person I feel I've been forced to become. 'what's the matter with you?' 'why are you so quite?' 'go find out what's going on' 'where are we going? what are we doing?' 'where are we ... what are we ... food, places, who, what, where when. All with a gentle shove in my back. So no one else has to take the blame.

This post is a bit all over the place. It's random. Worrying. But that's how my brain works when I get like this. I cut myself off, I isolate, I become unsociable. I didn't want to go to work on Monday, but I didn't want to stay at home either. I just wanted to run away, but I didn't. I knew it's wasn't the answer.

It's not about putting a brave face on and just getting on with it. It's not even about putting into the place the things I've learnt to cope. It's just life and how I live it and when I'm in work and I'm asked what's wrong I'll just reply 'migraine' before they think I'm just a little bit barking mad or maybe it actually is a migraine that has me thinking and feeling this way or is it just normal and we need to talk to each other a little more, but then I'm not feeling very sociable to want to do that, am I?

My winter garden. December 2025 - January 2026

Nothing has been done in the garden since mid November. I'm sure things could've been planted. I could be preparing beds, but I'm not that invested. Gardening for me is fun, it's not meant to be a chore and I'm not trying to be self sufficient. Besides, it's not a big garden and I don't have space for heated greenhouses or windowsills indoors that I can grow seedlings on.

I've been enjoying sitting outside in the mornings before going to work either with a cup of tea or coffee, but it's usually dark so I've been making the most of catching some sun on the weekends.

When we had our first floor flat in Monmouth where we stayed when we were visiting the UK, we didn't have a garden, but it was only a short walk from the River Monnow and was such a pretty place to sit with a mug of tea in the mornings. I'd often sit with a blanket wrapped round me on the tips in the winter also.

Sadly after the floods in early December the town suffered badly and the ground floor of the flats were flooded badly. This was a week after the flooding.

Santa stopped by with his snowy boots on Christmas Eve and it took almost 2 weeks for the (icing sugar) snow to disappear.

The real snow came soon enough though on January 3rd. we have raised the front lawn ready to plant a hedge in the spring, but the soil has settled quite a bit so we'll be bringing in more soil that had piled up after building work in the back garden to finish levelling it off once the weather warms up, so we may have to delay the hedge row planting till the early summer, but it'll give the hedge cutting a little longer to establish themselves after they come out from under protection after the winter.

You wouldn't believe this was the same day, later in the afternoon. Just look at that blue sky. There are buds on the fruit trees.

We lost the fleece covering from the Bay Tree while we were away over the New Year, it must've blown over the fence. It seems to be doing ok without the fleece and we've seen many potted Basils without fleeces in various National trust and English Heritage sites.

The cloche and cold frame are doing their job and the herbs are doing well despite the cold.

Parsley, basil, fennel, coriander all of which we've been able to sue throughout the winter months.

Both the memorial roses we were gifted for Stephanie are doing well. Both are in pots. One was in it's 2nd year so ok to keep outside without any cover, one hadn't had chance to harden off so it was advised to cover it and put it in a green house for it's first winter.

Again, more clear blue skies on January 7th, despite warnings of Storm Goretti.

January 8th. After an hours worth of snowfall.

We had a gift from our granddaughter at Christmas of a bulb in a pot. We are now assuming it's a daffodil.

The house plants are doing well. 

As our the cacti we brought back from Dubai that used to grow in our garden. We've kept them small on purpose as it was quite a vicious plant and not suitable to grow out of control in a house where small children come to visit.

One of babies that we've cultivated in the UK.

There are some plants, mainly succulents that were potted up for the winter and left under semi cover, along with some house plants that had seen better days, that actually look like they've survived the coldest winter months, that will probably come back with a little TLC.

How is your garden holding up during the winter?