It is May right?

Looks like November, feels like February but the calendar says May, we're not convinced.  This was the view at lunchtime:
The outside world from nice and dry indoors
 So we gave in and lit the stove:
Office dog Hebe basking in front of 'Pig' today.

Yesterday the rain had lumps in it and the thermometer has not risen above nine degrees all week, it has rained virtually all day. We've ordered more heating oil (don't usually need any more until October time), HB's ordered more coal (shouldn't need any more until  September) and our neighbours are stocking up on logs. 

You may have noticed that this week it has been the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and this is the first year that I can remember that our sweetpeas are not in the ground in time for the show.  The growing on area around the greenhouse is swamped with pots of annuals and grown on herbaceous perennials that we've not been able to plant out because the ground isn't prepared and where it is then it's been too wet - no point planting when your planting hole rapidly becomes a small pond.

However, the penguins at London Zoo think summer is just around the corner and are preparing their beach wear. Maybe they know something we don't but I'm not so sure and (for now at least) I'm sticking with my winter woollies.

As the outside world is wet and 'orrible (according to HB) we have spent some of our time profitably by backing up the whole website, it takes a while, when we left on Wednesday this was the message:
How long remaining?!?

It had been running since ten that morning!  But by Thursday morning it was all done, phew.  We can stick with the incremental backups for a few more weeks now - or at least until we do something major again...

It may be a Bank Holiday on Monday but we'll be here as usual however it does mean that postal editions of CJS Weekly will be delivered a day late.  This week's edition is 17 pages long with 51 adverts for paid posts (40 of them direct to CJS), 15 adverts for voluntary positions plus a page and a bit of details about work days and conservation tasks happening during June.