Preparing for winter

My brother R and T took their chain saws and finished sawing up a massive Ash tree that came down in the storms last winter. T will then split the trunk logs with his log splitter and eventually they will be piled into a trailer and taken down to R's new home in West Dorset. The cross section of the logs were beautiful with a dead central spot surrounded by a white ring and then a beautiful pink. Never seen that before! There are several other fallen trees on the farm so there will be no end of wood fires.

Today was our "medium" milestone wedding anniversary and I was greeted at breakfast with beautiful bright red roses from the garden in a lovely dark blue jug. This evening we went out to eat at the pub in Sydling St Nicholas, a beautiful postcard village nestling in a valley in the Dorset Downs. So sad as with many pretty country places now, the houses are mostly holiday lets or second homes which has forced the village shop to close as the Londoners bring all their food and drink with them in their cars. The few locals along with the "incomers" do not make a habit of using their pub regularly so the pub relies on people a little further away in the local area. The only positive thing as far as I can see is that the old cottages are kept in good repair. Nevertheless English village country life as we knew it when we were kids has died and has become much more suburban.