For a dog, who thinks she is a cunning hunter, there are always opportunities to look out for in case stray wildlife should have the temerity to come onto “her” land. The fact that Lottie has only ever caught three rabbits in her entire life, two of which were dead before she saw them, never dents her optimism. So, sitting on the edge of the path scanning her territory is often on the agenda. The temporary gravel trench in front of her was one that I had to dig in a hurry after heavy rain the other weekend as the conservatory was in danger of flooding due to the amount of water coming off the field above us.

Talking of rain, I have a drainage ditch running along the side of my driveway to take any excess water away. Much of the year this is pretty dry with just a trickle of water passing down it. However, with the recent inclement weather caused by various storms with increasingly bizarre names – Gertrude for heaven’s sakes!!! – this has turned into a full blown stream.

Being in a higher-up open environment provides some great weather views, particularly sunrises and sunsets. I am sure a number of these will feature as we go through the year and here is the first, taken on one of those rare bright and clear evenings. At this time of year, the bareness of the trees arguably provides a more interesting vista than in the summer.

The picture below may well look like a view of some telegraph poles which, in fact, it is. However they illustrate another facet of rural living. The local exchange was recently converted to superfast fibre broadband, which means I now get speeds of 8-10mbs as opposed to around 1.5 mbs. Townies may scoff but it means I can now do emails and watch Netflix at the same time. What more can a man ask for? The only issue is that the last 400 metres of connectivity is still via overhead lines for most of the village. Earlier this week the broadband was very intermittent – not ideal for somebody who works from home. A couple of days later, a very nice man from BT Openreach climbed up the far pole to repair a frayed cable and got everything up and running again. So an interesting mix of 20th and 21st Century technology links us to the modern world!

As January comes to an end, I look forward to being able to post pictures of things other than rain and flooding – but who knows!