Well, the snow has arrived, despite predictions from someone who shall remain nameless (Matt W) that we would never see snow again in Norfolk. It made a weak appearance yesterday, then a more determined approach during the night. Today we have a convincing covering, and I have to say that it looks quite attractive.

We got up late this morning and have had a fairly relaxing day, though I have put the bins out, bumping into Margaret, Michael and Mary (at a distance). Des and Mark have shovelled the pavement and their footpaths: you can see who pulls their weight around here, and who just waits for it to thaw. (Me.)

Yesterday we had a Zoom church meeting as usual. I led it, and Anna did a really good talk on a Psalm and Isaiah 40. Pretty much a full complement, including Martin, who had previously sent a message saying he wasn’t into computer worship. I didn’t even start to reply.

I had a surprise phone call today from Maurice Brown, one of our CNS group who I think I worked with at the City Hall in 1963-65. He had a chess query, which came as a bit of a surprise. He wanted to know how many Queens you could have on the board, because his set came with only one. Tricky. Meanwhile I have just beaten Oliver on time because he forgot to reply. I was two pawns up, but he had some interesting possibilities.

It’s very cold, what with the snow and everything. Another Beast from the East, apparently. Dot and I are watching cricket highlights on All 4 on my iPad because we had difficulty getting it on the TV. It actually comes over very well on the iPad.

It rained most of the day on Saturday; so we stayed in. I sorted out another tray of paper, which was quite heartening, and Dot wrote her P4C stuff for David’s platform, with a little editing help from me. Dot had long phone calls with Anne and with Julia Higbee, and I scraped over 4000 steps by walking up and down the kitchen. Dot has had a bit of a back ache for a few days, which is worrying, though she usually gets over such things quite quickly. If only Verena were available! David and Chrissy FaceTimed us in the evening, and we had quite a long talk. Spurs won and Liverpool lost; so quite a good day. Norwich had lost 2-0 to Swansea on Friday evening, which wasn’t so good.

Meanwhile we have been researching our family trees, and Dot got a reply from someone related to the Myhills (Dot’s great-grandmother was Ruth Myhill). Apparently they may have originated in the north of England. Another more mysterious connection seems to be with Northern Ireland, but we’re waiting for news of that.