Another day passes here at Bigland Towers as the year draws to a close. Whilst Dawn has been slaving away in my former office upstairs I’ve been pottering around acting as the ‘hostess with the mostess’, supplying meals and cups of coffee whilst sorting out my own work from the sanctuary of the living room – which is now graced with a Christmas tree. Not that I’m likely to see an office party. Far from it. Those days are long gone. I’ve been freelance for 25 years and we rarely fit into anyone’s equation or guest list.

Back in my home in London I used to have a newspaper cartoon above my desk. It depicted a chap in a paper hat with a glass of wine in hand standing in front of a mirror saying ‘the only problem with working from home is the office parties are crap’ – and this was 20 odd years before Covid!

I’m not complaining, it’s just the way of the world, and the world of work has changed dramatically since I joined it in 1976. Now I’m slowly leaving it.

So, today I’ve been indulging in getting the gardens (such as they are -this is no country house) ready for winter, in between dodging some very dodgy weather. I nipped out for a walk towards afternoon’s end, which co-incided with the arrival of the latest storm which co-incided with recycling day so the roads were full of bins of varioussizes skittering along as they were propelled by gust of wind. My walk was so battered by the elements that I ended up taking refuge in my local pub for a while (yeah, what a great excuse: Ed). A few of us ‘old farts’ who’d braved the weather ended up swapping stories and memories of all the black and white films we grew up with and the actors we remembered. Where memories faded Google assisted.

Now I’m back at home, listening to the rain beat upon the windows thankful I’m on their right side. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture, which was taken whilst I was out walking and stopped to admire the world. I do love a good storm…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Cheers!