18th January 2024 - Snow !!

Thought for the day :"Reading between the lines is not recommended if you are waiting for a train"

Have to be Rain 11 (including Snow) : Dry 7

On to bag 4 of coal 

Need to get some dry logs 

Woke up to snow across the whole landscape.

Susie had a lay in so I broke the ice on the water barrels and let some fairly reluctant birds out.

Decided against doing much in the gardens, though the freezing temperatures meant that the de-humidifier water was frozen so I succumbed and put the electric oil filled heater on - that will affect the electricity bills!    

Walked the dogs and found that there had been a number of pedestrians based upon the footprints in the snow (I was walking at about 11am) 
Indeed - someone had taken the trouble to build a snowman  - only 2 ft high - but was adorned with moss for a barnet and stick arms ..

Toby was not overly sure of the new sentinel on his pathway

Also took some photos of the gardens but as I am out tomorrow for  Rose Croix I shall wait till tomorrow to post them ..

In other news

On January 18th 1486, the Royal Houses of Lancaster and York were united by the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, thus ending the divisive War of the Roses. The unification of the houses of York and Lancaster by this marriage was symbolised by the heraldic emblem of the Tudor Rose, which combined the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster.

Henry was born at Pembroke Castle in 1457 and had a tenuous claim to English throne, as his mother, Margaret Beaufort was a great, great-granddaughter of King Edward III. During Henry's early years, the War of the Roses was ongoing and when Edward IV, a Yorkist became King of England in 1461, Henry although only four years old was seen as a rival claimant from the House of Lancaster and therefore in danger of his life. He was taken to Brittany by his uncle Jasper Tudor to seek refuge and remained there until 1485 when he returned to claim the throne from the then king Richard III. He landed at Dale in Pembrokeshire and made capital out of his Welsh ancestry by marching under the Red Dragon banner of Cadwaladr, attracting military support as he marched through Wales on his way to the Battle of Bosworth, at which on August 22nd 1485, he defeated Richard and seized the crown.

After the political upheavals of the Wars of the Roses, Welsh people hoped that Henry's reign would put an end to the oppression that they had suffered for centuries, but historians are divided on the actual impact his reign had on Wales as he is not reported to have set foot in Wales after his coronation.

Cheers !