OK, it’s not a tragedy, but I was horrified, when booking our next shopping delivery, to find that it will be in March. Yes, two months of the year have already slipped by and we don’t seem to have made much progress. Not only that, but it’s just a week until the end of the month and I have nothing ready to submit. Even worse, I seem to have lost the drive I had when I was in this situation last month. I have also had to plan for a lot of submissions to magazine where I have a long history of rejection, so I’m not likely to have a successful month either. Looking to the future, I wonder if I’m fated to deliver a post like this in the third week of every coming month. Or will I simply buckle under the pressure. February is a bit early in the year to give up on good intentions, even for me.

Julia went to see Flying Scotsman yesterday. It is running on the Nene Valley Railway for a couple of weeks. As you can see, she took some pictures. She would have taken more, but he platform was crowded and she got pushed around a bit. I, meanwhile, was able to stand in the front porch and watch it go by. Once the trees are in leaf again, I won’t be able to do t5hat, but for the moment I can. It reminded me of the time I was about three years old. We had a shop in Blackburn and there was a section of railway track across the road where you could often see steam trains. Well, it was the early 60s, and a diesel locomotive was a somewhat futuristic beast. I remember thee excitement of first being pulled by a diesel. It was very sci-fi, like something out of Gerry Anderson. It was a nice nostalgic moment in a day of worries.