Wolds Diary: Posh luncheon is a fine winter warmer as the frost sets in

On this occasion, she slipped her collar the moment I opened the car door and rushed up to the front door, opened it and disappeared inside, hotly pursued by me. By the time I caught up with her, she had had a look round the fortunately empty consulting room and was heading upstairs to the staff quarters when I caught her.

The receptionist and veterinary nurse were highly amused. Luckily, they know her. Once with the vet she tried to get out of all the doors, she can manipulate door handles quite easily. She was persuaded to sit on the scales with the bribe of a titbit.

Once she was checked and inoculated she reluctantly got back into the car without incident. I took all the dogs for a walk a bit later and then later that evening headed into church for the Pocklington Singers Practice. This year we are doing Brahms’s Requiem in addition to various other pieces including some from Haydn’s Creation. I’ve never sung either before so this is both a challenge and a pleasure for me. I managed to catch up with the news from friends since Christmas and afterwards we had a happy hour at the pub.

I was back at the church on the Wednesday evening for a parochial church council meeting. Some important decisions were made on finance and fabric issues and I think we were all tired after a couple of hours.

During the night, I was taken rather ill and the next morning managed to see the duty doctor who duly took blood samples and arranged tests. By this time, I was feeling much better. We have a great group practice here and they always see an emergency.

I had been asked to speak to The Willerby Businesswomen’s Lunch and drove down there after diverting via Howden for petrol. The lunch was held at a very posh manor house hotel and the group proved very good company. The lunch was delicious and I especially enjoyed the pudding. I gave my talk and they were a really good and happy audience and laughed a lot.

I drove back in time to take the dogs for a short walk but I was very tired so had an early night. I was able to watch some recordings of Father Brown programmes that I especially enjoy. GK Chesterton had a brilliant mind. He was almost as devious as I aspire to be, with my murder mysteries. I also consider Mark Williams to be a fine actor.

I have had the front drive of my place widened and my wonderful handyman has made a fantastic job of it, so that I can now park two vehicles side by side at the front of the house rather than massacring the front lawn. The whole place looks much neater.

On Saturday evening I headed off to our local bowls club for the monthly evening quiz, preceded by a fish and chip supper for those who wished to participate.

The quiz is run by a neighbour of mine who has promised to help teach me bowls when the weather improves. I have been given a set of woods and some shoes by a friend and have always wanted to learn. I hope to join the club.

I teamed up with some friends and the whole evening was very enjoyable, we didn’t win but we didn’t really expect to. I was pretty chuffed that I actually knew the answers to some of the questions.

The next morning it was church where the choir sang two anthems at the monthly service of all the local churches. I met up with friends afterwards and was very flattered when two of them mentioned they read my diary, and one was grateful that when he read it he told me that he felt he could relate to my love of the countryside.

The weather has been cold and frosty throughout the week and the roads have also been really quite slippery.

On some mornings I have woken to a world of white with a hoar frost - beautiful, but bracing, as my grandmother often said.