Danskcolin: Tuesday September 16th 2025 "Brrr!!!! Have you noticed how cold it's getting, suddenly

Yes, friends - winter has arrived, at least here in Hampshire, and local councils are being forced to take extraordinary measures. Did you see page 94 of this morning's local Onion News? If not, retrieve your copy from the dustbin and take a second look - you'll be glad you did!!!

Poor "Basingstokers", as my medium-to-light wife Lois and I call our nearest neighbours, literally just down the road from us here where we live, in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire!

my light-to-moderate wife Lois and me - a recent picture

The news from nearby Basingstoke gives us both a chuckle this morning, however, because, although spending most of our time in our own little draughty "open plan" lounge, we've already rejected the trending "Clingfilm" option for ourselves as we shiver on the sofa together as the long winter evenings approach - call us "dinosaurs" if you like haha!

some of the "Clingfilm" solutions adopted by our trendier neighbours

for the long winter evenings here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire

I don't want to be boringly practical about these admittedly stylish solutions to winter draughts, but what Lois and I want to know is.. what happens if one member of the couple wants to go to the loo suddenly, or realises they haven't packed a packet of biscuits or the TV remote into their cosy little bundle?

Just saying! I don't mean to be a bore haha!!!

No, I confess, Lois and I have gone for the boring old "curtains" option to combat the "open-plan madness", I'm afraid! Sorry, but it's just so much more practical, and Linda, a lovely older woman from curtain and blinds specialists Hillary's comes t our house today to probe our gaping apertures and measure us up for a nice pair of stylish curtains, and I make no apology for that. [Why not? - Ed]

You see, the problem is, when we're having meals in the kitchen-diner, we're bothered by the draught from the lounge, and when we're on the sofa in the lounge in the evening, the draught from the kitchen-diner bothers us.

It's full-blown Open Plan Madness, I tell you!

(left) when we're in the kitchen-diner having a meal, we're bothered by the draught

from the lounge, and (right) on the sofa in the evenings, we're bothered by

the draught from the kitchen-diner, would you believe - it's "Open Plan Madness" !!!!

our "dinosaur" solution: a pair of stylish curtains such as these in Hillary's "Aloha" range

Everybody round here is saying this week, how short the so-called "summer" has been this year, and how quickly the cold temperatures have returned.

And here in Liphook, Hampshire, we're only at a latitude of 51 degrees north. Our poor granddaughter Josie, is due to be starting her maths degree course up north, at Durham University later this month, a city which is at a latitude of 55 degrees north - brrrrr!!!!

graphic showing the positions of Liphook, Hampshire (left) and (right)

for comparison purposes the position of Durham, where our granddaughter Josie (19)

is due to be starting her maths degree course later this month - brrrrrr!!!!

When Lois and I visit Josie today, plus her mum - our daughter Alison - and the family's menagerie of pets (!) - at nearby Churt, just over the county line in Surrey, Josie models for us the fur coat we bought her for her recent 19th birthday.

What madness, isn't it, but it'll keep her from shivering through those freezing northern nights, that's for sure!!!!

flashback to earlier today - Lois and I visit our daughter Alison in nearby

Churt, Surrey, plus our granddaughter Josie (19), who is seen here

modelling the warm fur-coat we bought her for her recent 19th birthday -

something she'll surely need, up north at Durham University when she starts her course!!!

Brrrrr!!!! Poor Josie !!!!!!

We'll be thinking of Josie this next 3 years shivering up in those frozen northern wastes, while Lois and I are basking on the sofa in our new snug lounge when our shiny new curtains have been installed, that's for sure!

For now, till those curtains arrrive, Lois and I have just got to hunker down and do lots of huddling - no question about that!!!

20:00 And by coincidence, as we huddling on the sofa this evening, we see, on TV, former cabinet minister Michael Portillo up in the frozen wastes of North East England, as he investigates the birth of the railways and the first railway journey ever embarked upon in the whole world - an event being celebrated this month on its 200th anniversary, and the event that kickstarted the second phase of Britain's world-beating Industrial Revolution.

Lois and I didn't know that the idea of having railway stations as well as the tracks themselves took time to develop. The earliest trains used to stop a bit randomly at places for people to get on and off, or the cargoes of coal etc to be loaded or unloaded. Eventually a local tavern on the first railway line became so popular a "jumping off point" and "jumping on point" (the first trains only went at 8mph (!)) that, in time, it evolved into the world's first ever railway station.

What madness!!!!

Also, other concepts which we look on as essentials for running a railway, and which we take for granted, such as signals, only developed gradually too.

However, the railway gauge that pioneering engineer George Stephenson chose - exactly 4 feet 8.5 inches - is still in use today 200 years later, so, mad though it seems, it's passed the test of time, to put it mildly!

Lois and I didn't realise, either, what humble origins Stephenson came from - his brother James remained illiterate all his life, while George himself had to teach himself to read and write.

What madness (again) !!!

Trains developed in the north-eastern region of England for a very good reason - simply the economics of trying to get the coal from the local coal-mines, as quickly and cheaply as possible, to the nearest rivers or to the North Sea for onward transportation by boat to London and the rest of the country.

And Lois and I didn't know that, even before George Stephenson's introduction of steam locomotives, the region's coal was already being transported by rail, but using horse-drawn trains. These had had a long history in this part of the country - a history even going back at least to the early1600s.