Hope you all enjoyed your extra hour in bed!
Friday afternoon: an attempt to catch up before the weekend!
Lynette – pleased to see more frequent posts from you – and well done with the swimming. How did your daughter get on at her big meeting? I hope she is managing to relax during half term, despite the sad news of her Friend’s Bride-to-be. Sorry the plumbing is taking so long – don’t pay until you are completely satisfied, however friendly the builder is: he should get it right first time and not cut corners.
AQ – thanks for the link to the extra photos of those spectacular Banksias!
Annette – sounds like serious gardening going on over there: OH is doing bits and pieces when it is dry underfoot on the paths, but can’t really get on the dug ground yet. That is a lovely house which your Friend and her Sister inherited – I can’t understand their siblings not wanting to keep a share in it! A great sunset picture over the lake, and some interesting architecture in New Paltz and Beacon, and also in Chicago and on the Railway journey. Our Heucheras bloomed really well this year – although I do like the leaves without the flowers too because there is such a variety of colours.
Margo – I am so pleased to read your positive plans for Christmas, even including the annual shopping trip with your Sister: that is terrific. Pleased Andy made the tennis worth watching I was joking that he added in the extra tournaments in Europe not just to reach his goal in the top eight, but to stay away and save himself the embarrassment of his mother’s dancing!
Rita – what beautiful flower photos from your garden; you must be very proud of it all. I think that “Quaint and Queer” Sisyrinchium might be the same as the one we bought this year.
Linda – I think Wednesday must have been a bad day for traffic incidents all round; we had to modify our journey just to Carlisle that evening due to a truck on fire, and I know there was another not far north on the M74! I hope you had a better journey to Wales and that you have a lovely time at the caravan, despite being busy with DIY and wrapping her up for winter! All the online purchases arrived this week, curtains due later. Thanks for showing us the family photos; Matthew makes Tomasz look so “grown up”!
AQ – I would say that “beard” definitely makes your handsome Albany corvid a Raven!
Heather - thanks for your kind thoughts; I am having a good week. I intend to make my Christmas mincemeat tomorrow afternoon – an easy no-cook recipe without suet.
Brenda – I am sure your missing day was only because you were busy as usual! Solar maintenance man phoned to rearrange for next week – says he left a message Tuesday, but we were here and the phone never rang and there was no message, so no idea where he left it!
Since just one cooler evening (Wednesday) we are back to unseasonably warm weather – starting at 14 or above and rising to 18 during the days! The birds are all very visible now: Robin is madly defending his patch (from two others) and singing like there’s no tomorrow, Dunnocks chase each other wildly around the deck and I am sure Wren is hyperactive, dashing hither and thither!
Get together with family on Wednesday went well and it was good to have an update on studies, accommodation and London life (she still hates it!) from elder Granddaughter. Yesterday, we both had blood tests (routine for me and “well man” for him), and in the evening we went to an excellent talk at the museum about “The Landscape Legacy of WW1 in D&G”. Had a quiet day today.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
It has been a lovely warm day. We spent time clearing leaves again, but stayed off the grass, which is very wet. I have waited all day for an order from M&S to be delivered, which hasn't arrived, so caught up on HW and ironing.
OG, Sorry your Granddaughter is not happy in London, as that could affect her studies. I hope things improve for her.
It is quite apt that todays highest temperature was at Gravesend 23.6c
BRENDA - I didn't mean to say she is actually "unhappy" there - she just doesn't like it! She is very much of the north: conceived in York, born in Lancashire, mostly grew up in County Durham and was very happy doing her first degree in York. She likes her course of study, is pleased to have found accommodation with three others, not all students, but who have some common interests with her, but wishes she didn't hear emergency sirens in the street so often! I think she is maybe missing York more than actually hating London!
A cool change & a tiny bit of rain overnight, about 2 mm. Today should be a pleasant 19. Doubly pleasant as Dau2 & Co are dropping in on way to a lunch birthday party. I teased her that she was planning to leave L & J with us - luckily she is still breastfeeding 2/3 of feeds so we have been “let off” this time!
WA trip cont. We arrived in Albany 5.45 pm & gathered at 6.30 to walk to a nearby eating place. Alas it was closed (later we learnt as it was in a shopping centre, it closed when the shops did at 6 pm!!!). Some went off to Indian but Friend & I bought a Subway and had a healthy feast in our motel room. Cheaper too!Next morning we set off at a leisurely 9.30 on bus to Emu Point to see the beach, then to the first farm in WA, Strawberry Hill Farm 1827. The stone house was built later. The gardens were pleasant and we saw some buff-banded rail scavenging in the leaf litter.We drove up Mount Clarence overlooking the harbour. A convoy of 38 ships gathered in King George Sound in October 1914, from here the ANZACs left to go to WWI & Gallipoli 100 years ago today. My pics HERE.
OG, I now understand. I still find London so noisy and am always happy to return to the peace and quiet of home, although my children are very happy to live there, but in quieter areas of London, even though they had never lived there before university. My best wishes to your granddaughter. It is difficult to adjust, especially at first and I speak from experience, when I was promoted and had to leave the NW, many years ago :-))
Evening all: It's Halloween, so got a few bags of candy and now wondering how many kids will show up; probably more than last year given that it's a Friday night. However, the first - and I sincerely hope the first of many - storm of the season is due to arrive this evening, so who knows. Have my pointy witch's hat (seriously) by the door, so am all set :-)
But first to catch up.
Lindybird: Hope you had a good time tucking up the caravan for the winter. Love the photo of Tomasz admiring iMatthew. My daughter and granddaughter both had masses of dark hair when they were born - and kept it all too. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Matthew - Tomasz was very blonde from what I remember. And that seems like just yesterday!
Brenda: The double-decker trains are on the Western routes I think it was Heather who said she had friends who'd gone on the Great Train rides tours. They probably wouldn't like Amtrak, although some tour companies and private (rich) individuals pay Amtrak to pull their own restored carriages, typically one-level jobs from the 40s and 50s. Amtrak (the Federally-funded-but-just-barely railroad) runs the so-called Superliner two-level trains mostly on the Western routes from Chicago due to the lower bridges, etc., on the routes east of Chicago. Amtrak's main problem is a lack of funding (and heaven help us if the Republicans get control of Congress next Tuesday!) and the other is that the tracks are owned by the freight companies, so passenger trains often have to wait for freight trains to pass on some tracks. It doesn't bother me; I think it's the only way to see the country, though you have to have a bit of a sense of adventure given the delays. Still, the trains are traveling a couple of thousand of miles so it's not unreasonable to expect some hangups. All the accommodations are very comfortable, even the coach seats, which airline travelers can only dream about! They recline, are wide with lots of leg room, adjustable footrests on the seat in front and padded sections under the seat that you can raise to support your thighs. Still, anyone over 35 would probably want to spring for one of the first class options, which include all meals.
Rita: Hope that leak doesn't end up on the kitchen floor. Our (tall) fridge is in perfect running condition but it's got one of those narrow, full-length freezers that you can barely fit a pizza in; not that we eat a lot of pizza (yum!) but it's always a hassle sorting through stuff that's jammed in sideways, etc.. We tend to have large refrigerator/freezer combos in our kitchens rather than a large freezer in a service porch, etc. Good luck finding a replacement; not something you'd want to do in an emergency...
OG: Indeed, that is a lovely house to inherit and sad to say, the "debate" over what to do with it when the parents died caused a serious split between the "keep it" and "sell it" factions. Fortunately, I was friends with the former! I think London would be a huge adjustment after York (a couple of Americans I met on the train said it was their favorite UK destination). I'm not sure I could live in any large city at this point - too much noise and too many people.
AQ: Glad the temps dropped for you; hope the summer isn't too ghastly. Is Dau2 still getting nanny help? Sounds like she's doing better. Thanks for showing us the variety of landscapes in OZ - had to smile at the crow in the strawberry field - wonder if it works. :-) Those plants look very familiar.
Lynette: Hope your own leak is sorted. Is it hard to haul yourself off to go swimming when the weather turns colder?
Margo: Is it this weekend you'll be stirring the Christmas pud? And do you put coins in it? :-)
OK, well it's getting close to the time when the younger ghosts and monsters show up, so I'm going to sign off.
Hope I didn't miss anyone. Take care all..
Trick or Treaters were all very tiny and sweet and came by with their parents in tow; not many because - OMG!! - the rain! It is pouring down - the sound of it bouncing off gutters and plants (which I hauled out from under the eaves so they could get a good wash!) is like music to my ears...... The earth will smell so sweet tomorrow and months and months of dust and grime will have been washed away. :-)))))
Annette - We had the most ever number of Trick or Treaters. First eight delightful kids (with 3 mothers waiting by the kerb), then an hour later another seven with a lone mum supervising. I put a sign on the door to indicate T-or-T-friendly and I had to take it down as I had run out of sweets.
Good Morning Everyone. Everywhere looks very damp this morning. Heavy dew / sea mist ? We didn't have any T or T visitors, so I now have plenty of sweets left.
Annette, So pleased to hear you have had plenty of rain, although I do hope that it wasn't so heavy that it could have damaged some plants. My daughter texted yesterday, that it was snowing in Chicago and was so cold and windy. Thanks for the train information. I will look it up.
AQ, I will check on your latest photographs. Thank you.Enjoy the cooler weather, while it lasts. I would have preferred to have had more visitors for T or T and have used up all these sweets. It does vary from year to year.
Hope you All enjoy today.
I do not 'do'Trick or Treat, but my brother does and his local children all know this, so he had 25 round last night, mainly supervised. He always gets plenty of sweets in for them.
Not raining but gloomy here. There have been a lot of windy rainy days recently, with one lovely sunny day on Wednesday. I went out for a scenic drive but so did all the visitors -half term week! - and it was very busy. Hope it quietens down next week.