See that Annette has been too busy perhaps, to start a new week, so I'm doing the honours. Rather wet in this part of the world this morning, so doing lots of tidying & Christmas preparing stuff.
Lindybird: Concert sounds charming; reminds me of all the Christmas concerts/school plays I went to for the grandkids (they didn't seem to do it when my daughter was in school now I come to think of it). Hmmm. Anyway, glad it put you in the mood. Does anyone have a decent Shepherd's Pie recipe? OG: Well, glad we finally sorted out the haggi! A new project? Let's hope this one is trouble-free. Patriciat: Nell is gorgeous. Djoan: Say Hi to Dublin for me!
Christmas lights are up and grand switch-on due in about an hour! Plug-in tree all ready to go too. Nice cloudy day with rain still on its way. Hi to everyone else!
Hi, all.
Annette: Congrats on the completion of the Christmas lights project. Hope they all switch on. :-) Our house is old, and the electricity output is barely sufficient. I think if I put up holiday lights, they would knock out all of our power. I can't brew coffee and make toast at the same time on our kitchen counter. LOL
Alan Petrie: Thank you so very much for the Equadorian Cloud Forest Webcam. So beautiful!!! It is your fault that I didn't get all my housework done today. :-)
Auntie: Happy independence day. Hope you enjoyed it.
Gary: That picture of Nancy is just so lovely. Picture perfect.
Patriciat: I just loved the photo of Nell. Such a gentle-looking, beautiful dog.
DjoanS: Enjoy your upcoming trip. I envy you. Sounds wonderful!
Lindybird: The concert sounds very sweet!
OG: You asked, "...amazing mix of weather you are going to encounter in a short space of time...Is it normal to have it like that in Indiana?"
Yup. We have a saying here: If you don't like the weather in Indiana, just wait five minutes and it will change. Here in the middle of the country, we get warm, moist weather fronts blowing up from the Gulf of Mexico, and we get bitterly cold, snow and ice fronts from Canada and the western U.S. So our weather is very changeable, especially in the spring and autumn. Sometimes when the hot and cold fronts meet here, the weather can really rock and roll with tornadoes and such! I actually like it here, though. I would get bored with the same weather every day, I think. I really love the thunder and lightening. And our snowfalls are gorgeous. It stays very white and pristine out here, and you can see all of the animal tracks, big and small.
I need to get some work done this week. Must ... shut...computer...off!!! Everyone have a nice week!
Christmas lights are on - what's really nice is that some young couples with children moved into two neighboring houses this year and those are all lit up too - in the past the former owners didn't bother. So our neighborhood is ablaze - well aglow - with lights. Feeling a bit guilty about the power we're consuming, but it's only for a few weeks. Have to be out of the house on family mission really early tomorrow, so will check in to see how everyone's doing when I get back. Have a nice Monday folks!
We survived the g-kids visit. And I have my computer back. (It probably had an identity crisis with all that teenage chat yesterday LOL.) Himself took them Xmas shopping because my knees were too sore. Who’s complaining? Not me! Actually they were on their best behaviour. Miss 13 had an essay to write and Master 12 kept asking for "jobs to do". After he swept the dust off the back windows, I gave him a bucket of water. I don’t care if the bottom panes are all smeary – at least some of the mud/dust is gone!!!! We have those tedious colonial windows with 24 small panes per window. <sigh> They also decorated our Christmas tree. Some small adjustments today as they hung ornaments in clusters leaving chunks of unadorned tree. All this talk of Xmas is scary. I am thinking about it . . .
OG – Many years ago I claimed I had travelled "overseas" when I took a ferry to Rottnest Island, all of 12 miles out from Perth, Western Australia. Your wetroom saga must surely end soon.
Alan – I want a tinsel tree for my garden. Sounds like it could be rather drought-resistant.
Annette – I am more of a one-of-each-itis person. I dislike what they do to gardens where they bring in 20 of this tree and 30 of that shrub. Boring! If anyone ever did a makeover to my garden I would commit murder! Some of my shrubs, plants & bulbs have been gathered from my old home or friends. It may be a hotch-potch but my garden is a place of memories.
Lindybird – Childrens’ concerts are so lovely. All that enthusiasm, all the little things that just don’t go quite right but don’t matter.
Alan – a man with a mission and able to spell Portlaoighis – impressive!!!
Annette – I think the haggi now need to hibernate! Guess what – day one of roof trim project and a phone call to say can’t come today – will be with us at 8:00am (!) tomorrow. Still to find out why joiner for sealing ensuite failed to arrive Friday. We don’t exactly light up the neighbourhood, but there are increasing numbers of homes which do. We shall probably get our artificial tree (not environmental, but practical) and decorations out of the loft about a week before Christmas, otherwise I can’t put up with it through New Year and until twelfth night! I hope the family mission is not a rescue – how is the horse?
Diane – your weather sounds “interesting”! We are supposed to have a temperate climate (was told that in geography lessons many years ago) but this year has been the year to rock all the weather theories. Actually, being between the Atlantic ocean and the European land-mass, the UK has many different microclimates – here on the Solway coast (I annoy relatives in England by calling it “the south coast of Scotland”) we get the effect of the gulf stream with warm south west breezes – but it can be rather “damp” at times!
AQ – Grandkids visit sounds very civilised to me! Don’t envy you the style of windows!! So glad you agree with me about the memories in one-of-each-itis gardens!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Monday all and thanks for all your well wishes! Had a great night with friends yesterday. It was a bring-a-dish-thing with a Finnish theme, I made a smoked-salmon salad and it just vanished ;) Drinks were not all domestic, cause the good Finnish stuff is hard liquor like vodka, so the wines that everybody bought were imported, included some Australian. Don`t want to talk "politics" here, but the independence is a big thing here being such a small nation and living next to the Eastern Bear definitely has it`s effects and there is only 70yrs from the latest war (and the last I hope!)
OG: where an earth did you find that Finnish phrase, thank you so much
Gary: Nancy is beautiful and you seem to have more snow than us
DjoanS: have a nice time in Dublin
Lindybird: what a lovely description of the concert, it made me feel like I was there myself
Patriciat:Nell looks so lovely and friendly, I bet she would give kiss if someones face would be close
Annette: sorry, can not help with the Shepherd`s Pie, `cause I don`t actually know exactly what it is. But I`m waiting that recipe to wise me up
Diane: echo to that same weather thing. I do love our four seasons, though I would like the winter to be shorter:)
Aquilareen: glad the grand-kids visit was a success
Alan: thank you so much for that camera-link, just checked it but it is still dark there so nothing could be seen, but I heard some odd noises
Have a good Monday everyone!
my photos in flickr
Diane : Sorry about the housework.
Has anyone apart from myself seen the Coati on the webcam yet?. I saw it twice yesterday. Must have just been lucky as it was only there for less than a minute.
Weather here on TI is brighter now after some light rain earlier. In fact the sun has just come out. More rain forecast for later.
I think I will put the outside lights up on thursday or friday as the forecast is better then.
Shepherds pie? hmmm nice but the shepherds have to be fresh and they are hard to get these days.
FAB
Thanks Alan- just come on, so I'm off to investigate.
For the Shepherds Pie: 1st Take 4 Shepherds......
no folks, its traditionally mutton, but you can use minced beef if you like.
Morning all. Enjoyed all the catch up chat:)
Chilly here this morning (-5) so winter has arrived.