Tuesday 29 October 2013

Still here!

Despite the efforts of the 90mph winds to do away with me, I am still here!  Sadly there were others who did not make it - falling trees caused 4 deaths in southern England and a teenager was swept into the sea while dodging waves.

Yesterday started early, when we realised that we were losing our back fence and garden gate.

By 6.30 we were slaughtering the Honey Suckle that grew along one of our other fences - the wind was using it to uproot the fence, so it had to go.

Once things seemed to be more under control, I visited Humphrey, my mum's pony, but he was OK.  Just needed a plank on his stable bashed back into place.  Good job I took a hammer and nails with me!

The rest of the day was spent making repairs to our remaining fences - the back one will have to be totally replaced, but we have to wait for someone to come and do that - and rigging up a temporary back gate.

All is calm today - a sunny day, with blue sky etc.

I have got a few photos of yesterday - will try to post some later.

And here they are:

 
Clearing up debris - some of the fence and Honey Suckle  :-(

 
Frou Frou wanted to help, but had to make do with watching us out of the window.

 
The view out to sea from Humphrey's field.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

I had forgotten about that....

Yes, it is Autumn - cooler days, beautiful trees, rain....

and WIND!

Yes, they cyclist's bane!

How could I have forgotten about that!

This morning was a classic.

The wind was howling straight in my face all the way to work.  It even conspired to blow down the road through the woods, which is normally sheltered!

But I am a veteran of many years of this sort of thing, so I slogged along regardless.

I only had 2 stops.

The first was when my chain came off, a reminder to get the bike into the shop for a new chain and stuff - the gears are reaching that stage where they look fore like rotary saw blades than gears.  Poor things.

The second stop was more pleasant - I took the time to stop and take a photo or 2.


From here it is all down hill to work, and the can of Pepsi that was waiting for me.

Have a great day - hope that you don't have to battle any head winds, real or metaphorical!

Friday 18 October 2013

Frouday

 
And here she is with her Birthday "Cake"...
 
 
Phew, and I thought LAST week was busy!
 
Not over yet, either - working Sunday at the Uni Open Day.  These are always busy but great fun, meeting prospective students.
 
Have a great weekend!
 

Thursday 17 October 2013

Happy Birthday to Frou


Three today!
 

 

 
Yes, we have had our little bundle of mischief for nearly 3 years!
 
I am working late today, but I hear that Mrs RC and our daughter are planning a little party for her.  Hm, given that our daughter is currently working in a large pet shop, I am wondering what, exactly, she will be getting!  There has been talk of dresses and bows....

Monday 14 October 2013

Head in the Clouds

I am often accused of living with my head in the clouds.
 
Of course, at this time of year it can be a pretty spectacular place to be...
 




 
 
We have had a lot of rain in the last few days, so cuddling up in bed has its attractions too...
 
 
 
I primised some toy soldier photos, so here is one of Sunday's Work in Progress.   Here are some of my new Scottish army with a few modifications - new cloaks, new reinforcements for helmets, wings on one helmet, and a couple of more radical changes with new hair and beards, awaiting new arms too!  Note my finger, to give a sence of scale.

 
This is getting addictive, so I might take the step of creating a whole army from scratch next, designing the master figures and then finding a way of getting them cast.  Could be good!  We will see.  Maybe I just have my head in the clouds again?

Friday 11 October 2013

Friday? Again?

Well, that week went past in a blur!

I guess that part of the blur was caused my the headache that lasted a good part of the week.  Monday I was ill enough to take the day off (a rare thing!), and for the rest of the week I have felt more or less OK, except for the head thingy - not crippling, just "there", if you know what I mean.

Anyway, other things!

The kids are all doing good!  Youngest son is well into his fitness regime now, just waiting to hang the punch bag in his room...

Our daughter is having a great time doing work experience in a large pet store.  Lots of stories coming out of this, including nutty customers and fish on feeding frenzies (a big one ending up in the same tank as a load of juicy little ones, NOT MY DAUGHTER'S DOING,by the way)....  Good job the two were not at the same time!

Number One Son is settled at Uni, after a brief scare that his bank account might have been hacked.  It hadn't, it was just the bank being careful as his account went from no activity all summer to a sudden surge of cash in and out.  A worrying moment, but good to see they are on the ball, really!

The weekend?  Hoping for a relaxing time, doing some work on my toy soldiers, etc.  I have already given a few of my Scots new shields (old fashioned square Pictish shields) and intend to give a few more some Viking style helmets.  I am even tempted to sneak in one with wings or horns on his helmet, just to upset the purists  :-)

Have a great weekend!  Hope to be more active next week!

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Summer Photos

Here are a few random photos that seem to sum up my summer.
 
 
There has been a good amount of wargaming this summer - some just for fun, some vaguely serious, but it was all good.  Can't wait to finish my Scots army - that is going to be great fun to play.
 
 
The highlight was, of course, the belated Honeymoon to Malta.  What a splendid little island!
 
 
The view continues to taunt me...
 
 
The plant life was pretty good too - the survival of cacti is easy to understand, but some of the flowers looked far too delicate for the heat - but what do I know?





 
I just know they looked wonderful!


 
Late summer saw our annual camping trip.  Our youngest boy has taken over campfire duties, and is pretty good at it too!
 
 
Strolls in the country have also been a feature of this summer....


 
Hm, you get some strange folks in the country - even if it is only a couple of miles from town!
 


 
Trips to London were also on the cards, for wargames and meeting blog friends.
 

 
Agg brought a few gifts for us.  He gave us some sweets that looked like cookies - they were great and helped us survive the trip home.  He also gave us a bottle of A1 Sauce - something that I requested.  It seems to appear in all sorts of TV shows, movies and books, but you can't buy it here.  Our verdict?  Rather good - very similar to Worcester Sauce, but thicker so it works better when you put a blob on your plate.  I think our daughter is working her way through it.
 

 
Early Autumn brought some great sunsets...

 
and spiders - not so great for some people, but they do make interesting photos.  Strange critters - I like them in fields, not so much in the house.
 
Hope you enjoyed those!  Lunch is over, back to work, I am afraid!

Thursday 3 October 2013

On the Road...

Had a good trip yesterday, Number One Son is back at Uni and settled in.

The trip up saw us passing through some really heavy rain - so heavy that we missed the turn off from the M1 (up the middle of England) onto the M6 (West Coast).  We did not notice for a while, but then quickly plotted a new route  that took us back on track.  Not a big deal, we were still heading in roughly the right direction!

But listening to the radio we soon found that this had been a lucky break - there had been a crash on the M6, and nothing was moving - our accidental route missed this completely!

The journey with my little brother driving was the usual constant chit chat on every subject going, lingering on some of the passengers that he has to deal with in his taxi driving job - the real gems of friends me makes to those who drive him to dispair.  I guess we all meet them, but not everyone gets stuck in a car with them!

I was able to fill him in on some of our holiday stories and also give him an outline of my Zombie novel - he was really taken with it and I might actually persuade him to read it when it is finished!

Once at the Uni, we set off to find out where my son would be living - getting the keys was easier than I expected, and we soon had his stuff unloaded into his new 4th floor room.  He seemed happy with the view and aspect (facing north, so less glare on his PC screens!) and being higher up he would be less vulnerable to noise from those who were heading home from the bars.

Then we realised that we were hungry, so we hit the town for a pub lunch (I had ribs, fries and onion rings - pretty good, to be honest!) and a final chat before we abandoned my son for the next 3 months.  The return journey was problem free and we were back home by 6.30pm.  Mrs RC had already been chatting with Number One Son on Skype and he had already unpacked everything and was getting ready for an evening playing online games with his friends.  Gotta love the internet for this sort of thing.  Once upon a time, when someone went away to Uni that was more or less it - you lost touch with them for years and if you ever met up with them again they were totally different to the person you knew - now there is no excuse for losing touch...

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Tomorrow

I am off on the long haul to take Number One Son back to Uni.

Up at 5am, on the road most of the day.

We are going to miss him, but we have had a good summer and he is now all geared up for his 2nd year.

In fact, he is SO geared up he had his hair cut!  From a long pony tail hanging almost to his waist, he now has a cut that works as either really smart or a shaggy bed-head look.  I get the feeling that he might be a bit more sociable this year...

See you soon!