Finally!

Dear me, here we go again with apologies and all that jazz. OK, I'll just cut to the chase instead, yeah? Above, our melon crop! Well, there were a couple of others, but as you can see, not that great. We did very well with many things this year, including apples, berries, pears and grapes. But the melons were a little disappointing in size, though the flavour was excellent!

It's December. I have no idea where all my good intentions go, but finally here are some updates. Today a heron landed on the roof of the house opposite us. I reached for my camera, and imagine my surprise when it was STILL THERE - LOL. It surely was a handsome bird!

My niece has been to visit, with her new puppy, Clive. As ever, Millie was not that into making friends, but she was vaguely tolerant of the wee lad! Clive is a miniature schnauzer, and very very lovely.

We have been to see some good friends of ours recently, and for once I remembered to take my camera, so here are the stars of their house, Laddie (in the front) and Lucy (unusually, behind) - awwwwww.

There are many more pictures and stories, but I am having some trouble uploading tonight, so I'll leave it at that. We are off to a cottage in Wales for the holiday, so I'll aim to post something when we get back from there.

Meantime - Happy Holidays!

OK catch-up time

Life is really busy right now, which is not a bad thing at all, since most of what is going on is very positive. However, it has meant that I have been an absentee blogger. So, here's some recent stuff.....

We went down to Norfolk for the weekend in June. the weather was really gorgeous and we all had a lovely time, looking at boats, walking on beaches and generally soaking up some sun and peacefulness. Above you have Millie and I, walking on the beach at Brancaster. Then, a little along the coast, Annie with Millie at Wells Next the Sea, a pretty little port, with an almost dry harbour, at this time of the year anyway.

Here's a view from that bench.

Then we went to Morecambe for the fourth of July weekend, becasue my choir was singing there and because I wanted us to go and stay in the lovely art-deco hotel again! So, we had a another good break there. We had a fabulous room in the hotel this time, with wonderful sea views, and the weather was really pretty again, so we had another short but sea, sun and sand-filled getaway.

We got up-close and personal with the seahorse carving this trip, as our room was on the top floor. we also got up-close with some cows, when we stopped for a stretch in the grounds of a country house (open to the public). This calf was rather interested in Millie.

Millie was all for a little cattle-rustling.

But Mum cow, was less than entertained!

So, we decided to get back to beaches and so on :-) We did some wandering around a valley called Silverdale and Millie and I picked up a border terrier friend, who wanted to join us on the walk.
As ever, Millie was not having any of this and so busily tried to chase the pup off. After a while I decided we had better turn around and head back, as I couldn't work out where this terrier had come from. When we were nearly back to our car, a woman in a 4x4 screeched to a halt and jumped out, very relieved to have found "him". The border T had (allegedly) been helping with housework (a likely story) and then went missing. Obviously I could see why Millie and I were a better deal in the circumstances.

When we eventually got to the hotel room, Millie needed to rest after her exploits.

Now I'm busy for the next few weeks training new volunteers at the rape crisis centre and getting the service started. Annie is doing fine and also has lots going on at the moment. Sadly though, Annie's Mom has had a fall and is currently recovering with some broken bones. Naturally that's all the more stressful when you're so far away, so Annie's on the phone a lot at the moment!

Today though, she said her Mom sounded much stronger, so that's good news, naturally.

More, when I can. much love to all.

K xxx.

Michigan

Dearest pals, we're back from sunny Michigan already. I don't know where that time goes. We had a great trip though and arrived to some beautiful weather, including an odd day where the temperature topped 80! Gorgeous! So, we did the lakeshore and pottered down to Shipshewana, we visited bookstores (ok, that was me) and went out for Easter brunch, at the W K Kellogg House. We saw friends and family and even had breakfast with the "Breakfast Tour" (http://thebreakfastour.blogspot.com/).

Annie's cousin has recently set up in business doing therapeutic massage, so we went to Otsego, to visit her and have massages, very luxurious. The pic at the top of this post is taken outside the gym where Jan has her room, in downtown Otsego.

This beauty owns a bookstore called Kazoo Books, which is a place I'm very fond of having a look around, when we're in town. On this visit I didn't get too much time for looking at actual books as a cat head was pushed under my hand at every opportunity! I think s/he must know I was missing Millie.

The Kellogg summer house is a pretty buidling, with interesting stories about its construction and use since the Kelloggs passed it along. The food was STUNNING! Very wonderful buffet brunch and in good company too :-)

We did a tour of the Kellogg place, after brunch (which did feature canteloupe, but also some magnificent cakes!). The place was decorated very nicely indeed, each bathroom (I forget, were there 7?) had its own unique tiling, all very pretty and art deco. Sadly the pics from indoors didn't come out too wonderfully, but here's one to give you a flavour.

We just took Annie's 'little camera' this time, so I didn't go as mad with photos as I can do - a relief, I'm sure. However, I'll catch you up on the puppy play-dates and allotment pretty soon, so fear not - blogging is back on!

Annie's Birthday Jaunt

So Thursday was my sweetheart's birthday and she has been such a doll over my daft birthday party and all, I wanted to do something to make her day special this year, too. We'd been emailed by the Hilton chain in January about their "January Sale" and so we'd decided to book a suite (it was a bargain, honest) in their hotel on the seafront, in Blackpool. That's only an hour or so drive away from here and is a very traditional "seaside resort". Nowadays it does a raging trade in hen and stag parties and other events involving way-much alcohol. There are also traditional piers and amusement arcades, though we did none of that this time!

We were taking our Millie with us, so we knew we wouldn't be parting to wildly, as Mill simply wouldn't stand for it!

The hotel was very nice and the suite really huge, so that was all fun. We had champagne and doughnuts when we arrived, mid-afternoon and then went out for a walk along the sea-wall. There was no beach to visit as the tide was right in. Millie adored the walk but was frustrated by the wall, as she just couldn't jump high enough to see over!

So Millie let me pick her up and we posed for our portrait - but you'll see how hard I'm hanging onto that collar, I didn't want her flying over the

wall! I'm not sure what my very solemn look is about though!

That night we had fish'n'chips eaten in the car, looking at the sea and then on Friday morning we set out to Morecambe. That's another little drive north, up the same coastal stretch, and the next bay up really. I'd told Annie that we were going for two nights, but not that we were moving, so that was a little surprise.

The beach in Morecambe is flat and has quite a complex ecology, (featuring for example these green rocks below) but is easy to get onto and so we had a good walk/run (you can figure that out, right?) when we got there.

Then we drove around and had a look at this town, which we don't really know. It's much more delapidated than Blackpool and hasn't been doing so well as a resort in recent years.At one time though, it was really very trendy indeed. In the 1930s a stylish new hotel was opened, right on the seashore and it is supposed to have had many famous guests over the years.Annie and I had seen an item on tv about this art deco hotel (http://www.midlandhotel.org/history.html) having a facelight, prior to being reopened. So, you'll know how much I enjoyed saying "Look there's that hotel we saw being done up, on telly! ... Guess where we're staying tonight" :-) So here's the hotel today, with some rather elegant stone cormorants, on the seafront. I took the one below in the evening on Friday, and it's my favourite shot so far, but we're surely going back there, what a lovely place!

Our room was in one of those indented curves, on the first floor, looking out over the sea and with a small balcony to sit on too. The room was refurbished in a modern way, mostly white, with splashes of very bold colour. Millie and Annie are modelling the turquoise chaise longe, below.There was also a stunning piece of furntiure on the other side of the room, which was wardobe, tv cabinet and such in the bedroom, but when you walked around it also housed the shower and so on, on the reverse! I didn't try to photograph that though, so you'll have to take my word for it. When we arrived there was also a stuffed pooch waiting on the bed, so that amused Annie and she wanted a portrait with both dogs. Millie clearly felt quite sad for the stuffed thing and actually cuddled up with it later that night!The light streaming in from the windows was so full-on that my picures have a slightly ghostly quality in that room. Just outside is an old stone jetty, which leads out to this lighthouse, which was a railiway terminal, back in the day!

So we had a lovely trip, loved the hotel and will go again. We got back here yesterday and have just been out today to have lunch with a bunch of friends. Officially that's the birthday done for this year, and we fly out to the wide open spaces of Mi, tomorrow morning.

Millie is off to doggie day care and we will surely miss her, but I imagine she has fun there too.

Loads of love :-) (Planting commences when we return, so allotment posts soon!)

Wythenshawe again

Today is another lovely sunny Spring day, so it was good to know we had a plan to go out. So off we went, on Millie's second ever play-date. Naturally, Elvis was more into the whole concept of playing than our lil lass. Millie has her own clear views on what you do at Wythenshawe, and in what order. She also approves of keeping clear of other dogs, if at all possible. Elvis doesn't appear to have taken these teachings on board yet, at all.

Elvis was also quite interested to know what that thing was that I kept pointing at her.

Isn't she pretty!

Here's Mill doing the usual thing, waiting for the ball to be thrown and then running back, with her eyes apparently closed, in the joy of it all. Elvis, meanwhile, waits beside Annie.

This week Elvis had her own ball with her.

Somehow though, Millie's seemed more interesting. Not that I can claim that Millie shared nicely, or anything silly like that!

Hey ho, we'll call it friendship though, ok? We're off to Blackpool soon and then on a plane over the big pond, so we won't get to see Elvis and her family for a while. I wonder if she'll look different in the next set of pictures? Wait and see ....

Flowers now :-)

The weather has finally warmed up and so today, as Millie and I had our walk around Worthington Park, there were many more flowers to snap. It was one of those crisp and sunny spring mornings too, very lovely.

There are two plaques, at different ends of the park, which I have been meaning to take put here for a while. The new one is to celebrate 100 years of the park and the old one is from the opening day.

The tree below is Mrs Worthington's, complete with birdboxes (I suspect they are more recent).

Work is beginning to feel a bit more manageable as we head to the last week of term and I have just 4 more days of work to do before vacation time :-)

Next Thursday is Annie's birthday, so we are heading off to Blackpool, with Millie, for a birthday by the sea. I'll aim to take some pictures when we get there, too. We're staying in a Hilton on the front and at a really nice "January sale" rate (I think it was January when I booked it!). Millster has been to two hotels so far and is rather a star at this, so we're looking forward to taking her to #3.

Before then, however, we do have another play-date Sunday, so weather permitting, there may be more to report.

Much love my darlings :-)

K xxx.