New Beds

Lucy and Lolly were treated to new beds at the weekend, the tiled kitchen floor is proving to be too cold for Lucy, even with a couple of thick blankets.

Lucy loves the new pillow we got for the living room, it's a hard choice for her now, sneak on the sofa while no-one's watching or get snuggled up here lol.

Both Lucy and Lolly love the new bed in the kitchen, we don't have to ask them twice when we're leaving the house ..... well maybe sometimes lol.

It's not only the dogs that love the new beds, here's Eric and Misty exercising their right of vacant possession lol.

Paul

One Branch Leads To Another

The plan was to get one of the wardrobes built last night but as is usually the case, after a long day at work, we sacked the idea. We let the cats out after tea which we were a little apprehensive about after Toddy going awol for two hours on Friday, only to turn up with two other cats ..... tart lol. They were fine though and all came running when we shook the biscuit box, apart from Misty that is. He was next door again and while he did actually manage to get on the fence this time, he was wobbling all over the place and wouldn't jump down so I had to rescue him lmao!

Wandering round the garden, I got the sudden urge to start hacking so out came the secateurs and the hacksaw. We both had a couple of hours stripping the tree and the surrounding bushes and made a lovely pile of rubbish in the middle of the garden lol.

There is still a whole lot of tree to come down, Dad is coming on Sunday to help us finish the job off. The branches we but down last week are drying out nicely next to the green house, we'll be investing in one of those wheel barrows where the tub comes off to load in the car, then we can get all the leaves and branches down to the recycling site.

I'd better not have too much to drink on Saturday night, I've got to climb up inside here and get these higher branches down!

Paul

First Sign Of Winter

I've been perusing my old Yorkshire Snowman blog to see when I first posted a picture of snow in Europe last year. Not until October, today we've got snow in Austria, Switzerland and Italy, not bad for August!

Here's a webcam shot from Rudolfshutte in Austria.

Picture source: http://www.weissee.at

Lovely British Weather

Things weren't looking too good on Saturday morning, we we're out shopping for BBQ stuff until midday and it rained the whole time. With the fridge loaded with fresh meat and a pile of beer to drool over, we set about putting up the gazebo. The rain wasn't for stopping and we both got thoroughly soaked while we struggled with the cover in the blustery wind. Ringing wet through, I then set of to pick up Dad and little Brother, the sky looked like it might be clearing and by the time I got to Dad's there was even a hint of sunshine. Sadly, Grandma wasn't going to be able to make it so my Aunt and Uncle will bring her over as soon as she's feeling up to it.

Just as we set of back home the rain started again and kept on going until about 3.30pm which just about gave me enough time to put the BBQ together and get it lit. The rain stayed away for the rest of the day and the event was a roaring successes with the music playing and the drinks flowing. However, after running round like blue arsed flies from dawn till dusk, we'll not be doing anything on that scale again in hurry! We've got a few friends coming round for a BBQ next Saturday but it should a little bit more manageable this time lol.

On Sunday, we we're undecided on whether to go and order our new bed and do some other shopping or stay indoors and do nothing. Not being able to shake off the hangover, doing nothing seemed like the best option! After snoozing all afternoon, we got all the left over meat on the grill at tea time and had a lovely early evening munching and drinking champagne in the garden.

We've still got the wardrobes and drawers to set up, we'll try and get those done this week and then sometime over the weekend we're off shopping for a fish tank which we'll get set up straight away ready for us to go and get some tropical fish the weekend after.

Paul

Rain, Rain, Go Away.......

The plans for the family BBQ are going well, we've not got much further than planning though with 24 hours to go lol. One thing that doesn't appear to be going to plan is the weather, the forecast at the moment is for thundery showers to be passing through at just the wrong time. Hopefully the showers will arrive and depart early leaving us with broken skies for early evening.

We'll get the gazebo put up just in case though which should keep everyone dry, I'm not sure what to do about the BBQ though, would it be safe under a cotton parasol? Would a BBQ be safe in my hands anyway? As long as the fence doesn't burn down in Men Behaving Badly style, we'll be fine.

We had a phone call from Dad this morning, Grandma has taken fall again and needed stitches, luckily she's doing alright but she's quite confused at the moment, hopefully she'll be well enough to visit us tomorrow.

Paul

No Comment

I learned over at Dreaming Neko this morning that Haloscan comments now only last for 4 months unless we pay up for a premium account. I've checked and all our comments back in January following our wedding have disappeared, pleased I am not! I've checked on the Haloscan and the information is hidden away in the members faq.

Luckily we kept Blogger comments going as well so we haven't lost every comment but people do seem to prefer to comment on Haloscan so we've lost most of them.

Well, we're not being held to ransom and as soon as I have the time, the Haloscan system will be no more on this blog. If you would like to leave a comment today, please use Blogger comments, otherwise it might be gone by tea time!

Paul

Colours In The Rain

Just after we had the downpour on Tuesday evening, Debbie ran in to get the camera and took some pictures of the flowers still covered in rain drops....

There must be over fifty pasion flowers circling the old tree stump and running along the fence.

I think this fuchsia flower had closed for the evening due to all the rain lol.

We love the contrasting and varied colours of the fuchsia's in the garden, it's also one of the few flowers we've been able to grow successfully in the past.

Not sure what this flower is called but like everything else on Tuesday evening, including us, it got a dam good soaking!

Paul

Picnic Tables & Trees

We've got loads of old bits of wood and cardboard boxes that need to go to the tip but we're not going to get chance before our BBQ on Saturday so the first job when we got home was to hide it all in one of the sheds lol. Next up was the picnic table which came with a bucket load of nuts, bolts and screws, it's times like this we're glad we invested in an electric drill/screwdriver or I would have still been there now.

It went together OK but there are still a few braces to fit under the seats which we had to leave because Big Brother was starting.

We've got a real Christmas Tree in the garden but it's been planted too close to another tree, or it could be the other way around. What ever happened, the Christmas Tree seems to be loosing out and is looking a little bit lop sided.

We're in a bit of a dilemma as to what to do with them, we really want to keep the fir tree but it would be a shame to cut down the other one as that's nice too. Maybe we should keep them both and put fairy lights around the two of them in December.

There is no dilemma over this beast though, even with half of the tree already lopped off, it's still far too big for our garden and it blocks out the sun from the flowers at the top end for much of the day. We'll be a bit busy over the next couple of weekends but it's not going to escape this lumberjack, it's days are numbered!

Paul

Snow Down Under

Apparently, for the first time in 50 years, it's snowing in Melbourne!. I knew I'd get away with mentioning snow in August lol.

Paul

Building In The Rain

Things didn't go exactly to plan yesterday, we were supposed to be setting up the bench and picnic table last night but half way through putting the bench seat together the heavens opened. There we were, nuts and bolts everywhere with Debbie myself and the bench hiding under a parasol lol. Worse still, the beers we had on the go were getting watered down!

The rain did eventually stop and we managed to get it finished but it wasn't long before the rain was back so we abandoned the picnic table as that will also need varnishing.

The Three Amigos were out with us, at least they were when it wasn't raining, as soon as a few spots started to fall they all flew back inside. It's the first time they've experienced rain, apart from chasing the drops on the window.

Eric still stays quite close, being the youngest he's still wary of anything strange and at the moment everything is new for him. He does love it outside though, of the three of them, he's the one screaming the loudest to be let out at tea time.

We got BT Yahoo Broadband back yesterday and at no extra charge they've upgraded us from 512KB to 1MB, although when we connect, it does say connected at 2MB but don't tell anyone!

Paul