Mind Boggling

Finding time to write a post these days is quite a challenge...

Take our last entry, loading the pictures from the cameras, loading them into Picasa, selecting the best ones and exporting them to a smaller size, editing in Paint to put our blog address on, loading into Flickr, adding tags and descriptions, assigning them to sets and groups, grabbing the url of the ones we want to post, creating a new blogger post, adding the urls of the photos, type in the text, save, publish!

Five minutes break for a swig of coffee and a smokey, then check for comments on the blog, check for comments in Flickr, check the site stats, check MyBlogLog, check Technorati, fire up Google Reader and check everyone else's new posts and mark interesting posts as shared with a view to leaving a comment one day.

Another five minutes break and then check other news from the world wide web, see more references to sites like del.icio.us and Twitter, what's that all about, where do people get the time to send updates every minute of the day about what they're doing when we can hardly manage an update once a week!

Tell me, how on earth do you manage to fit all this in?

Paul.

Robin Hoods Bay

It's been none stop all weekend, rushing home on Friday to watch Comic Relief, out all day at Robin Hoods Bay on Saturday, out shopping half the day on Sunday and then Dad and Bro came for dinner. A sit down, that's what we need!

We had a lovely day out at Robin Hoods Bay, the weather was great, it's hard to believe it started snowing here on Sunday night! We got loads of great shots, the best can be found here.

Paul

Out In The Garden Again

We spent the whole of Saturday in the garden, firstly sorting out the border on the lower lawn and then set about creating a second border on the upper lawn.

It was back breaking work getting all that grass out but we did eventually have a new border. Just to finish us off altogether, Debbie got the chainsaw out and we cut down the large tree stump in the lower lawn and then lowered the stump in the new boarder.

We could hardly move on Sunday morning but still made it out for a spot of shopping, coming back with some climbing roses and loads of seeds. The roses have gone in the lower boarder and the seeds have gone just about everywhere.

We're still hobbling about today, hopefully by next weekend we'll be ready to do some more.

Paul.

There Be Gold In Our Garden

While waiting for the folks from the window company to come and replace some dodgy handels, I noticed gold flashing about in the garden.

Yep, it's taken over 18 months but I've finally persuaded some goldfinch to come to our garden as well as next door.

The chaffinch wasn't too sure and sat on the fence while he decided who had the best spread.

Paul

Lunar Eclipse

We started getting the garden into shape yesterday, unwanted bushes and the last tree (that was being held up by the bird table) are now in a pile ready for burning. We've mowed the lawn and put more seed down to cover the bald patches. Loads of weeds have come out and we've sewn loads of flowers so we should have even more colour this spring and summer.

Last night I kept popping outside to take pictures of the lunar eclipse, it was a bit of a nightmare getting the camera set up as it had to be on manual settings. I got there in the end but when the moon was fully eclipsed, I couldn't see it properly to focus and the end results weren't that good, hey ho, I'll try again next time :-)

Paul

Back On The Road Again

Apologies for the lack of posting lately, it's been a busy time for us since Christmas but hopefully some kind of normality is just around the corner.

I spent last week in Newcastle again on yet another course, I don't think my head can soak up any more information, it's ready for bursting now and I can feel those 3 brain cells marching about waving "I'm On Strike" placards. Hopefully that's it for a while, the Alan Partridge lifestyle is certainly not for me, I have absolutely no interest in a Corby Trouser Press.

It's not been the easiest of week's for Debbie either, suffering from a bad cold and having to make an important and difficult decision rather unexpectedly.

It's still all systems go, we had the double glazing fitted on Tuesday, it looks fantastic, it's not what we thought we ordered but I think what we've got, plain windows as opposed to Georgian fret, actually looks better. The big single window in the kitchen offers a great view of the garden and all the other windows seem to be letting in more light.

The best thing though is the new door, we can see who's lurking outside through the peep hole and if we want to open the door, we just turn the handle and it opens! What bliss! We don't have to risk pulling arms out of sockets trying to open it.

With the new windows opening inwards, there's no excuse for not cleaning them..... sheesh, there's always a downside!

Paul.

Stroll Round Wosborough

We had a stroll round Worsborough Country Park on Sunday, it was amazing to see the difference from Saturday with all the snow gone, replaced by pools of water everywhere.

We took loads of bread for the ducks and as Debbie began throwing it into the water, we were besieged with Mallards, Canada Geese and Black-headed Gulls coming from all directions!

Lucy had a great time meeting and greeting everyone and their dog, then crashed out on the sofa when we got home, just like us!

There are a few more pictures here and here.

Paul

There Be Snow In Them There Hills!

You know we've been busy bunnies when it's been snowing for 3 days and we've not posted anything! Most of the snow has gone from our garden now but Debbie got loads of shots on Thursday and Friday night.

It really did come down last night, we probably had a couple of inches, which these days is about as much as we can hope for, alas during the night it turned to rain and the snow was already melting when we emerged this morning.

With the snow rapidly melting down here in the village, we had a ride up to Holme Moss to see how much snow there was up there. Well, the was loads of the stuff, but only right at the very top, accompanied by thick fog so photo opportunities were somewhat limited!

We dropped down back over Woodhead and went for a walk round Langsett Wood again and were treated to some beautiful snow enhanced scenery. There must have been up to 8 inches in places and walking up and down the paths was more tricky than usual.

It doesn't look like we'll be getting any more snow just yet, but I think we've satisfied our appetite for the glorious white stuff for now at least.

There's loads more picture of the snow at home and at Langsett here plus loads of pictures from last week's visit to Langsett that we never had time to post about. There's also a few snaps of the garden taken on my K800i here.

Paul

Still Shrinking!

We went out for a belated Birthday meal on the Saturday before I went away. The local Chinese restaurant was the venue and only being on the small side, it looked like we'd booked the whole place with 14 guests!

Debbie had a very healthy Singapore Rice Vermicelli while I opted for the chefs special, spicy pork. Both were very tasty and I'm sure we'll be back for more of the same.

Everyone had a great night, Dad came back with us for a tot or two of whisky but his taxi, booked for 11.30pm, didn't turn up until almost 3am, about half a bottle later!

For a pair of snap happy people like us, we didn't take that many pictures but I did manage to whip out the mobile just before the food arrived...

Monday was weigh day as usual and I'm very pleased to report that Debbie has lost another 3 pounds this week, that's a total of 80 pounds now or just short of 6 stone since June last year!

I think she's doing amazingly well and keeps on proving those doubting Thomasa's wrong who keep saying it's going to slow down. There's still 4 of the 12 months left to go on the current plan, although, when the 12 months have passed, we won't be changing anything, it's a change for life, a healthier life!

Paul

Away Man In Washington

I was away on course all last week, at Washington, not quite in the USA, more like Tyne & Wear!

I've been learning Visual Basic.NET and had to tootle up the A1 for a weeks instruction on how to do Windows type things and be taught the ways of object orientated programing. I'm not ashamed to say, with only 2 days prior knowledge of VB, it was more like disorientated programing! By the end of the week I was up to speed on objects, classes, methods and million other new English type terms I'm not used to using.

While it's great to be learning new things, the big down side to last week was leaving Debbie behind on Sunday knowing we wouldn't see each other again until the end of the week. Thankfully the days and nights seemed to pass quickly, before long Crunchie day came and I headed back down the A1 clutching my certificate signed by Bill.

Here's a few shots of the sunrise from the most exotic place I visited in Washington, Adsa bridge in the Galleries car park...

Paul