Barcelona or bust

It’s just over a week until Nerea comes home for a long weekend and we’re really looking forward to seeing her again, albeit for a brief time.  She seems to have settled in well to her new role in Spain, enjoying the experience of living with her Spanish family.  She has embraced her Spanish lessons and feels that her language skills are improving although she has some way to go.  And she’s experienced her first ever football game when Barcelona played Alaves in the local stadium, although unlike the boys, I doubt she’ll ever be a fan of La Liga! 

Hurricane Sandy

Sadly, the terrible destruction on the Eastern seaboard of the USA caused by Hurricane Sandy is an all too familiar sight!  It’s unthinkable that New York, the city that never sleeps, has closed down, with power failures, public transport cancellations and wide scale flooding.  No matter how advanced we are as a society, nature can always give us a timely reminder of our fragility, be that with an earthquake, volcanic eruption or perfect storm.  Thankfully, for the most part, evacuation procedures seemed to have worked, although tragically, there has been some loss of life.  Our thoughts are with everyone affected

Snape Castle

Snape Castle

I’ve been to Yorkshire today and on my journey home, I stopped off to find a geocache hidden in Snape Castle Chapel.  What a hidden gem the Chapel was!  It was a truly beautiful and peaceful place. It’s caches like these that made me so pleased we took up the hobby.  I’d barely detoured off the A1 before finding myself in a lovely Yorkshire village, complete with castle and pub.   A few tantalisingly, delicious-looking raspberries were hanging over the allotment wall and there were a few hardy ducks bobbing on the stream. It’s a place worthy of a return visit.

The Ruins

The Chapel

A wet wander in the woods

A slick carpet

Where's Molly?

Autumn glory

It was as well that I enjoyed my youthful regression in the woods yesterday as today has been the wettest day we’ve had since ….the last one. A fortnight ago!  Such a long spell without rain is unprecedented!! Although tawny-coated Molly continued to blend seamlessly into the autumnal scenery, our walk this afternoon was of the damp and slippery kind, the crispy leaves turned overnight into a slick orange carpet. The return to GMT made the afternoon seem shorter, (although that may have been due to our mid-morning cinema excursion) with dusk falling much earlier. Winter is round the corner!

Skyfall

No copyright infringement intended

Well I wasn’t expecting that!  I won’t give too much away in terms of Skyfall spoilers other than to say it was excellent.  But then, I enjoyed Quantum of Solace too so don’t read too much into my critique.  Although the set pieces in China and the Istanbul Grand Bazaar were stunning, as expected, what really set this film apart was the insight into the relationships between M, played brilliantly by Judi Dench and her 00 agents.  Daniel (what’s not to love) Craig, a believable, mature Bond was never better than in the final shootout in the Scottish Highlands. Superb!

Autumn leaves.....and no camera

I had a wonderful wander (apart from the dog poop on my shoe) through the woods with Molly this afternoon as the colours were glorious and the crunch of my shoes on the carpet of crisp, fallen leaves evoked memories of both my own and more recent childhood walks with Nerea. There’s something irresistible about recklessly kicking up leaves while they still retain their “just fallen”, papery fragility.   Molly also sensed my joyful mood and joined in, chasing imaginary critters, nosing and tossing her head through the bronze and copper confetti, her tawny coat a perfect match for the season

Mr Fixit

In need of medical attention

Mr Fixit has been at the Dyson again.  We’ve had the vacuum for years now but few, if any, of the parts are original for Mr Glis “can rebuild it” as one of the rare traits inherited from his father is an aptitude for taking things apart and putting them together again.  And as our Animal Dyson is essential in our pet friendly house, when there’s a problem, he’s straight onto the wonderful e-spares site for the relevant repair video.  So far, he’s never failed to save the victim in addition to saving a fortune.  Remember: reduce, REPAIR, reuse, recycle!

Technology...it's magic

I should be a child of technology, having lived through some of the most enormous technological changes that “man” has seen. And although I use gadgets competently, being wedded to my laptop and GPS (and coveting an iphone), secretly, I’m still entranced by the magic of it!  And so I was genuinely awestruck when high up on the Watkin Path on Snowdon, we were able to “Skype” with Nerea using Andy’s iphone. It was actually thrilling to see her “live” in her Spanish kitchen and share with her the stunning scenery surrounding us in the Welsh Mountains.  Technology IS amazing

Yr Wyddfa via the Watkin!

Another path up Snowdon, another cloudy summit.  We’ve journeyed up and down the wretched peak from all but one direction now (Crib Gogh remains aspirational) and despite reaching the summit on at least half a dozen occasions, we still haven’t had a view!

But despite the lack of a panorama, our recent ascent route up the Watkin Path was surprisingly interesting, taking in the famous Gladstone Rock on the way.  Typically, the pillow of cloud hovering over the whole massif briefly lifted once we were at the turn off point on our descent of the South Ridge. We’ll be back!

Bodnant Gardens...with Grandma

Our holiday in Wales lived up to expectations with even better weather than we dared to hope for.  As always, we packed a lot into our week, although we still found time to sit, relax and chat around the meal table each evening.  Although we’ve been visiting Wales for almost 20 years, it’s the first time we’ve visited Bodnant Garden, high above the Conwy valley. We were rewarded with some glorious displays of fiery autumnal colours and a delightful, unexpected saunter back into summer on the Rose Terrace, where a large number of blooms were still sharing their fragrant beauty. 

Nerea; one month on!

We Skyped with Nerea yesterday and all her ”family” joined in. It was wonderful to see them all looking so happy with Nerea very much part of the group.  We’d sent  Imanol and Yokin a post card each from Wales (thankfully of the 3 cards we posted, it was only Nerea’s that hadn’t arrived!) so they wanted to say “hello and thankyou”.  The friendly atmosphere was palpable over the computer; the children were affectionate with Nerea and she’s able to spend a good deal of “happy” time with them, leaving us delighted that all the arrangements have worked out well 

Bryn Dowsi

We love our annual pilgrimage to Wales for Bryn Dowsi has become a very special place to us over the many years we’ve been visiting with Richard and Mavis. Although people say “familiarity breeds contempt”, for us, it’s the effortless way we settle back in that makes it all the more appealing although this year will be different as Nerea won’t be with us and it’ll be a first visit for Sheila, Andy’s mum.  Our visit always has a restorative feel; a battery recharge before the winter months ahead,.  Good weather is welcome but actually, it’s the company that matters

The green eyed monster has an eye on the sun!!!

I’ve cycled to work wearing gloves this week so it’s official, and not just on account of feline indoor positioning, that the weather is getting colder. I don’t consider jealousy to be one of my particular deadly sins but lately, I have to admit to feeling a little green eyed on hearing from Nerea that she’s been basking in a Vitorian Park, reading her Kindle with her sunglasses perched on the end of her nose while enjoying 30 degrees of warmth and sunshine! I consider Autumn to be a glorious season but oh, how I’d love it to be warmer

Brian

We had to have our beautiful cat Brian put to sleep on Saturday after he suffered a saddle thrombus, resulting from a blood clot.  He was hale and hearty upto the last moment when his back suddenly became paralysed. Although it was upsetting to see him distressed, thankfully, we were at home so we could get him to our lovely vet immediately. We fussed and talked to him as he slept away peacefully.  He was a much loved cat who lived his life as a cat should, free to come and go, eat at leisure and sleep in the sun