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!