Autumn in Picton Castle Gardens. A trip taken with the head gardener, Roddy Milne

This morning was spent in these lovely gardens with the Garden Club.

I am a novice gardener, so don't know the names of all these wonderful plants and trees.

Bright, cheery berries, just ready for the birds' winter feeding.

These gardens are spectacular, especially now with all the autumn colours. This particular flower looks so exotic I think it should be in an orchid house!

Holiday Snaps from Cornwall

Thomas the tank engine at St Ives

Sennen Harbour

Jenny and Whinney

Maggie and Jenny at Barwick Equestrian

Newlyn Harbour in the sun

Mousehole Harbour on a rather dull day.

All taken on a lovely trip to Cornwall visiting family and friends.

Last chance to have a blackberry and apple pie!

Irish Ferries on its afternoon sailing from Pemroke Dock to Cork.

Angle in Autumn

In view of the glorious weather over the weekend we took ourselves off for a wonderful walk around the Angle Penisular. Lots of other walkers about and the sun was warm!

Tenby

In to Tenby today to my genealogy IT class. Took this shot at about 9.00 am just as the sun was coming up. It had been very cold overnight - 4 degrees - so autumn has now fully arrived!

Shopping Trip to Pembroke Dock

Just the usual thing.

Went armed with a short list of all we needed and came back with a boot full of extra things like lawn feed and moss killer, whiskey, wine, bottled cherries, brandy-flavoured mincemeat (well Christmas is getting a bit nearer), ironing board cover and muesli.

Lunched out as it was getting late. Weather foul! Our weather station measured 1" of rain last night and it is still raining on and off, so all together a stay-in afternoon.

I do have to go out this evening though. So that may be another blog tomorrow.

Yes, I'm Still Around!!

Hi there. No doubt you thought I had gone in to total hibernation. Well, obviously I had for a while. But my New Year's resolution (which year - who knows!) is to try to keep my blog going.

I follow a few other blogs which I will put on my blog list eventually and keeping up with those has inspired me to start again.

I shall also add some photos.

We went for a fabulous walk this afternoon to Stackpole Quay and Barafundle Beach and walked across the beach and up as far as Stackpole Head. The sea was like a millpond and there was little or no wind, so it was really glorious.

Never Too Old to Blog!

I have just been reading Ollie's "blob"! www.allaboutolive.com.au Olive is 108 year's young, and although she has a helper, Mike, to type things out for her, she is an amazing lady and incredible for her age. Just read all about. She speaks for herself.

She puts me to shame, being such a young thing! (70 only). I hope I can do as much as her if I ever reach such a great age. However, I have been doing quite a lot of walking lately with my other half. We went to Llandovery, Wales in our 'van' motorhome for a couple of days. The scenery is spectacular up there and I put on the step counter. We covered over 11,000 steps one day and nearly 14,000 on the other, it would have been a lot more had it not absolutely tipped down with rain and literally soaked us to the skin and through to our underwear. We had to dry everything off in the campsite clothes dryer. Unfortunately, the site was very quiet, there being only three or four other folk there and the amenity block was not heated. When the temperature is below 8 degrees, it is rather cold, so I am afraid that we chickened out and came home earlier than planned to our central heating.

Our club is not doing so well at short mat bowls at present. We lost our last match 0-10! It was a whitewash, so we have to get in more practice and get our newer members up to scratch. We do have two good players on holiday at present, but that's no excuse!!

Today being Remembrance Day, we have watched the Cenotaph Remembrance Service, which is always so moving. I particularly think of a Great Uncle, Walter William Scroggs, who was killed in France in 1916. His memorial is at Gommecourt British Cemetery No 2, Hebuterne. I am doing a lot of family research at present and plan to find out all I can about him. I have information about his death and memorial through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, but would like more information about the York and Lancaster Regiment that he served with. Any help would be appreciated.

Back to the keyboard!

You've Got to Laugh!

(1) My accountant recently had his 50th birthday party with a Frank Sinatra tribute act to complete the evening! He is also having trouble with his girl-friend. She wants to move in, having sold her house, but he doesn't want her to as she has a 10 year old daughter and no way does he wish to be a 'step-dad' having 'been there and done that already' with two grown-up sons. (I only went to see him to get my tax sorted out - and you don't want to know about the tenants in his converted garage!)

(2) Then on to the chemist to get our prescriptions made up. While waiting for same I needed to look for shoe inserts for other half's painful foot. There were sorbo ones, plastic ones, heel ones, 'memory' ones, odor-eater ones, small ones, medium ones, large ones, extra large ones. One for sore heels, arthritis of the feet, painful arches, aching feet, smelly feet. Other half will have to get his own!

(3) At the check-out of the local supermarket I had to wait while the check-out worker regailed the previous customers about the till breaking down, the card reader malfunctioning and a rude customer which she tried to placate when he ranted on about incompetent workers etc. She offered to send for the manager but he then disappeared. A few weeks after this incident, the tills were again playing up and the card-reader not working properly when who should the next customer be but the very same gentlaman(!). She apologised for the delay and he said 'don't worry, its not your fault' and was as nice as pie!

(4) The same check-out girl then went on to tell us about the morning she was rushing around getting ready for work and thought she should check the house was secure before putting her work uniform on. All the windows were closed, except the one in the bathroom. Check-out girl is small. She has to stand on the toilet to close the window. She has nothing on her feet. The toilet seat that is usually down, is up!!! ..............

Forgot to say - accountant's girl friend is 10 years younger than him!

Sunday is a Day of Rest!!

What rest! I have spent the day trying to sort out my tax for the accountant to look at before I send the forms in. I swear they get more complicated each year!

Then I updated the news for our Short Mat Bowls Club. Several of us had entered a singles competition at the weekend and we all had a very busy time with all the other local bowlers.

We also spent time looking for some good places to stay when we go shortly to Dorset, Devon and Cornwall for a couple of weeks in the van. We hope to use our GPS 'Bessie' - she always takes us down an unexpected road to our destination and so far we haven't finished up in any unexpected place, or stuck down a narrow lane.

Tomorrow I have an early morning swim and then on to a computer class for tracing my family tree. So far I haven't got as far as I hoped. I keep coming up against a brick wall and haven't got further than the early 1800s for any family branch. I now plan just to stick to one name and follow it on and on as far as possibly. One lady in our class has managed to get over 200 names to her tree, but I have only got about 60/70 in mine. Obviously a case of 'must try harder'.

Going back to swimming, which I should do at least three times a week, our local council now allow all pensioners/senior citizens to attend council swimming pools for free, so that it great. I love swimming, don't do it enough and it is very good for me.

Other half has just brought in a glass of wine and called that supper is in five minutes, so cheers for now.