November Thread

Welcome all to November. Autumn is well and truly upon us.
Thanks for the fabulous October pictures.

Autumn?

Sorry, Howie, what do you have now? Spring?

A lovely 27 degrees today so it must be Spring

Moe and Mr Magoo were so excited to meet Precious and Rosie yesterday. They immediately told their little brother, who has since been waiting patiently all day to say hello. Here is Mouse

A contented looking cat.

Some pumpkins from last night.

haha very cool!

A zucchini flower

Sunset over Hertford

A lone walker at Caroline Bay with a bulk carrier ship in the background in the Port of Timaru, though from the photo it looks like the ship is actually on dry land....lol

Our orchid is flowering well at the moment:

Green woodpecker on the lawn this morning

Oooh Welcome Tellywellies! And what a lovely flar!
He is nice Christina, does he visit often?

Love the woodpecker! He's very cool .. just like ClaraSue's cactus it wasn't until later years that I realised they were real .. thought they were just in cartoons!

Plodd: Mouse is beautiful, but if I caught him on MY counter - well never mind, who knows what they get up to when we're NOT home lol

Chavs: Cool 'punkins. Did you carve them? Would have a been a good post for the "night theme" as well. I did 4 for Hallowe'en, but forgot to take pix of them and unfortunately now they're frozen and under 3 inches of snow lol

TW: lovely orchids! And speaking of counters, you folks are obviously neat freaks. I've never seen such a white one lol.

Yes, he is an almost daily visitor, plus we get chicks in the Spring as well. It just so happened that yesterday was a day when I actually had the camera in my hand when he came down just below the kitchen window - he's usually further up the garden.

Thanks, we carved them but they are difficult to take pictures of - always too bright or too dark, though thankfully not snowed under, lol!

A better one of the bats.


All my pics this week will be of the night. It's Ren's fault. She says a theme and I get stuck on it but can only post one pic a week!

Mouse is a lovely cat. Reminds me of my yellow tabby I had as a young girl. His name was Tiger (original, right? ) and he was feral when I found him at about 4 months of age. For the rest of his life, I was the only one who could pet and pick him up even though he lived in the house.

Lovely flowers and great pumpkins! I can't ever get my pumpkins to look halfway decent.

I've tried to get a decent picture of the St. Louis, Missouri skyline for years every time we pass through. For some reason, I can never get a really good one. This was last week right after sundown.

Another of my country roads, this is near Hertford

Permit a mild disagreement, ClaraSue. That's a lovely photo.

The hedgerows are bursting with berries this Autumn. Hope there's no truth in the old saying that this predicts a very hard winter.

Thanks, ertrum,

Christinap, I keep hearing that it's going to be a hard winter, but then last week I heard on the news that it's going to be dry and light. I wish these weathermen would get it straight.

Precious welcomes Mouse, suppresses an urge to chase him (and the woodpecker!), and also the urge to run away from those bats and other scary pumpkins, and invites all of the new kitties to join her in scratching the lilac bush.

I am finding photobucket pretty sketchy today - not all photos are showing up. Anyone else?
See how this one goes.

Another from the garden

Nah Liz, Rosie finds that sort of stuff, climbing trees etc, much too active. One big yawn, in fact.

This time we are standing on top of the Benvenue Cliffs looking out over Caroline Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Yes, that is Whales Creek again.

Couldn't agree more ClaraSue. Quite how they think they can tell us what the climate will be like in 100 years when they can't get tomorrow right is a mystery! We've already had our first winter snow though, light and didn't stay around, but still snow.

Liz - Lovely picture of Precious.

Copago, love the ladybird. I couldn't upload to Photobucket a couple of days ago, seems to have a few glitches again lately.

Another field near Hertford

Ah, Rosie! Come join the fun

Today I spent a fun day with my sister and another friend, tootling around the countryside from one Christmas craft show to another. I managed to spend a minimum amount of cash (including buying a catnip mouse for Precious), and we had a lovely lunch at a tea room out in the ocuntry called the Green Donkey. Even better - they had real donkeys! This was the smallest one.

Oh Liz. I do so love donkeys! What an angel!

Liz, your donkey looks cute enough to pick up and stuff in your pocket!

Chavs, "you lookin' at me?" lol


I saw Christinap's photo from last month of Chinese Lanterns growing wild. I didn't know that's what they were called and I found some in Texas the other day. At least I think they're the same. And they're not as pretty as her's.

They certainly look similar. The ones we have go dried like that once they've finished the orange stage and then burst and scatter seeds.

Today we are standing on the Caroline Bay boardwalk and looking towards the snowcapped Southern Alps. Just on the other side of those rocks is the path I walk into town and back each time so as you can see, it is horrible being able to view the mountains and the ocean each time...lol

Oh, I totally agree, Howie! Horrible view!

wow, beautiful, Howie. It actually took me a sec to see the mountains as I thought they were clouds :p

Cute, Chavs!

Couple of insects here making a couple more insects I suspect.

Oh my, sex on FT - whatever next. They look like the lily beetles I get in the garden.

Some more autumn colour

Yes, I was going to say Now now Jill, this is a family site!

Now, now...I think one was tired and just hitching a ride. But seriously, I think it's fascinating that even on the bugs, you can tell the difference between the male and female. Those antennae are awesome.

Yes they are, it's actually a great photo. The antennae look almost like feathers or bracken leaves, really impressive. I wonder if the ones with the biggest antennae get their pick of females, like stags with the most impressive antlers.

Ignoring all of this... Ren, I like donkeys too, they are sweet. This one was inside, and came out to see me. Came right over and sniffed my hand, in fact.

Awwww! If you go to the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon, you can cuddle them. I think there is a website....

When not engaged on distant travels (for me anyway) I keep collecting squares for the map to edge up the leaderboard, so they are not very exciting as only represent the little 1km square required, and nearly all of Chessington looks like this wherever you take them.

Who would like to share some of my birthday cupcake?

Oh, that looks too lovely to eat!

I thought we could stand another donkey photo I must look up that website, Ren.

Awwww! I will pm it Liz.

hehe .. this remined me of a couple years ago when my son came in saying he saw a lizard giving another a piggyback ride ...


Today I discovered that my camera takes panoramic photos! the boy spent the day at White Cliffs school as they had an author visiting for the day so i took my camera on a bit of a tour .. so this is White Cliffs from a distance .. a lot of the people live in these two hills in dugouts.

This is the village bus in Fanling that we took to get to Ren's house!

Wow! That's amazing, Carole. I ride on that one every day to work and back!

Very neat that your camera does panorama, Jill. Mine doesn't but I found an app on my phone that allows it and I've taken a few photos with my smartphone. I'll have to see if I can download a few.

This is one very moss filled pond I found near Waco, Texas.

The canal at Maesbury in the autumn sunshine.

The Hong Kong flagged bulk carrier "Port Kenny" berthed in the Timaru Harbour on a completely calm day.

I wandered around the old cemetery at White Cliffs yesterday. There's an incredible amount of unmarked graves there from the early days and lots of them are only child size - very sad.

It's only the Shell station on the Hook roundabout but the colours and sky made it for me

Copago - there is actually a childs cemetary at White Cliffs - apparently in a very dry time (1800's?) lots of people walked away and left their kids behind. Very sad.

Old Glory.

Oh Dot. That picture is WONderful : )

Yes, that is a great photo, Dot. I somehow totally missed it.

I thought we could probably bear to see one more donkey. By the way, I've been to the sanctuary in Devon, many years ago, and it's a great place to visit.

Thank you both, here is another from the same walk. Not quite as stunning because we were on the other side of the bridge out of the sun.

Looks like a lovely walk Dot. I love your first picture, the light is spectacular in it.

We are still in the middle of autumn, and yet Covent Garden in London is already preparing for Christmas.

wow, they are cool, Plodd!

Lucy has a mate .. Lucky Joe (he is at the back)

Sorry for my unexplained absence, I had no time for taking photos unfortunately. But some fantastic photos from everyone while I was away!

My favourite flower is the kangaroo paw. They're native to WA and can come in some really amazing colours. Here's one with an orange/red colouration. Any guesses why it is called the "kangaroo paw"?

Would you believe that this is the inside of a shopping centre (in the Venetian Hotel in Macau)? That blue sky is the ceiling. It really feels like you are outdoors!

Amazing, Carole!
Dan we call that Firecracker vine here and it comes out at CNY. I have some all over my wall outside and it is very showy.
This year CNY

MG that looks like Disneyland!

Your firecracker is gorgeous, Ren!

Love your ship, howie, and all the donkeys! Great selection of photos so far this month, everybody!

My orchid is looking good this year.

OK, I'm cross now. I love that firecracker vine, but checking it seems as though it doesn't grow well here - needs a hot climate and it completely frost intolerant. Ah well, never mind.

Dot, your orchid looks great. I have a white one which is just coming out of the rest period and putting up a new flower spike. Do you feed your at all?

Ooooh!

Our orchids are in the garden and we never touch them, when they finish flowering I just ignore them, no water (well some when I remember) They thrive on lack of attention I think.

another from teh cemetery

Ren, Daniel's plant is a kangaroo paw and yours is a firecracker vine and although they look the same in these two photos, they are actually totally different in real life. The kangaroo paw is "fuzzy" and grows in the ground in clumps - it is not a vine.

Here is a picture of the red-and-green kangaroo paw that I took years ago. It's not a good photo and ordinarily I would not post it - however, it does show the overall plant and illustrates how it differs from a vine.

The red-and-green kangaroo paw is our state's floral emblem but the kangaroo paw comes in other colours too, as you can see from Daniel's photo.

Copago - not wishing to sound morbid but cemeteries are such interesting places, from a historical point of view. There is a cemetery not far from us where there are a bunch of children's graves from one family and you can guess from the dates that they must have all died from an epidemic of some kind. So sad to think that the parents probably lost their entire family within such a short space of time.

Part of the bridleway where I walk Susie

Low tide at Caroline Bay on a calm day, not too easy for surfing. Unfortunately the sand continues to build up and is quite problematic.

Thanks for putting me right, Carole. I really thought they were one and the same.
Here is a box. Therein lies a tale
One of my students heard me moaning that I couldnt buy a Union Jack flag anywhere. She went to China and ordered this! Be careful what you wish for. I don't know what to use it for .Any ideas?

That's a lovely box Ren, you could use it for putting your flag in ~ when you get one!

Christina, in answer to your question on the orchid it's in a pot and left to its own devices most of the time. It gets watered when we feel like it and we keep it on the dining room table in bright sunlight all afternoon (when there is sunshine, that is!).

There are some lovely pictures here this month.

dinner is lasagne tonight yum

You know what? Most of the time I don't care about the actual "present", because it's the box itself I'm actually interested in. It's all about the "possibilities" of what "could" be inside (and therefore, empty is better because you can fill it up with whatever is in your mind lol). Yes, I'm quite aware that I'm weird.

ren: okay, way to go. It's only 7:30 a.m. here and I want lasagne for breakfast lol

Hey! We've got mail!
(and a whole lot of snow to shovel lol)

A winter day (July 2012) in Timaru, looking across Caroline Bay to the dunes, Piazza and Central Business District.

Timaru is a bit more majestic than I thought it would be. I grew up in Orange which is a sister city so it was often being mentioned.

here is a unwanted furry visitor to the yard. It and a multitude of brothers and sisters have moved in which is not great.

The lodge at the American School in Cobham

Another part of our local bridleway where I walk Susie. The big fence separates us from a busy road and only runs for about 100 yards.

Dessert at my sister's house tonight

I found another similar building today, the clubhouse at Burrhill Golf Club in Hersham

Crop circles in Colorado? Maybe it was western Nebraska. They're crop plantings that are watered by irrigation machines that pivot on a central point. A lot of the Great Plains crops get this type of irrigation. You see these circles all over the midwest right up to the Rocky Mountains.

One last photo of Timaru Harbour before I head back to London. Looking towards the number 2 wharf with the grain conveyor.

The camera has really impressed under conditions previously impossible. It means I have an extra 15 minutes a day when it will work compared to the other one, this is West Molesey

The cows look hungry.

I couldn't help but laugh at ClaraSue walking around with her chewy like it was a cigar. (I have tried numerous ways to reduce the size, but it won't change! Sorry!)

Great photo! (The size looks fine to me, too.)

I had a laugh too when I saw her 'cigar'!

I love Clara Sue, she is such a class clown! I have a great picture of her that I "stole" of her after an op, on the sofa , looking amazed about something.It is often my desktop background pic.

I remember that photo, Sara! She had her side shaved for a procedure at the vets. This was during a time when Dave (Gatsby) was ill and I spoke to her and said "Gats is sick!" and she gave me that look. I sent that photo to him letting him know even ClaraSue was concerned about him.

Flying into Denver, Colorado, last week on Southwest Airlines, I saw another Southwest plane pacing us as we were on final approach. It turns out that Denver has parallel runways to speed up landings, but not necessarily simultaneous landings. Apparently that's what the two Southwest pilots decided to try. Never having participated in synchronized flying, I grabbed the camera and took some pictures through a very dirty window. This one was the best. The other plane touched down 2 or 3 seconds before we did.

I went cat sitting but the cat ended up sitting on me!

A Bee

Not quite dark enough for the night thread. That's a familiar gas heater there Dot, mine's very useful in the winter.

This is Susie's friend Rosie from our training class

They taste good in a casserole.

That will do for Timaru for a little bit so back to London for a few more photos and then we head to.....you will just have to wait and find out but guess if you want to. Anyway, I doubt any introductions are needed here....

aww .. love Rosie!

Pulling the jetski out of the lake after a day's play. Great spot.

Ren, I love that bee pic - such glorious colours!

Cromwell Road in Kensington, I go into town on Sundays usually to avoid the traffic, but you still can't park round there as I discovered.

As there does not appear to be many photos getting posted lately I shall have to bore you with another of the trip photos from London....the only view of Westminster Abbey that I had.

I'll join Howie and bore you with some more of my holiday photos from Hong Kong and Macau ( )

Well, I was going to...but Photobucket won't co-operate this morning.

I've been having problems with Photobucket as well, which is why I haven't been posting lately. I don't like their new layout (or maybe I just have to get used to it )

I switched back to the old layout within two minutes, but I reckon it will become standard for all of us, and then I'll just have to get used to it!

I've been using the new layout for some time now without a problem. I figured I might as well get used to it

This looks like a bit of a wreck at first glance, but it is actually a really cool playhouse for the nephews of the man whose garage it sits beside. This was all in the same area as one of the crafty/antique places my sister and I visited on the day of the donkeys.

I havn't posted a lot this month either - sorry, but viral bronchitis has had me laid pretty low on and off and I've been trying to keep warm and rested. Not that Susie knows what that means!

So sorry to hear it Christina, I hope you feel better now.

Aww, sorry to hear that. I hope you feel better soon Christina.

Thank you. It is improving, but the doctor said it would probably take about a month to clear completely. Won't give me anything for it as it is a virus so antibiotics don't work. Every time I think it's on the way out I seem to get a bad couple of days with it again - fed up with it GRRRRR.

Fed up of Essex

From a day out on the Llyn Peninsular.

I've just completed the 5th set of 10km squares on the map so taking places for the map references regardless of what's there. This is the entrance to Chessington Zoo, now called Chessington World of Adventures as it's a theme park.
I hope you feel better soon Christina.

Thanks satguru. I recall going to Chessington Zoo when it was still a zoo, it was nice then. Havn't been since they turned it into a theme park though.

I haven't been able to access Photobucket all weekend. Anyone else having problems with PB?

I always have problems with PB, well the new version anyway. I seem to be able to log on but not upload. Stupid machines!

I've had problems with it all weekend as well. Why do they have to keep mucking about with it?

I'm actually not having problems with the new PhotoBucket at all. They've made it easier to upload pics from different folders on your computer in one go, and as long as I remember that there's an extra "Upload" button to click once I've finished selecting, all has worked well for me. (I'm less happy about the way Tags work in this version, but that's fairly minor.)

Anyway, I've just uploaded a couple of pics. This one is the green donkey that gave the Tea Room its name. That's the place with all the lovely real donkeys too.

We are getting near the end of London, just 2 or 3 phots to go unless I add one of the ones I left out. Any ideas where I went after London?

Anyway, here we are looking across the Thames at the Houses of Parliament.

Nice pictures this month. Howie's picture of the Houses of Parliament reminded me of the photos I took when we went to London a few years ago for my birthday. Here's one of them taken from Tower Green inside the Tower of London.

In last month's thread, I posted a photograph of this same scene - except from a different angle, and taken at night. This is a display of silk lanterns, representing the Terracotta Warriors. Photo taken at Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, last month.

Behind that you can just see the old post office clock tower, which was preserved after a big campaign to keep it where it is, when all around it was turning to nasty modernness.

I had problems with the resize option on the new Photobucket, which is why I changed back to the old one. But there seem to be a lot more features on the new one.

As I was just taking photos to complete an area yesterday they weren't very interesting, this is a road in Epsom which turned out to be just over the line I wanted, but had a few before it already.

We had a nice and fairly large comfortable lounge/dining room (the dining room table is just behind me in the photo shown):



The kitchen was very small however, so we decided to do something about it. The wall between the kitchen and the lounge/diner would be knocked down and we'd add the dining area to the kitchen to make a largish kitchen/diner. It would mean a smaller lounge but we can't have everything. The conversion was a lengthy job but I've just finished it. We took a number of photos of the procedure. Next one tomorrow.

Nice day today so I managed to get out for a walk. Still some good autumn colour around, but wind forecast for the next few days so probably the last of the leaves will go.

Oooh Martin that looks so interesting .I am waiting for part 2. It gives me a good idea for a Monthly theme "Inside my home". What do people think?

Good idea, I like that one.

I like the theme too.



Bangalore Palace

Purple Finch

Lovely close up of the finch bhs.

While thinking of next years holiday I looked through some old photos of last years holiday and found this photo of a basking shark. We got the diving boat right up close but as everyone had already dived no one could go back down to see him below the water.

The wall is gone. Sounds simple and doesn't look too bad now that the rubble has been cleared up and the vacuum cleaner has done a bit of overtime. There was a radiator on the lounge side of the wall that had to be moved (now on the left of the picture). The kitchen side had base units and wall cupboards on it that had to be taken down. We thought of keeping the open-plan look until the washing machine and water softener started up. Then it got too noisy. The building of a stud wall with doors to separate the rooms went ahead (along the remaining carpet line and at the back of the sofa). The removed wall wasn't a supporting one, so no extra support was necessary once it had gone. I'll show another photo tomorrow:

Interesting Martin.

It was a job that took up all of my time for a while Sue. I'm glad it's finished now ..apart from perhaps putting a door on the kitchen. It's always been open to the hallway but there's room to change that now.

Edit: Typo ..tut!

Tonight's sunset in Beaufort SC

Fabulous finch and sunset bhs. Love both of them

A bit more of my Swarovski collection

It was Guy Fawkes night in the UK recently (and as usual, it went on for 3 weeks or more) so I
thought I'd make use of the 'Fireworks' function of my camera with, um, interesting results:

Amazing sunset, bhs!

The banquet hall inside the Bangalore Palace. I really liked the cheery yellow colour.

Amazing all pics wow! Welcome home Martin

Thanks. The rooms had to get worse before they got better. Luckily, the floors in the lounge (as was) and the kitchen were roughly the same level so it only needed some cement mixed with dilute PVA to join them up. I can't do plastering very well so I had some help with patching up the wall but what a depressing sight! We still had to use what was left of the kitchen.

Grenwich

Welcome home Martin Cube too!!

I saw a beautiful rainbow yesterday that was just asking for me to take a photo of it. Unfortunately, it was the one day I'd forgotten my camera!

Thanks. I'll try to post more often. You have only yourselves to blame from this point onwards...

Good grief, it seems like ages since I've been able to post. I see lots of lovely photos in the days I've been away. Ren, your flowers and bee photo is beautiful and your sunset, bhs63, is breathtaking.

This was tonight's sunset on the Ohio River in Metropolis, Illinois.

After a leisurely lunch which my friend was texting a bit, making me a little suspicious we carried on and found ourselves at Covent Garden Market. We had a look around and ended up at a certain shop at a certain time and there was another person to meet me whom I had talked with before.....explaining the earlier texting. Then we met up with a third person.

Every year I think I show a photo of these flowers but this year I went out and found this instead. Sprung!!
At least they couldn't reach the ones at the back

They look a bit prickly to eat - you'd think it would hurt their mouths.

The flowers and the bud they sit in an quite fuzzy so they didn't get hurt eating them but they didn't reach in too far amongst the actual plant .. they are reallllly spikey!

That is the cutest picture EVER!!

Yea, they look so adorable!

Stools inside the palace made of elephant hide.

That is a great photo Copago. I didn't know sheep could smile, or is it a sheepish grin.

Now that the knocking down and patching up has been done, the re-build starts:

Yes, the one on the right is laughing at you. Cheeky thing.

By the wonders of Facebook, I found out that The Queen was paying a visit to a community
centre which is just 2 minutes from my house. I managed to get a few good pictures from
across the road. Prince Philip is on the right hand side.

Those sheep are adorable, especially the cheeky grinning one! Love 'em!
I see the Queen is looking Pretty in Pink, eh?

Precious has also been enjoying the photos, and wants to join in the fun.

Oh that is such a good photo Liz. Love the way her eyes stand out.

Thanks, Christinap She's quite photogenic (and knows how to pose).

Yesterday I was in Metropolis, Illinois, home of the Superman Museum and this 12 foot statue of the Man of Steel. (photo taken with cell phone)



(edited to add: OK, Thanks. I got it resized.)

Wow, I haven't posted in ages, sorry! But there have been some AMAZING photos since I've gone!

Meet the newest addition to the family! His name is Noah, and he is a pure bred Australian cattle dog. Understandably, he is still a bit nervous, but he's settling down.

Gorgeous puppy.

Noah is beautiful!

Very, very, very cute puppy.

Clara Sue, a belated congratulations for making the roll of honour. Utterly deserved. Your pictures are always brilliant.

A bit of a jump in time. The partition wall is built and the plasterboard put on. I've built it so that the opening is just he right size for the doors that are to be fitted. This would save me having to plane them to shape:

I agree, Dan, amazing pics!
I don't think I know any other cat who is so expressive, Liz!She should be in Movies,
Thanks all these are super!Love Noah, Precious and Superman too. Martin , what can we do about the size of the Superman pic please? The fault lies with Photobucket, I think.

Dan, I adore Noah, he is so gorgeous. You make sure you give him a big cuddle from Susie and me.

The size of the picture is 577 x 1024 pixels, so the 1024 pixel dimension needs reducing to 640 pixels in a photo editing program and the re-uploading to Photobucket using a different file name, then edit the post to link to the reduced size photo. Either that or it can be done using Photobucket's resizing tool, which I can confirm is working OK. If the photo is resized in Photobucket and the same filename is kept, people will have to refresh their browsers to see the photo at the correct size ..perhaps even hold the Control button on the keyboard down while refreshing the page.

This is why I reckon it is best to give a resized photo a different file name and link to that. The browser then sees it as a new file and won't draw on the original large photo that has been downloaded into everyone's browser cache. I can help out if needed.

Thanks, TW. I finally got it right!

Yes, that looks OK now.

Bless you Martin, please stick around, I need you!!

Such cute pictures of Noah and Precious.

A temple inside the palace complex.

"In May 1670, King Charles II issued a grant to the 4th Earl of Bedford, to hold a market in Covent Garden's Piazza 'on every day of the year except Sundays and Christmas Day, for buying and selling all manner of fruit, flowers, roots and herbs'. For the following three centuries, London's largest fruit and vegetable market traded here. In 1828, the 6th Duke obtained Parliamentary powers to provide market buildings, which were then roofed in 1876. The estate remained in the Bedford family until 1918. This bronze honours all those men and women who bought and sold fresh produce here which was then distributed throughout England."

I think this will do for London photos so next time we shall move on to...noooooo, I will not ruin the surprise.

Yesterday was Superman, today is Lois Lane.

Wild and wet.

The doors fit with no resizing/planing necessary (pleasantly surprised). A skim of plaster joins everything up. Architrave around the door frame and coving on the ceiling comes next:

Wow

You're doing a fantastic job there. Any chance you'd like to pop over when you've finished, I've got a few bits and pieces that need seeing to. Nothing major, just a new kitchen, that sort of thing.

Continuing on with my series on West Australian birds, here is a flock of short-billed black-cockatoos, aka Carnaby's black cocatoos. They are an endangered species because of habitat loss. I used to see them everywhere but since I've moved I haven't seen them as often. Unfortunately they were gone very quickly and didn't fly very close to ground, so I didn't get an opportunity to take a really good photo. If you want to see them better, just google them.

Martin when it is all finished, and from the rate you are going should be next week, you can post a lovely photo of it in the "Inside My Home" thread in the monthly theme topic.

As you all must have guessed, from London I headed out west by train and got off at Newport in Wales where by an amazing coincidence I found MaggieG at the train station. Here we have the Newport footbridge over the River Usk (tide out).

The weather's stopped me going anywhere this week until today, and look what I found online in Swanley which is now part of my personal collection.


Swanley sign by satguru, on Flickr

As an old camera anorak I spot a rather good lens being used on the indoor shots Martin. It's easily the difference between normal and HD on the television, and sharper than most digital which is adequate but never seen much reaching our old Zeiss lens on the SLR.

The job was finished about a week or so ago, so just a series of photos taken during the many weeks it took to do. I hope people won't find them too boring. I'm working up to some photos that have been taken since the job was finished. I'll post one in the Theme thread well before it closes. In the meantime, I expect you have heard of kitchen/diners and lounge/diners but how about bedroom/kitchens? This is the half of the kitchen that was against the wall that got knocked down. It was confusing trying to find anything, what with half of it being in the bedroom and the rest in what remained of the kitchen (a bit in another bedroom too). A shame that all the old units eventually ended up in the skip:



I don't think I could face doing a job like that again Christinap. Well, not this week anyway ..perhaps next week.

The lambs are so cute! This is a sunset in Charleston, South Carolina

You can't have too many photos of Croydon

Got the partition wall built just in time. The kitchen arrived a couple of days later. I felt that the cutting of the worktop (especially the invisible join where the worktop goes around a corner) and the plumbing were beyond me, There is a water pressure reducer and a water softener to take into consideration too. All in all, I thought it better to call someone in for those parts. The arrangement was that I'd strip everything out of the room and assemble the kitchen units and he would do the basic fitting and plumbing. What chaos there was at this stage!

Wow, that beats vacuuming the dandilions on the lawn.

I'm never going to live that one down.

dandelions

Lots of work there, TW. My sister is famous for tearing down interior walls and kitchen cabinetry in her homes and re-doing them over modern. The end result is always worth it, right?

This was last night's moonrise over the Fox River in Aurora, Illinois.

For some reason I've always fancied having a goat or two, they always look such lovely creatures.

I do believe this is another bridge in Newport, Wales. It is the famous transporter bridge that was built in 1906. One of less than 10 left in the world and though still in use, it was closed for repairs when I was there so I could not go over it. Opened again less than 2 months after I left.

I spotted this little bus at Peterborough coach station earlier in the year. I presume it's a ride
for children but I'm too big to fit in there to see. (Plus there were too many people about...)

How cute!
Now I am really peed off with Photobuck but anyway this should be Rosie expressing her horror at the approach of winter (15C today)

Oh my! What great big eyes you have, Rosie!

I'm not exactly sure what this is. All I know is that it's some sort of mining equipment that I saw in another (almost) ghost town in California.

I've been experimenting with scanning some prints. We have an RHS garden, Hyde Hall, very close to us, and this is a bit of their rose garden

While the kitchen fitter was doing his bit on the kitchen side of the wall, I was doing mine on the lounge side of it. This involved painting the doors putting on the the architrave and handles, putting coving up on the ceiling/wall joints. papering and painting the wall, getting a carpet fitted ..and plenty of etceteras. Here is the finished result:



It looks quite large in the photo but 'cozy' would describe the size of the room. The kitchen is more or less done by this stage too. A photo of the other side of the doors tomorrow.

That looks very nice, TW.

A country lane in Kent just on the edge of London

These are the flowers that bloom on top of the saguaro cactus in late May to Mid June each year.

Another country road in Swanley. Wherever I go in the country the best views are in Kent

Looking at the dining room end of the finished kitchen/dining room. Note the low worktop on the left with nothing underneath it. This is Mrs TW's very own spot. She can sit at it in her wheelchair, legs underneath and get my dinner ready (I should be so lucky! ).

You've done a fantastic job on it all, looks really good.

Fantastic job Martin.

Thanks. I can't claim to have done the whole job but a great deal of it was done by me. I can't help feeling a bit proud of it.

TW, having done a major kitchen remodeling myself, I know how much work is involved. You did a great job!

Tellywellies, many thanks for the 'picture' diary of your project, I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing your hard work progress to the finished product. It looks fab!

Another one from Hyde Hall Garden - a fabulous mixed border

TW: I'd post pix of our kitchen reno (done by ourselves), but I neglected to take "before" pictures. Oh well. Anyway, I can certainly appreciate the amount of trouble you've gone to and it all looks fabulous so far!!

ClaraSue: that one with the moon is wonderful. I'd get that one "blown up" at a pro shop and hung on my wall!

The Swan family enjoying a day out at the the Welsh Waterways Festival in Newport despite the slightly dirty water of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.

awww lovely swans.

Grat result, Martin!

Cooling down after a realllllllly hot day.

We took a walk by the canal and saw these pussies in the well in a garden by the canal.

...and finally, a view from the other end of the kitchen/dining room:



I started doing the tiling by using a glass cutter to score a line and then snapping the tiles but because of the type of tiles they were, this only caused them to break. I thought I was going to have to manually saw the cuts but then someone lent me a cutting machine. What a marvellous tool that was! The spinning disk is diamond cutter. The bottom of it is submerged in water. Not only does that keep it cool but it also prevents any dust caused by the cutting of the tiles. I managed to complete the job and still keep all of my fingers! I'd never use a glass-cutting scorer for a tiling job any more. I might never have to do another one though.

It looks brilliant.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas/Advent ...
(One of two Advent calendars, home made and filled with goodies )

Wonderful Jane.

Realllllly hot.

Wow, Jill, that's like a summer day in Arizona, too! After a few days of that, when the temperature reached 106 degrees F/41 C it actually felt nice outside. Now I know why your terrain is so much like ours.

Chip (or Dale) this summer in West Virginia.

hehe cute.

It's just oppressive heat, isn't it? It's been in the 40s all week, another high 40s today, but on Sunday it's supposed to go down a bit.

On days like that, as soon as I walk outside, I feel as though I need to go back inside and take a nap. It just zaps the strength out of you.

Sunset outside Swanley

The travelling kiwi wondering why the "PuddleDuck" is not going anywhere at the Welsh Waterways Festival in Newport.

I've been trying to take black & white photos this month. I hope this photo subject, washed up at the bottom of the slip in a working harbour, isn't too bleugh for people. I like it because of the contrast and shape. But I wish I'd bent down and removed that stick first!

It's lovely, Chavs! It would look good hanging on the wall (The photo, not its content!)

I wasn't looking at the stick till you told me to! Its a great composition

It being December now I am going to close this in a few hours and open December. Well done everyone it was a great month again!

Thanks, Alex and Ren.