A crane being constructed at a local building site. A 'futuristic' looking office block stood here a year ago. I quite liked it. A building I should have photographed before it went. The space will now be given over to housing.



A close-up of the work (rather them than me!)

I don't think I could do something like that, but it is nice to see that sight, TW.

A scene of typical English countryside in Hatch End just before the end of London (the border is in the background).

This is the Ioa Valley on Maui. Very tropical and it has some very tall waterfalls. We were lucky this day as the clouds had lifted a bit.




There is a sacred pinnacle there called the Ioa Needle where the Chiefs would go to pray to the Gods. Photo of Ioa Needle

Argus, I'm enjoying all of your Hawaii photos. We had a great time there last July, though I think we may have had a bit better weather than you did!

A couple of days ago we had an interesting storm here in the desert - lots of wind, rain, and "hail". I've lived in Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida, and I've seen HAIL, so this to me is more like little tiny ice pellets, but the people around here were pretty amazed I think.



larger view

One nice aspect of working in a home office... while trying to earn some bread, I can bake bread.

This was an easy, no-kneading needed yeast dough, and it made one regular-size loaf and a little extra one, which I think has become my supper for tonight... (oops!)

Y'all can come by for breakfast tomorrow... toast with peach or black currant jam, eggs, and let's see... maybe some of the little piggy sausages I bought in Ohio... okay?

Great picture, as always, everyone I really enjoy this thread.

Kapuskasing, that bread looks delicious! Yum. I've actually been thinking about baking bread, but I have to buy a loaf pan first!

Kapuskasing, that bread looks yummy! Maybe you could post the recipe up in the recipe thread? I'd love to try something that doesn't need kneading--I'm a very, um, average baker.

Guess where my sister and brother-in-law spent the last couple of weeks? No snow, golf, shopping... Besides this new hat for my collection, they also brought me a lovely red shirt, with a subtle USC (University of South Carolina) logo, and some dark Belgian chocolate

It is now the year of the Rat(or mouse) and the children in Year 1 have been making their own versions.

Here's a typical British station at Hatch End, which runs both normal and London Underground trains depending on the mood at the time. They stop them going that far for years and then start again.

Ren the children's drawings are soooo cute.

I'm glad people are enjoying the Hawaii photos, I will only do a few more as it can get boring.

This is a photo of the Thurston Lava Tube near Kilauea Volcano. Some of them are big enough to drive a large truck through. This is one of the smaller ones.



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Argus, your Thurston Lava Tube photo came out so much better than mine.

Ren, LOVE the kids' rats!

Happy Birthday, djsgal! (The cake is giving you away )

Ren, one of those rats looks exactly like a catnip mouse Katt owns

I got over to see my Mum frequently while my sister was away, but because I was getting there by public transport, Winston couldn't come with me. He therefore made a point of jumping up on the couch to visit with his Nanny when we all got together yesterday!

Here's a row of houses in Hatch End that looks particularly suburban.

This is the Hawaiian Royal Palace in downtown Honolulu.

Here's Katt again, this time sitting on Winston's winter coat. He likes it because it is faux suede, and nice and soft.

This raspberry plant knows Spring is on its way.

When I was in England last week I met up with a couple of women I used to work with thirty-five years ago - it makes me feel old, they are both now fifty-eight and when the one on the right started working with me she was just fifteen.

On the way to meet my mates for a fish and chip supper I passed through a village . This residence caught my eye.

When we visited Kilauea Volcano I took a lot of photos, but none could really show the size of the caldera. When I got home I used software that came with my printer and created this panorama from 3 shots.



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The software did a remarkable job I think. Just for information, the volcano Kilauea had been erupting since 1987 non stop. We found out that there was an earthquake in June 2007 and the lava flow has stopped flowing into the sea. There still is some lava flowing but not much and it is in an area that can only been seen by air. The volcano is now swelling so it looks like it could erupt anytime somewhere else.

This could go in the "Something big, something small" thread, but I'd posted in it last week. It is a 1:36 ratio Corolla sitting on the windshield wiper of my full size Corolla.

This house in Stanmore has just been finished. All one and with an equally big one next door. They seem to have got their inspiration from a grain store but pretty original.