How lovely, Kelly! I admire your energy.

Yesterday I took advantage of the local "Doors Open" to tour some interesting buildings, behind the scenes. This is part of the refrigeration system for the ice at a local arena.

Dendrobium kingianum, an Australian epiphytic orchid which naturally occurs on the east coast south of the Tropic of Capricorn.
My plant has been neglected in a back corner for a while, and now needs feeding, de-spidering, and probably re-potting.

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad254/ozedawn/Funtrivia%20Sept%202011/dendtub.jpg

Great photo!

Cleaning out the trough.

That reminds me, better get rid of that ring around the bath!

Here's another sort of trough - you're welcome to try getting the ring off it. Opening the lock gates at Stoke Bruerne:



PS I asked the very nice man if I could take his picture while he was opening the gates and he said I could. I told him that it might go on a website and he said it was fine. It was only afterwards that I realised he was wearing dark glasses so he might be in disguise anyway.

Liz, was the ice on the rink at the time? Those pipes don't look cold enough...

Unfortunately, no. The arena had to be closed last winter because of major problems with an aging floor. The debate is on as to what will become of the building.

While I was in Florida, I went to the Homosassa Wildlife Park with my mom. This is where you can see manatees. They have several "shows" every day (not like you would see in Sea World with the dolphins). They also rescue injured manatees and after they have been healed, release them back into the wild. Pretty awesome.



They don't look like much in the pictures, but they weigh around 3000 pounds. I tried to get a good picture of their faces, but they really don't come out of the water. You'll mostly see their snout when they come up for air.

I have always wanted to see a manatee, always. A friend of mine is from Florida and once sent me a carving of one but that's the nearest I've got. I'd go to visit her but she lives in France now, which is a fat lot of use!

I'll be back there in Feb of next year. Come visit! Somewhere around Crystal River is a place you can swim with them. The manatees like to hang around Homosassa because the spring stays 72 degrees year-round!

I picked the perfect day for the seaside, this is Seaford and the first time I've ever been there.

Kite Flying at Ocean Beach, San Francisco last summer.....

Continuing down the towpath on Flopsy's tour of Northamptonshire's waterways we may need a sugar rush - here's a narrowboat converted to meet the sweet needs of pedestrian holidaymakers.



And yes, some of the boats have televisions, some even have satellite internet connections!

Anyone wants some Paella, just help yourself

There now, you've made me hungry and homesick!

Me too, liz, and I'm not even Spanish! LOL

Beachy head from Seaford

In my part of the world it is an oddity to see a shingle beach. Now I understand why deck chairs and sun beds are popular in the UK!
Beachy Head is very impressive.




Thankfully, my foraging hens did not destroy all the orchid flowers. This one was out of their reach.

OOh thats a lovely orchid, Auntie. What is it called?

It's one of the huge range of cymbidium orchids Ren, but I don't know its cultivar name.

I had my 50th birthday party on a narrowboat. I hired it for the day, we had a buffet lunch on board, and my friends tell me they still regard it as the best birthday party ever. This boat takes people out for an hour or so:

This is from the Virginia part of my vacation. We rode the Creeper Trail - one day we rode from Damascus to Abingdon and back (34 miles round trip) and then the next day we rode the shuttle to the top of the mountain and rode the 17 miles down. It's an old railroad that has been turned into a very awesome trail, and it parallels the Appalachian Trail for a good part of it. This is one of the trestles we crossed over:

That is spectacular! I'm so used to completely flat beaches here.

It is spectacular... but that's not Beachy Head, it's Seaford Head. East of Seaford Head lie the Seven Sisters - a range of even more spectacular chalk cliffs at the edge of the South Downs - and beyond them lies Birling Gap, then Belle Tout, and then Beachy Head, the most spectacular of all. I've walked the Seven Sisters and my feet still bear the scars!