Join me on my trips

 Tom brought William and Effie and we crowded into my house - pity Helen was sitting by the front door and when it was opened she got clunked on the head. Rain again intermittently. Drawing competition with three entries, Tree, free and optical illusion, Heidi won after three judges gave their opinions. The rest said we were biased. Then the annual photo op with their grandmother, The only reason for two pics is so that we can include Otis' face. With Tom and Lisa and Helen now all having dogs - it can become a bit much though luckily Miffy prefers to be out of it and sneaks up to my bed. On Friday morning we saw - well Oti spotted and we all saw a kingfisher on the little tree on the island. Lovely as the only other birds seem to be jackdaws. No nesting going on yet in the box. Someone did tell me that bird flue has killed a lot of wild birds. Starting to book my trip to Holland and then on to Hamburg - luckily have already got a set for the concert in the Elbphilharmonie as now s

Incredibly warm so in a summer dress, heating off and blossom on the trees. Israel bombed and killed about 100 last night. Beijing is under minus 10. Here are this morning's ics. First primrose. State of the mill. two days ago and the dead tree This is Waitrose compared to lockdown. Apparently Tesco bags were 15p. And here we are in the red.

 It's good to be home. No more bus tours for sure though without going to Saudi I would have had no idea what it was like. The great rock tombs, the rock art but also the ever expanding cities covering hundreds of square miles of flat land. The geology will stay with me the longest. Time is going to change a lot, especially as more foreigners arrive with their open faces, casual clothes and need for better toilets (this last is going to be an on-going theme in reviews) and the improvement in cafe food which is at present all 'fast'. The country has to tackle its plastic use, currently less than 10% is recycled and it is used everywhere. Even the smallest purchase might have two or three layers of plastic.  15th. We are hoping to see the meteorite shower but cloud has foiled that so far. Here are a couple of pictures Fairford market this week with a rather unimpressive Xmas tree which probably looks better when the lights are lit. And some of the garden showing how wet it ha