Wild and Windy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEMMA !

Gemma is Linas' girlfriend, she gets on well with all of us and has smoothed some of Linas' rough edges. The picture above was taken at her prom 18 months ago, (when Linas had long hair). They came down on Friday and left mid morning today. Yesterday while Gemma was visiting relatives Linas braved the wet weather and dismantled all the old collapsed wall, (for cash). He informs me that there were 40 concrete blocks. That is a job I would have found very hard to manage but now, when it stops raining, I can carry on with tidying up the bank and edge of the drive.

I've been a bit grumpy today because so many things seem to have gone awry this weekend. It started with finding out that a party next Friday to celebrate one of my colleague's husband's birthday is a superheros/fancy dress do. I love dressing up but its hard to think of something I can get together , without spending too much and yet not look totally ridiculous. My family will know what I would like to go as and I have a few ideas but you'll just have to wait and see. If I get really fed up I'll go as the Invisible Girl,(found by googling) and stay at home. I went round all the charity shops in town on Saturday to see if I could find something I could alter or some fabric which could team up with a top I already have ... but nothing! Then I thought I would weigh myself in Boots to calibrate my scales at home. The weighing was ok as I've been dieting since September but the biggest shock was finding that although I've always thought myself to be 5ft 10ins the machine says I'm 5ft 8ins. That plays havoc with my BMI so I wasn't very happy. Then this morning we stayed in because a builder was coming round to put concrete beams under our heating oil tank but he failed to arrive. This can only be done when the tank is nearly empty but I'll have to order oil pronto or we'll lose heat, hot water and cooking. He did phone later to say he had lost his way and our phone number but I suspect it was more to do with the rain. I was also waiting for someone to come and look at a collection of Star Wars stuff which I had advertised in the paper but yet again no show, then someone else phoned, arranged to come ... and didn't turn up. The first person phoned and says he'll come tomorrow morning, we'll see. I had 2 no shows last weekend, what is it with these collectors? I find waiting for people very irritating because I tidy up and hang around without being able to get on with things.

On the good side I decided to make a cloak from some soft grey fabric and apart from the sewing machine getting temperamental towards the end that project worked out well. Peter brought home a pumpkin from work and some pumpkin bread that I made using a recipe from the web is very heavy but quite tasty.

Last night it rained heavily and the wind was howling around the house while we sat cosily with a fire roaring in the wood burner, and we seem to be having more of the same tonight. I love stormy weather so long as I'm not actually cold and wet. When I was a baby my mother would wrap me up and take me out on the beach in St Ives in the winter storms. Perhaps that is where I got my love of such weather.

Here are some photos of boats in the estuary taken yesterday. I could probably do with one of them to sail down the road tomorrow.