Bonfire Night

And there's a picture of a bonfire - at the Scouts' bonfire and firework display. The display was very good but alas my firework photos were not. Oh well. It's been a beautiful cold day and was a clear cold evening, so perfect firework weather really. And everybody really did saw 'ooooh' and 'aaaah' when the first fireworks went off - I love that! We can't help ourselves. I always think fireworks are such a weird thing to enjoy - they look amazing but they sound disturbingly like artillery, especially when there are random fireworks going off in people's gardens so you can't necessarily see them and the sound is echoing off buildings. Fortunately our cats don't seem the least bothered by the noise. The occasional twitch of an ear and that's it.

The moon was particularly lovely tonight so that was a bonus. Using the amazing zoom on my compact camera I managed a slightly smudgy but suitably spooky-looking photo. Quite pleased with that.

A walk in the sunshine

It was beautiful today - a frosty start, followed by a perfect cool autumn day. I had to go and get my flu jab this morning, among other things, but I had some free time this afternoon and thought I'd better take advantage of it and get outside. It's that time of year when I find myself grabbing every opportunity to enjoy a sunny day because there's not likely to be many more of them this year!

And out in the garden my sweet peas are still giving it a go! Come to think of it, it might be because they're in a hanging pot up on the fence so they're getting more sunlight than things on the ground. I'm still impressed though, I thought they were done for the year a few weeks ago and then they suddenly started flowering again.

Miss M comes home tomorrow afternoon and I'm hoping she's had fun. The school have been great, putting pictures on their Twitter feed so we at least have an idea of what activities they've been doing, though not necessarily who's doing them - twenty kids in borrowed waterproofs turn out to be difficult to tell apart especially if they're wearing hard hats and climbing gear as well!

Currently it's so quiet in here that I can hear the cats breathing. Well, snoring maybe. Ssh, don't wake them..

The Annual Neep Picture

Neepie lanterns

It was a bit of a weird Hallowe'en here because Miss M is away for the week on a school trip, doing outdoorsy sort of things in the pouring rain. The house is very quiet. Not that she's noisy but she's the chattiest of all of us, so without her peace reigns in the little village house we know so well (sorry, Astérix..).

I still did the neepie lanterns and made up bags of goodies for the guisers so it wasn't very different from other years, just a bit odd without Miss M. The Boy went out guising (as the Grim Reaper with home-made mask and scythe) with his friend from over the road and a few other local kids but as the boys both have deep voices now I suspect this may be their last year. Or maybe not! There were other teenagers roaming the streets, with varying amounts of effort being put into their costumes.

So hello November. I haven't changed the calendars (for I have several) over yet, must do that!

Scythe