The Last Sunrise of August

 

Sunrise on the last day of August just outside out little town.

Taken by a local photographer Keith Sergeant.

Sue xx

Saying Goodbye to August

 

August has whizzed by.  

With much cooler days the tomatoes have taken an age to ripen, and some just haven't.  The garden is slightly going over with the only flowers left being the beautiful white Cosmos 'Purity'.  Each day I tidy a bit more and add to the contents of the compost bin.

As the nights draw in the animals are sleeping indoors more, no basking in the late evening sun on the patio as they did earlier in the year.  They claim their spots and then switch around when the mood takes them.  The other persons bed is always comfier it would seem.

In the bed by my chair Mavis is usually well placed to see if I'm consuming any tasty treats, although there's not so many these days with my rationing challenge going so well, I'm never hungry enough to need nibbles in the evening.

Suky has eyes like little radars always on the lookout for what's going on.  It's important to look and sniff when you can't hear.

One burst of real colour left in the garden is the weed by my living room doors.  

It's flowered since Spring and is a firm favourite with bees.  So much so that I have been saving seeds from it and I will surreptitiously scatter them in the hedgerows along the canal when I walk there next Spring.

It's been a strange Summer, with the heat of June dissipating almost as quickly as it came and then the much cooler August seeing the season out not so much in style, as in the need for woolly jumpers before they are even unpacked and the Summer clothes put away.

What will September hold ... that's anyone's guess!!

Sue xx

Making the Best of Typical Bank Holiday Weather

 

It's been a busy couple of days, so we decided to make the most of the sunshine that we woke up to yesterday.  

The forecast hadn't been brilliant for the weekend, so the minute I saw sunshine when I opened my eyes, I got up and loaded the washing machine and then managed to get it out on the washing line before we set off to Morecambe and a couple of hours at the seaside.

We walked along the prom and then sat at the far end admiring the view.

The dogs appreciate the rest as much as I do and they are brilliant people watchers. They met a lovely little dog called Rita who was celebrating her first birthday with a Puppicino ... a doggy drink from the café.

And after admiring the views for a few more minutes and seeing the clouds rolling in ...

... Mavis reminded us that part of the purpose of the outing was to get Mum a coffee and Dad a bacon butty.  So we wandered back along the prom to the Clock Tower Café.

We had a coffee each and Alan got his bacon bun, and of course the dogs got a little bit each too.  After a good half an hour of watching the world and his dog go by we carried on walking.  I had spotted a large Animal Rescue charity shop as we drove away from the prom on our last visit so I told Alan I would nip across the road for a quick look while he walked the dogs up to the grassy area for a while.

For less than the cost of Alan's bacon butty I managed to get a t-shirt, 2 books and the cutest little Dunn Bennet & Co. Burslem cup.  I've just looked up the cup online and it's mark dates it to anytime between 1937-1968.  There's a similar much less decorative one for sale on Ebay for £12.99 , so I think I've nabbed myself a bargain.

And of course I still have all these things ... Alan's bacon bun is long gone.

A successful day and one that I ended by binge watching the entire series of The 1940's House.  What a relaxing day.

This morning it's wet and quite chilly, so after breakfast I decided to mend the handle of my kettle with a bit of superglue.  Only Alan's superglue was all stuck up, and when I tried to force the lid open it all spurted out all over my fingers.  I managed to get the kettle fixed ... and now I can have a relaxing day picking bits of dried up superglue off my fingers.  😏

How are you spending your weekend?

Sue xx

For Lesley ... Pugs Might Fly

 

Are these the 'things' that you were asking about Lesley?

I hope they are.

They are my 'Pugs Might Fly' bought by Alan as a Christmas present for me during our first few months in Wales way back in 2013.  They were white at first and once we had redecorated the wall around the fireplace there they did stand out a bit better, but I decided to paint them this subtle shade of  fawn when I moved here and I knew I wanted a white wall.

Just three little plaster Pugs flying in the manner of the old Flying Ducks from the 1930s.

Made even more famous on Coronation Street in Hilda Ogden's house.

Sue xx

Waiting for Dad

 

Alan was away down South for a few days for work at the start of the week and as usual Mavis went periodically into a state of decline.  It's almost as though the food with Mum is good, the walks with Mum are good, the snoozing in the doggy bed right next to Mum's chair is bliss ...

... but every now and then she realises that Dad has gone.

And there's nothing for it but to sulk and stare into space, or in this case sit looking at the freezer door for over an hour.

Every single time he goes away it's like this, and gosh he's been doing it for all of her little life with us, she knows he always comes back but she does enjoy a good sulk.

I usually let her have her space for a while and then call her back to me Suky and Ginger in the living room end, and put something doggy related on the television for her.  She does like a good programme with dogs, cats or farmyard animals to watch.

https://youtu.be/p1dFuSGx1mI?si=xQ1lkIdqXKfjNCnA

She also loves watching Mr Hamster ... but the music drives me mad so she only gets small doses of that.

*  And yes, those are Gingers ears at the very bottom of the first photo.  😸

Sue xx

By the Water ... and Home Fires

 

I had another lovely walk along the canal with the dogs this morning.

We go along the road and then come down the old stone steps at George's Triangle, a lovely little half-tended plot of wild and planted plants by the side of the stone bridge.  The bees were already out and about and buzzing around the flowers.

It looks a lovely raggle taggle mess, but the wildlife love it ... and the dogs always have a good sniff.

We enjoyed the walk along the canal back to the house as there were lots of different narrowboats moored along the towpath this morning and it's always nice to see a few different ones.  I look at the boats, taking great care not to peer into the windows and the dogs sniff out the bushes and hedges that line the path and we all say hello to anyone we pass.

Back at home I've been watching this on DVD just recently, it's a really good series, well both series one and two are equally as good as each other.

It's keeping me on the straight and narrow for my rationing challenge.

It was only when I got to the end of series two that I remembered how they left it all up in the air ready for another series ... and then never came back with one.  What a shame.  The good things get cut off in their prime and the boring and obviously much cheaper to make programmes go on and on and on.

Time to dig out my DVD folder and find something else to sink my teeth into, or maybe I should pick up a book and read for a while instead.

Sue xx

What Are You Up To?

 

This weekend I will be reading my book while we wait for the delivery of the furniture that we chose from the British Heart Foundation shop in Llandudno last week.

It will be nice to have the television sat on a piece of furniture instead of our plastic box.  

And it will be even better to sit on a sofa instead of the garden chairs we have been using.  Amazingly for just over £500 we managed to get ourselves a two seater sofa, a coffee table, two sets of bedside drawers and a brand new self assembly dining table and two chairs from the BHF shop ... and an oak television unit for just £30 from Facebook Marketplace which we will be picking up ourselves.

And it's also nice to help out a very deserving charity while furnishing our Welsh flat.

Alan will no doubt spend some of our waiting time cutting the grass again.  After just two cuts it's already looking a bit more like a lawn than a piece of waste ground.  The dogs love having grass of their own again.

And this photo of my plant has just reminded me that I need to go and water all the indoor plants before we go.  Why have I got a photo of this plant, I don't know, sometimes I just go around snapping away at things and it must have caught my eye for some reason as I stepped in the door. 😀

Hope you all have a great weekend ... what are you up too?

Sue xx