Delete. Delete. Delete.

If anyone wondered where I was,

I have been Kondoing my Inbox.

I had to because my computer said it was full

and could neither absorb nor discharge any further information.

I understood how it felt.

There were 8835 messages there going back eight years.

Of course there must have been many more.

I certainly do delete as I go, but for some reason

these had resisted the routine culling.

It was, and is, a sobering experience. 
All life is there,
from the mundane to the momentous.
There is no easy way to approach this task.
I cannot risk taking out the box wholesale.
I have found some vital documents and some useful contacts.
I have been reminded of happy times and sad.

The computer has dropped a couple of dress sizes
and is feeling more comfortable, but I must press on.
We're aiming for a size 8.
People send funnies, and each of these links was opened and examined.
Mercifully many of them had expired.
Here are a couple that were brought blinking into the spotlight.
You'll notice a common theme:

 Retiree Bathtub Test

During a visit to my doctor, I asked him, 

"How do you determine

whether or not a retiree should be put in an old age home?"

"Well," he said, "we fill up a bathtub, 
then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the retiree 
and ask him or her to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," I said. "A normal person would use the bucket
 because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup."
"No", he said. "A normal person would pull the plug out.
Do you want a bed near the window?"

                    

If it goes quiet again, you'll know where to find me.

Also - 32,544 photos.

Delete. Delete. Delete.

Looking up

The weather,

(sorry it's all I can talk about at the moment)

is looking up.

Warm enough to shed the 'shmere,

and tempting enough to plant out the tomatoes 

and think about filling the pots, troughs and baskets
which are still full of tulip stalks.

Much though I love Sarah Raven's planting combinations,

it is more economical to take her suggestions to the local garden centre.

I can also choose my moment rather than being worried 

that I won't be here when they arrive and they will shrivel on the doorstep.

The window man is back.

Work has started on replacing our rotten garage doors,

so that's going to be a welcome facelift for the house. 

and quite by coincidence I managed to bump into

Mark Rylance again, while lurking outside The Mousetrap

which I perhaps inadvisedly decided was one of those things 

I ought to have seen by now.

And no, I haven't seen Star Wars or read War and Peace.

We fitted in a trip to Avebury, which was a full winter garb experience

but still very uplifting.

We heard our son's plane fly in over the house this morning.
I looked up but couldn't see it as the clouds have rolled back in,
but it will be lovely to have him back for a little while,
until he takes off again for Japan.

Colour saturation

Wakehurst Place and a private garden showing off their

rhododendrons and clematis.

This little pot and its contents, yielded by our garden.

Treasure

I dug this up in the garden.

Isn't it sweet?

Measuring just 6cm in diameter,

probably a little souvenir pin tray from the 1950s.

It is so Parisian,

and such a charming thing to find when one is being

scratched by brambles and stung by nettles.

Three corners

We had nearly all of the United Kingdom covered this weekend.

Darling grand-daughter sped off to North North Wales for a wedding,

a seven hour journey by train, tube,train, train, bus, bus.

Younger son stayed at this fascinating, unreconstructed house in Edinburgh

for two nights before proceeding an hour north of Inverness,

by train,tube, train, train, car.

We went far South (by car) and enjoyed a quiet time

photographing cups of coffee,

blackberrying,

  beach foraging

 and exploring medieval cellars,

finishing in North North London

with a walk by this beautiful lake with my brother.

Pretty stunning considering it's not properly remote like

North North Scotland.

Things to do on the beach in October

Gallop.

Make a dog happy

by throwing pebbles for him to chase.

Bird watch.

Wish you could say you'd seen a Bar-tailed Godwit.

Find and pocket a useful Duralex tumbler.

Seek shells.

Marvel at the tenacity of Marram grass.

Watch the river flow into the sea.

Wonder what these razor shell initials stand for.

Find industrial archaeology.

Find beauty in debris

but wish there wasn't so much of it.

Admire the geology but stay away from the foot of the cliffs

because you've seen the rock fall without warning.

Stand and stare.

Wait for the sun to break through.

Stay as long as possible.

Watch the beach empty.

Digging for treasure

in the garden.

Beautiful intact glass and stoneware bottles.

Better than gold coins, in my book.

Another tree ring

Happy Birthday 

from one old fossil

to another.

May these few pictures be a happy reminder

of another day we've shared,

stepping from rock to rock,

walking on smooth sand,

and occasionally getting our feet wet.