Jurassic Borehamwood

On route to site this morning, I was greeted with by a herd of dinosaurs as I left the motorway. On the way home we stopped by the crazy golf course to see the vicious creatures!

Autumnal fun

For the last few weeks the leaves have been tumbling off the tree in the front garden. Theres little point in raking them up every few days so I've left it until the tree is completely bare and then done all the work in one hit. I had help from Lily, who was happy to gather them up one by one while I hauled dozens at a time in. Once the pile was complete she then made her own game of running and kicking through the middle of the pile.

Old Farm Pond

I use to live in Earley before moving down to Lower Earley over a decade ago. When I was growing up it really was "all fields" then the houses started to be built and the largest housing estate in Europe emerged. Several parts of the old land survive including cottages and the pond that was in the grounds of Old Farm. For safety its now fenced off with coppiced trees and its full of reeds, but if you peek through the gaps you can still see the pond. As children we always thought some boggy beast roamed around under the surface, kind of like Lower Earleys own Nessey!

Lunchtime

Walking back to collect some kit from the van during an install this slug reminded me it was time to hunt out some food!

Trip to London

We've been meaning to go to the London Aquarium for ages and finally had some time to do so. Letting the train take the strain we ended up on the South Bank with a sleeping Lily in her buggy. Luckily the Olympic mascot displays are still around. There are several tours around areas of London with painted Wenlocks and Mandevilles lining the route. This one was Underwater Wenlock, stood opposite the Houses of Parliament and right outside the Aquarium itself.

Summer chores

I had already ruined a perfectly good saturday morning by having to go into work to finish off some paperwork from last weeks job and prep for next weeks work so I decided to really spoil things and cut the grass in the middle of the day!

My new office

Well, thats not strictly true. The sun was finally out for a few hours today. So following a few hours cooped up in the data centre I broke free for a can of Coke and a KitKat on the decking outside. Every place of work should have a lake!

Welcome to the jungle

Day two of making the most of not camping took us to The Living Rainforest once more. This time with my parents in tow as a treat for my mums birthday last month. It was sweating hot and we spied lots of interesting things once more including this water dragon lazing on some rocks.

Thats unusual

Not something you see everyday. A combination of sportscar and wildlife. The classic car meet I went to this evening was next to the river and it seemed to be mayfly night. There were hundreds of them flying around and getting everywhere. We even managed to transport a few back with us on the cars as I had one resting on the Camper the following morning!

Grass

Quite a simply one today. After several weeks of constant rain we had a couple of days of sunshine which meant the garden needed a trim. Following yet more rain today it looks like its never been done!

Everybodies heard about the bird

We get a fair few birds through our garden. One of Lily's first words was "bird" and she really enjoys watching them out the window of the kitchen when she is eating or often running in from the lounge to see the feeding. With a suggestion for birds today we decided to throw some left over bread out to see what we could encourage in. The Pigeons were camera shy, the Blue Tits hiding away and our unusual visitors of recent weeks, the Red Kits and Heron no where to be seen so I relied on the old faithful, the Blackbird.

All aboard

After a lazy start to the day we headed out in the afternoon. We were helping some friends out who were moving the next day by looking after their little boy, Rupert. He is the same age as Lily and they go swimming together. As our friends live just up the road from Beale Park we decided that was a good place to go. Pity about the rain! It did ease off so we got to walk around a bit, but a return trip in sunnier weather is called for. Luckily the train was still running so we took a ride around the park which the kids loved.

Spring has sprung

For the last few days the sunshine has been beaming down, the temperature has increased and now the daffodils are bursting into life. Winter is pretty much over, spring has begun.

St Davids Day

1st of March, St Davids Day and my birthday. My 35th birthday to be precise. As a treat we all went to Beaulieu today. Home of the National Motor Museum and some fantastic grounds to walk through. During the day I rattled off 300+ photos of cars inside. The new Bond in Motion exhibition was brilliant and the collection as good as ever with several new cars and lots of reshuffling. I could have picked one of dozens of car photos I took or even one of the many photos of Lily and Kim wandering round. But instead I chose this. Its from the grounds near the house, the sun was out, it was almost 20°c and t-shirt weather and as a family we wandered round relaxed and enjoying ourselves. This sums up my day.