Battening Down

It was predominantly dry today. This made a change after the recent rain and the floods that have hit some parts of the area.

I went to collect Ellie and take her to school. Zoe is still unwell and has no voice, so she stayed behind while I did the school drop-off.

Back home, after some breakfast and another armful of caffeine, I decided that we needed to batten down the garden. Storm Ciaran is forecast to hit and cause havoc for a couple of days. With winds forecast to reach 90 mph, it seemed like a good idea to clear the garden furniture. As we no longer have a car in the garage, all of the chairs could be squirrelled away safely.  With the garden clear, the next task was to clean up some stains on the landing carpet, which had been so carefully deposited by Jasper just after we got into bed the other night.

Finally, I was able to return to my journals. My first pass of the 1970s is complete. I will return to it at a later date as I have found some additional text and photos are worthy of inclusion. I then made a start on the 1980s. Again this is sparse, but does include some long entries transcribed from my letters during business trips and notes written when on holiday with the family.

After lunch, we both spent some time with our books before going to meet Ellie from school and take her home.

We have put up a sign on the door "Sorry, No Trick or Treats, please". Children were literally brought onto the estate by the carload in previous years and it was getting a bit silly. They have ruined it for the local kids. What we have done is tell a few families to ignore the sign and knock, as they are welcome.