The hardships of Xmas shopping

Denise with a hot chocolate in Thornton's (she says it was made with skimmed milk - and I believe her, I really do, cos women go on about indulgence, only to deny themselves!)

Went for a walk today ...

The large number in the display shows my time, and the figure in the bottom right hand corner is the distance in miles (1.5). Hardly a world record, but a record for me in distance terms (with the current equipment, of course). :-)

Mum's bequest went to good use

I satisfied a hankering to get a bass guitar AND got something to keep that I think Mum would have approved of, with this rather lovely Epiphone Jack Casady signature bass. When I play it I'll think of her. It was developed by Gibson and Epiphone with Jack (bassist with Jefferson Airplane, amongst other things - try Wikipeia for more info) to give a wide range of tones suitable for rock, blues and jazz: right up my street. I hope my brother Simon makes it up for New Year, because he plays bass, and I think he'd like it.

... for me to use left-footed

... easily swapped

Normal pedals ...

New car

It's a Mazda6 TS2 with automatic transmission, and has been adapted with a left-foot accelerator for me to use; but the accelerator pedals can be flipped for right or left footed use, so Denise can use it too. It's fantastic to be mobile again.

Westmorland windfarm

Taken from the car on our way back from a week away visiting Denise's sister's family in Wiltshire

Last of the Autumn colours

A walk near home

My niece brought some strange habits back from her far-east trip

This is a drink of tea, apparently. Instead of dried leaves, dried flower-heads are used, by the looks of it.