All sorts of things.........

Hi, well first up, I must tell you that this time 28 years ago I was seeing the New Year in from my hospital bed, having just given birth to a bouncing baby boy. He is still (and always will be) my little boy, even though he is now a hulking great bearded pilot, and also a partner to the delightful C and daddy to the adorable Amelia, AKA Miss Milly. His dad and I are very proud of him and love him and his family to bits! Happy Birthday #1.

Then on to something that also involves an anniversary of sorts....
At the beginning of this year, I started a series called "doo-doo-doo looking out my front door" ( with apologies to Creedence Clearwater Revival.) For the first few months I posted regularly, but then decided that it was probably getting boring and not showing the changes fast enough. So I stopped posting them but continued trying to take at least a photo a week for the rest of the year.
I have just put them together into a slide show, which will hopefully give an idea of a year passing by and the changes that took place. Not all the changes were seasonal, although you will see the maples to the right lose their leaves and regain them. One of the very old trees had to be felled, because it had died and a large branch was dangling dangerously. What doesn't show from the direction of our house is the steep angle the tree was leaning at, one more big storm would probably have uprooted it. The first photo is an older one, taken in 2003, to show how it looked before it died. During the year a big pile of soil was left in the park, and we wondered if we were getting some new trees, but it was used to fill some deep holes left by trees that had died in the past. The horrid cement flames on top of our gateposts were removed and the playground equipment was recently repainted and looks all new and fresh. You will also probably notice some changes in our garden, sadly I managed to kill of a couple of plants during the year, and the climbing rose sadly had to be removed when we did some alterations to the front patio. Pictures were often taken at sunrise or sunset, to try and give a sense of the shortening and lengthening days, and of course the varying weather conditions do show.
One thing about PE is our temperate mild climate, which makes it a superb place to live, but is not as interesting in this kind of sequence as a more extreme climate would be. We don't get spectacular fall colours or snow, and the strong winds which have given the city its nickname are hard to capture in stills, but anyway I hope you enjoy a year of our views across the park!


And finally, to everyone who has visited this blog, and all those who have become real friends over the past year and a half, I wish you and your loved ones a TRULY WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!