IT

 I thought IT was supposed  to be easy....

Computer shop didn't do all of the job as requested...and in the process cleared all the content on the laptop AND installed windoze instead of upgrading the linux...boss is to blame there as the latter was his job....

However...all my photos etc are mostly on my external hard drive...which I forgot to bring with me....and bro managed to download linux onto a memory stick...Discovering that this worked best on a machine already using linux.....

Then uploaded it onto the laptop.

Then the next step was Bitwarden....a password saving app.....we got back into that in the end when he realised that it was ".eu"

and we had a break after lunch for a walk at the warmest part of the  day...just into double figures C...if you were out if the breeze!!!

I'm not sure what this tree is

but half of it is dead

It is still dry, but getting colder still..I've got two more days here....I may do some drive (block paviours) weeding using a heavy duty hoe that I brought down for him!!

Between being a webmaster for quite a number and travelling, gardening has a low priority for him!!

Misty

 

Today's washing was hung up on a line in the carport!

This afternoon was a visit to a fellow potter, Eddie Daughton. 

His work is beautiful.

It was a great afternoon of blether and discussion with him and his wife, myself and my brother. 

Then kiln firing and building advice!!

Felix...I was surprised that nobody picked up on the reference a couple of posts ago !!

Gone West

 Another day with no photos!!

Off at 9.15, as usual I don't go straight on the motorway..Just as at the end of a journey it is good to have a quieter finish, a settling in on ordinary roads gets it started nicely.

Although I might have been quicker staying on ordinary A roads. 

The traffic report on the radio said "M25 anticlockwise, congestion between junctions 8 and 9 due to an accident....they didn't say anything about the one on the clockwise side..two junctions tailback going between creep and stop...The M25 orbital motorway around London is busy!! I was glad to turn off on the M3 to head West just before the warnings of more congestion!!

This meant that the first stop at 100 miles, Fleet services, was done in three hours.

Time for a break and a sandwich. Then the last 87 miles took 2 hours. 

Going past Stonehenge was clear going West...but the other way was jammed with people slowing to catch a view of the stones with a consequent miles long tailback of traffic. 

It was a clear fresh sunny day to start with, and gradually turned misty over the hills.

We are certainly into Autumn and with Samhain tonight, heading towards Winter.

I'd just finished unloading my car when my brother arrived with friends from his day out! After a cuppa one was dropped at the station to catch a train home and we went for suppa with the other friend and his wife.

Good to not have to cook after travelling..and to have good food, company and conversation.  Although my brain was a little frazzled after a long day "in the saddle"!!

Visiting

 No walking today..Pirate's great niece did the washing and we set out to see her uncle, Pirate's nephew after getting it on the line.

Just a short drive to Ashford.

Tea and chat for the afternoon! 

It was good to see him and his wife. He has Myeloma and is on groundbreaking treatment...and now has developed Prostate cancer. Discussing that we worked out that he has a family tendency for the latter...

Despite all the publicity...plus the fact that he is on a special project for the other...he had never had his PSA checked.....and he is in his  late 60s....

It was great to catch up with all his grandkids' news....I've met all but the newest in person...who I met as a "bump". !!

Then fuel up and head back here...ready for off in the morning.

Bigbury Camp

 This afternoon's two hour (!!) walk went through. No Man's Orchard on the North Downs Way and on in the direction of Harbledon and the A2, stopping at Bigbury Camp...a steady reasonably steep climb up from the Way.

This is the information board

and our walk...

This level ground at the camp was cleared of chestnut coppice...which at one time was grown to produce riven fence posts like this

On the gatepost was a sticker....myst investigate....

Rellies meeting

 I went with Pirate's great niece to meet a cousin..both on the Possee half of his family and we had a grand afternoon out wandering around Canterbury....Starting with coffee (or tea) and cake and ending with hot chocolate four hours later!!

We couldn't find the Green Man on the wooden doors to the Cathedral close...I must look through old photos from visits.

We didn't go in...at £18 each unless you were a National Trust member !! About ten years or so ago we went in without payment, and there was noone gatekeeping...

I did make one purchase...a small solid stainless steel saucepan with a lid, and a pouring lip both sides from a very posh cook shop..£25 well spent. 

You try finding one....without non-stick coating....with a lid...and without having to buy a set of pans.....

It was great having a good catch up, plus all of us getting to know each other better. Sadly another  cousin has just died, which is a great pity as we were all beginning to get on really well.

of course..pictures in reverse order....

cleaning job...before, during and after

The house from which the assassins of Thomas à Beckett left to do the deed

Kings College

Georgian houses with wheel thrown not moulded chimneypots we

A French chocolatière...

the crooked bookshop

felix....

 kept on walking....around the village lanes this time....where we saw a row of large oak trees

a commercial apple orchard

and our shadows!!

Blue sky, sunshine and fluffy little white clouds!!