Where's the heatwave then?

Finally a photo of me I don't mind sharing over the ether.  My darling husband has used a camera perhaps half a dozen times in his life and normally his well-intentioned attempts are not the sort I want to share with the world!  However, as I was all dressed up ready to go to the Antiques Roadshow valuation day last week I thought I would let him loose with it again.  Result!  We had a lovely morning down there but alas, our geese were not swans - more like dead ducks!!

Photographs will be thin on the ground for a while though.  The blame can be firmly laid at a failure with the internet, which has been getting worse and worse over the past fortnight.  It hasn't the guts to load photographs at all now and when I made the mistake of trying to view a property on line last week, each thumbnail photo took 30 seconds at least to load.  I have been just too busy (and never in the house) to phone them up before now, and I really don't want the threat and intimidation of being told if the fault is with my equipment I will have to pay them £130.



Above, a photo taken at the Antiques Roadshow which was held at Pembroke Castle.  We queued initially for about 2 hours, but were then dealt with more or less straight away.  Tip: how to tell if African masks are genuine.  Real ones are much bigger and don't smell of smoke (they are smoked over a fire to darken them!)

Today is Tuesday.  So much for the promised heatwave - it is miserable and overcast, and everywhere is still wet from recent rain.  I think mowing the lawn is now on hold!

I need to go for a walk, weather regardless.  Friends with Fitbits talk of doing their 10,000 steps daily (required for optimum fitness as we all age) and whilst I can easily clock this up on a Malvern Day, or on an hour's walk in the locale, my fitness levels are offset against the days spent at Fairs and Fleamarkets (though there is a lot of upper body fitness going on when we load and unload for Fairs, as well as walking back and forth between car and tables.  Worse still are auctions, when we might spend several hours (if our lots are spread out through the sale) just sitting.

We now have two Units, in different towns, to try and optimize our selling opportunities.  We had discussed in recent weeks about the possibility of just concentrating on the Fairs, with smaller "smalls" on my side which wouldn't take up much storage room.  Then last weekend we failed miserably in our selling efforts (people just weren't buying - we were the free entertainment) so have had a sharp rethink on THAT plan!

As you can see, I am about to be held to ransom by the apple harvest.  This is just one tree, the dual purpose one at the end of the driveway.  Below: we will trim this branch back once the apples are big enough to pick.  Meanwhile we just have to duck!

All our stable Swallows have left for Africa now.  A few House Martins (a late brood) remain just long enough to get their last babies fed and fledged.  They were trawling the air just before dark last night, passing so close to the front of the house.  I miss their chatter as they form a line along the power cables between the farm and the house.  I miss seeing them and hearing them as they raise their broods.  

Autumn has truly arrived.  When we go to Malvern Fleamarket this weekend, we will see fields of golden stubble (none in Carmarthenshire, which concentrates on sheep and dairy or beef cattle.)  The apple orchards will be ripening - we have seen heavily laden trees and one in an old established orchard of old trees not grown on dwarf rootstocks, had split in two last week.  Obviously a fragile (diseased?) trunk, the weight of the fruit and a recent windy night became too much for it.

Mindful of the fact that Christmas is now on the far horizon, I have blown the dust off my sewing basket and picked up the x-stitch project I began in the spring.  It is destined as a Christmas present for a friend so I need to crack on with it.  I will try and post a photo of it later in the week.

Meanwhile, it is nice to have time to draw breath.  We have had a very busy August and early September has followed suit.  I am greatly enjoying the new series of Poldark, and also watching Victoria.  Sky offered us 5 months free use and a no-contract deal where the following 7 months are just £10 a month, so it allows us to record clashing programmes, even though we can't get our favourite Discovery channel for that tenner.

Off to finish my Word Gram game on Mindjolt.  What a time waster that could be if I let it!