Day 2.157: Storm force two

Although I avoided travel disruption and we missed out on the hail that affected several areas nearby when the storms came through yesterday, just the torrential rain seems to have finally done for this apple tree that has been leaning over significantly since the ice storm back in December.

Exile #2 and Exile #3 had cut some small branches and taken them out for collection earlier in the day and since she was keen Exile #3 helped me for another shift of removing-what-we-could. Soon I will need to bring the chainsaw to bear I think.

I made a couple of time-lapse videos - they're not very good, but give an idea of our achievements in the half-an-hour or so that we were working this evening. The picture shows what's left to remove - i.e. still most of the tree!

Day 2.156: Fun and farewell

Here is a picture and a video from our rather excellent Sunday afternoon. The water was cool, but it's still the first half of June after all.

My work week started with news of the worst kind. A friend, former colleague and reader of this blog died at the weekend completely unexpectedly and far too young. One time I was in contact with him a while back he said, with characteristic candour, that I was "driving him mad with the f***ing pop puns" - sorry mate! I can hardly believe that he's gone and my heart goes out to his wife and three boys.

Early this evening a line of thunderstorms came though and deluged the area with heavy rain and hail accompanied by some impressive thunder and lightning. Fortunately as I was about to leave work to try and beat it home I remembered my own advice "Next time maybe I'll wait it out at work" and so I had a relatively uneventful end to the day - which was just fine with me.

Day 2.155: A little horse

With plans for a pool party and barbecue this afternoon, there was a temptation to have a quiet morning. We resisted it. Instead we ventured out to a local farm (mostly a pick-your-own establishment) for a local food festival. We didn't stay too long but had a wonderful time tasting (and buying) some local produce, visiting the animals in the petting zoo and the girls had two-minute pony rides which they loved:

Meanwhile, E5N1 adopted a more modern means of transport - although he was going nowhere in the sand.

We had a great day all round and I feel that this non-stop three-day weekend has made up for some of the more sedentary ones we've had recently.

Day 2.154: Swing, coat

I left the rest of the family to have a day at home to recover from the excitement of (and resulting mess from) the beach trip to go to our soon-to-be useable church facility. We painted all the walls in one large meeting space, finished off constructing some other walls, did some priming and removed a huge amount of debris. Quite satisfying, but a fairly relentless day of work.

I understand that the girls spent a good deal of the day swinging. Here is a library picture from Day 2.152 of the girls in the pyjamas testing the strength of the ground anchors. They held up fine.

Day 2.153: Rained, ate...

After yesterday turned out to be cloudy but dry - the threat of thunderstorms coming to nothing - we were concerned that invoking the rain-date for Exile #4's birthday party would have proven to be an error. Let's see...

First we packed up the car. Fortunately it was only a small party with two of Exile #4's best friends and their families joining us at the beach. It didn't look like the fixings for a small party mind you!

As we approached the park we drove up the hill into a rain cloud and it was raining steadily. After ten minutes or so it stopped raining and we ventured out.

Soon despite the lowering skies, the kids were getting into the swing of the beach-party.


Gradually the skies started to clear,

and we had a very nice time - including an encore by the birthday cupcakes and a Exile-special group-shot!

As we ready to leave, the windscreen wipers came on and reminded us of our less-than-hopeful arrival,


and before long we were on our way home with a car full of happily exhausted kids.


Success!