Anyway you can.
There I was, lying in bed in that holiday twixt xmas & new year limbo, neither asleep nor awake when I dreamed I heard thunder.
Only semi concious I thought the weather was not THAT bad..
And then the wolfhound landed on me.
Than the sound of Wolfhound paws galloping upstairs....
Followed by a squeal and an "OOF" as the Wolfhound leaps onto the the still slumbering husband in bed.
Some might call me vindictive.
oops, not been doing too well of late eh?
Summary:
1) hubby went away to Florida for two weeks leaving me alone with 5 sulky dogs
2) hubby came back with NEW TOYS:
4) Christmas season approached, youngest brother & girlfriend (Sam & Vicky) turned up. Decorations erected:
Including the new outside lights (thanks Sam!)
The indoor lights....
new macro shot ( I LOVE this lens!):
5) Ensuing silliness with fisheye was participated in by all:
6) Bread and butter pudding was demolished:
7) caught a cold. Tonight I will be dropping youngest brother off at the airport to fly home to summer. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.
I believe me now.
Is that I run out of dog food forks long before I fill the dishwasher.
Bummer.
Oh well, home alone for the weekend with 5 snoring dogs, nothing for it but to light the fire, and put my feet up, it's Fiday night after all. 
We had a minor car crisis last night. Went to open the car to take the dogs down to the river and the alarm went off, and we could not switch it off.
After pulling fuses and mucking about with keys in the ever increasing rain, with tempers fraying (it's hard to remain cool when there is a siren going off in your ear), I eventually opted to call the AA and retreated into the house to hunt for my membership card and the phone.)
While I was dialling Brian rushed in and said "Don't call the AA!"
Oh good, I thought, he's fixed it.
No.
"We're with the RAC".
DOH!
The alarm goes off. I get up.
Feed the cat,
Go downstairs, let the dogs out, clean up any surprises,
Make coffee,
Empty the dishwasher (or fill it),
Unload the washing machine and reload,
Fold up washing,
Feed the dogs,
Pill the dogs,
Put any recyling in the bins,
Check email, bloglines & Flickr,
Refill the dog water bowls,
Shower & dress,
Poop scoop.
Brian gets up and gets dressed.
He says his is the greater accomplishment.
I think he has a point.
It' a self basting roasting dish, the old fashioned enamelled variety, the kind that is perfect for roasting a leg of mutton in a peat fired aga.
Now the only problem with this is I don't have an aga, and mutton legs are hard to find round here. Apart from that it's a great plan.
The interesting thing about this particular gizmo is that, according to my dad, the self basting dimples were actually invented by my great-grandfather. Or was it great great grandfather?
Cool huh?
Brian thinks he's been transported back 50 years, he's got no soul.
ok. that may be a slight exaggeration. Actually I seem to have left my mobile phone somewhere. But that's ok, I had a lovely chat with the lady who now has it and "bought it off the market".
Anyway..... I phoned O2 to say I had lost it, not really expecting anything to be done and you could have knocked me down with a feather duster.
they are going to:
a) block the card
b) block the phone
c) transfer the phone number to a new sim and send it to me FREE
d) send me a money off token for a new phone.
How cool is that! Well done O2, seriously good service.
Now the only problem with that is I need to shop for a new phone, so it ought to be on my shopping list, only I can't actually READ my shopping list, mainly cos its in my handwriting.
Hand me back the rose tinted glasses please :-)
Last weekend I took my first look round the garden to check what had happened while I was away. Despite a couple of frosts and some missing leaves, everything looks ok, though the autumn "weed&feed" on the grass has REALLY done its job and I needed to mow (it's the one garden chore I hate, mowing).
Anyway, while sorting out the recycle bins I noticed that Brian had chucked a pefectly good marrow on there so retrieved it, rinsed it and left it on the side in the kitchen (Brian is clueless about gardening & veg).
I mentioned to himself that marrows can keep for quite a while and a look of horror came over his face.
"Put... it... back.... on the compost. NOW."
I puzzled over this for a second.. "Why?".
It turns out that he had been listening when we were discussing the merits of wee on helping compost break down.
ah.
Unsure of the imperviousness of marrow skin, I put the marrow back on the compost heap.
Well, I've been back for a week now and still feel a bit of a space cadet. It's taken me ages to catch up on the blogs cos there are just too many to read.
Who was the MOST prolific?
Well...
Dog's Eye View came in WAY over everyone else... something like 33 posts, and in joint second were Wally the Corgador and Flowerpot Days
Jees you guys HAVE been busy... you need to stop and smell the flowers:
Or the pengies...
Ok - maye NOT the pengies.. they do NOT smell of chocolate.
I've uploaded more Falklands pics to my flickr account if anyone wants to see some wildlife and scenery.
Yesterday was my last full day in the Falklands (oh waily waily). As usual first thing it was bright and sunny so we took Jackson for his morning constitutional to Surf Bay.
A morning walk needs a Basset, a ball, and a lot of kicking and chasing:
Refusal to kick the ball results in Basset protest:
After or walk we had a leisurely breakfast then went out to do some shopping, including a visit to the museum:
Curiously, the Darwin was the very first boat I ever travelled on, back in .... oh a very long time ago when we first went to England. It's not around any more.
Later I finally managed to get a picture of the elusive night heron. (well they are not actuall ELUSIVE, they practically live on my dad's doorstep, but I've just been lazy).
Then we took Jackson and Luca for another romp through the sand dunes, where Luca insisted on digging lots of holes while Jackson supervised:
They day was rounded off by a delicious (and fun) meal at the Malvina with Adam, Jenny, Dad, Jenny' brother Paicey and his wife Corrine. The upland goose pate was yummy... and the sea bass is to die for...
Finally - one magic moment. Instead of going straight home, we drove round the back of Sapper's hill. The sky was clear, there is NO light pollution, and there was no moon.
Oh the stars (sorry no camera!)
WOW.
On Sunday we had Adam, Jenny and Larissa around for brunch. After a bright sunny start it snowed. Which just goes to show, if you don't like the weather round here, wait an hour. It WILL change.
After brunch the skies started to clear, so I collected Adam, Jenny and Luca and we all went to walk off our sunday feast
We walked round past the Lady Liz and the Plim 
to the Samson (there are LOTS of wrecks in Stanley Harbour)
Close to the Samson Jenny found a suspect package, so Adam phoned the bomb disposal squad and we sat around an waited
Until the Basset got bored...
And the EOD turned up
And identified the suspect package as a battery. Oops. (but any excuse for a gratuitous Land Rover shot eh?).
Come the afternoon the weather had changed again to haily showers interspersed with sun, so Dad and I took a drive up to Estancia, but sadly the showers overtook the sun and there was not much to photograph.
A few reminders of an event 25 years ago:
And then there are the latest landmarks:
Cool huh?
In the evening it was sunny yet again (see what I mean about waiting?) so I took a hike up Wireless ridge to the memorial looking over Stanley:
The sunset was not too bad either.
On Saturday we took a trip down to New Haven to look at the hole in the ground that's going to be the new Ferry terminal between East and West Falkland. It's a big hole in the ground.
The weather was pretty much pants, which is a shame cos the scenery was terrific, but it meant I did not take many photos.
On the way out we saw a pond full of the shy black necked swans. Who promptly buggered off to the far side of the pond:
We stopped at Darwin lodge on the way back for lunch (which was, as ever, splendid).
But the traffic was aweful.
When we got back the skies finally cleared and the car looked like this:
And we did not even leave the road.
After Fox Bay, Dad and I flew out to Sealion Islands, which is to the south east of the main island group. It's a wildlife sanctuary and there is a lodge there. The island has the most amazing array of birds and sealife in a small area, it's famous for its sealions (hence the name... but you probably spotted that) but we were too early for the main sealion season.
The lodge (with turkey vultures and Johnny Rooks on the roof)
We did see one sealion wander up to a beach, take a look then decide is WAS the wrong beach (on account of it being full of elephant seals).
The main thing that WAS going on was that the elephant seals were having pups, fighting and mating on the beaches... and boy are they HUGE.
The big males guard their harems from all comers on land:
and at sea
The winner gets the girls:
And the girls have the pups (some of these guy were very newborn):
When not engaged on the trials of reproduction they sit around and sunbathe, coughing and sneezing and sighing:
And sometimes get their noses picked by tussac birds:
Other highlights on the island include our best bird friends, penguins. At the moment there are Gentoos
And Jackass Penguins (magallenic) all nesting
And further up the beach the giant petrels (locally known as "stinkers") are also nesting... these guys are huge, almost as big as the albatrosses (which don't nest on Sealions).
This place is just gorgeous, and the weather was very kind, on my last day there I was wandering around in a t-shirt.
Driving up to my brother Adam's house for supper last night we passed the parked vehicles of the smartly dressed people having a soiree at Government House:
Well I've been EVERYWHERE. Ok just a few places, but my plan to do a daily blog update and upload en mass has failed, something to do with the 4600 photographs I've taken (thank DOG for digi), so I will summarise.
I flew the scenic route to Fox Bay, via MPA (Mount Pleasant Airport to you folks), Saunders Island and Carcass Island. The day was clear and bright and the scenery from the plane was utterly fabulous.
I'll pop a whole load of photos in my Flickr account so as not to overload this poor old blog.
In Fox Bay I stayed with my brother Ben and his wife Clare in their utterly fabulous house, no single pic can do it justice, so here is a photo of the vaulted ceiling in the living room:
And how many places in the world can you see this from the living room:
And the sunset looks like this:
A short walk from the house I caught these Johnny Rooks (Striated Caracara) posing:
And the fence of the paddock where Clare keeps her sheep (they were producing lambs while we were there):
Oh and while we were sat on the deck sunning ourselves, the British Antarctic Survey plane buzzed us (so did the Tornado, but I had my fingers in my ears to stop myself from being deafened, it's hard to take a photo with your fingers in your ears, trust me).
Our house in the sunset:
The weather while I was in Fox Bay was fabulous, sunny, still and very very bright (something to do with some missing ozone??). The sealions were roaring out on the big island, the jackass penguins were braying on the little tussac island, and the oyster catchers were piping. Heaven.
I'll do another post about the Sealion Islands visit later.
