Home and Abroad: October 2010

As I was in the US this week, and had a few days holiday, I decided to spend a day in Greenville with Addy, Brendan and Nicole. (Geoff and Genya had to work)

Brendan is still pretty small, and most of his activity centers around activities that either I cannot really do, or I have lost practice. Nicole was basically his focus all day. (and from the looks of it...every day)

Addy is growing in independence, and as long as Mom is in the background, seems comfortable with her Grampa. So, until Geoff came home after work, I was pretty much her friend for the day.

We coloured, played with blocks, read stories, went for a walk, played on the swings and the slide, ate lunch....you know, just normal stuff.

I had brought with me a scarecrow, a gift from Gi Gi to the house for Halloween. I took it out of the car when I arrived and stuck in in the ground next to the front door.... While Addy was apparently happy looking at it thru the window, when we went outside, she was not to sure what to make of it at first.

This is the first pose with Addy and the scarecrow. We sat her down next to it and then tried to take a few pictures to show Gi Gi. In this shot she really does not want to get too close.

In this shot she takes the attitude "if I can't see it , it doesn't exist"

Getting a little more comfortable, and curious...

And finally..."hey, this is pretty cool"

I felt that the word scarecrow was perhaps a bit challenging for Addy, also the word SCARE is not really good for an almost 2 year old. So, I called it Gi Gi man. Nicole told me that the next morning as Addy was coming down the stairs, the first words out of her mouth were "Gi Gi man"

As this is my last weekend in the UK for awhile, I headed up to Bloxam to see Susie and Mike. As it was a fore casted to be sunny, and low 60's, I decided to try my favourite golf course, Rye Hill, to see if they could give me a tee off time. I was given a slot immediately upon arrival. Amazing as it sounds, I have never been turned away, no matter when I show-up. I was quite fortunate this weekend and no one had teed off for the last half hour, so there was a big gap ahead of me. If I end up a single, I have to wait a lot. For the most part I get joined up with another group, of if I go alone and it is slow, I catch up to a twosome or threesome and join them.

This week I decided I was probably not going to catch up unless I played fast. So, before I started, in honour of the Ryder Cup, I decided to play a two ball, use the best score. As a result, it took me a bit longer and I did not catch anyone until about the 16th hole. Also, to fully get the Ryder Cup experience, I played lift, clean and place and allowed gimmes. (as a result of this I had a pretty good score..my best so far)

It was cool, a bit windy, and some signs of fall color ... a very pleasant day.

I could not resist taking another try at creative photography using the close up feature on my camera. I do not know what these are called, but they are beautiful.

On this hole you can see I had both balls in contention...for a birdie . Alas, we missed both, took a par.

I am not sure what this means. There is no place to put any money.

Even though I was playing two balls, I played fairly quickly, finishing in about 3 1/2 hours. On a few holes near the end I took a chance to sit and enjoy the view. This is the par 3 12th hole.

After golf I went to Susie's. This summer, Mike and Susie had their driveway redone. Most homes in their area had driveways resurfaced, and enlarged years ago, mostly to accommodate the growing trend of more than one car in the family. As Mike and Susie only had one car, this was not necessary. Anyway, Mike finally admitted that one or two cars, he needed to resurface. I am not the only visitor that comes to their house. Rowena visits at Christmas, Mikes mother occasionally drives over. So they had the driveway widened at the same time they resurfaced. I think it looks pretty good.

On Saturday night we had a lovely steak dinner and watched the Ryder Cup. Then...on Sunday morning, this was the view from my bedroom window.... After looking at this I quickly decided this was a good day to go back to bed and sleep some more....

About 9:30 I went downstairs....This was the view from the living room... the Coi pool is almost overflowing... Ryder Cup is not the only place it is raining.