Garage Sealing and Decking Closure

 

So this weekend Dad and I spent some time respraying some more sealant along the wall of the garage that backs onto the garden and a good percentage of the floor having realised that some amount of water seepage was still happening post the spray job back in the summer.

As I wanted to be able to store the decking furniture in the garage over the winter months I was aiming to try and get the garage as dry as possible given it's position within the garden. The image above is post spraying and waiting for it to dry.

So the rattan furniture is now safely tucked away in the drier corner of the garage, on some sheeting Dad's lent me with some tarpaulin laid over the top. Dad had a better idea for the stacking of said furniture and this leaves some space to store the solar lights and other lightweight knicknacks. The large wheeled storage box was also brought down and stacked with the others leaving just the mosaic patio table to sit tucked away in the corner of the top deck and the uber large cushion storage box on the lower deck waiting to be covered at some later stage when I'm 100% sure it's too cold to still sit outside 🥶

Bottom image in the collage above is the now, almost empty, decking. I quite like to see it like this, makes me realise just how big the space is :-)

Impressed with how much space I still have to move around in the garage, after all I'm not done yet with having to mow the grass, sweep off the decking etc. but then it was built to accommodate a Bedford van so bound to be big enough for my gardening paraphernalia. 

Hazel's Funeral

 

Monday 12th Sept saw the family saying a very difficult goodbye to a much loved family friend taken far too soon by the Big C.

We'd grown up together, Darren, me, Hazel and her sister Angela and so saying farewell to such a brave and inspiring woman was never going to be easy. Watching her parents having to deal with a loss like no other was as difficult as you'd imagine it to be 😭

We raised a glass after the service, in a local pub, to a woman who enjoyed life to the full even when she knew it was going to be cut short. She truly was one in a million 💔

Classic Cars - Aylesford Priory

 

Sunday 11th Sept saw Darren, Dad, me and Tedster meet up with Julia, James and Annie over at Aylesford Priory for their annual Classic Car Show.

Awesome as usual, plenty to see, another dry sunny day and warm again. It was good to show my 'bro around, he was visiting for the weekend to attend a funeral on the Monday for a dear family friend, so he brought his EOS R6 along to play with too.

A picnic lunch topped off by Sunday Roast at the local village pub, it was a good day all round.

Going to the Zoo!

 

Saturday 10th Sept saw me, Julia & Tedster head to Wingham with the cameras for some zoo photography. Even Julia took the proper camera, her 700D, instead of snapping on her iPhone ;-)

Here are the otters, James's favourites apparently, really sweet though and they make a lovely sound.

Tedster meets the local T-Rex in the dinosaur area!

We had some good weather, fairly warm after lunch and stayed sunny and dry.

It was good to spend some time with my girl and the cameras 📸

RIP Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

 

So the news finally hit that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth had passed away peacefully at Balmoral on 8th Sept 2022 😱

Talk about the end of an era and her 70yr reign. Accession passed to the now King Charles III, her son and heir.

They have spent the last umpty days in the harsh glare of the public gaze whilst mourning their Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother. I feel sorry that they haven't been allowed to grieve in private until now.

The BBC have spent every waking minute regurgitating news and articles and interviewing every man and his wife which has become embarrassing - just give us the salients and move on.

She will be sorely missed by the nation and the Commonwealth, indeed the world, but her son has moved seamlessly into the role and life as they say goes on.

Model Airshow

 

So Saturday saw Dad and I head off to Headcorn for a model aircraft show. In a word, awesome! Once these babies are in the air, most of the time you would never know them from the real thing. OK so some manoeuvres are somewhat stomach churning, if they indeed held a real life pilot, but suspect the little dummies, if they even have one, aren't particularly phased by being thrown around!

Some are also fairly hard to photograph especially when your lens isn't as long as you would like and moving objects aren't your forte.

But the Sports mode on the M50 coped reasonably well and I managed to follow them ably around the sky to get a few that I liked.

They had model car racing and boats on an impromptu pond too, so something for everyone.

Also had a good natter with the owner of this model boat RNLI 13-38 which is a model of the Shannon class boat that came after the one my Mum's name is on. How cool is that? It's interesting to see what the real life boat might look like especially given that it resides in Invergordon so not likely to be seeing it in the flesh any time soon. Kind of wish that the RNLI offered a small model of these boats to purchase when you do the Launch a Memory, although obviously you'd never see the names on something so small, geez I struggle to see it on the cushion I bought! But it is a wonderful way to remember a loved one and indeed my Step-Mum's name will be on the newest boat that has been named after Prince Philip.

Anyways we had a good day, the forecast storms didn't put in an appearance so we enjoyed the sunshine and spent lots of time snapping photos, especially on high speed mode for the aircraft. You come home to hundreds of photos that look remarkably similar only to play spot the difference when it comes to choosing which ones to keep and edit ;-)