Halloween Ready!

 

So Monday morning saw me up at 5:30am to do some makeup and dress up in the witch outfit for the Halloween for Charity at work.

Only me and some other guy dressed up as a Ghostbuster! A few others rocked up for an impromptu photoshoot and we appeared in this week's Rochester Roundup! Although not quite sure what the Mario Bros and a pink tutu have got to do with Halloween??

Glad I dressed up though, it's been a while since I've had a chance to dress up for Halloween now there's no club. Also decorated the table next to me in the office and went armed with jelly skeletons, pumpkin shaped marshmallows and some toffee viennese whirls. Even Tedster got in on the act :-)

Decorating for Halloween

 

Spent some time on Saturday morning decorating the porch for Halloween - one of my favourite times of the year - apart from trick or treating - I don't agree with that concept.

Put up a few more than I was originally going to, including some hanging bits - like I say, trying to avoid the door knockers looking for treats although I think there's supposed to be a pumpkin code by which people indicate their willingness to participate in the shenanigans.

So this is in the evening with the LED tree lights on and set to orange, although the phone makes them look more red.

Also spent some time practising with some makeup ready for dressing up for charity on Monday at work. Witches dress is hanging up already and was trying to decide on main makeup for my eyes/lips and then trying to draw webs and spiders for the additional "look". Not as easy to draw a straight line on your face as the YouTube videos make it look, even with a pencil rather than liquid liner!

My Grim Reaper rucksack is packed with some decorations for my desk and a few snacks for the "team" - not that there's many people in on a Monday so they should last a little while hopefully 🤞🏻

Autumn Walk - Walderslade Woods

 

Friday afternoon and Dad and I headed along the road to Walderslade Woods looking for some autumn colour - which we found in spades!

A carpet of leaves throughout the woodland and a myriad of fungi of differing species.

Thankfully the woods is reasonably busy, Dad got carried away climbing through the brambles and lost his footing, fell back into a ditch and I had to enlist the help of a lovely chap who'd been cycling through the woods with his young son and dog to help pull Dad up onto his feet again! Nothing broken but his pride - thankfully!

We spent a good 2hr mooching right down to the bottom where it comes out onto the street and then back the other way to the car.

Really mild weather too, only needing a light mac for a change. Long may it continue...

Sunrises and Rainbows

 

Thursday morning saw a wonderful sunrise and then a rainbow as it started raining.

Snapped these two on the mobile and made a collage of them.

Beautiful 😍

Paws in the Park - Annie's 5th B'day

 

So Saturday 22nd October was Annie's 5th birthday - where does the time go?

Julia arranged a meet-up with people from her work and mine to go for a mooch around Mote Park. Lots of doggie snacks and pukka doggie bag take homes, including some for most of the random dog walkers we saw enroute as Julia had expected more people from her work to attend but basically they couldn't be bothered. Not unless there was wine - go figure!

But we had a good crowd nonetheless, we all got on, people and dogs, no squabbling and the dogs enjoyed playing in the water down by the old bridge area - especially Annie:

She was soaked!

All the doggies ended up sleeping for England I think when they got home, especially the 15wk old Andrex puppy Nelson 😍

Everyone is up for doing it again so watch this space...

Autumn Break

 

So have almost completed a week off work, using up most of the rest of my holiday before the year ends and my leave starts again.

Not bad weather in the main, mostly dry and temperatures up and down.

Have pottered about at home, tidying away some more of the knicknacks ready for winter, been out and about with Dad to a local camera club exhibition in Allington - good selection of images. Dobbies where the Christmas shopping started, bought the above gem in a charity shop in Allington, for the princely sum of £4 it was a steal, thought it would be handy for outdoor entertaining on the decking!

Sorted out a memorial with Dad at the Crem for Mum & Margaret, saw the tree below on the grounds:

How gorgeous are the colours on this? Autumn is such a wonderful season.

Finally we took a mooch over to Mote Park in the hopes of finding more Autumn colour - we weren't disappointed:

Again we struck lucky with the weather, just starting to drizzle as we were packing up to leave. Irritatingly the new Café facilities are still being finalised, were supposed to have been open this summer. Now looks like it could be nearer Christmas. And only one set of portaloos at the main entrance just isn't enough for a park area as large as Mote Park. Something else they need to remedy and fast.

Still the temporary café under the trees near the play area served up some awesome food, Dad went for the quarter pounder and I had the egg muffin - lush 😋

Likely to be back there next weekend for a doggie birthday party/gathering for Annie 🐶 Can't believe she will be 5yr old already 😱

Fields Cut - Finally

 

Got home after a day in the office to find that the fields had finally been cut, all bang tidy again after getting waayy too long and the opportunity to cut it during the better weather missed for a short while.

Annie will be chuffed, no more bringing home lots of seeds every time she gets a walk over there 🐶

Got to admit that whilst it can be alluring watching the long grass ripple in the breeze, like the waves on the ocean, it does look nice when its been freshly cut :-)

Julia's Birthday

 

So Sunday 2nd October I went to Leeds Castle with Julia and James to take a last look at the Sculptures before they got packed up for this year and to celebrate Julia's birthday on the Monday.

We had a good day, despite the threat of rain we had a good amount of sunshine and enjoyed the walk around the grounds, admiring the sculptures - some of which were outstanding and generally having a good catch-up.

Probably my favourite sculpture, just a section, but oh so amazing. The drips of "rain" on their faces were part of the sculpture itself. Totally amazeballs 💓

On the Monday evening we had dinner at Pizza Express in Maidstone 🍕 😋