Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 26: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Here is the link to the prior thread:

Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 25: Calmly through the day

Welcome to all regulars, lurkers, and new contributors! Everyone is welcome to join.

It was sunny when I awoke (at dinner time) so I took my food out into the garden to eat and journal. Listening to the traffic rumbling by and a blackbird (I think) making a mournful meeeeeeep meeeeeeep meeeeeeep sound from the bushes while sparrows chirp in the trees.

Glad you found time to meet up with your friend Havoc and hope the painting goes well.

I am like your DD Silkie, spending all the money then wondering where it's gone. I don mind though. After decades of enforced frugality it makes a pleasant change to be able to have whatever I want. I'm sure your DD will get a grip on budgeting in time. Fingers crossed for you that the kitchen works don't take too long.

I like the cooler weather too Why. Wild swimming sounds fantastic. I used to live in London too and I miss it, I went sideways instead of upwards 😉

Commiserations at having to go into the office in your WFH day Shay.

Perfect view over the river MissC, so beautiful, that sky!

Silkie, I hope your kitchen is done soon. My DD orders a lot of things online too, but now that she's back at uni we don't see the parcels. DH is trying to convince her to take her laptop to the tech center at uni to get the files copied off before she turns it in for repair.

Havoc, how did he like the Science Center? I miss going to places like that with my kids.

Why, I had no idea Scotland had dolphins. Every day is a school day on MN.

It has turned to fall here quite abruptly. It is quite cold and windy here. I needed a jacket for my walk this morning.

I booked my covid booster and flu jabs for next week. I have a meeting in Boston in December and booked train tickets for that. I love Boston, so I am glad they chose that for the meeting location. It will be a quick trip, up on a Thursday and back on Saturday.

Hi all from sunny Corneall. We're away for a week, sadly nearly over. Had a wonderful time exploring places new to us. Not done as much swimming as I expected as not many beaches, but I've had 2 says with a cols, so probably just as well. DH has just cooked burgers which we had with salad ( he would never do this at home). Photo of sunset at Tintagel.

Iwandered, lovely sunset picture. There's a town in my area called Cornwall, which confused me a bit when I first joined MN and heard people talking about it. I'm glad you had such a nice holiday.

I took a windy, cold walk around the reservoir and found a new visitor. I think the spillway has become a duck tourist attraction.

Flagging a little after my early start. DD and her friend had quite a morning, beginning with a notification from Greyhound that their bus to Milwaukee was late. They finally left about 2 hours after they were scheduled to leave, so missed their connection to Minneapolis, but they're currently on another bus service heading to Madison, where the friend they're visiting will pick them up. It's apparently a double decker bus, whizzing along through the orchards and pastures of southern Wisconsin.

Love the photos @IWanderedLonely and @MissConductUS . I love when I find places in the US named after places here in the UK, especially if the place here in the UK is tiny (unlike Cornwall). It makes you think about the people that left their villages here and moved to America, and how they must have missed home.

@mathanxiety sounds like an adventure! I took a greyhound once from Chicago to New York. I hope your daughter has a lovely trip, and her journey home is less complicated.

@Silkierabbit hope the kitchen is all finished after all? Must be exciting to see it come together.

Just sitting watching TV and waiting for a pie to finish in the oven. DS in bed, he's so tired by Fridays after a full week at nursery poor lad. Dog is snoring on the floor. Early start tomorrow to visit some family, hope we get a good sleep.

Why, where I live in the Hudson Highlands, the place names are all British, Dutch, or native American. DH grew up in a town named Greenwich; there's a York(town) in the area and many other British place names such as Ardsley and Bedford. The town I live in happens to have a Dutch name, as they were also very early settlers in the area. New York City was originally New Amsterdam and the strong NYC accent you hear on some TV shows can be traced back to the Dutch accent of that period.

Why, here in the lower mainland of BC we have New Westminster our original capital of BC. Our Capital is now Victoria for the former queen. Off the top of my head we have Carnarvon and Cornwall streets in Vancouver. There are many more. Oh, BC is for British Columbia. 🤓

Kitchen is not finished. Inspector Floof seems happy with progress. Not coming back until Thursday.

Swimming tonight.

Do you get fish in there too MissC?

Glad DD managed to find a way to get to friend despite the delay Math

Floof is gorgeous Silkie

In my UK town we have Vancouver Street Havoc

Here's some pics of my local mallards for the wildlife lovers among you

Loving the pictures of wildlife and sunsets!
I had my covid and flu jabs at work - one in each arm. Was very glad to have them.
Currently baking a blackberry and white choc tray bake, though slightly anxious that it won't cool in time before I need to go and cook chilli for this afternoons game. Then I will be rushing off to catch the train to another local town for a friend's surprise 50th birthday meal.

Have a lovely meal for your friend Sprouts

Loving the duck and sunset pictures.

Had hoped we would be putting things back in the kitchen this weekend and getting house sorted but seems they still have a fair bit to do. They are not back until Thursday. The food side is OK as it's hot but wanting house tidier and work free. Tbf they are very good at keeping to their bit. We now have to osmo oil worktops X 4 and keep Floof off them. Also green bin to be filled from gardening.

The green bin is now full of mowed lawn and tidied garden.

Now we are about to have a Chinese meal with prawns with bamboo shoots and water chesnuts and mixed fried rice and sweet and sour sauce for DH and I to share. DS will have spring rolls, spare ribs and chips and DD veg chow mein. She will be back soon.

Silkie, what type of wood are your new kitchen counters? They look lovely.

The new weather station is set up and connected to the console inside the house and the website I use for monitoring it remotely. It took about an hour to do and was a bit easier than expected. It's much nicer looking than the old one.

They are solid oak worktop, it's same as we had put in our last house and I really like it. Last time we varnished them, these ones I think will get osmo oil on instead. Quite how we will keep Floof away I am not sure.

Floof is currently trilling very happy. DH gave him some more cat nuts and not only filled the bowl fuller than it's meant to go he also spilled lots more all over the carpet. Floof is a happy boy. 😂

Ooh thanks for the UK-names-in-US! I used to like looking them up on the maps in school.

@MissConductUS the weather station looks lovely. I'm not really familiar with them, do they tell you the local weather more accurately, kind of thing?

@Silkierabbit I love your kitchen colour scheme, the blue cupboards are lovely. It'll be great if it's all finished off this week! Your Chinese tea sounded very tasty too.

How was the suprise party @sproutsandparsnips ? You description of your tray bake is making me drool.

Quieter one here today, just having a cup of tea before we all take the dog out. Baby has his bazillionth cold since starting nursery but seems happy enough. He is only just 1 but has definitely found his own opinion in the last few weeks and is furious if it's not listened to!

Thanks why Hope you are having a nice Sunday.

Just cleaned the kitchen as it was all dusty from the builders and did whole of upstairs yesterday (well except DDs room but that is forbidden and best avoided) and all of garden has been done (well enough to fill a green bin so we need to wait to do more). So just living room, dining room, utility and downstairs bathroom to go.

Just had a nice bath and now having a milky coffee. Had yoghurt, granola and strawberries this morning and some smoked salmon.

Am also clearing e-mails, I have so many. Have gone from something like 4,000 to 2,800.

Blue and green bins are full and out I'm sure you'll all be relieved to hear.

I'm wearing false eyelashes made of feathers. Because I can 😁

Why, a personal weather station (PWS) gathers exact meteorological data of many types for a specific location.

https://www.wunderground.com/pws/about

So I can see exactly how much rain I got at my house, which might be quite different than someone a few miles away. The data is also uploaded to the internet so that I can see my data, combined with a local forecast or view a map of all of the weather stations in my area, overlaid with radar data showing any storms in the area. Loads of people have them, and the national and private weather services use the data to produce forecasts.

We've had a bit of drama with the new one. Last night about an hour after I set it up last night, the readings stopped showing up on the console, a small tablet computer we keep on the counter in the kitchen. I thought the station had stopped transmitting, so I went through all of the troubleshooting steps like resetting it, taking out the batteries, and putting them back in, to no avail.

This morning, I remembered that I had the console from the old station lying about, and they are from the same company, Ambient Weather. So I plugged in the old console and within a minute it showed the data from the new station. So the console was faulty. I have to ring the company tomorrow and arrange a replacement console.

I know, it's a bit geeky. It's a hobby.

It's a lovely day here. DH applied fall fertilizer to the lawn. We're expecting rain tonight but should be able to cook burgers on the grill before the weather turns.

Our local council have not been clearing greenery from the pavements and gutters this summer, so I've just been out and sprayed a lot of it with Round-up! There were dandelions and great tufts of grass coming up everywhere.

Bins also out here silkie food bin and general waste.

Back home, real life recommences tomorrow. We had an overnight stop at Tewkesbury- wow, what a gorgeous place!

Bought the ingredients to make my first ever Christmas cake today. One recipe called for rum and milk, the other for brandy. I felt nervous about the milk, so am making a brandy cake.

Welcome, @Pumpernickles, and thanks for sharing your Christmas baking news. I also have never made a Christmas cake. They're not really a thing on this side of the pond. I agree, milk sound like the riskier way to go.

Malards, those false eyelashes sound fabulous. I'd worry if you have a cat though.

The rain seems to be moving in early. It's now questionable that we'll be able to cook on the grill. I have leftovers but DS will want a takeaway if we can't.