Lle Llywela

1. Have come down with my first cold of the season. Hello, scratchy throat, stuffy nose and runny eyes - I did not miss you!

2. On the bright side, I have the afternoon off work today, although this is not aimed at pampering me in any way. Mum asked me to have Chelsea this afternoon because a) Chel is having an MRI brain scan this morning and is very, very worried about it, so meeting me for lunch and having sister time will be a reward for being brave, and b) Mum had a parent-only meeting with the paediatrician at 4pm and needed Chel to be otherwhere so she could attend. That second part has rather fallen through now, as it turns out that Chel's paediatrician has, in fact, left the practice very suddenly and her replacement, not unreasonably, wants to meet Chel before having a parent-only meeting to discuss her, which means Chel has to attend the 4pm appointment too. But part one is doubled because having to meet a new doctor on the same day as the brain scan is a dreadful prospect for Chel, so I'm taking her to meet Mum there after our sister afternoon, and then she's coming back to mine for the evening as well, by way of reward. Ah, families!

3. Speaking of families, my brother-in-law, Ray, was involved in a multi-car shunt on the M25 yesterday afternoon. Only minor injuries - bruises and possible cracked ribs - but the car may be a write-off. Again. Honestly, Ray has been married to Deb for 6 years now, and in that time I have lost count of how many cars he's had written off! It is never his fault - on this occasion, the car in front of him stopped, so Ray also stopped, but the car behind didn't, and neither did the car behind that - but he just seems to attract accidents like a magnet! I never thought there could be anyone out there as accident-prone as Deb, but it turns out that there is - and she married him!

4. In brighter news, Ray's niece Shanei, who lives with him and Deb, was made deputy head girl of her new school yesterday. Not bad going considering she's only been there about six weeks! It's a really valuable confidence boost for Nei, who is working hard at settling into her new home, so yay!

5.
~ more pics in my light challenge post at scene_again

1. Do any of the gardeners on my flist know anything about scale insect? I've discovered an infestation on my little acer, which I love and don't want to see sucked dry. My initial defensive sortie involved attacking the bugs with surgical spirit on cotton wool, but any advice will be gratefully received!

2. On Saturday I took the Small One down to the Bay for the morning (a much sunner day than our last visit), whereupon we found ourselves right smack in the middle of the Armed Forces Day celebrations, which were absolutely everywhere in the city that day and thus rather hard to avoid – squaddies, sailors and airmen all over the place, not to mention hordes of random revellers. So, we escaped by boat across the Bay to the barrage, watched the boats going in and out of the sea locks for a while, and then had a lovely walk back around the barrage to the Norwegian Church for lunch.

( picspam cut to spare your f-lists )

Overall: a lovely day out.

Alfie being ingratiatingly cute in the garden again (Poppy has been camera-shy lately)


( More kit-cats behind the cut )

Ruby, looking adorable, just to break the monotony of all those cats


And for something completely different, a springwatch picspam, posted over at scene_again

You may or may not have noticed that I've been a bit quiet of late - a sudden fit of unchattiness that hit me for no reason whatsoever. I found myself abandoning all my writing projects (which remain untouched) and have also drifted a bit out of touch with my flist. Work has been on the crazy busy side, and in the evenings I haven't really wanted to go near the computer, preferring to curl up with a blanket, the cats and a good book instead!

Rather than bore everyone catching up on stuff that's been going on, I shall bore you instead with another snowscape picspam - with apologies to the scene_again folk, who are getting this twice.

What a mixed week this has been! It started with continued ice (still going strong since before Christmas) and dire forecasts, then began to thaw, then mini-blizzards and now at last we look to be verging on a proper thaw at last! Fingers crossed it lasts.



( More pictures beneath cut )

On Saturday I took the Small Sis up to Roath Park, near where I used to live, to see how the lake had frozen over. I've posted pictures of this park and lake so many times, but have never seen it looking like this before! ( Pictures beneath cut )

And finally, back to Bute Park yesterday morning, after yet another snowfall. ( Pictures beneath cut )

So, the white stuff finally hit us here in Cardiff last night - makes a nice change from all that black ice we've had. It was already getting pretty slushy on most pavements as I came home from work, though, so unless it snows again tonight I have no doubt the streets will be ice rinks again tomorrow. Roll on spring!

The cats have decided that they are frankly disgusted by all this cold weather and have gone on strike, refusing to stir out of the house, if they can possibly help it (and I can't honestly say that I blame them). In fact, they continue to spend most of their time like this: ( pics behind cut )
Or like this: ( pics behind cut )

This morning, however, to celebrate Alfie's first sight of snow, I managed to coax them into venturing outside to take a look at it. ( Pics behind cut )

The driving snow made my walk to work rather more...invigorating than usual, shall we say! I took a bunch of pictures of the snowy landscape, which are posted over at scene_again, for anyone who is interested to see them. Follow the fake cut to the post

I shall leave you with a few more kitty pics.

( Poppy )

( Alfie )

Autumn colours picspam posted over at scene_again, if anyone is interested.

It's been busy times at my house lately - I'm currently getting all set up for a decorating bonanza to begin, as my dad has booked next week off work to get started on my house. That means I have to decide on my colour schemes already! I now have a nice collection of paint samples to work my way through. The actual decorating could be interesting, with the cats underfoot. Poppy shouldn't be any trouble, as she still associates Dad with the dog and therefore keeps out of his way, but Alfie will want to be all over him - and in the paint tin, if possible, no doubt!

( Kitty update and pics )

Okay, so this is a picspam I put together for the scene_again community, but I'm cross-posting to my own journal for my own reference. It's just a series of pictures taken on my walk to work one morning, taken with the mobile phone, which I am still getting used to so the quality isn't the best, and on rather a murky day!

( Picspam - walk through Cardiff )

And now, just because they are so cute, some pics of Poppy and Ruby. They are growing up fast now - Poppy is seven months old and Ruby five months old. And both are full of mischief! ( Kitten and Puppy picspam )