So this year's "instead of Christmas cards" donation will go to the flood donation.
The senior members of the Rodgers Tribe are fine doing the usual; gardening, motorbiking, volunteering & holidaying in the Western USA.
Jamie has secured another year's contract in Leeds with ITV in the archive unit but with bonus of a salary increase & laptop ( I've not managed to capture him on my iphone pics - he's pretty elusive). Nicky is into her second year of children's nursing in Newcastle - working long hours but she seems to be thriving.
The partial solar eclipse from Broadwath, 20th March 2015.
It was a rather moody moment.
Below is me getting Orla ready for her journey to her new home in Kent in April. A sad day for me but my friends helped me to find her a good home.
Our camellia x williamsii 'Donation' hedge was stunning this year as there were no frosts. This is such a special hedge planted over 20 years ago by my Dad, Uncles Bill & Gil. And needless to say all grown from cuttings propagated by Dad in Ayr!
The wisteria was lovely in the late spring & scent so sweet and almost unexpected in the evenings. The wisteria always blooms later & waits carefully till the temperatures are right before unfolding its racemes of flowers and bright olive coloured leaves - quite unlike it's neighbour across the path -
the camellia with all those blousy blooms on show whatever the temperature!
The back garden in full summer - haphazard but a riot of colour - blending with the re-painted arbour.
This year I, together with some friends and neighbours who are all members of the local gardening club, opened our gardens for the club's social evening. Wow it was stressful, trying to get things in order - I still had majestic collections of nettles on show in several areas! On the plus side, the garden looked it's best ever. I don't think we'll be opening our gardens for the National Gardens Scheme though ... maybe for charity???
In July Nicky and her boyfriend, Rob visited her Nana in Belfast.
Though in her 90th decade Bettie is keeping well.
When Colin visited last month she had TV quiz answers to anagrams
& arithmetical problems solved long before him!
Above is just a sample of the crazy, funny,
delightful balloons at the Albuquerque Fiesta!
We had a great trip through the western US in the autumn. We started with a visit to our friends (Alex & Lucy) in Billings, Montana. We then visited Yellowstone, drove through southern Wyoming into the Colorado Rockies (Steam Boat Springs, Bueno Vista) and into the Land of Enchantment (New Mexico). Friends (Linnea & Kent) of friends (Jeanne & Ross) very kindly treated us to wonderful hospitality in Albuquerque. Thereafter we flew to San Francisco & spent two exciting days sightseeing with Colin's cousin Jolene to guide us - our first visit to the Pacific. Colin was chief photographer this year & took some great photos. My favourite was one of Colorado's Great Sand Dunes & National Preserve,
There are people tracks & people showing the scale.
"The dunes appear in the distance as you approach, but at first seem
dwarfed by their backdrop, the 13,000-foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains. Not until you're nearly at their border does their vast
scale become apparent: dunes up to 750 feet tall, extending for mile
after mile"
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/great-sand-dunes-national-park/
Our splash orpington cock died this year.
But on return from the US my young cousin Andrew gave us his handsome
silver, spangled, bantam Hamburg Rooster.
silver, spangled, bantam Hamburg Rooster.
We have called him President Ulysses S. Grant.
But with all his gorgeous plumage perhaps we should have named him after
the great Lakota Sioux chief & warrior, Crazy Horse.
I took this picture of the Christmas Geese in September. They have been organically reared at Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Gosling Sike Farm in Carlisle
MERRY CHRISTMAS
