Beautiful morning

This morning was so beautiful - cold and misty with lovely muted colors.  I do enjoy the morning tours of the forest with Annie!

Thanksgiving for us

Our friends down the road invited us to join their Thanksgiving family community for a special meal at the village hall. I was tasked with making a 'Welcome Cocktail Appetizer', so I opted for a prosciutto-wrapped date with goat cheese and a pecan, which goes well with a winter sangria cocktail. It was fun making a bunch of these earlier today and then bringing them to the dinner.  The gathering itself was just over 40 people and it was such a fun and heartwarming and delicious evening!

First we had the cocktails with appetisers, then everyone sat down at their assigned spot and dinner was served family style with dishes passed around. Duane and Sarah gave a little toast and explained the history of their Thanksgiving tradition, and we all dug in.  It was a proper feast.  Just before the dessert course, two of their musician friends got up and played a set of American and Irish songs and we all sang along. It was so great!  Then after about an hour we all helped to clean up the village hall and demobilized over to their house for the after party.

Football boys

Tonight we went over to Claire and John's house to watch the Wales vs USA World Cup game on TV.  Nearly the whole boys football team was there and we had fun watching together.

Construction starts!

A lot happened this week out in the back yard..

Thanksgiving for Rhi

Rhiannon has gone to stay a couple of nights at her friend W's house for the Thanksgiving weekend. It's so nice that she has a day student friend.

Its my burfday

 And I had quite an epic day of it actually!  First, a swim at lovely Tide Mills with my homies. 

Then, a 2 hour session at the Wild Wowo Spa just a few miles from our house. Then a brief hiatus in the afternoon before the evening festivities continued with some celebratory beverages, a mystery night hike, and then dinner at the Red Lion pub.

I don't have any photos from the night hike or the pub dinner, but it was really fun. A great day all around actually. Thank you to everyone who made it special!

Royal Geological Society

Yesterday and today I was at the UK Geothermal Symposium at the Royal Geological Society building in central London. So grand!  I met quite a few interesting people and got to see my manager too, which is rare since she is in California and I'm here.  I should have taken a photo of us together! Oh well..

Super Mario

.. and Luigi!  Tryfan and his friend Bradley dressed up for a post-Halloween party that was this evening.  Sounds like they had a great time.  They looked good, anyway.  

A new project out back

Rhods and I have started a backyard project but the first part is to undo the work that we had done earlier in the year (or was that last year) by removing the gate and part of the fence.

Rhi's new roommate

Den Haag

This week I traveled to the Netherlands to attend a conference in The Hague (Den Haag). I flew to Amsterdam on Sunday and stayed with my friend and former colleague Martha.  It was really fun to meet her family and stay in her house.  

Then I traveled on to Den Haag on Monday morning and joined the Global Energy Transition "GET22" conference.  I stayed in the center of the city and it was so beautiful. 

It was a long week, but a good week. I actually gave a talk at this conference about a paper that some colleagues and I wrote, so that was a first for me!

Room change at Prin

This week Rhi is getting ready for her first room change. Here are some photos from the build up.  I think it took awhile for Rhi and her first roommate to get their room ready for someone else to move in, they had to stack everything outside in the hallway.  The big reveal of new room assignments were posted on Saturday morning and then everyone moved rooms in the afternoon.

Rhi's new room is actually on the same hall that she was previously on, which she is happy about because she really likes her RC (Resident Counselor - formerly known as Housemother). 

Here is a photo of Rhi and her friend Wylie who is not her new roommate but a friend nonetheless