Chilly beautiful

 Its been so sunny and cold right now, and it is such a treat.  I often start the day with a walk in the forest with Annie Dog, and today was particularly special with frost on the heather and sun beams through the pine trees. Chilly beautiful.

Glimpses of our girl

 Rhiannon seems to be doing really well in Santa Barbara.  We don't see too much, but occasionally she will share photos with us, like this one from when she stayed over at Mazzie's house.

Kicking off March

 Today was Saturday and it was great to start the new month with sunshine for a change!

We had our normal mermadam dip and then Cat, Anna and I went to The Range to buy some stuff, then home to work in the back garden. Great day!

Busy times in late Feb

This was a bit of a crazy final week of February, where I went up to Aberdeen to be part of a geothermal conference on Tuesday through Thursday, then went into London on Friday and met up with Evie.  Its so nice to see her, not just because she is a lovely person but also because she is a step closer to my girl Rhiannon. I miss her so much.

The start of something, maybe

 Today we hosted a workshop for the beginnings of a geothermal coalition for the UK. 

We will see what happens next!

Our Ice Swimming Champion

 Our friend and fellow mermadam Kim (who is a proper swimmer, having swum the English Channel and other amazing water based feats) has qualified for the Ice Swimming World Championships, which take place this year in Italy.  It looks like a normal pool but the temperature is 34 F / 1.2 C and every morning the organizers have to chip the layer of ice off the surface of the pool!  Anyway, it was very exciting to watch the live stream of her competing in the 200 m , 500 m and 1000 m.  

 

She is such an inspiration!  She came out as the fastest British swimmer and #4 in the world!  We are going to plan a welcome home celebration party for her in a couple of weeks.

Welcome visitors

Today Sions, JJ, Gwydion and Winnie Dog came to visit us.  The humans are going to head on holiday to a warm place and we will look after Winnie until they come back in a couple of weeks. 

We do love when people (and dogs) come to visit us.

Winter swimming

We had the rare attendance of a gentleman caller in our midst on Saturday and he took these photos of us

A great way to kick off the month!

Up to Leeds

I organized a field trip for some of my SLB colleagues to go up and visit the University of Leeds campus, and so I went up last night and stayed with Caro and Locko, and finally met their gorgeous daughter!  We had lovely crisp clear weather for the field tour, and it was a fun trip.

Special visit

 Since Joe and Judy didn't get to see Tryfan last night, they kindly came out our way to see him!  This was such a nice surprise.  They arrived in time for lunch, followed by a walk, followed by tea and cake and then it was time for their train back to London.

It was a bit rainy when we were our for our walk in the forest, but that was still nice.  We are so thankful that they came out to see us.

Joe, Judy and Hamilton!

Aunt Judy and Uncle Joe are in town for a couple of days this week, and had booked  several months ago to go see Hamilton today.  I invited Rhodri and Tryfs and myself along so bought tickets for the same performance and agreed to meet in London for dinner, then go see the show together.  It has been so wonderful to have this event to look forward to the past several weeks, as January is normally quite a low and difficult month.  Anyway, Rhodri and I did manage to go in and have dinner and see Hamilton with Joe and Judy, but unfortunately Tryfan couldn't make it. 

In fact, it was quite a scary episode with Tryfan because he had a head injury yesterday in the rugby match, and it was the sort of injury that wasn't immediately clear what had happened.  But what emerged later was that he got hit in the head and then didn't remember what had happened for about 30 minutes of the 2nd half of the game.  So when things became apparent that he wasn't quite right, he came off the field, but then it wasn't until a bit later that things were more serious.  After Rhodri and Tryfan came home from the game, Rhods checked his training material and determined that he needed to take Tryfs to A&E to get checked out.  So after he had a CAT scan, the medics determined that he needed to have 48 hours of bedrest, which meant that he was not allowed on any advice nor could he watch telly or do anything stimulating.  That meant that he wasn't able to go see Hamilton, so we arranged for some neighbors to come and sit with him while Rhods and I went into London to meet Joe and Judy for dinner and the show.  Too bad for Tryfan, and it did feel strange to arrange for babysitters to come for our 17 year old son, but it all went fine and apparently both Sara L and Emma M enjoyed their time just sitting and hanging out chatting with Tryfs. 

Ephemeral stream

My mermadam friend Jo introduced us to this ephemeral stream near her house in Lewes, so when the sea swimming forecast was a bit iffy today, we all went to her house and walked down to swim in the stream this morning.  It was cold and beautiful!  And since it flows only during the winter months and over a chalk unit, the water is clear and turquoise, quite remarkable!  

One friend couldn't make it

 We had a dinner party this evening and invited Jules & Naresh, Tim & Heather, and Corinne & Simon.  Very sadly, Corinne couldn't make it in the end although Simon came for a little bit.  Naresh, Heather and I took this photo of ourselves with disappointed mournful faces.  Poor Corinne, hope she is ok.

Folk night in Frow

Tonight was the monthly "folk night" at the Hopyard in Forest Row ("Frow").  I'd never been before, but Charly, Emma B and some other girlfriends joined me in spending the evening there after our "Full Circle" singing evening.  It was pretty amazing actually. I definitely want to come another time, and i think Rhodri and some of our other friends would like it too.

Roof problems

Ever since we put in the "pod", we've had trouble with the roof.  As in, water was getting inside the pod in places water wasn't supposed to be.  So the guys came back and did some more work on it today. Luckily it was a beautiful day!

Back to Sussex, here we go

We flew back on New Years Day and it was fairly uneventful.  So we got to Heathrow around 12 noon and then took the ol' National Express bus around to Gatwick Airport and then hopped in a taxi from there back home.  It was great to be home and have the weekend to settle in.  I joined my mermadam friends for a swim on Saturday and it was great to be back at our beach to dip together.

Afterwards, Cat and I went to The Range and I made some great home purchases including these three nesting tables for use in the living room.

The whole fandamily

 Here is a photo from our family photo session over the holidays:

Back row, l to r: Heidi, Will, Rhodri, John, Eric, Kristin, Lisl and Rebecca.

Front row, l to r: Ingrid, Billy, Tryfan, Phoebe, Jordan, Grandma Debi, Luke, Rhiannon and Evan.

SB Christmas - Phase 2

Phase 2 started after Heidi and fam left.

Thu Dec 26 - Up early to take Griffiths to the airport at 5:15, then back to sleep til 9 am. I went to water aerobics with Mom, then blenders for lunch with Rhi and Rhods.  585 clan went to Refugio with Tryfs.  then we had a big soccer game.

Fri Dec 27 - I took Mom out to Jeannine's for breakfast and then the 4 of us went on a drive up to Montecito and then hiked up to the hot springs. In the evening we watched The Sound of Music

Sat Dec 28 - Polly came over at 10 and we rode bikes around the canyon for 90 minutes, then she had to leave.  I met up with her and Amy later in the evening for dinner.

Sun Dec 29 - went to Cajun Kitchen for breakfast at 8, then Mom and I went to church while Rhiannon was working at the rest of the gang went down to ride bikes along Cabrillo.  Later in the day, Rhods, Tryfan and I met Phil and Libby for dinner at 6 til 7pm at Del Pueblo Cafe in Magnolia Centre

Mon Dec 30 - went up to the Winchester Canyon Gun Club for an 11 am - 1pm session, then drove to Los Olivos for a late lunch. We went bowling and played arcade games in the evening.

Tues Dec 31 - said goodbye to the NGans family at 8:30, then I went over to Phil and Libby's house to go for a walk at the Preserve, then back home for 11:30.

Wed Jan 1 - i went for a run early and then we had breakfast at the Bistro from 8:30 am until about 10:30 am

 

It was so great to be able to have breakfast at The Bistro at Bacara and see our girl in action.  What a brilliant way to start 2025!  

The only thing was that it was terribly difficult to say goodbye to her since she was working and not able to slip away.  So Rhods and I choked back our tears and gave brief hugs to her before she was whisked away back to work.  Anyway, it was a truly great visit and we are so grateful.  Now back to reality...