Braving The Elements

With the wild winds whooshing among the quavering trees and trembling shrubs as rowdy raindrops pattered on fallen leaves, a determined

Martin persisted in his task of weeding muddied gravel paths and cutting back plants thriving on our warm, wet, weather, clearly succeeding in replacing the next car load of bags of garden refuse that Jackie and I, driving through an even more waterlogged Christchurch Road, took to the dump after she had enjoyed Ellie playtime during which our great granddaughter

led Granny on a walk,

then read a book and practiced pointing to facial features contained therein.

When not keeping Martin fuelled with teas and coffees, I read more of Priestley.

This evening we all dined on oven fish and chips, mushy peas, pickled onions and gherkins, with which Jackie drank Peroni and I finished the Australian Shiraz.

73 comments

  3. I can’t comment on your blog in the ‘reader’ but have to click a few times to actually now make it to your blog. Is that something you changed on purpose, or did WordPress did it?
    All the other blogs are accessibly in the reader (comment wise).

    Reply

    1. It is a WP blip. Hopefully it will resolve itself – it has happened before. Thank you for persevering, Bridget

      Reply

  6. Martin is a good sport – even in the rain!

    The pictures of Jackie and Ellie are so precious. Ellie has Jackie’s total focus and that’s so good for her. And her dress is adorable!

    Reply

  9. Martin is a real trooper, Derrick! Good man. Dinner sounds delicious, Jackie, yummy! Stay dry, guys. I am in my home state of Michigan for two weeks to help my aging dad while my sister gets a very welcome several days off. The weather here is so rotten here, 30s and 40s in the F scale, windy and gray. Yuck, I’m glad that I live in Nevada with it’s 300+ days per year of sunshine and mild climate.

    Reply

  11. This “playtime” shared by Jackie and Ellie is so valuable! I’m happy for both of them, and you. I also love Ellie’s garden dress and Martin’s protective clothing.

    Reply

  15. Martin is such a grafter!
    The images of Jackie and Ellie are so lovely.

    I’ve just realised we haven’t seen Ella for a while, I hope you have another visit soon.

    Reply

    1. Yes – we have put in an order. Ellie is wearing one of Ella’s dress in these pictures. Our great-niece is at school now. Thanks very much, Sue

      Reply

  16. PS. I struggled today to leave a comment. I tried visiting your site, tried Jetpack but none would allow the option of commenting. I eventually opened a small window via the WP notifications and was finally allowed to comment!

    Reply

    1. There is a spate of this today – including another blogger’s on which I could neither like nor comment. Thanks very much, Sue

      Reply

  17. Wonderful photos of Martin who looks as cheerful as ever. I like his red accent gloves against the green. The photos of Jackie and Ella are definite “keepers.” It’s so wonderful they have that time together.

    Reply

    1. We are. 10 years ago we did it all ourselves – but no longer 🙂 Thanks very much, Sheree

      Reply

  28. Martin’s rain suit looks excellent for the weather. We are always taken by surprise when it gets around to raining here and no umbrellas or other rain paraphernalia are ever to be found. Ellie’s dress is adorable.

    Reply

  29. Martin is appropriately dressed for work in the garden! I am glad you and Jackie have help with all that work.

    Little Ellie is growing so fast! Such a beautiful child with a very expressive face that her great grandfather has captured so well in these photographs.

    Reply

    1. Thank you very much for your sensitive observation, Lavinia. Ellie’s personality is so evident

      Reply

  31. Ellie is so cute. You can see her great nanny loves her so much. Martin is very brave to continue with the task in that weather. I only have a balcony and have a hard time tending to the plants when there is a storm or when it is just raining

    Reply

Leave a Reply