A busy day today trying to fit in as much as possible as tomorrow is my last day staying with my mother.

I now have wheels!  Perhaps not the original ones I came down south in, but certainly ones that work – my mother’s car.  I am feeling slightly less stressed now though I have to learn how to drive a semi-automatic car 800 miles.  I think we will know each other very well by the end of the journey.

I have also been busy looking through the family photo albums for pictures that are relevant to Great Aunt Kate’s diaries.

I found some wonderful pictures and have added a Gallery to the website now.

This is Kate.

Kate’s little sister and my Great Grandmother – Alys.

Me, Alys, my sister and mother.  Hamish is the westie.

I still remember everything about this scene. I think I was three years old.

And this photo made me laugh.  I have never seen it before. Who knew I like sheep?  (I am on the right in the stripes with my older first cousin).  I was ten years old.  OMG the trousers!

And me, again! Oh crikey.

Miss Foxy enjoyed her kipper scraps plus old vegetable soup (hence the saucepan).  In the film, she is suspicious of the saucepan and doesn’t stay long but this morning, on our way out for a dog walk at the crack of sparrows, we found it licked clean and carefully placed in the middle of the path by the gate – “please sir/(madam), can I have some more?”  We laughed and Miss Foxy is having lamb bones tonight.

Mum and I, spurred on by requests for acorns, started to quickly collect.

Mum kindly donated a clean unused poo-bag and together we gathered up a good pile of acorns.  Like I said, I am happy to send them to anyone. Just ask.

They are from a spectacular old stag oak tree that I have known all my life. It is the same age, and originally part of, Windsor Great Park.  Some of their trees are 1300 years old! I don’t think “our’s” is.

Mum mentioned there was also a red oak tree that we would walk past but acorns are very rare. We did manage to find a few and will keep looking. It is a much younger tree.

It was a lovely walk – I popped out again later, taking my life in my hands by flying golf-balls – one of which managed to hit the old oak!

It was a lovely evening.

Oh yes, and you can even “bonsai” them too!

Miss Foxy – we’re pretty sure she is a young vixen but we are no experts!

Superb kippers for lunch so their bones and leftovers will make a deliciously smelly supper for her.

We were out early this morning walking Teddy, Mum’s dog.

The land around Mum’s house was originally part of the hunting estate close to Windsor Forest.  It is connected by a road called Nine Mile Road that King George III, as part of an expansion programme to the rides, built for Queen Anne to more easily facilitate hunting in Windsor Forest.

Now it is a golf-course.

Like Windsor Great Park, oak trees grow everywhere. Some are very old.

This is from a young tree that Mum “saved” when it was a sprouting acorn and is now tall and well established.  If anyone wants “ancient” oak acorns, please say.  I can pop them in my pocket and you can grow your own oak tree. Mum’s tree proves it is easily achievable.

So that’s me.  My car has been given a vague diagnosis – “an intermittent fault” which is the worst kind in my book.  800 miles to drive home wondering if it will or won’t get there safely.

Nothing much to report except I have a lovely 5 minutes of film of Miss Foxy and I can’t upload it (but I will keep battling).

(edited to say “done it!”)

Meanwhile, I spent the morning continuing my phone battle, mended every cassette recorder/cd player (don’t ask!) and am still waiting to hear from the garage.  I can’t decide if silence about my wretched car is good or bad.

Tomorrow I fully intend to take photos of the family photo albums for the transcripts of diaries of my Great Great Aunt Kate.  Mum has them and I have been busy weeding through them as well as boxes of photos, reading the backs and finding where they fit in each year.  It is lovely to see the photos now I know more of the story and it will be good to add them to the story – makes it even more real.

So that’s me. Sorry for not much news. Still you can enjoy Mum’s garden as much as I am.

First thing, my wee car went off to the garage with the message “I don’t want to see it again, until it is deemed safe and roadworthy”.  This morning was then spent fighting with BT (changing the account into my mother’s name and trying to clear up the billing mess that is Broadband).  All I can say is for a communications company, BT are ridiculously difficult to talk to!

Little Ted is as always a joy.

Mum’s garden is beginning to think it is Autumn but is still going strong in colour.

t

This is the Eden rose in its second flowering this year.  No scent but a beautiful shape – flower and buds – and perfect colour.

The huge and marvellous catalpa tree is about to produce its beans and then drop them everywhere along with its leaves.

I have propped my phone on the gate post in case Mr Fox appears (oooh, I hope he does!)

So, let’s see what the garage say.  I am not holding my breath but at least I am safe.  I was very worried.