Autumnal Equinox 22nd Sept 2012

The Equinox Sunrise this morning

Preparations towards a 70th birthday in early January

the eventual Red Plum Brandy & Peach Brandy

for the pleasure my guests !

This my new and very comfortable tub chair

(notice the orbs ?)

Our Friend - Toby

This is our faithful old Toby, whose age we estimate to be about 9 years.He is a cross bred English Sheepdog and Welsh Collie, having the character of a lovable rogue, his hearing is absolutely brilliant and so makes for a great watchdog, especially at night.

Considering his background was not that great he is very well behaved with clean habits. Toby’s first companion treated him viciously, hitting him with a broom handle, punching him, feeding him on dry bread and water. He kept him on a short chain in a concrete yard with no proper shelter all the year round and only let him free to exercise about every six weeks.

Today he stays mainly indoors as he is not fond of rain. During the days of sunshine his favourite hideaway is a shady nook under a tree or shrub from where he keeps a watchful eye on what we are doing or eating, for his vast appetite can never be sated and we are careful not to over feed him. At the first opportunity he raids the cats’ bowls and leaves them without food.

There doesn’t seem to be any food that he doesn’t like. His tastes range from garlic to lettuce leaves and he even chews turf (the burning kind).
He also has a fondness Bailey’s Irish Cream and is especially good at plying his long tongue into a neglected brandy glass and not spilling a drop whilst he licks. On that occasion he did go through the door sideways then lay down and snored for a few hours! At a recent party a young friend placed a slice of gateaux on the coffee table only to find it missing within seconds of doing so... Toby had struck again !

We took him in the back of the car to our nearest beach, 70 miles away, because Jane had an idea that he would run on the beach with her and play in the waves. No such luck ! He was back in the car as fast as his legs would carry him when he realised it was wet, cold and tasted bad.
Toby is our friend, playmate and guardian and we are his. 

No photos, no drivers - thanks to Canon

As many of you are aware I use an iMac desk top and recently installed Apples new operating system Mountain Lion OS 10.8 which is amazingly fast and smooth.

My camera is a Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS which is perfect for me with my limited knowledge of photography.

Nearly all all of the photo’s on this blog were taken with my camera. Today I am unable to display any, in fact I am unable to download any of the photo’s from my camera onto the apple application iPhoto.

The reason for this is that Canon have yet to produce any drivers to work with my camera and OS10.8 operating system. 

Twice I rang Canon to enquire about this problem. The first time after having pressed all the buttons I was cut off, on the second attempt the female techie that I was talking to spoke so quietly that I had a job to hear her and I had to as her to speak louder.

During our conversation she asked me for my email address and said that she found some drivers and would email me that information. 

You know what! I am still waiting! 

I am in a quandary now as to whether to sell the camera and buy another one but most definitely not a Canon.

I await guidance from you my readers.