Paul turned the remains of our thanksgiving gravy into a fat ball for the local wildlife (something attacked the one in the last feeder and carried it off into the night).
Here's two something-or-others having lunch - you can see from my bird spotting skills that the YOC subscriptions were [!@\($\)#] well spent!
[!@\($\)#] = the sound heard when realising there's no 'pound' key on this keyboard.
pound key = key that inserts a character like this '£'
Dunno how low it went last night - for that I need one of those fancy high/low thermometers like mum and dad used to have in the greenhouse.
The snow from last week has crept down the mountains disguised as small people...
...and I've just realised that the thermometer scale goes down a looooong way. Although the good news is that at -40 I won't need to keep converting from Celsius. More snowy piccy's on flickr (that means click on the words " snowy piccy's " to see more snowy piccy's).
Since everyone appears to put up decorations straight after thanksgiving here, aiddy's lost the annual argument over when to buy the tree . I did try to delay things by strapping the tree the wrong way round on the roof, but unfortunately it stayed put ;-)
Since we were in the neighbourhood we popped into see a windy but water level reduced (since earlier in November) Snoqualmie Falls
Recommended for your first day or two in Seattle - a duck tour . Alternatively you could do what R & P did and do it on route to the airport on your last day.
The Captain of our duck was Captain Hal Aleluia - you get the idea...
Great: the local Safeway has import Sapporo beer!
Not-so-great: hummm, import means floating beer across from Japan, that's not exactly 'eating local' is it?
Ah ha!: in this case import means driving it across from Canada
!??!##$??!!
Thanks to Granddad Chris and Nanny Kim the air has been buzzing with elastic band acrobatics.
Luckily Paul was on hand to provide comprehensive flight training prior to the boys flying solo
The gang after round one of the great snow ball fight. Collateral damage on the sign above. Some of them are there still now - it's dangerous to touch cold metal objects when the temperature is below freezing (and painful too!).
And yes, the points on the compass are a bit different here in the Pacific North West - apparently it's all to do with the fluctuation in magnetic north this close to the Arctic.
The tress on the Snoqualmie banks at Twin Falls State Park were absent leaves
Six(ish) miles further down the road the trees are covered in snow - the difference between being above and being below 'the snow line' .
Travel restrictions over Snoqualmie Pass : "Restrictions Westbound: Chains required on all vehicles except all wheel drive, Oversize Vehicles Prohibited." means dodgy driving conditions...
but ace snow balling conditions...
The girls went shopping, so the boys got wet at the zoo.
Paul said "As you can see, Adrian's hair loss has progressed somewhat".
'twas a bit blowey up top at the Space Needle yesterday
but the monorail got us there and back from the Westlake Center without bumps
and the sky's cleared just enough for a glimpse of the Olympics .
[More for family on flickr]
flickr
Looks like
we were right
- there's a lot of leaves on the lawn at the moment.
But there's 450 gallons less than there were this morning (less however many have dropped off the branches since we stopped raking).
We managed to get the swing swinging this afternoon - slightly slowing the leaf collection rate.
Two dead cameras. The Sony went all 'smeary' on us before we moved and is now all wrapped up to go back to Sony for a repair. The Canon, purchased to replace the Sony, has suffered a lens-won't-go-back-in glitch, so that too is off for some TLC.
Hopefully things will go as smoothly as they did for Dan .