A green greenhouse!

Last week we said goodbye to our old greenhouse:


It has served us well, but has been missing several panes of glass since we moved in. Although we've had very warm springs and autumns in 2008 and 2009 the summers have been spectacularly dull and our attempts to grow vegetables out of the greenhouse have been disappointing. Admittedly the baby butternut squashes and baby sweetcorn looked cute, but in reality they were inedible :-(




We have therefore invested in a rather extravagent 20 by 6 foot greenhouse. This will also satisfy our growing needs while we take a pause in our search for some land when Ian moves to Australia to finish his PhD.

Blackpool

Last weekend we took a day trip to Blackpool with Gary and Dewi. Before going for lunch we drove down the promenade, home to the famous Blackpool illuminations. Some of the displays were lovely:




After lunch Ian and I went to the zoo where we saw

capybaras:


giraffes:




lemurs:


penguins:


and of course otters (Barry & Jasmine):



The penguin pool was remarkably clean and I couldn't resist taking lots of videos:





I also filmed the world's messiest eater (a cotton top tamarin):