Freya

This is the sweety Freya in her back garden.

Jose Gonzalez

Yesterday, Al & I headed off to Newmarket, New Hampshire to see Jose Gonzalez. He's only our favourite singer songwriter ever (well since 2006)! What he was doing playing in Newmarket, New Hampshire who knows - but he was, and we had tickets. If this was Sweden (where he's from, or the UK we may not have been so lucky, lucky, lucky - more of Kylie later in the post).

The venue (an old converted church) was very small and intimate - a bit like a concert in your living room. In fact we could have bought out the scrabble board while he was playing (please refer to a previous post for that reference). Actually it was better than a living room since it had a bar on one side. Probably held about 50 people with the same quality of music tastes!! We were near the front - on little folding chairs. The support band were fantastic too - the name escapes me - lots of spanish guitars and vocal harmonies.

Then Jose, came on and played most of the songs from his two albums, plus ending with a cover of Kylie Minogue's 'Hand on Your Heart' which was probably missed on the crowd since Kylie isn't a big deal over here (or Jason Donovan for that matter). Great cover, as was Massive Attack's 'Teardrop.' He played all our favourite songs bar 'Save Your Day' but it wasn't a huge disappointment since he was fantastic throughout. We await that third album, Jose - if it could be remixed by Zero 7 or Four Tet in some manner then you've got our $10+ guaranteed!

A summer walk

This is one of our favourite walks. It's a trail a mile down the road and much of it follows the old railway line. A couple of miles in and you reach two beautiful ponds which we all swim in during the summer. Rich often runs on the trail while I sometimes take my mountain bike out. I'll post some of those pics another time.


Waiting for dad... patiently...



Finally we reach the trail...




Sammy rolling AGAIN....



Rich does 'urban Mid-West'...





First swim of the season and Sammy takes the lead... Sammy wasn't a big swimmer last summer but this year he's already sprouting his water wings :-)





Mucky puppy drying off....



Slow journey home...




Dirty and tired puppies on their way home:

Our Neighborhood Walk...

I think that everyone except Fiona has taken this walk with us and the pups... (Fi, you need to come up and walk with us too!). Poor ma and pa only made it part of the way when I bullied them into meeting me, Sammy, and Kiltie. Alas, it was a little chilly and I feel guilty to this day as I think about them huddled together turning the corner into Oak Ridge Rd.

And we're off....



The chain gang picks up the pace




Sammy stops to roll on dead frogs...





A neighbourhood friend:




Chipmunk hunting:


The boys' friends: Dan, Delia, and Richie




Come on, Mum.







"Come on Kiltie", I'm off, says Sammy:




Hurrying home...




And, we're home:



Phew, after a long walk the pups take it easy in front of the TV:

Early morning row...

It's been nice and warm recently so I've been to finally go rowing on the lake...

Pre-row... so beautiful, and no one else around at 5.45am.





Post row... with blisters on my fingers... lovely.





All hot and sweaty and happy...


...and we're ready to leave:

Day trip to Portland

hey guys,

Rich and I took a trip to Portland on Saturday so I could take some pics of the Amnesty International Guantanamo Bay installation. My lovely new camera takes a nice picture...








Me in a Guantanamo cell: