Bumped into one of Lynne's colleagues today before we all went for a walk...a very nice man Pat Belcastro.

Looks like our house is slowly being converted from a dinky pad to the customary "child-takes-over" scenario..

Michele had her boyfriends sister here today. Her name is Janet

Putting Eilish to work on her first day here...

Diced and ready for boiling down....

All the tomatoes prior to washing!

Arrival of Eilish

Hi Everybody,

Eilish arrived yesterday. We got in quite late last night, it's a long day up and back to the airport in one day. Eilish had a great flight and is now enjoying her little niece. They seem to have taken to each other quickly. Eilish has the usual bout of Jet-lag. She was making tea for herself at 05.00 this morning. Although she is enjoying the weather, it is rather hot and humid for her. Highs today will be approximately 30 degrees C and 80% humidity.

Also visited Ikea, the Swedish furniture store, yesterday while in Chicago. It was a zoo. Not recommended on a Saturday afternoon.

That's it for now. More later..........

Daddy...why are you always flashing that silly thing??

Ahhh..... I like my Auntie Eilish!!!

Wow...you look just my Daddy!!!

After much waiting Eilish arrives and is well able to help herself with making tea!!

Play Time Before Bed

Just a short post. We were all playing upstairs before Anja went to bed (including Daisy) so I took a few shots that I just had to share!

Look I've got a spider on my head!

Play time with Mammy on the gym before bed

Lynne Back to Work

Hi Everybody,

Today Lynne officially went back to work. I say that since she has been putting in many hours working at home, in addition to looking after Anja. Today however it was official.

For those of you who didn't know, we are having a nanny come to our house each day to look after Anja. Her name is Michelle and she is very nice. I'm sure pictures of Michelle and Anja will soon appear on this site.

Lynne of course had the very normal anxious feelings that every new mother has when returning to work. Leaving her child with a virtual stranger. The day went well for her and I'm sure she will get into the swing pretty soon again.

We had a nice relaxed weekend. Not much was achieved other than papers read, coffee & tea drank and the host of usual weekend household chores. This was our last weekend alone for some time since next weekend I travel to Chicago to collect my sister who stays right up to the arrival of Lynne's mother who will be followed by my mother.

That's all for now. Didn't have any real special photos from the weekend so I posted a nice shot of a Lily that I took earlier this summer.

Enjoy

Paul

No story in particular...just one of the many shots I took over the summer of our summer flowers.

Google Earth Image of West Lafayette Area

West Lafayette Image

Hi

I was playing with the Google Earth tool and decided to show you all the West Lafayette area.

I hope it is clear from the image below. Lafayette is off to the East. As you can see Purdue University is quite the establishment. The football stadium shown is where the Purdue team play.

Our house is approx 1 mile from campus

Next Installment of Old Photos

Hi

I have mentioned here a few times that my sister will be coming to visit us on August 20th for three weeks. I thought it appropriate that the next installment in the old photo series would be of her. Here she is on her 1st birthday. She is now 19 and recently graduated from school. A recent photo is shown here on Jonathan's blog.

Weekly Update

Hi Everybody,

Sorry it's been a bit slow lately on the blog, having trouble getting back into the routine here after our holidays. We have now completed a slow week at work but I think we have finally got into the swing again.

Saying that, we did have a relatively quiet weekend. Lynne attacked the sewing machine with great success. Three fitted sheets for Anja's Crib (Cot in English). They looked great.

I brewed another beer. You may ask where all this beer is going but I'm stocking up for our guests. Eilish, Bryan, Mum, Dave and Sam all over the coming months. I will also be doing another batch of cider in October when the apples are ready. Other than that, spent the weekend, tending to Anja, weeding, watering plants, mowing the lawn and all that good house stuff. Everything needs lots of water right now since we have had several days where it's been over 30 degrees.

Anja is doing great. Not much to report these days other than she is getting more observant and mobile with each passing day. She weighed in at 15.5 lbs this weekend. Shown below is her weekly mug shot.

Not much else to report. We are all doing great here. Looking forward to our guests. Eilish who recently graduated from school will visit in two weeks. See a great graduation photo here.

That's it for now bye..........Paul

Lynne taking it easy with Anja.

Weekly picture of Anja.

Lynne doing a bit of handy work on the sewing machine!!

Visit from Lorraine and Randy

Lorraine and Randy came last night for dinner - our last night before returning to work.

We all had a good time, few glasses of wine, Lorraine got to cuddle Anja and Lynne had a second go at her great summer pudding. It was a nice evening, we ate outside and hung around chatting till dark!

Lorraine and Randy

Summer Pudding round two!!

Back From Holiday

Hi Everybody,

Well we made it back in one piece from Michigan. In general it was a good trip, very relaxing. Michigan is a very nice state to visit with some wonderful little towns and some fantastic beaches. The only disappointing part was our cabin. We thought it was going to be a nice log cabin, well it turned out to be a wood sided trailer (mobile home). It was fine for 10 days.

We had a great time. We did several day trips to all the little towns, ate about 2 lbs of blueberries each day, had lots of ice-cream and got quite a lot of cycling in.

I think we'll return to Michigan.

Of course Anja could have been anywhere and she would have enjoyed it the same. She learned a few tricks over the two weeks, as she does almost weekly right now.

See some pictures of our trip below.

Paul

Her new trick continued at home

Lynne and Anja catching some quality time together.....

We visited this very cute town on the lake - Saugatuck. It was very pretty and reminded us a little or Sweden with all the boats

Hi I'm Bono!!!!!

We were about 5 miles from the main beach on Lake Michigan, however, our little secluded lakeside cabin resort had a small lake and a pool

Lynne chilling out with a book at the breakfast table of our small (very small) cabin

This was a new trick that Anja picked up when on holidays!!! She gets it from a few people we know!!

On the beach in Warren Dunes State park - it was very hot so we did not go far since we were worried that Anja may overheat