Pictures!

La la la! I have a new laptop so I can get pictures and get online and upload them on to the blog! Ridiculous that one should need a pc and a laptop and an iPad but none of them do everything. My pc is about 7 years old and the usb will only synch my iPod Nano, not Pad or camera. The iPad doesn't do uploader or anything as it won't seem to speak to other things like that so I have lots of lovely pictures on the Pod/Pad that I can only show or email. I also can't back up the Pad on anything but it seems to be doing so now, even though Tristan's bloomin' FIFA 11 HD is taking an absolute age to upload or back up or whatever it's doing. Plus (who am I justifying this to??) I have to do lots of dvd interactive stuff and video lectures for correspondence degree and I get a headache sitting at pc on the really uncomfortable chair and Flash doesn't run on Apple things. I'll shut up now as I'm sounding petulant.

I do seem to have developed a bit of 'device dyslexia' as when I first unwrapped laptop I prodded the screen icons and wondered why there wasn't a response, and I realise how sloppy my typing's become since iPad helpfully capitalises i's and substitutes words, although that is a mixed blessing at times as I did try buying a train ticket to Gatwick and getting the error message, until I realised iPad was changing it to Batsman when I wasn't looking. It only likes Pole Gate too.

Anyway I spent this morning having coffee in Nero with John who is doing the same OU courses as me and always gets much better marks (which is really, really not a problem obviously...) and we spent a long time discussing career prospects or whether a PhD would be a better route, neither of which are really feasible but it was nice talking about it! If I do ok I would like to do an MSc but I need to get more than 69% for my assignments methinks.

Here are some pictures:

My lupins have been fantastic this year and the Eremurus have also settled in well. The hollyhocks are about to burst forth and hopefully the rain will give everything some vigour.

Here is the boy and Maud the picked-on chicken-cum-parrot. Tristan has reached the age where having one's face in a photo (especially smiling! I mean, come on!) is the ultimate in uncoolness but I snapped him unawares.

Oh and this is my absolute favourite rose - Jude the Obscure - who has taken over from Gertrude Jekyll (see profile pic) in the loveliest scent and shape stakes.