British Christmas!

It's getting so close to Christmas, and we're waiting to see if it's a white one (the weather is saying 'snow showers' right now!). Our plans for the day include a walk with the dogs, a relaxing breakfast and dinner, hopefully catching up with family and friends with Skype and movies! We're having our first Christmas together in my new house. Ahhhhhhh......:)

Every year I like to invite a few folks over for a British Christmas dinner. It's always so much fun. This year Amy, Peter and Stuart came over and shared in the food, fun and pictionary! 

Have a great Christmas everyone! 

Brody practices for pulling a sleigh! 

Part of the Christmas includes bringing a handmade ornament for the tree!  Here Amy shows hers off. 

Stuart showing his lightbulb penguin ornament! 

Carving the turkey! 

Having some food with friends! 

Lighting the pudding! 

Amy shows off her reindeer flair! 

One of my favorite handmade ornaments ever - Stuart's lightbulb penguin!  

Brandon's in front (a computer harddrive) and Peter's at the back (the day after the end of the world!). 

Amy's sugarplum romance tree! 

My googly eyed sanddollars! 

Christmas cupcakes!

Starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

Our Christmas tree! Amazingly, there have been no animal climbers, they've all left it pretty much alone. Phew! 

Barkley Bear showing her Christmas flare! 

Barkley and Brody hanging out by the Christmas tree, and on our new (to us) carpet donated by Amy and Peter. We're both in love with this carpet, not least because there are no threads to get stuck up the vacuum, but the colours are also wonderful for the room. 

And today, after a quick one day visit to Cape Cod to see friends down there, we woke up to snow! It's supposed to be snowy all week, so we're hoping to get out for our first snow shoe of the season this weekend! 

Oh Christmas tree!

Barkley approves of our 6ft tree bought from a local farm. Excited - this is my first real Christmas tree! Next step - stop the cats climbing it!

24hrs in Iceland!

And what better to do, than to relax at the Blue Lagoon for the morning before flying home!

Visit to the UK

We got back late last night from our whirlwind visit to the UK. It was fantastic to see everyone, even if only briefly. I think we truly made the most of the short time with everyone. Here's the visit, in photos....

First stop was to Wales, to see Mum, Jon, Adam, Jack and my cousins and Aunt. We went with Adam, Jack, Mum and Jon to the Dr Who Experience...all had a great time! 

Adam, Me and Jack at the Dr. Who Experience. 

Brandon and I then had a few hours to ourselves, so we went around Cardiff Castle. Locked Brandon up at the gate then went on in to look around....

It was really great to see cousins Elen and Neil, and their new (to me) brood! It's been almost ten years since I last saw them, and since then they've had three additions...Emmy and twins Jackson and Olly! 

The next stop was Cornwall to see Dad and Sanchia. We stopped at Tintagel Castle for a poke around, but it was so wet and windy it was a very brief visit! 

The weather was still wet and windy on our one day with Dad and Sanchia, so we went around the Eden Project, which is always so nice to see!  

And the last stop on our whirlwind family tour was Portsmouth to see Grant, Claire and nieces Lucy and Emily. It was a tad windy there too! 

We did get up to Stonhenge, but again the rain and the wind stopped it being a long visit....

Lucy risked being whisked away by the wind! 

So we ended up in the aquarium instead, where Emily got to say hi to some carp. 

That was the end of our whirlwind family visit! It's good to be home, but it's cold here compared to the UK. We also stopped for 24hrs in Iceland on the way home (pictures to follow!), which was a great relaxing break on the way home. The only problem, both Brandon and I have come down with colds! Today we picked up the dogs from the kennel (both were very happy to see us, but looked like they had a great holiday too), took them for a walk, then went and picked out a Christmas tree! The first Christmas tree in my own home...:)

Another one bites the dust.....

The fireplace

We've all been appreciating the fire today. Not quite below freezing, but definitely heading that way. A good weekend, though started by a 24hr faculty meeting that started midday on friday, it ended with a wonderful dinner with friends, some productive housework (putting in an electric dog fence for Brody; raking piles of leaves; tidying up the garden) and a wonderful dog walk with a pile of black dogs. A good and relaxing weekend! 

For Halloween....

"I was a cone-shark"

Superstorm Sandy

Pumpkins carved at Amy and Peters house a few days ago! Luckily on the edge of Sandy, we sat through the storm last night unscathed. A large tree went down behind us, luckily into the woods, and other than branches being tossed onto the deck and torrents of rain, all was well. Power at the Darling Marine Center is out today (the students are having their lecture by generator!), so i'm at home, where so far, we've only had flickers. Brandon headed into work, as Delorme is open, but many schools and shops are closed today to clean up after the high winds and rain. Less dramatic than last years Halloween snow storm, hopefully this year the kids will manage to get out and trick or treat!

Barkley and the Snake...

Barkley has the cone on again, hotspot on the cheek she won't leave alone. Sigh. Fun watching her trying to play with a toy snake though....

National Geographic Interview

Short clip from my interview at National Geographic when I was in DC a few weeks ago!

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/specials/in-the-field-specials/waller-deep-sea-coral/

New post on the Nat Geo site -

Just wrote a new post on the Nat Geo site - american businessman dumps 200,000lbs of iron into the ocean to stimulate a plankton bloom - unregulated 'rogue' experiment that can have drastic consequences......

Autumn

It's true, the autumn in Maine is one of the most spectacular in the world. Though this year has been a wet one, we've had some spectacular days. And of course, here in Damariscotta, fall means Pumpkin festival! We took some time out from continuing Brandon't move to enjoy the pumpkins with friends. 

Fall at the Darling Marine Center. Some wonderful colours. 

Miss Barkley, loving her new, more spacious, ride. 

Puffer-Pumpkin! 

Mouse house pumpkin! 

Mouse House Pumpkin!

Team DMC's pumpkin boat for the regatta - the girls took second place! 

What we thought was a giant rabbit, was actually a wolf from little red riding hood! 

Bandanas all around.....:)

The extended family....

D'artagnan - aka Dr Evil. Maine Coon kitten, loves to pouce on the other cats, and attempted to do so with Barkley. Once. :)

D'artagnan. 

Zoe, showing her British approval. 

Old girl Porsche and Brody, looking out for squirrels. 

It's October already?

Wow, time really flies. So much has happened, so much has changed just in these few months. This year in fact has really been a whirlwind. This weekend saw our little family of Barkley and me expand quite dramatically. Now we're me & Brandon; Barkley & Brody; D'argtanian, Zoe & Porsche (cats) and Cricket & Ally (parrots). Quite a rapid expansion, and one we've embraced (all be it with many cookies for our queen bee Barkley!). Though the full move will be slow (Brandon is selling a house, and we have yet to move furniture), it's good to be all under one roof. Maybe that'll mean more time to blog too....:)

Another big change happened this weekend too. It was goodbye to Beach Belle and hello to Snow Belle. I've been feeling a bit sad about it today, but I said goodbye to my little black car yesterday, and said hello to a little red car. Beach Belle wasn't doing quite as well since a deer ran into me a few months ago, and i'd been debating swopping up for something more reliable in the snow, now I live 35 minutes from work. Luckily Beach Belle, even with deer imprint, was worth considerably more than I owed, which gave me enough to afford the payments on a Toyota Rav4 (and actually halve my monthly payments!). Beach Belle was a great car, and it turns out, a great investment too. Doesn't often happen to me....:) I shall miss the zip of the mazda, but Barkley is loving her new nest - the tailgate is lower and her space larger, and (somehow) she's already wedged a tennis ball in the rear cup holder....

Brody and Barkley checking out their new ride. 

Miss Barkley, beginning her winter coat. Yet again, she's growing back in patches, and looks very raggedy right now. Hopefully she'll grow fully in soon. 

Squirrel.......this picture was preceeded by speeds you'd never think a 12 year old lady could do.......

Our new wheels. Plenty of room for the whole family too.....:)