Clocks - all change

Last night, the UK clocks went back an hour to GMT, so mornings are a little lighter for a few weeks but nights get darker sooner. It is not until the end of January that lengthening days are really noticeable, although days lengthen again around Christmas. I guess we just adapt to a more "indoor" lifestyle for the rest of autumn and winter. This autumn, the tree leaf colours are particularly good with the reds more intense than I recall. There is something good about every season in the UK. The dark nights are nice as are the very light summer evenings.

Grandson gone home

Our younger grandson has gone back to his home near Canterbury.  Dad collected him this afternoon. It was lovely to have him and we think he had a nice time with us. He is a very good little artist and interested in so much - just great.

Strictly Come Dancing

This is the only "reality" show on TV I watch. "Strictly" makes good entertainment on a cold autumn evening, with tea on a tray and a small glass of wine in front of the fire. My wife enjoys it more but I do enjoy it too. In my teenage years I enjoyed ballroom dancing, although that was a long time ago!

Park and Ride

Our young grandson and my wife at the Newmarket Road "Park and Ride"

Today we went into Cambridge to visit the Dinosaur Museum (Sedgewick Site) and John Lewis for a snack with our younger grandson. We used the "Park and Ride" bus for the last part of the journey as we can use our bus passes and it saves worrying about the city traffic and parking. In John Lewis we treated our grandson to some Lego too. At the moment I have a blue disabled badge and am able to park in the disabled spots.

Grandson here for a few days

We are lucky enough to have our younger grandson, aged 6,  staying with us. For some reason I was very tired today, but hope to be OK tomorrow. He is a very talented little boy who loves drawing. His parents pick him up on Saturday.

Today, he did some baking. Tomorrow we hope to see some dinosaur bones!

Solar Panels?

The subsidy given by the UK government drops dramatically at the end of the year. With new panels getting smaller all the time and more efficient I have decided not to bother for now. Existing panels are large and have a finite life.

I have decided to wait, especially as our electricity bill is already very low because we use LED and economy lights widely. I think the government should be doing far more to encourage the take-up of energy saving measures. This is surely a "win-win" approach?

Tony Benn

Currently, I am reading the diaries of Tony Benn, lent to me by a friend. Tony Benn was very much on the left politically. He was well respected as an honest man even by those who were on the opposite side of the political divide. The more I read, the more I like him and his views. In the UK we have a very right wing media (papers etc.) and Tony Benn was often the person they liked to ridicule and misquote. He always "stuck to his guns" and talked much good sense. He died aged 88 of a stroke in 2014 after a long political career.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn .