kestrel

after fending off a hack attack on Friday night on the server/IP that hosts Newswireless.net, we were a bit worried as to whether we could get away, but it seemed to die down reasonably quickly. We did wonder whether it was a fishing expedition, to see if we were alert and responsive … and our ISP has all the logs, so we shall be going through them later.

on Saturday morning, I strimmed perlmonger’s hair, and made a batch of banananananana and pumpkin seed muffins, then we set forth for Oxon, bearing said muffins, stopping only to consume a brekker at the greasy spoon on Hotwell Road.

we arrived at Mr and Mrs Keogh’s cottage in Killington at about 3.45, and a very pleasant time was had watching the bonfire and fireworks (with Sarah, Sara and Zara, to name but three – how confusing :), scoffing loads of lovely cakes, having a pub supper and a late natter with our hosts, and Steve and Lynn who arrived very late. perlmonger was extremely social, and fell fast asleep on the sofa, but then he is a very tired old badger at the moment.

Mrs K is a keen gardener, and we left bearing butternut squash, raspberries (in nearly Nov!), spinach, chillis and peppers from the greenhouse, and loads of lovely apples from their orchard. She also did us up a lovely autumn bouquet from her flower garden.

we came home via Dyrham Park, a National Trust property near Bath. Went round the house, and had a good tramp round the beautiful park and gardens, before having a cream tea (hurrah!) in the restaurant. Most of the NT properties close at the end of October, apart from the gardens, so we probably won’t be doing much more before the spring, which is a shame.

so a cracking weekend, once Friday night’s unpleasantness came to an end.