A day of holiday preparations, including haircut and nails, packing and AJT in her element preparing a family game of 'Name that hand'.

This evening was my first photography outing with Townie. We hope that this will become a weekly habit that will improve our photographic skills. Anyone else want to join us?

This evening proved to be very productive.

Today's harvest! Picked pre-rain and pre-Ashes victory.

After spending the first part of the day in work I was very pleased to get home to the garden and TMS. Oh yeah, and to find out that England were STILL batting!

Early tea with the Colliers at Cafe Sekanda.

Coco before Chanel after work today. But the photo is of my lovely smelling, clean bed; where I'm heading to right now.

What a bargain!! £5 for a fantastic tour of St. George's hall including the revealed Minton floor in the Grand Hall. A great way to end the first day back at work.

Today was Em's last day with us. We drove down to Solihull to reunite her with the Sherratt clan. Boo staged this shot for us but irritatingly it won't turn so you'll have to cock your head. There's definitely a touch of Sound of Music about it.

We went to Jungle Park with Sara, Tanya and Esther. Emily took it all in her stride.

We went to the Tate; Em and Alice made a lantern for the lantern parade tomorrow night.

We met the Colliers for a quick drink in the sunshine at The Greenhills. Emily was a big hit with the girls. This seems to be a strange Collier version of 'time-out' ;-)

Hurray - we've got Emily for the next 4 days!

A lazy day today, what with getting a distinct lack of sleep this weekend (due to various noisy neighbours) meant that we finally watched our LoveFilm DVD that we've had a for at least a month: La Vie en Rose. To quote AJT "not the jolliest of jolly films".

Char & Jo's wedding day. What a wonderful occasion!

This is the thumb nail that I broke yesterday - beautifully fixed by Emma at Clair's salon!!

My wife came home with a lovely surprise for me...my favourite flower.

Bye bye Sallie - have a fantastic time in New Zealand.

Helena and John visited on their way home from Welsh Wales.

Two loads of holiday laundry now clean and dry - blues and reds. A few more loads are waiting on the bedroom floor!