Hello!

This has been a bad year for me. First, my computer crashed, then I lost a great friend, and then my camera got stuck halfway out of its zoom function. They said they had it fixed after a week but it still wasn't right so another week passed by. I got it back this morning. Luckily it was still under guarantee, so it cost me nothing. 
I didn't miss much. The weather has been atrocious. Nothing in the garden has been growing. The little seeds I planted have remained little seedlings after their initial burst of enthusiasm.
But... the peony roses finally appeared. They are drooping now, so I snapped this one before they are gone for another year.

In the middle of all this it was the Redhead's birthday. Her first real one without her twin brother. The girls brought her out luxury shopping and then went for afternoon tea in a hotel. In the meantime, I stayed at home and cooked the dinner. There is a pic of the menu on the extra photos. Dinner was a great success, there were no leftovers. All told, she had a great day.

Other pics in the extras are of a couple of seagulls having a grooming break from their usual scavenging, and a pink feathery plant in the garden that I would love to know the name of.

Talk to everybody soon.