Well, it's Wednesday in both the US and UK and I'm about halfway through my Iowa trip. The weather has been gloriously hot - actually reaching 91 degrees yesterday. It's cooler and cloudier today, but still very nice.
Jilly is recuperating well and though it'll be near the end of the year before she's running any marthons or suchlike, she's already getting around well and even able to drive short distances. In the meantime I'm helping get the house sorted (I've discovered my innate domestic god complex) and making sure the menagerie of animals she's taken in over the years don't trample her underfoot.
There's the cats - Willow, Lilly, Emery, the little-seen Benny, Harry (middle-pic left) and Marilyn and her two dogs: Katie and Winston. Winston is, naturally, a massive British bulldog and looks like a cross between Gordon Brown, an alien and the dancing baby from Ally McBeal - except, of course, much MUCH cuter than all combined. Lilly, an ickle black-scruffy/demonic hybrid kitten has decided my legs are ladders - most inconvenient, especially when you're heading to 
the bathroom - but I've now got a water-squirter that acts as a detterent. Having said that, Lilly is now snoozing away on my lap. Jill too (as she's still not getting enough zzzzzz's at night). Not on my lap. You know what I mean! The animals tend to take turns in jumping on me during the night... fun for the first five minutes though 5:00am this morning after an hour or so of Willow wailing... not so much!
the bathroom - but I've now got a water-squirter that acts as a detterent. Having said that, Lilly is now snoozing away on my lap. Jill too (as she's still not getting enough zzzzzz's at night). Not on my lap. You know what I mean! The animals tend to take turns in jumping on me during the night... fun for the first five minutes though 5:00am this morning after an hour or so of Willow wailing... not so much!Iowa is a great change of pace. People warned me there wasn't much to do and though that's true, it's also one of its charms. This is small-town America and all the better for it. Everyone knows each other and there's very much a sense of everyone pulling together - something you just don't get in major cities where everyone's looking out for themselves. 
No significant deadlines and no rush to do much at all. In fact Jilly and I are merely planning the various strands of our mutual plans for world domination and watching the lightning bugs glowing across the gardens. Ocassionally a train (we're right beside the railroad tracks) trundles apologetically by with a toot and a rumble.
I feel a retirement plan coming on ;)
I feel a retirement plan coming on ;)
