Is it really autumn?

It's Tuesday morning. I've just been out for the papers and down the golf club to put my gear back after our weekend at Boat of Garten and I can't believe how warm it is outside already. I'm planning to go for a short cycle and need to find something really light to wear. And they say that, meteorologically speaking, it's now Autumn? Doesn't feel like it.

Well it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted - possibly the longest gap in this blog for some while. Trying to fill in what I've been up to since then:

• Golf of course - including some Seniors matches and our 62nd outing to Boat of Garten this weekend.
• Made arrangements to go to Stratford upon Avon to discuss potential sale of our Hollywood, Florida timeshares - tie-ing it in with a trip to the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
• We're now all booked for our trip to York at the end of October.
• We've finally committed to a new boiler and it's getting installed this Thursday.
• Been to the local CAMRA branch's Beer Festival "post mortem" when the perennial organiser shocked us all with his resignation after more than two decades of doing it. The rest of us are going to have to pick up the pieces now.
• Had a nice couple of days in Nairn with the 3 other couples we went to France with last year.

Time for a couple of photos then:

Jo and I outside our hotel in Nairn - the Golf View. We'd last stayed there on a scorching hot weekend in 1987. Lovely outdoor jacuzzi overlooking the Moray Firth.

Nairn town centre was ablaze with colour.

On the drive up to Grantown/Boat of Garten on Sunday, my chauffeur, Rob, stopped the car to have a look at the 4 new copper coloured "things" next to the standing stone with a view of distant Corgarff Castle.

It turns out that the "things" were, in fact, all seats.

We've booked 8 shows/talks at Cheltenham:

• John Simpson
• Val McDermid
• Jeremy Paxman
• The Ages of Bowie
• Brian Wilson - A Life
• I, Me, Mine (George Harrison)
• Shetland (TV series)
• Wilko Johnson

That should keep us busy. They're all just one hour long so we still have plenty of time to look around Cheltenham - and we've got spare time in Statford upon Avon too - and maybe time for a quick look at Bath as well.

That's a quick update of the last couple of weeks. Today, of course, we're off to Inverurie as usual then, on Thursday, I'm driving Ross and Lizzie over to Stonehaven to catch the train to Edinburgh for their flight to Hamburg for Lizzie's relative's wedding. On Saturday, Brian and Mary are coming up here for a night or two - and some golf.