On the mend

It's Friday evening and we've just had a Costco curry - and very nice it was too. Jo and I are definitely much better now, although still not 100%. This one's going to take a while to clear.

I've been out on my bike a couple of times, but fairly short and non-taxing rides - that's when I really notice that I haven't fully recovered yet.

The weather here's been fine so far - mostly mid 90's, but, unlike down south, the temperature drops to mid 60's overnight, so the early mornings and evenings are the times to do anything. They're forecasting a fairly substantial increase in temperature in the next few days, however - up to 112 F - that's mid 40's C. That's about as hot as we've ever had it in Grants Pass. Memories of what it was like when Lucy stayed in Redding, Northern California.

 What have we done this week then? Well. there was Scott and Lucy's 16th anniversary - all four of us went to River's Edge restaurant for a lovely meal:

Braeden was playing on his trampoline one evening and I tried to get some action photos:

We did a couple of wineries in the Applegate valley on Thursday - Lucy drove. It's a lovely area. We were the only people at the first one - Serra Vineyards. Nice spot, but disappointing wines. The next one - Wooldridge - was much busier and much better. The photos, however, are from the first one:

Today (Friday), we were granted special dispensation to go and pick Blueberries at Judy's farm/home. Officially, the picking season's over, but Scott and Lucy work in the same place as Judy so we got a royal reception. Her husband Pete constructed a fun tree house:

Later on, Lucy was heading to Medford for a Costco shop, so Jo and I tagged along for the ride and got Lucy to drop us off at the new brewpub, RAM, for an hour:

This next bit really belongs in my Renshaw's Chronicles blog. I'd found a group on FaceBook for former pupils at Victoria Drive SS and spotted a pal I'd been on holiday with exactly 50 years ago. Robert Rowan now lives in Edinburgh so I've agreed to meet up with him sometime - and possibly another old school chum, Donnie Gemmell, who Robert met recently for the first time for 52 years! The power of Facebook.

Robert sent me a couple of very embarrassing photos of one day in 1965 when we were on a school trip to Annan apparently. I'd forgotten all about it - and I had no idea these photos existed:

16 years old and daft as a brush.

Sick week

Well, it's been a week since we travelled from the South East to the North West of USA and there's not much to report as we've both been a bit poorly, suffering from some kind of respiratory illness. Lucy was Googling it last night and reckons it's the spores that fly around in hot, humid climates like we were travelling in. Apparently it's quite a common thing.

Jo didn't move from her bed for the first 3 days. In fact, Cade didn't even see her until a brief glimpse on Wednesday evening. I thought I'd escaped it - after all, I'd been a bit sick in Savannah, so I thought it had now passed - but it came back to bite me again. Before it did its worst, I thought I needed to stretch my legs a little so I went for a short ride on the bike on Thursday. Perhaps, on reflection, I shouldn't have pushed it as I think this set me back again.

We've both been dosing up on various medications to alleviate the symptoms, the worst of which was the all-night coughing. Thankfully, we're now getting some sleep, so that's a relief.

Yesterday (Sunday), Jo and I went for a short midday walk down to the river and back, but I was pretty knackered after it. On Saturday, Jo and Lucy travelled to a Lavender farm for a class on how to make lavender wreaths. Everyone else was away, but I did nothing - just stayed at base camp, slept and read.

Today is Monday and the plan is to travel to Medford - Barnes & Noble's book store, lunch at Kaleidoscope plus some camera shopping - Jo's has bust too, so all we have is our phones.

To close a couple of photos:

The feature here is my Father's Day gift - the leather growler holder that fits on the bike

In practice for the next season, Scott has been heard blowing this - his Elk caller