Autumnal October

After some excellent weather in September, we are definitely starting to get a bit more autumnal now - at least in temperature. The leaves are, however, still on the trees and the experts are saying this is primarily due to the sunshine and higher than expected late summer temperatures. We're sitting here at home now with no heating or hot water - our boiler seems to have broken down - possibly the pump. We had a plumber out last Monday and he had to turn all the water off. Since then, the system has been gurgling away and no matter how often I tried to bleed radiators, it didn't seem to have much affect, so finally yesterday, I gave in and have called in a Scottish Gas engineer, who's due to arrive tomorrow (Tuesday). I walked up Scolty last Friday with Colin and, on the return trip we noted a field of wild flowers, which I couldn't quite get the right angle on to show nice it was:

Also spotted one of the lighthouse exhibits down beside the Dee bridge:

Other "arty" things going on in Banchory are the violin trail (now finished) and some interesting knitted tops on postboxes:

By the way, my leg has finally healed up after my mid-August tumble from my bike. Last week I spotted a writing desk/bureau on the Banchory Buy/Swap/Sell Facebook page and I knew Jo had always wanted one, so we went for it:

It needs some care and attention but generally it seems to be in good nick. Any restoration advice appreciated. Barry and Helen recently ordered some coffee from the shop that Ross now works at and they got a nice little note back from him - hope the coffee's OK as well! Barry recently sent me a photo of a Scout trip to Lindisfarne half a century ago - he's easy to spot:

That's it.