Halloween Snowstorm hits New England

Halloween celebrations have been absolutely snowed out in New England, with a record huge snowstorm bringing extreme conditions to the whole area.

Much damage has been done by snow laden trees cracking under the weight and bringing down power lines, buildings and blocking roads.

Power and electricity is out over a fair portion of the area

Roads are not safe,many closed.

The autumn bloom of these roses are now at an end.

I just hope all our friends in New Hampshire are safe and their properties aren't damaged, and of course we really feel for our 4 grand god kids in Manchester (Sean) and Amherst (Owen, Dylan and Greyson) having all their Halloween costumes and now nowhere safe to wander to for "trick or treat".

This record snowstorm has been called HALLOWEEN

The Halloween Regatta

It's Halloween, everyone is dressed up, or dressed down, as were these at the Goffstown Halloween Regatta in New Hampshire a week or so ago. Lois sent me the following photos she took at this crazy event.

The goal is to find the very largest pumpkin

then carve and hollow it out

so it becomes a boat - decorated for Halloween of course and cruise it down the river in front of a cheering crowd in very warm "fall" weather!.

Aerial antics in Sheffield

Last week in Sheffied, young Grand nephew Jack, accompanied his dad, Dan and Uncle Nick in their bid to conquer their collective fear of heights.

This aerial circuit took about an hour and 8 year old Jack completed the full course Congratulations Jack, also to the 2 big boys!

The Queen in Brisbane - and the Rugby

Yesterday was a big day for thousands of Brisbane and country Queenslanders people, when Queen Elizabeth 11, came to town.

The Brisbane River was a picture on a beautiful day, totally lined with thousands and thousands of delighted onlookers wanting to catch a glimpse of Queen Liz as she cruised up the River to debark at Southbank, which only 9 months ago was covered in mud, water and debris from the floods.

Some little ones got dressed for the occasion, and the flowers gifted to the Queen were sent to different aged peoples homes - a delight for them.

The Queen attended a reception to meet many of the flood victims, spending quite a bit of time with them.

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She still has that smile, and at 85 seems to be able to handle all the stairs down off planes, boats and monuments no problems at all,

and it was a great day for the kids - I still remember so clearly in 1954, when she first came to Australia, and I lined up to see her.

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ON THE SAME DAY IN AUCKLAND

It just happened to be a Public Holiday - Labour Day. Not too much labour occurred in Auckland yesterday, with the exception of hundreds of thousands of celebrating Kiwis flooding the streets of Auckland to cheer on the All Blacks, who had one the night before, the Rugby World Cup against France by one point (7-8), great joy for everyone there. The Wallabies came third, beating Wales, it certainly was not their best performance at all.

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AND

it was also Sarah's birthday, so we called Auckland to wish her the best, think there was yet another celebration happening in Auckland.

Colourful India

Here are the most recent photos from Petrina's 5 month tour of India. In this snap, she is overlooking the town of Orchha.

Apparently Orchha is an archaeologist's dream!

The old Raj Palace

Seems to be a cow everywhere

also huge Buzzards!

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And of course the colourful.

San Quirico d'Orcia, Bagno Vignoni and Rome Airport

We packed early, had our last italian breakfast and headed out of Pienza - we had the whole day to reach Rome Airport, so we called into a charming walled town on the northern edge of Val d'Orcia - it was going to be our last "walled town" fix in Tuscany. This town was called San Quirico d'Orcia.

Parking and access was easy - it was not 100 plus stairs up this time !

Our first stop was at Horti Leonini Botanical Gardens

laid out by Diomede Leoni in 1580

Peaceful - we were the only ones there

La Collegiata was built on the site of the old (pleban) church which dated from the 8th Century.

It was rebuilt in the 12 Century, the main portal is in Lombard style, a decorated protiro in sandstone, with columns supported by lions.

There is another bell tower at the rear of the Collegiata

It's flora at the top caught my eye!

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Beside the Collegiata is the Palazzo Chigi (Magistrate's palace) built in 17th Century

and its huge "porte del morto" - doors of the dead - why, I don't know!.

Very quiet houses of Piazza Chigi

Porte Cappucini

The Brig grabs a seat, while I read the sign outside this boutique hotel.

Just delightful!

then we wander back towards the car along the narrow streets within the wall

San Quirico has 14 small towers

and around the exterior edge of parts of its wall - are thriving "vegie" gardens.

A very peaceful couple of hours in San Quirico d'Orcia

Our next stop not far from San Quirico is Bagno Vignoni

The name of this village derives from Vignoni, an 11th century castle whose traces dominate the hill over the village.

Bagno Vignoni is a tiny medieval spa village - just a handful of houses

It is full of hot sulfurous water that bubbles up to the surface

from the volcanic rocks deep underground

The healing quality of the water has been known since Roman times

It is said that both St Catherine of Sienna (14th Century) and Lorenzo the Magnificent sought a cure here.

There is a huge Piazze containing an arcaded stone lined pool - full of hot sulfurous waters, constructed by the Medici

which is no longer used,

but there are other places including the upmarket Spa Hotels - where one can find their cure.

Unfortunately, we now have to leave the Val d'Orcia, and head south via the Motorway to the Hertz returns area at Rome's Fiumicino Airport. This was a task we were dreading, but it was oh so simple . We manoevred the car to the right spot, were greeted by a charming young italian, the car did not have one mark on it, we found a trolley for our bags, and headed direct to International Departures, another great experience.

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Well we spent 5 superb weeks in Italy, BUT it has taken me 5 months to recount it - oh well!