ONE MORE TRAIN AND SOME AUTUMN COLOUR

One more A4 locomotive arrived at Shildon this week. The Union of South Africa came up from York under its own steam. We waited on the bridge and the cry went up when the steam appeared.

Not long afterwards it came into view and paused at the signals to let the diesel commuter to Darlington, pass by.

Then it steamed by and into the museum yard. It will be there with the others for a while.
The day before we had been to the auction at Addisons and treated ourselves to a silver butter dish and a waiter table. Here he is all cleaned up and given a better complexion. The table top needed stabilising too.

Tinkie has to check out all new objects. But it didn't amuse her much. She had had a bad week. I had given her a new feather wand to play with and it was obvious the next morning that she had chewed off half a dozen feathers and swallowed a couple of them. She coughed one up but was very poorly so we had a trip to the vet. It is amazing how a vet can get his fingers into her mouth and halfway down her throat without her biting them off. He found no more feathers and suggested a day of rest to see if it was a scratched throat or worse. The finger-risking act was well worth the £28 and she did indeed improve with rest and was able to eat and drink a bit by the evening.
She has started to venture out into the yard again, specially when the sun is shining and I am in the yard too. So I snapped the last of the colour while I was there.

The last Emma Hamilton rose.

The bright "fall" colours of the Rhus.

And the dark red of the Virginia Creeper. I wish I had planted one over on the other corner too. I'll start one off next spring. And the crab apples are turning golden. I shall leave them this year. They add colour to that corner well into the winter.

The fine weather encouraged DJ to paint the bollards outside the house. They look so much better when they are freshly done and they are a very handy way of directing people to us. He says he will finish them tomorrow while I visit the Autumn Fair at The Bowes Museum.
Cheers Gillian