Mum and Dad's house is up for sale

I suppose this day was always going to come, but it's still a bit of a shock that Mum and Dad's house is up for sale.  They have lived there for 60 years, in fact Marie was born in this house.  This is the last link we have with Loughborough.  I am going to go to England and help Marie clean the house out as there is a lot of stuff we will need to go through.  For now, we will just wait and see if we get any interest in a sale, we have plenty of time

These are the pictures from the website, they make the house look fantastic.

Front porch-Walter built this!!!  Seems so long ago

The hall-the poppy picture was something I bought Mum when I was doing my PhD-I worked with someone who did photography and I bought the photo from him

Mum and Dad spent countless hours in the conservatory, they really got their money's worth out of it!!!  It ended up being my favourite room in the house

Kitchen looks immaculate, although we know it's pretty dated.  Those tiles have been on the walls for about 40 years!!!

The sitting room.  I remember when they had the fireplace built, Mum was so proud of it

Marie had the bathroom done so that Dad could have a walk-in shower.  It has been barely used

Mum and Dad's bedroom

Dining room-this used to be my bedroom, but Mum had it converted as soon as I moved out.  She was making sure I didn't think about coming back home!!!!

This was Marie's old bedroom, then used as Dad's office

The back garden is still beautiful, but nothing like it was when Mum was alive.  She spent so much of her time looking after it, and was always buying new plants for it (kind of like me really!!)

(Very) quick trip to Baltimore

I did a quick overnight trip to Baltimore, I had never been there before and I loved it.  This was the view from my hotel window, one of the best I've had

Luckily, I had some time to go walking around after my meeting.  This statue was right by the hotel, I was staying in Harbor East

The nice thing about east coast cities is all the really old brick buildings

This is the old sewage pumping station

Barnes and Noble in the old power plant building

Maritime museum

View while I sat reading my book!!!  Absolutely perfect day

World Trade building

Submarine for Sam!!!!!

Civil War Museum

View from the other side of the water

Seven Foot Lighthouse

Inside the Barnes and Noble building-coolest bookstore I've been in here!!!!

SWIMS 2019

We had our annual SWIMS symposium on Wednesday and we invited Angela back to give the opening talk. It was so good to see her again

We had 5 other talks given by faculty at SLU.  It was another successful meeting and makes my job worthwhile

We had over 75 people attend the meeting, which is amazing with all the clinical effort our faculty are expected to do these days

Saying goodbye.......

I did not go home for Dad's funeral. Marie and I had decided that it would be better for me to go when we had a chance to clean out the house and sort out all the other things we need to take care of.  Marie sent me a few pictures, including this one of the flowers at the funeral

Beautiful flowers in Marie's house

Cupcakes!!!!

We are going to get a memorial plot at the crematorium for both Mum and Dad, and bury Dad's ashes in it.  We will do that when I get home

Shannon, Collin and Baby Leo

Shannon and Collin were up in St Louis for the Labor Day weekend. I met them for coffee at Comet.  It's been a while since I have seen them, way too long

Leo was such a sweet baby, he sat on my lap for about an hour and was perfectly happy.

I need to find Shannon a job in St Louis so they can move back here.....

Japanese Festival at MBG

Arline and I braved going to the Japanese Festival this year.  We got there as it opened and it wasn't too bad getting in.  It was as busy as ever, but has changed completely since I was last there.  We went in the Japanese Garden and there was hardly anyone there!!!  They were all by the entrance buying stuff.  The festival has definitely turned into a big market and anime show.
Anyway, we enjoyed our monthly wander around the gardens and got some good pictures of the water lilies, which have been spectacular for several months.

Very peaceful looking bridge in the English Woodland garden

It was definitely a water lily day!!!!

I did buy this flower holder from one of the stalls, I absolutely  love it!!!!