Good morning, let’s sit on the garden porch with our coffee shall we?  Well maybe not. Things are still untidy from the painting and you can see I am getting into Spring! What will go into these pots this year?  It has been so warm and everything is blooming and the birds are all aflutter! That’s the way I have felt all week too. Aflutter. Let’s go to the front porch and sit a spell!

The first mistake I made a couple of weeks ago, was thinking that I needed a stronger security system on my computer.  I leave such matters to my husband because he knows how to deal with finding the right security and all the pertinent questions that need to be answered.  Also, he doesn’t mind (as in he loves) talking to vendors on the phone for hours getting the right set up he wants. So he did all that for his computer and added it to my computer as well. Then he left town on a business trip. Suddenly, I could not “like” anyone’s post. I could not answer a comment either, because WordPress no longer recognized me as the author of my posts. I could read the comments from my phone and I could post, with limits. Oh my gosh! AND I could no longer talk to the happiness engineers to try to fix the problem, because nothing that required a click on my computer would work!!!!!! So I  put up with  dealt with that for a week.

Last Saturday I went for a walk so I could post on Jo’s Monday Walk Challenge, a Challenge I have wanted to participate in for some time. It was a lovely day and I took great photos of the neighborhood and the gardens. I just clicked away! I used my iPhone to make it all really easy. Then I got home and looked on my computer for the photos. There were none! Now my cloud didn’t work either!!!!! What in the world! I was really in a pickle for my daily posts. The photos that were already in the computer, in my “albums” and such, would download really S……L……O…..W. going uh, uh, uh, uh. You know when they download about 1/8 inch in 3 minutes! So for a couple of weeks there have been lots of one-flower posts. No likes for anyone, no comments to anyone and a great deal of, “I can’t believe this!”

Then hubby was back. The poor guy walks through the door and I hit him with all my computer woes before he has even put his briefcase down! He opens up my website and plays around with it for awhile and then he calls the security vendor and they turn off the “Continuous Scanning in the Background” for any onerous things on my computer.  That system was really doing a great job!  So good, I couldn’t do anything! Now it is fixed, I think.  I am posting this morning and we will see how well the photos go.

Do you need another cup of coffee? I do!

Now for the continued cruise news! We’ve been doing more research for our cruise. I didn’t think I would be doing as much research because everything is included in the cruise.  The above photo is last years research for our yearly Garden Tour Series in the UK, when we fly  to London and then drive everywhere. Last year it was to Cornwall and then Kent.  The research/itinerary was over 40 pages double sided. I can really get into research. I put each day’s activities in the plastic sleeve and then just carry the sleeve for any given day in my bag.  This year, with the Regent cruise, the first class flights, the excursions, the drinks, the food, the tips, everything, are all taken care of by someone other than me. The biggest factor is picking from all the destination stops (there are 10) and more than 10 choices to choose from at each stop.

The port stops are:

Leaving from Southampton, UK, where we have never been before.

Saint-Malo, France

Three day stop in Bordeaux, France

Le Verdon, France

Biarritz, France

Bilbao, Spain

La Coruña, Spain

Oporto, Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal

Seville, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

The excursions last from 4 hours to 8 1/2 hrs depending on which ones you choose, concentrating on your stamina and likes. I like the villages in the middle of nowhere, where you can roam at will and take photos without three hundred people surrounding me. Hubby likes anything that includes twenty million stairs to the top of a tower, jumping off any cliff, or any route that requires the hard way (strenuous) to get there. That being said we decided to sign up for separate excursions. This may be the first vacation that I don’t spend the day with him! Ha Ha! See you at dinner! And what did you do today?

So while hubby is here and before he jets off again, I thought we should go over the hotels in Southampton, which we are arriving at a day early before we embark on the cruise. I had looked at one hotel in particular and when I looked it up to book it, they were completely full for the end of September, 7 months away! What??????? So I looked at another and another……. same result…… There must be a lot of cruises leaving from Southampton! We ended up with a lot more expensive room, not near the quay. But at least we got a room! Then we started to look at Barcelona, at the end of our cruise, to make arrangements for the days we are staying over there, before we come back to the US. That story I will save for next time! But, I can tell you it is all arranged, except for the private sightseeing tours. We are working with Anna in Barcelona for that, and there is a lot to see! Has anyone been to any of these stops on the cruise? Please, let me know! AND a big thank you to everyone that sent me sea sickness prevention tips. It was much appreciated although I had a time trying to respond to you! I look forward to our coffee morning next week! 

This is part of the #Weekend Coffee Share! I think it is fun! It is hosted by Nerd in the Brain!  Be sure to link up so you can see what everyone else is saying over coffee!