Hooked on Actions, Filters, FaceTime and my iPhone Camera.

All of the following photos were taken with my iPhone and filters/actions of one description or another were added.  I’m indebted these days to Pioneer Woman for her free actions.  I find them really easy to use and they cut down my editing time no end.

Friday I had all three boys for a time. 

I took them to the canal.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I don’t think I’ll be doing it again any time soon.  I was scared to death one of them was going to fall in.

Canoeing along the canal.  George wanted to have a go at this.  Me too.

My current library books.  I don’t know how much longer I’ll be going to the library.  The fact is I see a Kindle in my future.  I’ll probably still go and browse the library shelves though just because it’s such a pleasurable thing to do.  I love the atmosphere in our library, it’s such a friendly place.

I love these two little men.   I played Draughts and Ludo with Nicholas this morning…

…and baked a cake with Charlie this afternoon.

My sister, the one who lives in Arkansas, finally got an iPhone last week.  FaceTime (video calling) with her has been so much fun this weekend.  I truly feel like we have visited with each other despite the thousands of miles that separate us.  Modern technology is just incredible.   I definitely see more FaceTime in my future.

Talking about modern technology.  William and I went over to Hebden Bridge again on Sunday morning.  I snapped this photo of a canal boat there.  I always think of barges as traditional maybe a little old fashioned too.  Not this boat.  It had solar panels and its own wind turbine too!

Kathleen.

P.S.  Just to  keep things straight - the last image is not an iPhone image.

July 2012 in Devon–Part 2

I’ve been taking way too long over this post.  My girls would say I’ve been pettyfogging and they wouldn’t be wrong.  Without further ado here it is.

Beer Sailing Club’s clubhouse is perched high up on the cliff edge above Beer beach.  This year the Cancer Research Team in Beer have been holding Cream Teas in the clubhouse to raise funds for their charity.  William and I went along to one of the events, mainly I have to admit, to have a nosy inside.  It was a gloriously hot sunny afternoon and we enjoyed our cup of tea, scones with jam and clotted cream out on the terrace…

.. with this view to gaze on.

It was so good on this holiday to be able to just spend time on the beach – reading, swimming, eating and drinking, people watching and using an umbrella to take shelter from the sun not the rain!

Charlie and his grandad fishin’ off Seaton beach.  You cast in…

..then you wait …

…and wait for ‘em to bite.

No better place to have a cream tea than Connaught Gardens in Sidmouth.  No, really, I mean it.  Their scones are the best.

I loved this Olympics display on the gable end of Sidmouth War Memorial Club. A reminder of what was waiting in the wings.

Coffee break in West Bay.

Fishing in West Bay.

Love this old fisherman’s tackle box on wheels.

Wonder how many years these old pals have been fishin’ together like this?

The beautiful shoreline at West Bay.  Sadly though these cliffs are very dangerous and landslips are common.  A fatal one happened the last week we were there, just a little further on along the coast from the cliffs in this picture.  A young woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed by the tons of falling rocks.  So sad.

After that happened the beach was cordoned off to keep the public out of harm’s way.  Yet if you look people can still be seen the wrong side of the orange barriers. 

West Bay hosts an Annual Raft Race in aid of the RNLI and happily it took place while William and I were there late one afternoon.

It was a sight to see.  All manner of rafts were doing battle on the River Brit.  It was really good fun to watch.

And with the sun setting over the Bay we made our way home.

Kathleen.

Boys in the Stream

Sunday was a lovely warm day.  After doing odd jobs in the morning William and I took ourselves over Blackstone Edge to Hebden Bridge for a tootle around.

We decided on a coffee in a new cafe which has just opened.  It’s in the recently renovated Town Hall.  Actually it’s still a work in progress.  With all the Health & Safety rules and regulations these days we were surprised at the open railings in place.  It’s about a 4ft drop down to the water. We would’ve had to find another cafe if we’d had little boys with us. 

This Virigina Creeper covering almost all of this old building is going to look fantastic in a month or so when summer turns to autumn (perish the thought!).

All the coffee shops were doing a roaring trade.

Hanging baskets like this were everywhere in the town.  Just beautiful. 

Onto yesterday afternoon.  I kept all three little boys for an hour or so while their mums went to the gym together.

I let them paddle in the stream that runs just at the back of our garden.

A couple of weeks ago this was a raging torrent from all the rain we’d had.

Not anymore. It was perfectly safe for the boys to play in yesterday.

They had loads of fun. 

This is Lesley peeping over her garden fence, laughing at the boys antics in the water.

Charlie came out of the water wettest and dirtiest. Back at home I ran the bath and had them all clean themselves off.  I think they enjoyed that just as much as being in the stream.  I know Charlie was happier once he was clean and dry again.

I love summer!

Kathleen.

The Last Few Days.

Wednesday just gone was my oldest grandson, George’s, 9th birthday and I yet have to catch a good photo of him to mark the occasion.  I think I’d better put that at the top of my to do list. 

While Victoria took the birthday boy and three of his friends to the pictures I was in charge of Nicholas and Charlie.

It was a beautiful day so I took them to the park before we joined the birthday party at Pizza Hut.  Boys have lots of energy don’t they?  That’s all I’m going to say.

Friday found me in Manchester again, this time with Caroline and Charlie. 

Caroline wanted to go to a frozen yogurt bar she had heard about in the Spinningfields area.  We got the frozen yogurt from “Frurt” and took it to this superb seating area in the middle of all the office blocks, shops, cafes and restaurants that make up Spinningfields.  The big screen was showing the Olympics. 

The sun showered its rays on this little oasis of calm.  We were there just ahead of the lunch break workers and had a front row seat.

Walking back to the train station through Corn Exchange the big screen there had a full audience of Olympics enthusiasts.  It seemed to me like there was a holiday atmosphere in the air.  I suppose the sunshine and Team GB doing brilliantly helped things along no end.

Instagram image

A couple of times just recently William and I have found our way to the local lake and sat outside the pub there.  It’s a great place to people watch, have a drink and, my favourite thing, watch the bikers come and go. 

               

Instagram images.

I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since the Olympics started.  William and I were down in Devon and he was reading about the success of the opening ceremony and now I’m off to sit in front of the telly and watch the closing ceremony of a very successful London 2012 Olympics. 

29 Gold, 17 Silver and 19 Bronze.  Well done Team GB!!!

Kathleen.

July 2012 in Devon

After a very wet start …

… and in the first few days with skies like this our two weeks holiday in Devon happily turned out to be one of the hottest we’ve had over the last few years.

               

With temperatures in the 70s and even as high as 81 degrees we were all smiles,

we were swimming in the sea (yep, that’s me out there),

and sitting in the shade.  It was marvellous!

Whatever the weather William usually does a fair bit of this.

It’s oh so nice to do this when that little old currant bun is in the sky.

Charlie taking pictures like a pro!

Bucket and spade play on West Bay beach.  Heaven for a little boy!

It was heaven too for Harley.  He went swimming (he loves the sea), ran around and had a whale of a time.  Unfortunately though, he got heatstroke and for him it was heaven no longer.  When the picture above was taken he was beginning to feel ill.  An emergency visit to the vet and a night’s stay in hospital brought his temperature of 103 degrees down but put an end to his holiday fun.  Poor thing!

  

Our little dog Muffin isn’t so energetic any more and most of the time he seeks the shade, never goes near the water and fortunately stays cool and happy.

Plenty of ice cream was consumed.  Especially by me.  I could eat the soft whip variety until it comes out of my ears.  No exaggeration!

When the sun is cracking the flags my favourite beach to be on is Beer.  The beach has a couple of little snack huts and we make good use of them.  That’s William in the green shirt coming back to our table with a couple of coffees.

The view up above the beach huts …

…and in front of them.  Incidentally, I love the pebbles.  I love the crunching sound they make when you walk on them and they don’t get into places they don’t belong like sand does!

A little peek inside one of those beach huts.  Not very big are they?  But they’ll store all the paraphernalia needed for a week on the beach.  They’re available to hire for approximately £45 a week.

It being Jubilee year and the year of the London Olympics the Union Jack was in evidence everywhere.  Beautiful!

These photos are all from the first week and now I need to get the second week posted as soon as I can.

Kathleen.