We’re Back and Burton Bradstock

Well, we’re back again from a week’s holiday in Devon, our last one for this year.  We had a lovely week, that’s not to say the sun shone every day but living in England we know not to expect that.  Having said that we did see plenty of sunshine and didn’t ever get wet, almost blown away a couple of times but that’s OK.

On the Monday it was my birthday and I was given the deciding vote on where we would go that day.  I chose Burton Bradstock.  It’s a beautiful little place.  Not a lot there, there’s a great beach, fantastic scenery and what’s more there’s a wonderful beach cafe.  That’s where we headed first.  We love to sit outside a cafe with a Kaffee und Kuchen and this cafe is just about top of our list for doing just that.  Look at the view!

We then took a walk up the hill facing the cafe.  It was quite a steep hill, especially pushing a buggy.  Thank goodness I didn’t have to do the pushing is all I can say.

The views at the top of the hill were well worth the effort.

  I took some photos of Caroline, Tee and Charlie. 

On Friday William and I went back to Burton Bradstock again.  It was perfect weather to be there.  The wind was blowing quite fiercely at times and the waves were ginormous.  It was glorious.  We decided to walk up and along the coastal path in the opposite direction of Monday’s walk.  Here I am at the start of the walk.

William’s not too keen on heights and the edge of the cliffs was really not that far from the path.  When we saw this sign I thought oh no, that’s the end of this walk!  I was sure he wouldn’t go any further but he did.  Well done, William!

Muffin is a funny little dog.  He gets fed up of going for walks, especially when we’re on holiday.  In the picture above he was refusing to move.  He wanted to go back to the car.  Seems too much of a good thing is a bad thing in Muffin’s books.  We literally had to make him carry on by tugging at the lead.  It’s a shame for him isn’t it?

Yeah, Burton Bradstock is definitely one of my favourite places.  I’m so glad Caroline and Trev discovered it for us all.

More holiday pics tomorrow.

TTFN.

Hen and Chicks

I love houseplants, especially ones that “do” something.  Like my Purple Shamrock I posted about here.  It goes to sleep at night.

My mother used to love cactus and succulents and I always think of her when I see them.  Many a time I would come away from a garden centre my hands full of little prickles after picking up and putting down a dozen or so cactus for her to examine.

Anyway back to my little beauty.  I bought this succulent plant last week, it’s commonly called Hen and Chicks because it has “babies”.  Shoots will appear, well I’m hoping they will, and grow into baby plants.  Plenty of them if I’m lucky and look after it properly.  

I’ll be back with another picture as soon as Mother Nature works her magic.

With this post I’m linking to Simple Pleasures.  A new blog I’ve recently found where others are sharing their Simple Pleasures too.

Comings and Goings.

This weekend Caroline and Tee went to a  friend’s wedding in Portmeirion and had a lovely time.  Charlie came to stay with us for two nights.

 

Poor Charlie, he wasn’t very well, he had a bad cold and not a lot of energy.

He still managed to drive Muffin to distraction though.  That little dog is so sweet natured and doesn’t so much as growl no matter how much Charlie chases and teases him.

The Goodalls packed their trunk and trundled off to the jungle.  Actually by all accounts it was worse than a jungle.  They went camping in their new tent for the first time.  The boys were very excited as you can imagine.  Unfortunately the Haven Holidays Blue Dolphin site over near Filey on the east coast that they had booked was a nightmare full of noisy, inconsiderate people and did not live up to expectations.  Needless to say they will never go on a Haven Holiday again no  matter how good the adverts look on television.  They had booked three nights but only stayed for two.  Even George at seven years old said the place was rubbish!

Today being a Bank Holiday, William and Gary were both off work.  So while my girls, their boys and I went to Towneley Park for a couple of hours the men went to Go Outdoors (a camping store) in Stockport.  It worked out very well, we all enjoyed what we did and what’s more the sun shone.  And that doesn’t happen very often on a Bank Holiday does it?!

TTFN.

My orchid…

…is blooming again!

I bought this orchid last December and I was and still am just thrilled to bits with it.  The original blooms lasted until about 6 weeks or so ago, I then pruned it as per directions that came with it, and voila!  More blooms, isn’t it beautiful?

TTFN.

Boats on Beer Beach

I really like this picture. 

 

I took it on holiday in Beer earlier this month and I just like it so here it is for posterity… or prosperity as my husband would say!

TTFN.

The Weekend

The weekend started with a little Tea Party on Friday afternoon for George and Nicholas.  They had been away in Bristol since Tuesday so we called it a little Welcome Home party which thrilled George no end. Of course Charlie and Caroline were invited but it  was bad timing for Charlie, he needed a nap.  I saved him some party biscuits though.

Saturday morning is my housework morning and I was going to get stuck in when Caroline rang and asked if I would like to go for a walk round the lake with her and Charlie.  The sun was shining and that hasn’t been happening much this week so naturally I said yes, come and get me, the housework could wait!

It was a beautiful morning, lots of runners were out doing their thing, lots of walkers, lots of children in the park, hence no pictures of Charlie.  I have a problem with strangers on my photos – I don’t like it – so I just don’t take any pictures when they’re around if I can help it.

Onto Saturday afternoon.  Victoria and Gary have decided to take up camping and have just bought a fabulous family-sized tent.  I’m so glad, I know the boys will love camping.  I always maintain that you meet “nice”,  for want of a better word, people on campsites.  We used to go camping when Vicki and Caroline were little and they always loved it.  It was a big frame tent that we had back in those days.  Boy, was that fun  to put up on a windy day – not! 

So, they brought their new tent round to our house to erect it for the first time.  They’re going away in it next weekend so a practice was needed.

I saw the tent being unpacked.  I went into the house to make us all a drink, grab my camera and when I came out it was all but done.  I couldn’t believe how fast it went up.  Look at Nicholas’ and Charlie’s little faces.  I think they were being told off (probably by granddad) for being too enthusiastic in their helping. Poor things!

As you can see - it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm one little bit.  The inner tent went in and then a camp bed to be tried for size.

Oh dear.  That camp bed might not quite be Gary sized!  Never mind, there’s always the floor, eh Gary?

Onto Sunday.  William suggested we go out somewhere on Sunday morning so I suggested the garden centre and a stroll around Uppermill.  Again the sun shone, we were able to sit outside the garden centre cafe with our coffees and cakes.  It really was quite pleasant.  I bought me a new houseplant.  It’s a succulent, commonly known as Hen and Chicks and I think it’s lovely.  Victoria took a look at it and said it did nothing for her.  Oh well, we can’t all like the same things can we?

Sunday afternoon was quite a giddy one.  Victoria, Gary and the boys came round.  Everybody was in high spirits.  The men and boys were playing football etc. and at one stage Caroline rang, she lives way up the hill across the fields behind us, to say that she could hear our noise!  Oops, sorry neighbours!

Before they went home, the grill was fired up and we had a mini barbeque.  That was actually the first time we had used the grill this year and I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t use it again until next year.  Shame isn’t it?

All in all it was a good weekend.

Ciao!

Middleton Library.

I’ve had a really fun day today.  My lovely cousin, Sylvia, and I met up at Middleton Library.  As kids Syl and I spent tons of time in this library, it was one of our favourite places.  So going in there today was a little trip down Memory Lane for us.

Middleton is where we were both born and brought up and the library is the place where copies of births, deaths and marriages records can be found, plus old photographs of the town.  We are both interested in our family tree and what Middleton used to be like before the crackpot powers that be/were took a sledgehammer and just about knocked any character and beauty Middleton had right out of it!    So, after being spurred on by seeing photo copies of the house where we lived when we were kids which my brother had acquired from the library, I asked Syl to go with me and have a nosey at this treasure trove of antiquities.

We saw so many photographs of old familiar places.  The memories came flooding back of how it used to be in the 50s and 60s.  We oohed and aahed over everything we saw, falling over ourselves to put the memories into words.

We found my mother’s baptism record in the Wesleyan-Methodist Chapel book.  We viewed the 1901 Census on microfilm and found our family’s details.  You wouldn’t believe how exciting it is when you find the name you’re looking for. 

This pub, The Olde Boar’s Head, stands across the road from the library.  It dates back to around 1586.  Thank goodness the sledgehammer never went near this  fine old building.

The only problem we had was time, we ran out of it.  The library closed for the day at 12.30 .  We’re going to go back again soon though and see what else we can find..

The day didn’t end there.  After this we paid my sister, Jean, a visit and happily my brother was there too.  My brother, Ken, has a phenomenal memory, it seems he remembers everything from the day he was born!  We all had a really good old chin-wag about who remembered what , where and when.  We laughed a lot and it was fun.  Today was a good day.

TTFN.