Wednesday 29 May 2013

CAN I ASK YOU?

Do you ever get the urge to do something at the drop of a hat?

Take me this morning, I came home, having been for a long swim and sat on the settee munching my breakfast and thinking about how I was going to spend my day. Leisurely I thought, a quick food shop, an hour or two in the garden potting up some geraniums and later plenty of knitting.
Well, that was my plan until I had this sudden whim that THE settee, my breakfast seat, would look good on the other side of the lounge. I shot off to get the hoover, duster and my "feather flick", a must for evicting spiders, their webs and inoffensive daddy long legs from their slumbers.
I was like a woman possessed pushing and pulling the blasted settee which would appear to have castors that neither move left or right, backwards or even forwards. Finally I had moved all the other furniture to their final destination and I sat back, relaxed and had a coffee before making one last push to move the settee in place.
Can you guess what happened next?
Well there's obviously a reason why the settee has never made it to that particular area of the lounge before because as I found this morning, basically the gap isn't big enough! 
So how stupid am I?
I did have a good reason to move the settee, I thought how nice it would be if I could sit in the afternoons, doing my knitting and looking out at my lovely garden, through out the summer months. (Sorry, I'm biased, it's my garden, so I can think it's lovely!)


This photo wasn't taken this morning as it's pretty miserable out there today but sometime over the sunny bank holiday weekend.
As for the settee it's still wedged where I left it! I've had another coffee since then and regaled by woeful tale to you all. But now I do have to go back to the lounge to face the consequences of my actions.
As for the geraniums, they're still waiting!!

Sunday 19 May 2013

OUR WEEK IN THE WEST COUNTRY!

 As my husband likes messing about on old wooden boats, for Christmas I bought him a sail on Vigilance a 78foot heritage sailing ketch based in Brixham Devon.
On Sunday morning we set off from Brixham harbour with an overcast sky and a fair wind. It wasn't long before the crew had hoisted the sails, cut the engine and we were off sailing across Torbay and then on over to Berry Head.
The crew were enthusiastic and obviously enjoyed sailing her, even though at some stages of our journey I felt we could have been extras on "Last of the summer wine - at Sea!!" We both took a turn at the helm and not that I'm boasting but I got to go faster than my sailor husband making 7 knots.
It really was great fun and I'd recommend it if you're ever in Brixham.





 The weather forecast for Monday was fairly good so we decided to go to the lost gardens of Heligan. What a beautiful place to visit. Whilst we were not able to see yet the wonderful colours of their summer planting, the rhodendrons, bluebells and the sight and smell of wild garlic were wonderful. I have to say that if the rhodendron in my garden grows any way near the size of the enormous rhodendrons at Heligan we'll need a much bigger garden.






 Polperro was our base for the week, a lovely coastal village and we stayed in a great little cottage near the harbour. We chose there because we'd spent a couple of weeks close by about 22 years ago when our children were young. We recalled that most days then we spent our time driving over to the north coast because Kate and especially Robert enjoyed running and body boarding through the surf!  But most of our evenings were spent wandering the tiny streets of Polperro before returning up a very steep hill to our holiday bungalow.


On this holiday we were amazed that we were able to visit many places that we didn't know even existed and one day in particular we really enjoyed. Parking above Polruan we walked down a steepish hill through the picturesque village to the harbour where we found a delightful little cafe before setting off on the little foot ferry to Fowey. There we meandered through the narrow streets checking out the shops and eateries. A cruise ship was moored in the harbour and we watched the tenders bringing the passengers to and fro while we sat and and had a lunchtime drink. We enjoyed a walking picnic lunching on a warm Cornish pasty,( I know bad for cholesterol but sorry it did taste sooo good!) Then later, with our shopping done we returned to Polruan, back into the cafe for a cuppa before taking a stroll along part of Hall Walk. The views, the whole day were just stunning!




 Towards the end of our week the weather was superb so we got out walking as much as we could. The coastal path between Polperro and Looe was very scenic but rugged in parts and we weren't expecting the sun to be as strong. After our 3 hour walk we descended into Looe looking rather lobsterish in colour!




 The next day we slathered ourselves in sun cream and went back to Polruan to complete the whole of the Hall Walk. We set off for the Bodinnick car ferry in blazing sunshine, however  not far into our walk big grey clouds loomed and we had some rain and hail! Thankfully it didn't last long. The ferry took us across to Fowey and we found a nice place to have a well deserved cream tea. The route continued through the town  until we reached the Polruan passenger ferry which took us back to where we started.




We had a really relaxing week in Cornwall. We took so many photos and here are just a couple more  for you to enjoy with us!