OUR STAY HOME VACATION PART 2

So our stay home vacation moved on through the week and on Wednesday we enjoyed a lovely lunch with my parents and later in the day and on Thursday morning as boat building resumed I caught up with some knitting.

A baby blanket that now just need it's crocheted border

and a pair of socks that I've started knitting for my Aunt who is in hospital and suffers with cold feet.

I found the yarn in my stash (Drops Delight) and the pattern is, as Drops patterns are at first, hard going on the mind.

Thursday afternoon saw us popping out for tea and cake but a trip to RHS Hyde Hall was more of a swim, tea and cake adventure. Especially when some kind soul picked up our large umbrella in the cafe and took it on a jaunt around the gardens leaving us to run back down to the entrance in the rain!

Did get it back though eventually, husband tracked down the people and swopped it for a Hyde Hall umbrella.

On Thursday evening our son's dog Simba arrived for a couple of days.

We thought it was going to take him a while to settle as

he took one look at our kitchen floor and decided, "I'm not walking on that!"

and took equal dislike to the hall flooring as well, deciding to perch on the stairs.

Eventually Michael managed to coax him out of the front door, around to the back garden, through the patio doors and into the lounge.

At bedtime we had to do everything in reverse and he slept on the landing 'till morning when, he followed me down the stairs, along the hallway, through the kitchen and out of the back door!!!

On Friday, as we had Simba with us we thought we'd go out on one of our favourite walks

along the sea wall to Goldhanger.

We did get caught in the rain but luckily we weren't too far from our destination and managed to get to the pub and enjoy our lunch on a table outside with the biggest umbrella we could find to shelter us.

Walking back home later, the sun shone and the tide was in.

Simba ran virtually all the way home and loved swimming in the river.

Nearing home, it was good to see this family of swans swimming down the river.

Simba went home to his own house yesterday and today the weather is being quite kind.
I've been sitting in the garden which is fairly sheltered from the breeze and taking in some sunshine.
I've finally got to grasp with this new sock pattern I'm knitting and I'm making some slow progress.
In another hour or so our son and daughter in law and grandchildren will be joining us for dinner.
Perfect!

Our stay home vacation has been different but enjoyed by us both.

Back to normal next week!

OUR STAY HOME VACATION PART 1

Michael has decided to take holiday this week to get some jobs done at home and to make progress with his new venture.

Behind this door there is

the makings of a new boat.When it's finished it will be a Stony Lake rowing boat.

(That's one of his other boats, sitting underneath!)

His intention is to divide his time, between garage and boat, jobs around the house and spending time with his wife, thats me!

On Sunday we ignored the wet weather and set off for Harwich. Eventually the rain did stop and we spent a very blustery afternoon taking a short walk along the seafront before having a very nice late lunch in here.

The Pier Hotel and Restaurant

Considering the remnants of hurricane Bertha were bearing down on us over the weekend, I was quite surprised to find that this dove was nesting in the very top branches of a tree in our garden. 

She sat tight as the wind bent the branch as it swooshed around in the wind and on Monday morning, I was quite surprised to find the bird and its nest still clinging on in the tree.

As Michael was sawing and planing in the garage on Monday, I tidied the garden and mowed the lawn. I thought it looked really nice when I'd finished.

On Tuesday morning,there was much activity in the garage, more planing, more sawing.
(we have very understanding neighbours)
and then in the afternoon we set off to have our supper by the sea.

For those of you who know this area, can you guess where we where?

Well, here is the view from our virtual table!

Here is our scrummy dinner!

Here is someone who wanted to join our table, not so likely,

and as we strolled along the seafront walking off some of those delicious chips we spied this rainbow in the distance.

Yes, we were in Aldeburgh!

Part 2 will follow shortly!

MALAYSIA PART 2

While I'm busy behind the scenes finishing my crochet blanket and knitting a little baby jacket, I thought you might like to see some more of our photos from Malaysia.

This time, I've picked a selection with food as a theme but please bear with me as I can't promise accurate spellings.

As we spent quite a lot of time with a Malaysian family we were very lucky to experience some very different foods.

On this day we headed to Brickfields, an Indian community in Kuala Lumpur where in this restaurant our food was served on a banana leaf. Here we had biryani rice, poppadoms, chickpeas, fish and a hard boiled egg. (They seem to eat a lot of them in Malaysia, they turn up randomly on your plate for many dishes). In the metal container, was a red soup, very spicey and surprisingly tasty.

We were granted spoons as we were European but by the end of the meal we'd all tried as best we could to eat with one hand and after getting through an entire packet of "wet wipes" we managed to succeed.

Once the meal is finished you just wrap your banana leaf up, it all gets put in the bin and your'e on your way!

Although we normally eat breakfast in our hotel which was very good but an international buffet affair on this particular morning we were taken out to have a try at Pan Mee.

This was in an open sided building with lots of different stalls selling different types of breakfast. We just ordered drinks from the restaurant owner and here we are having tea made with condensed milk - so so sweet!
The Pan Mee breakfast consisted of two bowls of food. One of noodles, which were lovely and another with a soup containing some green vegetable, fish balls and surprise surprise a poached egg! The little dish was of extra chillies if we felt the need.
All eaten with chopsticks quite successfully and very very nice!

While we were in Malaysia we became very fond of roti cani an indian flatbread and one evening we went out to taste roti tisu.
The arrival of this bread at the table is quite a spectacle as you can see. The bread is quite crisp, I thought salty in parts but sweet in others. Once it was laid across the table we broke pieces off and dipped it in a spicy sauce. I really liked it.
The drinks we had with the meal, were water melon juice which we had on many occasions during our stay in Malaysia, very delicious and thirst quenching!

In the markets we saw lots of different fruits, these here in the foreground are rambutans which are very prickly skinned but the fruit inside is very sweet and just behind them, mangosteens which once opened  resemble a white satsuma and taste a little sharp but are delicious.

For the whole time during our stay we were promised an evening at a durian buffet!
Golly, I don't know where to begin, but if I say that these fruits are banned from hotels and restaurants etc because of their pungent smell, believe me I can definitely confirm that they stink!
As you drive along the roads, you know you're approaching a durian stall as you can  smell it.
The fruits are large, green and prickly and once they're broken up you eat that yellow flesh which is very soft and custard like in texture.
We did all taste it, my portion was just a tiny tiny piece, but definitely not something I would partake in again.
Afterwards we eat mangosteens which were much nicer and helped rid us of the other horrible taste.
All I can say is, some really love durian and some really don't!

This colourful stall sold an array of little savoury snacks which were nice to try.

And these little eggy things turned up in a restaurant with our lunch of noodles one day. We really haven't got a clue what they are, so if you do, please let me know?

Hope you've enjoyed our photos of Malaysian cuisine.

Finally my daughter Kate and her friend Jeni will be in Greenwich Park London tomorrow to run a half marathon for the charity "Beating Bowel Cancer"
This is a disease that my father had and beat about 25 years ago and a disease that tragically took the life of a close young friend of Kate and Jeni's.
Now Jeni has also recently been successful in beating the disease herself.

I would just like say how proud we are that they are running tomorrow and to wish the girls the best of luck.

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!

ORKNEY WORKED IT'S MAGIC!

We've just got back from a week in the Orkney Islands, off the coast of Northern Scotland. We stayed on the mainland not far from Kirkwall and whilst the weather was very blustery at times and we did have some mist and a full day of rain, it didn't stop us getting out to see what the Orkney Islands promised to offer in their brochure.

Stunning scenery!

Wonderful cliff top walks - this one here was at Deerness.

Archeological sites - the Ring of Brodgar is just one of those that we visited.

The Italian Chapel

This was constructed by Italian POW during WW2 by putting two nissan huts together end to end and men painting all the inside to simulate brickwork. One of the POW'S Domenico Chiochetti  recreated the sanctuary end of the chapel by copying a postcard that he carried with him always.

At the end of the war when the prisoners were released Domenico remained on the Orkneys until the chapel was finished.

It was amazing to see!

We did also see plenty of sheep and a huge amount of cows!

An abundance of wildlife - hares (who moved too fast for their photo call!)

Birds!

Quite a few seals, who apparently come closer if you sing to them!

I tried - a quick melody of songs from musicals came forth and I have to say it did make them stare up at me but only probably because they couldn't believe what their ears were hearing.

They didn't really seem to want to come any closer!

Husband - well he had dropped well behind me at this point and I also noticed he'd pulled his hat right over his ears.

I really don't understand why!

The wildflowers were so so beautiful and plentiful!

AND there was just a glimmer of blue sky and sunshine!

The Orkney Islands offer lots if you just want to get away from it all.

Loved It!