Crackington Haven - 2015

As usual, we had many visits to Crackington while on holiday - which will be covered by other posts - including a very muddy walk with the girls, a walk down to the beach with Finn on one of our quiet days, and a day when we thought we were going to be blown away in the gale force winds!  

My first visit however, happened the same day I arrived in Cornwall.   After a stomach-churning drive down from Heathrow - only because I was so nervous of my new car - I arrived at Mineshop early afternoon, to be greeted by a cream tea at the cottage and then Amanda offered to drive me down to see the sea, followed by a roast dinner - quite a good day as it turned out!

It was very gloomy on this first trip to the beach and I've never seen the tide in so far - lovely to stand on the beach and blow the stresses of the journey away though - not that we hung around very long, blinking chilly!

Holiday Randoms - Cornwall 2015

I'm just back from an eventful two weeks in Cornwall, eventful for mostly the wrong reasons!  Sadly, my beloved old car only made it as far as Waltham Abbey and that was traumatic enough - involving my car dying on the M25; the police closing my lane of the motorway; a police escort and tow to a place of safety; Finn biting a policeman; a £151 charge for towing me the twenty-five miles to Heathrow and me now being too traumatised to drive at all.   (One of the Psychologists at work has diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder helpfully!  I'm sure it's not that bad, but I certainly am in no hurry to get back in a car for a while.)

So my holiday actually started two days after Amanda's and Shannon's holiday - but that was better than I'd hoped for.  I wasn't absolutely sure I was going to bother going at all, but was in such desperate need of a holiday that sheer adrenaline got me down to Bude!

My new car - which is much too big and scary for me, although I will be forever in Andy's debt for procuring it for me so that I could have a holiday.   Beautiful car, just a bit terrifying!

We went out and about a lot while in Cornwall in Amanda's car and I definitely owe Amanda a valet - I have no idea how Finn can get so dirty and full of sand!

We stayed in the same cottage we had three years ago - it's a little cottage stuck on the side of a valley and looks like a log cabin inside.  So cosy, I love it.

We had a balcony too, but the weather was not good - that's a bit of an understatement - so we didn't have occasion to use it.

The cottage is beautifully warm though - too warm almost - and just so relaxing that we three were all in our pyjamas pretty much as soon as we got back from anywhere.   And the dogs were both very relaxed too and gave us no trouble.

We ate very well - Shannon and Amanda were in charge of all the cooking, and I was in charge of cake baking!

(Having slight technical glitches here - cannot get this photo to turn round!)

And despite all the pasties, cream teas and cakes, I still managed to lose two pounds - I think that's because of all the walking we did.

So, a good holiday and more posts to follow of all the places we visited.

Autumn at Bacton Woods

When Mum and Dad lived at North Walsham, Finn and I regularly walked around Bacton Woods before heading up to see them.  Whenever I visit them, I always try and walk Finn before we get there so he's expended a load of energy first, in the vain hope that he'll be a bit calmer and more relaxed for our visit. It very rarely works!  But because Mum and Dad moved to North Elmham last October, we haven't been to Bacton Woods for a whole year and I really wanted to go and see the autumn colours before all the leaves dropped and I wouldn't get a chance for another year.

Actually, most of the leaves on the trees were still green, but there was a vibrant carpet of reds and golds that we scuffed through as we walked.  

A lovely peaceful walk and hopefully I won't leave it a whole year again before our next visit.

Odds and Sods - October 2015

I haven't posted anything for a few weeks as I've been away on holiday in Cornwall and, just this weekend gone, in London.  So I'm a bit behind with posts - so what's new?!  I've had to refer back to my diary for October as I cannot remember, for the life of me, what happened back then - I hate getting old and losing my memory!

Andy came to stay for a weekend and we had a lovely time relaxing and chilling out.  He bought me these beautiful flowers to cheer me up too.

I'm afraid I only took one "seeds and stuff" photo - for a very good reason actually.   I have decided it's time to leave my lovely house and garden and move somewhere smaller, less overwhelming and, hopefully, cheaper to run!  So the only thing I did plant up was 115 spring bulbs hoping to attract buyers with my beautiful front garden! - I got a bit carried away in B&Q one weekend!   I did dig up some spuds though, so all was not lost.

Mum moved in for a couple of days while Dad supervised their bathroom renovations which was really lovely - she was staying over anyway as we had our Knitters with Attitude meeting, so she prolonged her stay and did some shopping in Norwich, and I got to meet her for lunch that day, only to pick up all her purchases to take home and save her taking them on the bus!  

I had the family over for lunch one Sunday and, being totally stumped for a pudding, I served up a Do It Yourself trifle.  I used some old (but clean!) jam jars, in the bottom of which I'd put fruit, poured jelly over to set overnight, then topped with custard - and then provided different creams, fruit, hundreds and thousands, meringues, etc, so they could make their own trifle at the table.   Genius idea - not mine, I'm sad to say, but my friend Tracy from work suggested it and it went down a treat, so I'm definitely doing that again.

And, in the spirit of decluttering for my upcoming move, I sent everyone away with bags of DVDs and Shannon won a cupboard too - it all helps with my life laundry!   I've started to pack things up and throw things away although that is quite difficult at this time of year as I'm knee deep in Christmas shopping already - and I've started to wrap it all up too.  I won't be caught out again this year as I have been previously!

I've got a new fridge freezer which is exciting as it's in the kitchen and not in the outhouse - so no more need for arctic expeditions to go and get milk and provisions from outside - it's fab!

I've had lots of lovely snuggles on the sofa, not just with Finn, but also with Sid.

And I also had a bit of drama which meant one GP and two hospital visits - while having my daily wrestle with Finn, I didn't move out of the way quickly enough so ended up with a scratched eyeball - ouch!  

I couldn't open my eye for a few hours to start with, so got myself up to the GP - that was an interesting walk!  To be given ointment which unfortunately caused a reaction with my eye, so it was up to the hospital then for a different prescription.

It's all cleared up now although gets a bit dry occasionally - so I am using some gel stuff that I got at the second hospital appointment.  What a blinking palaver!

So, that was October - I can't believe it's November already and we've had snow in Norfolk.  Luckily, I was in London at the time so missed it altogether!