November Flowers - 2015

Back in November I went a bit mad in B&Q and bought way too many spring bulbs - nearly 150 of them!  The plan was to pretty up the front garden ready for prospective buyers to come and view the house.  I used the tubs that the tomatoes, courgettes and spuds had been in and the idea was that, once the bulbs were finished, I could dig them up to dry them and by then the tomatoes, spuds and courgettes, etc, were ready to go back in.  But, because the bulbs wouldn't be showing until the spring, I tarted up the tubs with over fifty winter flowering pansies for instant colour.  

Two things have since happened though which means the whole exercise was almost pointless - I have decided NOT to sell the house, but to stay here, so the bulbs will be for my benefit only, rather than any future residents.  And, secondly, we've had so much wind and rain recently that the pansies have all been shredded to bits.  So that was the end of the winter colour!

Having said that though, the garden is completely confused at the moment - the primroses are back out in flower, and so too are the alpines.

Crazy old weather!

Odds and Sods - November 2015

November was mainly taken up with holiday and holiday related activities, but I've found a few photos that I had squirrelled away for an odds and sods post.

I took this photo as I was really pleased with the way the room looked - I was having a massive declutter and clear out in readiness for the estate agents to come and value my house, with a view to me moving.  In the end, I've decided to stay put, but at least I got the house looking beautiful and am continuing with the decluttering regardless.

I also tried to get rid of lots of garden stuff too and was helped by my lovely assistant!  I have no idea what he's digging up in the top photo!

This photo really makes me chuckle - I got back from our Cornish holiday to find this lovely hat knitted by my cousin (and godmother) Sheila, who saw the wool and thought it would suit me perfectly!  Fab fit too and lovely wide deep brim to keep my ears warm!

So that's it for November - massively behind with posts of course as I've been trying to write up all the Cornwall posts - I resolve to be better this year!

Rainsoaked in Talland

The moral of the story for this day is never to trust weather forecasters.  We had been watching the weather for days so that we could do our walk from Looe to Polperro and we earmarked this day - last but one full day in Cornwall - to do the walk as it was the best forecast.  However, that didn't translate into the real world and it was miserable, so miserable in fact that I only took photos round to Talland Bay and then packed my camera away in my bag and didn't bother from there until Polperro.  And, as we headed into Polperro, we met Amanda and Sid who had driven round to meet us and just headed back to the car to go home, without even looking around the village.  Horrible.  

Looking over to Looe Island.

It was incredibly windy and Shannon really struggled to get her coat on!

This wasn't all me - I'm sure the wind had filled up my coat like a windsock!

Loved these teasels - colours were fab.

Such a shame because it really is such a beautiful walk.  But it'll always be there and hopefully next time I do it, the sun will be beaming down on us.

Blowing Away Cobwebs - In and Around Bude

As we were nearing the end of our holiday, I really wanted to go and say goodbye to Widemouth Bay and Crackington Haven, and also to have a quick mooch around Bude and perhaps a spot of Christmas shopping (not achieved in the end, as I wasn't feeling very inspired - I think the wind and rain had got to me that day so all I wanted to do was head back to our cottage and put my pyjamas on!).  Shannon decided she wasn't coming with us - not sure if it was the company or the weather that put her off!  So Amanda and I, Sid and Finn, headed off for a very blustery day out in north Cornwall.

First stop was Widemouth Bay - and even though the weather was filthy, we were in good spirits and spent the day laughing and trying to catch our breath mostly!

I loved this rock and took some photos of the striations, but then realised that I had no reference point to show how big the stone was - it could just have been a pebble in zoom mode.   My walking trainers come in very handy sometimes!

Amanda and Sid doing their best to take shelter!

Where does he get his energy from?

Amanda losing her hat!

So it was back to the car and heading up the coast to Bude - the weather was getting worse and Amanda had half the beach deposited on her windscreen and car windows.

I was laughing here as the wind kept taking me by surprise and I almost fell over - Amanda has the funniest photos of this episode!

I love the colours of these beach huts at Bude.

There were even people swimming in the open air pool at Bude - madness!

This really tickled me - swimmers changing to get into the pool, but they had, with great foresight, brought their thermos with them!  I hope they had a hot toddy in there!

As, by this time, we were both cold and not a little hysterical, we decided to head off to the Haven Cafe at Crackington Haven for lunch and to warm up.  

Mmmmm, pea and ham soup - again!

And then, suitably fortified, we headed onto the beach with Finn and Sid again for another charge around and some more fresh air - although I maintain that I'd probably had enough by then!