Cornwall Round-Up

We're heading off on holiday again this weekend so I decided it was time to round-up the last one. We spent a beautiful week on the gorgeous south coast of England.

{Deer park and gardens.}
{An old church.}
{A walk in the countryside.}

Delayed

We've been back from holiday almost a week now and I haven't written about it. It was our second anniversary on Monday...and I haven't written about it. I read three books while we were away, have new projects on the go, and none of it has made it to here. And that's not going to change today.

Things are busy here, everyone has deadlines looming, countdowns going and a million things to do. I remember when the summer holidays seemed to stretch ahead long and calm. Today they seem hectic and bursting - and in some ways September will be the calm after the whirlwind. It's a good whirlwind though. Some of the changes are a struggle at the moment but will be good when they come to fruition. We just have to be patient.

In another week we'll be on holiday again - this time with T's family. I'm hoping I will have caught up with myself a bit by then. But if not, everything will be fine anyway.

Summer Means Books

For me, the start of summer is my birthday at the end of June. From there is it just a few more weeks until schools break up and holidays start. The weather is already warming, and one of my favourite things is to sit in the shade of a tree with a new book and a cool drink. My birthday also helps with this because I usually get a lovely stack of new books, which I delve into, and try to save for holidays. This year I was given a lovely stack...

{Top to bottom: FlashForward, The Legacy, Redeeming Love, Small Island, The Weight of Silence, Guide to Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly, The Postmistress.}
As we're off on holiday this weekend, for a week in Cornwall, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into my next couple of books, but I fear the stack will be severely diminished by the end of August when we go away again. Any recommendations to add to my summer stack?

Scenes from the Holiday Part 3

DAY SIX
{A walk at Penrhos Country park - on the beach.}
{In the woods we found these vibrant fuchsia trees.}
{Sunset.}
DAY SEVEN
{A seagull we startled at the beginning of a coast walk.}
{South Stack lighthouse.}
{Anglesey sea is always a beautiful deep blue in the sunshine.}

Scenes from the Holiday Part 2

DAY THREE
{I went horse riding with one of the girls so photography was a bit limited!}
DAY FOUR
{Waves coming in on the beach.}
{Skimming stones splashing into the water.}
{Blue railings round the local beach front.}
DAY FIVE
{We went to a sea life centre - starfish on the side of a tank.}
{Ray camoflaged in the sand.}
{Seahorse swimming.}
{A swooping ray and his reflection.}
{Fish egg cases - called mermaid's purses.}
Final part coming soon...

Scenes from the Holiday Part 1

DAY ONE
{Sausages cooking on the beach.}
{The one crab we caught.}
DAY TWO
{Beaumaris castle which we visited.}
{Swans and gorgeous fluffy cygnets in the castle moat.}
{Red benches on the pier.}
{We finished off the day with scones, jam and cream.}

More to come...

Sunset

{One of my favourite sunsets ever. This was also taken on the boating holiday with my family.}
I hope you have all enjoyed the photos this week. I'm back tomorrow, so this is the last one!

Sunlight

{A few years ago we went boating with my family. On the last morning we were moored up and I took my tea outside. Across the canal were these horses frolicking in the sunlight.}
I have very fond memories of this holiday - it was when T asked my Dad's permission to ask me to marry him.

The Bluest Blue

{Last summer, for our anniversary T and I took a picnic and went off on a cliff top walk. We sat down for our lunch and watched the waves come crashing in, and the boats bobbing around in the bay. It was just perfect, and isn't the colour of that sea gorgeous?}.

High as a Kite

{Another Cornwall photo. We climbed a hill and flew our kite one blustery day last summer. The views were amazing.}

Crabbing

{People catching crabs off Beaumaris pier. The crabs swarm to this area for the food on the lines - they've obviously learnt that being kept in a bucket for an hour or so is worth it!}

Stepping Stones

{Last summer we visited Cornwall with my family and found this fantastic stepping stones across a river. The river was tidal so we had to be quick to get across before some of the stones were submerged!}

Lighthouse

{Lighthouse near Puffin Island.}

Sea, sand...maybe some sun?

Last year we spent a lovely relaxed week on a boat with some friends. We saw ducklings, herons, herons eating ducklings (that one was traumatic), villages, towns, sun, rain...all as we drifted by. It was a great week.

{Scenes from past last year.}
In fact, it was so good, we're going away with them again. We survived being cooped up together in a boat, so tonight we will be setting off for Anglesey. This year we even have a house. It is so beautiful and I am so excited that tomorrow morning I will be waking up there...

{Scenes from past Wales holidays.}

Have a good week everyone! While I'm away I've set up a few of my favourite holiday photos to appear, so you can all enjoy some beautiful sea, sand and sun too!

Devon Heaven

We just spent a lovely long weekend in Devon, and had some beautiful sunshine, which meant lots and lots of photo taking. So here are some of my highlights of the weekend...


The sunrise on Saturday morning.


We went for a long walk along the coast. The hills were pretty steep but once you got to the top, the views were amazing. I love how the iron in the soil not only makes the cliffs look red, but the shallow water near their base looks pink.


Over the years, people have carved all sorts of names, dates, pictures and messages into the soft rock of the cliff. The earliest one we spotted was from 1946. This area is called the Jurassic coast, because the rocks and fossils found date it back that far.


There is so much history here, and I love that you can see the marks that people have made on the coastline too. I guess it could be called vandalism, but to me it looked much more like art.

Our cottage was a converted barn, and so lovely for two people. We had a kitchen with an aga (which was lovely to stand by when you got back from a chilly walk), a big living room on the second floor, and up a small flight of stairs from that was the bedroom with stargazing windows. It was so fun to lie in bed and let your eyes adjust to the darkness, gradually watching the stars appear. My favourite area though was this little nook, which came off the living room and faced over the valley.


On Sunday morning we took our breakfast there to eat, and it was just perfect, watching the birds swoop over the hills, with the sun streaming in the windows whilst eating croissants and drinking tea.


It was a perfect, beautiful weekend - and although it was just four days, it was so relaxing, and readied us both for some busy weeks to come.

New Year Holiday Memories

It was so great to see my half of our family. We saw (almost) every aunt, uncle, grandparent and cousin I have which was quite an achievement and a testament to my Mum's fantastic organisational and hosting skills. We played games, talked and laughed and ate lots of cakes. On New Years Eve it was just the six of us, and in a break with family tradition (maybe to become a new tradition as it was so much fun) we stayed up, made colourful cocktails and gave it a bit of sparkle with some indoor fireworks. A perfect way to start 2010!

Autumn Camping

This weekend was our home group's camping trip. It felt longer than a weekend somehow, maybe because we crammed so many different things into the weekend. I was so happy that it didn't rain. It was cold though, very cold. It's all about layers. And eating plenty. We definitely ate plenty. The only slight downside was that it took about half an hour to heat the water for tea and hot chocolate. But apart from that - the food was good...



Despite the cold, autumn is a lovely time of year for camping. Crunchy leaves and cool air. We were surrounded by beautiful autumn colour. Birds flying south, a grasshopper visitor and a butterfly. Nature is truly lovely.


It was a lovely weekend.



That said, I enjoyed my warm soft bed last night. And my cup of tea.

An Adventure!

We had a lovely weekend away in Sussex, a very perfect anniversary celebration! We got down there late on Friday night, after some slightly terrifying driving down narrow country lanes. We got there in time for dinner, which was amazing! I had fishcake, lamb and pannacotta - and T had risotto, duck and crumble. We could barely move by the end of the meal, so it was lovely only having to go upstairs afterwards.


On Saturday we walked along the river into Arundel, which has the prettiest fairytale castle ever. You can see it for miles off.


When we got there, we looked around some art and craft exhibitions and then looked around the castle gardens. It was so pretty - so I'm going to let the pictures show you...





{This one is my Day 12 photo}



The garden had these strange flower sculptures in one area...



We wandered around Arundel, looking in some antiques shops before we got to our favourite place - Crown Chocolates and Fudge. This tiny shop sold us two of the most delicious ice creams ever (lemon for me, maple walnut for T) and a big bag of fudge which we munched on as we walked back along the river.

We played croquet and other games back at the hotel before going to the "honesty bar" in the drawing room for beer and pimms. Our three course dinner was every bit as delicious as the night before - the steak I had was even better than Friday's lamb. I would go back just for the food.

We checked out on Sunday morning and then went for another walk along the river, and saw lots of wildlife. {This is Day 13's photo.}


As we were driving home we noticed a banner advertising...


a life sized lego house!

I'm making a mini book of the trip at the moment and I'm determined to finish it.

As for the photos from days 14 and 15 - I failed. I didn't take any on either day. I just didn't get around to it, I have no excuse. But I did get to spend Monday catching up with a friend from uni which was fantastic, and I went to a GTP meeting yesterday which is real, proper progress on the career front. But I didn't take any pictures. I will try to get back doing it.