Cornwall

James and I spent the weekend in Cornwall, celebrating my dad's 60th, with dad, my two sisters, their partners, my dad's partner Karen, her sons, and her parents. We rented two caravans in North Cornwall, on Trevose Head, near to Treyarnon Bay, where we spent many a happy summer when we were younger. Our caravans were very cosy, but felt positively spacious to us boat-dwellers!

We traveled down by train, along the most beautiful stretch of railway, past Dawlish. My dad met us in Plymouth to drive the rest of the way, and we had delicious fish and chips when we arrived. On Saturday, we were very lucky to have sunshine and so we all headed to the beach. My dad, my sisters, their partners and I all went body-boarding, while James and Will (Karen's 12 yr old son) spent a happy few hours trying to build a dam across a little stream. It was a brilliant day, finished off with a tasty dinner, drinking and listening to music until late.

Sunday was very rainy, but we managed to find a gap in the downpour to explore the coast a little more. No swimming though!

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Jamming

With a little help from this fellow:

I gathered these:

Which became this:

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Vertically Challenged

That's me. I am hoping to do some jam making this year, and identified a lovely plum tree from the Cambridge fruit map. However, I just cant reach the fruit, even when I climbed up it I could only reach a handful of them! I am going to have to invest in some kind of grabber or hook (boathook would be great but this tree is nowhere near the river so i need something more lightweight) to bring the branches down so that I can get to them! 

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The return of the Caped Cruise-aider....

James towed Friendly Fox home on (slightly too long) cross straps on Tuesday night.

Full details on Big John's blog....

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Normal for Norfolk - 2

On our second day in Norfolk, we planned a trip to Cromer, but first we had to get the bus to Holt. This little rural ervice proved somewhat tricky to catch, because although the bus stop was just outside where we were staying, the map was wrong - there was a stop on each side of the road, but the signs told us to wait on the wrong side, so the bus sailed past us, exactly on time, going in the opposite direction to what we expected! The next was was not for an hour and a half, so we were more than a little annoyed, especially after the map showed the apartment to be in the wrong place yesterday too! But, we still had the apartment for another hour so we headed there for a bit before catching the slightly later bus, which was also exactly on time.

The rickety bus took us on a scenic tour of the coast and back inland to Holt. We stopped in Holt for a while, had tea and cake in a teashop. Holt is quite a well-to-do town, with gentlemen's outfitters, lots of tweed and shooting attire, and expensive women's clothes shops. However, this meant that  and a look around the many lovely charity shops was quite fruitful, as they were filled with good quality clothes from the likes of Boden, Kurt Geiger and Hobbs. I had to stop myself buying up lots of nice things, and just came away with a pretty Hobbs skirt for £5.

Next stop, Cromer. We took another bus to the little seaside town, where we enjoyed fish and chips on the beach, and a walk around the town.

We saw a little sign advertising visits to the top of the church tower for £1.50, so we headed up to the top. The views were incredible!

Finally, we walked to the end of the pier we could see from the top of the tower, to see the lifeboat station there.

All in all, a great trip, we will definitely be back!

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Normal for Norfolk - 1

At the weekend, James and I had a brilliant time in North Norfolk, staying in a little holiday apartment, and going to the seaside. 

The place we stayed was a real find: I booked it though Late Rooms, and it was just £35 for the night. 

We arrived by train, to Sheringham, where we had a little walk down to the seaside, and had some delicious locally made ice-cream. I had an unusual but lovely damson flavoured waffle cone, and James had double chocolate in a chocolate cone. Then it was time to walk back to the station, where we were to catch a steam train for the next leg of our journey!

The train ride was brilliant. It was a Tornado, with some 1950s carriages. We had a compartment to ourselves, and there were such amazing views!

The train took us to the little town of Holt, and from there, according to the map I'd printed out from Late Rooms, it was a short walk to the apartment. How wrong I was! For some reason, the map given was incorrect, by about about 4 miles! The actual written description put it somewhere else. We had already realised this by the time we arrived in Holt, and were resigned to a longer walk. Fortunately it was sunny, although it was quite hot! We set off, walking along country roads which were well-travelled by large 4x4s and cars going quite rapidly. We would have made it eventually, but thankfully a couple in a big shiny Land Rover stopped and offered us a lift. They were really friendly and took us all the way to the apartment, saving us a lot of walking!

The apartment itself was impressive. A beautiful converted stable block with traditional knapped flint walls, it had large windows and a quiet courtyard. Inside were two bedrooms, a large sitting room and a bathroom, all nicely decorated and clean. Outside was a fig tree, with some ripe figs, as well as and some brambles dripping with huge sweet blackberries. We had considered going for a walk to the seaside (a mile or so away) that afternoon but with the heat and the stress of finding the place, we just relaxed for the rest of the day. In the evening, we enjoyed watching the Paralympic Closing Ceremony. 

That's enough photos for one day! More about our trip to the seaside tomorrow.

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The Adventures of Boatman and the Buoy Wonder

James was off on a rescue mission yesterday. To read more, follow the link: The Return of the Caped Cruise-aider

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Shackerstone Festival - Sunday

On Sunday, we began with a big breakfast of sausages, bacon and fried bread, cooked on the range.



Soon, however, it was time to leave. We hitched a lift down to the canal to Hinckley, where we were to get the train, on Azalea, Tench and Ilford. James had fun learning to steer the pair! It wasn't easy, but he enjoyed the challenge. And Rebekah and Matt's baby E slept through it all!

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