UK holiday

Photos uploaded on September 24th but blog posted 27th

We spent 4 weeks in UK during July and August. The highlights were times spent with the family and especially our grandchildren. We stayed with Hannah, Simon and Ben for most of our visit.

This picture of Amelie was taken on a visit to Noah's Ark farm zoo near Bristol where she was enjoying the water play area. They have a lot of big animals including rhinos, tigers and a giraffe as well as farm animals and small animals that can be touched and held. There are also several large indoor and outdoor play areas and interesting talks and displays so despite arriving when it opened and leaving when it closed we didn't have time to do everything.

Another day we took Rosie, Gabriel and Amelie to Oldbury Court Park in Bristol. There is a new play area but it was extremely busy so we mostly explored the grounds where there are walks through woods to a river, rocks to scramble and small caves to look into.

This handrail by some steps provided some good bannister sliding (with Granny running down next to them to catch them when they fell off!)

Ben is generally a very happy little chap and was enjoying himself when we stopped for a picnic when out for a walk with Pete and Hannah and Simon.

Hannah, Ben, Simon and I visited Pete and Niki for a long weekend in Yorkshire and were able to get out and do some more walking. This was another food stop being enjoyed by Ben, whilst Pete seems to be taking the map reading much more seriously.

Ben has decided that swings are great fun so that kept him happy while the older 3 grandchildren were doing more adventurous things in the play area at Blaise Castle in Bristol.

The Sunday before we left Ben was dedicated at Woodlands church where Hannah and Simon worship. It was a lovely service and a beautiful sunny day so we enjoyed a relaxed family gathering in Hannah's garden afterwards.

It was particularly nice for me to see some flourishing flowers and vegetables growing in places where I had battled on previous visits to dig out trees, shrubs and grasses.

The less exciting bits of our trip were visits to the dentist, doing shopping and spending many long days sorting and clearing large ammounts of stuff from Simon's mum's flat. Polly seems to have settled reasonably happily at the residential home where she is now living and we were able to take the grandchildren to visit her several times which she seemed to appreciate although she didn't really know who they were.

Fitzroy

Photos uploaded on September 24th, blog posted on 27th.

On our last outing with the ramblers we went to Fitzroy. You drive almost as far as Mount Pleasant and then head south to the coast. This used to be a large settlement with its own school and store. Now there is only one couple who work the farm full time. All the other houses are either used as weekend cottages or by people who work at Mount Pleasant. There is a large shearing shed and they also grow potatoes on the farm.


We walked past these memorials to the men who lost their lives when the Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram were badly damaged just off the coast here. The survivors were landed in a small cove just below the memorials. I actually took these photos when we visited with Hannah earlier in the year.
We then did a circular walk around part of the peninsula but didn't see anything very unusual.

Things I have seen recently

Simon left yesterday evening to fly to UK for a week as he has to interview potential investment managers on Wednesday. He will also be able to spend some time with Hannah and Kati and their families. As I only have 2 shifts at work this week I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with some blogging. However most of my photos are on the laptop which he has taken so I spent most of yesterday uploading photos so I can now write about them.

Today has been sunny and I have spent most of it in the garden digging and doing other jobs. I have sown a first row of sugar snap peas and put cloches over them.

These photos have been taken on local walks since we came back from our holiday.

The tussac grass flowers in early spring, although only some plants seem to flower.

When walking along the coast between Tussac Point and Gypsy Cove one day I heard a roaring in the tussac above me. I decided it might not be wise to be between the source of the noise and the sea so skirted inland and found this bull sea lion amongst the grass. 2 of his wives were resting a bit further on and another was swimming in the sea.

This was washed up on the beach at Surf Bay and I have seen other similar ones. I am not sure if it is a kind of sea-weed or a sponge. At one end of Surf Bay is a headland called Hookers Point with lots of rocks at the end of it. When the tide is low there are interesting rock pools.

There are lots of these attractive sea-anemones in some of the pools.

One day I spotted this strange creature, looking rather like an underwater armadillo. It is a chiton or coat of mail shell and it sticks to the rocks rather like the limpet next to it. The smaller creatures on the rock are isopods which look very like woodlice but are good swimmers. They vary a lot in size.


Off the end of Hookers Point are some large rocks standing vertically out of the sea and probably about 15 feet high. Usually there are rock shags perched on them but one afternoon a couple of weeks ago there were 2 sea lions sitting up tall right on the top. We have no idea why they were there or how they climbed up the almost sheer rocks.

Mount Longdon

May be the thoughts of spring were wishful thinking. Today is cloudy, very cold and windy!

Last Saturday Simon and I went for a walk along Wireless Ridge and across to Mount Longdon, a hill we have not climbed before.


There are various bits of military hardware left from the conflict on Wireless Ridge.


Mount Longdon can be seen in the background in this picture.

We were walking into the wind and crossed some quite boggy ground between the hills so it was fairly tiring walking although only 51/4 miles round trip.


There are a lot more reminders of the war on Mount Longdon including another gun and this Argentine hideout, where you can still see an old shoe and blanket.


There are also a lot of memorials to the 23 British soldiers and many Argentinians who lost their lives here in June 1982.

Spring

Once again sorry for long abscence of blogs. Really will try to catch up a bit soon,

Today felt as if spring might be here. The sun was shining and only a gentle breeze. Having finished work early I spent the afternoon digging in my vegetable patch and even sat outside to write a couple of letters (was still wearing my thermal undies though!).


When Simon came home from work we drove out to Gypsy Cove and saw our first penguin of the season looking very sleek and plump.

He did appear to have quite an itch though so I expect the fleas in his burrow were also pleased to see him back.

By 6pm the temperature was plummeting and the wind picking up.

Larks and newsbirds

I have worked my 2 nights and am busy today trying to catch up with jobs at home. I still need to pack for our holiday.

Yesterday morning after I came home from work I drove down to Surf Bay for a walk on the beach. It was very calm but cold. I took a few photos of two of the birds we often see there and in our garden.

These are long tailed meadow larks, also known as military starlings or robins. They are often in flocks, feeding on the ground but sound rather like noisy larks.


This is a dark-faced ground tyrant. They are often called news birds because they fly up close to you and look as if they are going to tell you some news or want to hear some gossip.

Last night and this morning we had cold sleety rain and a bitter wind. The surrounding hills are now all snow-capped. It is hard to believe that by tomorrow evening we should be enjoying tropical heat on Ascension Island!

Leave and judging art

Well our flights are now confirmed and we have our tickets so we will be leaving here early on Tuesday morning and flying to Ascension Island where we have booked a self-catering cottage by a beach for a week. We will then fly overnight to UK arriving on July 14th. I am working tonight and tommorow night so will be quite busy until we leave.


This morning we helped judge the annual art exhibition at the infant junior school (a job which last year I vowed I would never do again!). This year we had year 3 which was much easier than the reception and year 1 we had last year.




The children had each done a self portrait of themselves with another person or animal, an Egyptian treasure box with printed designs on it and a model of a sculpture they had designed for a corner of the school yard.

After we had judged our class we looked round the rest of the exhibition. The art work was all of an extremely high standard and also included things produced by the children who are educated out in camp.