Blog Anniversary

Let's pick up the summer hols at last Saturday.
One of the projects being undertaken in the dining room needed some cork tiles to help it come to completion. We decided to pop over to the other side of town where there are a few shops likely to stock such an item and combine it with a visit to a newly opened and quite fantastically redeveloped play park.
No cork tiles were purchased and within about 10 minutes S was in tears because things at the playground weren't going her way and was having a bit of a hissy fit. This isn't normally in her nature and so we concluded she was probably over tired and we cut the trip sort.

Sunday morning we were all up bright and early and headed of to the car boot.
Here I bought the cork tiles we needed (and a few more besides) and all for a £1.00. Cue happy face.
From the same lady I bought these ice skates.

I have seen lovely photos of skates used at Christmas time in door and window displays and seeing as she just wanted a £1.00 for them I snaffled those too.


I haven't spent much time on the computer this week and because of that I missed the 3 year anniversary of me starting this blog. The first photo I blogged was on 11th August and it was taken in this exact same spot at a local country park.

I had a bit of an emotional day Monday.

I was kind of expecting it to happen at some point, but it just leapt upon me on Monday. Whether it was going to the country park that topped it off but it's at this time 3 years ago we found out just how poor dad's health was and within a few short weeks we lost him.

Tuesday brought another emotional meltdown.

This time it wasn't from me.

It involved and Ipod and to be honest it's better best forgotten.

An afternoon spent down at the water's edge in Hamble with a bucket and crabbing line got us all out of the house.

Not a single crab was caught but the sun was out and ice creams were eaten and our spirits were refreshed.

I thought the parking for bicycles in the car park was very inventive.

What a day we had Wednesday.

Each month I receive an email from the county council informing me of exhibitions and talks, ideas for days out and details of cycle rides and walks to do. It was in the email I found deatils for a nature walk around Bishops Waltham. As it's not somewhere we've been before and is very local it was decided to head there.

We started at Bishop's Waltham Palace. The medieval remains are owned and maintianed by English Heritage and are free to visit. The Bishops and senior clergy of Winchester would stay here as they travlled through the diocese. Famous visitors include Henry V and Richard the Lionheart.

It was enjoyed for it's hide and seek qualities before we found our way to the central car park as this is where the walk starts.

We walked for about 45 minutes before we stopped for our picnic. We had read there were Highland cattle grazing in the fields but hadn't seen any until we went to the very next field. Most of them were sat in the shade offered by the trees at the edge of the field.

Then a little further on we came to the most lovely view. It was such a treat to be able to walk in such living countryside.

This field of wheat was divided in two and through the middle were lots of wild flowers, mostly pretty red poppies. You couldn't help but smile.

The very best view was saved until last.

We sat here for a while just gulping in the fresh air and savouring the summer sun.

That leaves us Thursday and Friday which have mostly been spent indoors.

A little decorating project finished, test match cricket listening andsome reading for us and friends over for both T and S.

This evening the plan (courtesy of T's idea) is to open some popcorn, get snuggly on the sofa and watch a movie. Sounds good to me.

Royal Arcade

When we were in Norwich last week we wandered through the bea-u-ti-ful Royal Arcade.

Apparently the lanterns which you can see here were only added during the 1980's when the arcade under went restoration.



The colour, pattern and artwork of the tiles is stunning.

They were designed by W J Neatby who also designed tiles for Harrods food hall.

And if they weren't enough just look at this delicious Art Nouveau stained glass window.

The view from inside

and outside

It knocks spots of modern day malls don't you think?

Swanwick Lakes Nature Reserve

Week 2 of the holiday's started wiith G and S going up to Salisbury for the day to visit his mum and dad whilst T and I stayed at home. T had invited a friend over for the afternoon and lucky old me got to spend nearly 4 hours ironing.

For today's adventure we had to keep things fairly local as G needed to be back mid afternoon to ready himself for a trip to London to see Iron Maiden.

We have only very recently become aware of a nature reserve very near us, it's a 10 minute train journey and then a 20 minute walk away and yes I could have driven there quicker but this way we are out for longer and the exercise is good for us.

It's a really beautiful place. There were slippery banks to jump to and fro from


ready made dens to explore

art work in the wildlife centre

and outside on the trees

lots and lots of ducks

stunning views around 4 different lakes

lots of plants and fungi

strange woodland creatures who quickly turned from this

to this!

We had a lovely few hours exploring and look forward to our next trip there.

An added bonus was finding a playground on the way back to the station to while away the extra time we had before our train was due. Much more fun than standing around on a deserted platform for half an hour.

1st Week

Well if the rest of the school holiday is as good as this first week we'll all be happy and exhausted by the end of it!

The first day off last Thursday was gloriously hot and sunny and most of it was spent in the garden. A friend of G's gave T this water blaster but unfortunately it was broken. G spent some time trying to fix it and once he thought it was all sorted, well there was really only one outcome wasn't there. Although the water fight was initially just between the 3 of them T couldn't resist the temptation and I ended up completely soaked as well, hardly fair as I had nothing to defend myself with! Never mind it gave us all a good laugh.

T and S also had loads of fun in the paddling pool and had G and I crying with laughter at their antics.

And in case you were wondering, the washing did get wet again!

The forecast for Friday was warm but with plenty of cloud cover so we decided a walk was in order. You can imagine the moans and groans and here is a lovely photo of 2 children about a mile into the walk complaining of thirst and heat exhaustion. Aren't we just completely wicked parents for taking them out into the countryside?!

Our chosen destination was Brockenhurst in the New Forest. I had kept details of a 5 and a half mile circular walk, which began and ended at the train station, which had been published in the local paper a few years ago and with views like this

and this

and this
the children soon forgot to moan and just ran around and played and enjoyed themselves.

We had our lunch sat by this massive tree.

G is 6ft 5 so that gives you an idea of how massive it is!

And of course fallen trees have to be explored and walked along. This was just one of several we found, the favourites were the ones that had fallen from one bank to another across the streams.

Saturday was a quieter day spent tidying thehouse in readiness for our housesitter and packing for a couple of days away.

We did pop out for an hour in the later afternoon though.

Just over the bridge from where we live there was an event being held to celebrate the start of the round the world Clipper race and part of this was live music over 3 evenings.

We chose to go and see a Madness tribute band who very quickly had the crowd dancing and enjoying themselves.

Sunday and Monday were spent in Norwich as we had arranged to meet up with T's birth siblings.

He spent time with S

we spent a lovely evening with R

and had a short meet up with his other sister R.

We had very little time for sight seeing, just the odd hour snatched here and there. We did a tiny bit of shopping and S decided white shades should be part of her new look!

We found the most beautiful shopping arcade ever, this deserves a whole post on it's own which I'll do another day.

The other thing which cuahgt my eye were these glass globules on the fence around a churchyard. They were in different colours and must look fabulous if there is lighing around them at night.

If you don't like snakes then skip this next photo.

T's sister S has a partner who likes snakes and he got their pet snake out to meet us. It took a liking to G and G took a liking to it. He sat with it crawling over him for ages, he said it was very relaxing!

Yesterday was spent travelling home again, so no time for anything else.

Today though with the sun out once again G loaded up the car with the bikes and we went up to the Common. Lots of cycling through parts we don't normally visit and then on to the paddling pool which was heaving with people. After half an hour or so I went to buy ice creams and bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for a while so whilst we sat chatting and arranged another meet up the children played and had fun in the sun, just what the holidays should all be about.