Holidays begin!
The next two months involved a lot of time away from London on various breaks (Barnes trip, Rovers, Devon, Butlins) and I was really looking forward to it. The heatwave continued throughout July and it was only towards the middle of August that we finally got some rain and relief.
Mary and I went walking with Maryanne at the beginning of July - we did her Ibstone walk starting at The Fox (I do like a pub that has a "dog friendly" logo on its web site!). Very enjoyable - and finished with a nice lunch at The Fox. I was shattered when I got home and had a snooze - unlike Maryanne who dashed about having appointments with fitters and planning officers, and visiting shops, apropos her pending building works and new kitchen.
Then I went down to Devon for a week - primarily to go to the Exeter Craft Festival on the Cathedral Green with Jayne. We enjoyed walking around the stalls, although didn't find much we wanted to buy, and then found a lovely little place to have lunch (Drake's Cafe). We also had a day in Plymouth - primarily to visit the Samsung centre where I got some more charging cables and they looked at Jayne's phone and confirmed a factory reset was required to get rid of her adverts virus, but we also enjoyed mooching round the shops and had a nice lunch in Bill's. By contrast, we had a day in Chudleigh - something we had wanted to do for a long time but hadn't got round to it before. We visited the war time exhibition in the church (I think we might have been their only visitors judging by how pleased they were to see us) and looked round the shops - of which there were not many of interest. The cafe was very good though and we had a lovely lunch so not a complete waste of time!
I went to a garden party at Lynn's - the first of her many social invitations I have managed to make. I was a bit outside my comfort zone but there were plenty of people there to allow me to keep a low profile, and I bravely joined the group of ringers and later rang some handbells. It was yet another beautiful sunny day, and the view across the sea from her terrace was amazing.
Lee and Emma came over for the day again - Lee and Jayne finished off the rockery and dug out the flower bed to lay the ground cover for barking. Lee also put in some wooden edging which Jayne had bought which finished it off nicely.
He also finished off the area underneath the bird bath.
Jayne also finished laying the pink stones by the terrace - it was a bit different from my intention of having a trough with pink stones and pots on top but it looked very good. Unfortunately they were a bit too enthusiastic about pulling out the brambles in the hedge by the roots - and the final one resulted in some of the hedge collapsing into the lane (Lee tied it up during a subsequent visit, so it should recover).
They discovered two wasp nests - and I had to get Rentokill in to deal with them. It cost £294 - but it worked.
Suki and I had some nice walks - including a 5-mile two-hour walk in Bovey Valley woods doing the long walk from the Toby book again. As it was dry and hard packed underfoot, the lower path along by the river was passable, although there were some big boulders to navigate, but the upper path looked quite overgrown and difficult so I am not sure I would like to do it in winter when the bottom path is under water.
The week finished with a meal out at the Dartmoor Halfway Inn with Jackie and Jayne. The pub itself was very nice, recently refurbished, and the menu was really good. Unfortunately the lemon meringue pie I had for dessert was awful - rubbery white stuff on top of rubbery yellow stuff on top of reasonable pastry. I ate it but it really wasn't very nice at all. After some encouragement from the other two I decided to mention it at the till when paying - but I wished I hadn't as the member of staff was completely uninterested and treated me with complete disdain. Ho hum.
I went home to London on the Saturday - because Lee and Emma had announced they would be arriving at our house on the Sunday ready to look after Suki later in the week! Jayne and I had a walk in Parke in the morning, and shared a bacon baguette at the cafe, and then I drove home.
Scored a handbell peal of Kent TB Major the following Wednesday - Ian's first in hand as conductor and Caroline's first for a long tme. We discovered by chance that we had rung almost the same number of peals - she is slightly ahead of me - so an element of competition has crept in!
Mary and I went walking with Maryanne at the beginning of July - we did her Ibstone walk starting at The Fox (I do like a pub that has a "dog friendly" logo on its web site!). Very enjoyable - and finished with a nice lunch at The Fox. I was shattered when I got home and had a snooze - unlike Maryanne who dashed about having appointments with fitters and planning officers, and visiting shops, apropos her pending building works and new kitchen.
Then I went down to Devon for a week - primarily to go to the Exeter Craft Festival on the Cathedral Green with Jayne. We enjoyed walking around the stalls, although didn't find much we wanted to buy, and then found a lovely little place to have lunch (Drake's Cafe). We also had a day in Plymouth - primarily to visit the Samsung centre where I got some more charging cables and they looked at Jayne's phone and confirmed a factory reset was required to get rid of her adverts virus, but we also enjoyed mooching round the shops and had a nice lunch in Bill's. By contrast, we had a day in Chudleigh - something we had wanted to do for a long time but hadn't got round to it before. We visited the war time exhibition in the church (I think we might have been their only visitors judging by how pleased they were to see us) and looked round the shops - of which there were not many of interest. The cafe was very good though and we had a lovely lunch so not a complete waste of time!
I went to a garden party at Lynn's - the first of her many social invitations I have managed to make. I was a bit outside my comfort zone but there were plenty of people there to allow me to keep a low profile, and I bravely joined the group of ringers and later rang some handbells. It was yet another beautiful sunny day, and the view across the sea from her terrace was amazing.
Lee and Emma came over for the day again - Lee and Jayne finished off the rockery and dug out the flower bed to lay the ground cover for barking. Lee also put in some wooden edging which Jayne had bought which finished it off nicely.
He also finished off the area underneath the bird bath.
Jayne also finished laying the pink stones by the terrace - it was a bit different from my intention of having a trough with pink stones and pots on top but it looked very good. Unfortunately they were a bit too enthusiastic about pulling out the brambles in the hedge by the roots - and the final one resulted in some of the hedge collapsing into the lane (Lee tied it up during a subsequent visit, so it should recover).
They discovered two wasp nests - and I had to get Rentokill in to deal with them. It cost £294 - but it worked.
Suki and I had some nice walks - including a 5-mile two-hour walk in Bovey Valley woods doing the long walk from the Toby book again. As it was dry and hard packed underfoot, the lower path along by the river was passable, although there were some big boulders to navigate, but the upper path looked quite overgrown and difficult so I am not sure I would like to do it in winter when the bottom path is under water.
The week finished with a meal out at the Dartmoor Halfway Inn with Jackie and Jayne. The pub itself was very nice, recently refurbished, and the menu was really good. Unfortunately the lemon meringue pie I had for dessert was awful - rubbery white stuff on top of rubbery yellow stuff on top of reasonable pastry. I ate it but it really wasn't very nice at all. After some encouragement from the other two I decided to mention it at the till when paying - but I wished I hadn't as the member of staff was completely uninterested and treated me with complete disdain. Ho hum.
I went home to London on the Saturday - because Lee and Emma had announced they would be arriving at our house on the Sunday ready to look after Suki later in the week! Jayne and I had a walk in Parke in the morning, and shared a bacon baguette at the cafe, and then I drove home.
Scored a handbell peal of Kent TB Major the following Wednesday - Ian's first in hand as conductor and Caroline's first for a long tme. We discovered by chance that we had rung almost the same number of peals - she is slightly ahead of me - so an element of competition has crept in!
