A short holiday

We are having a short holiday before we go on a longer holiday to Holland, which is before we go on a really long holiday to Australia and New Zealand. I love this life!

We are in the South Lytchett Manor Caravan and Camping Park, Lytchett Minster, near Poole. For people who do not live in the UK, Poole is in Dorset, on the south coast, west of Portsmouth, Southhampton and Bournemouth. We went through the New Forest to get here.

I left behind my 'unusual information about places' book so cannot write anything remarkable about this area, except Dorset is the place where the 'Famous Five' adventures took place. Already I keep looking out for four children on bicycles with a dog running alongside. They are very easy to recognise with their posh accents, and ruck sacks full of scrumptious cream teas and lashings of ginger beer. I am still a big fan of the 'Famous Five' and have introduced the grandchildren to the stories, via CDs which we listen to as we travel in the car or motor home. So unreal!

We are also trying out all our new gadgets in the motor home, such as the rubbish bin which is now attached to the door, rather then getting under everyone's feet. We also have a cling film, foil and paper towel dispenser above the sink, and containers to hold the washing up brush and detergent so that they do not sit around in the sink, getting in my way, when I cook. Little gadgets like this makes one very happy when one is touring around. All from Ikea of course!

I discovered today that we only have one wine glass. Wine glasses do not travel well! Luckily we went to the local pub tonight for dinner.
The camping ground is very smart and totally manicured with its gravelled pitches and landscaped grounds.
Off to Poole tomorrow.

More lunches out

In between travelling I have been having lots of lovely lunches and afternoon teas. And a few more planned before we head off to Australia at the end of October. It has been fantastic catching up with people. Unfortunately I have only a few photos to show, as I keep forgetting to take photographs.

Kathy, Denise and I lunching at The Bull in Swanley.
The retired Headteachers' group, Yvonne, Jane, Maggie and me, catching up on all the news, at the Danson Stables Restaurant. A very happy and relaxed group.
I love it all. The joys of retirement!

Renovations

I must say that our house looks much, much better since it has been painted. But not by Scott and me as we realised it was going to be a massive undertaking, and too much for us. Instead we hired a painter to do the job. And what a job it was too. I certainly appreciated the work done by the painter after painting the back wall. The three sides took 11 tins of paint, 55 litres of paint and this was just one coat. Scott and I used 2 1/2 tins on the back wall. What a lot of paint! But the house looks very smart.

Finally I have a fold down clothesline on the side wall of the house. A Hills clothes line too. It is only small one as the alternative was a very long fold up clothesline which would not fit on our wall. When I researched the problem of clothes lines on the internet I drooled over all the different sized fold up clothes lines available in Australia but we do not live there. There were very few options here, and the Brabantia one was a rotary look alike attached to the wall.
I am a very happy person. I really like my fold down clothes line. Now I no longer have to look at the awful rotary clothes line in the back garden. There are now clean lines, and an unspoilt view in the back garden, except for the tennis ball on top of the spike where the clothes line used to be. This is in case I change my mind!

A major clean up

It all started when our neighbour approached us about fixing or replacing the fence separating our front garden from their driveway. Apparently they replaced the fence on the other side of their garden so therefore we are responsible for attending to the fence between us. I then told them that it is not our fence but in fact it is their fence, as our fence, which is the retaining wall, is inside their fence. Technicalities! I cannot get used to the 'I am responsible for the left side so therefore you are responsible for the right' side (or something like that) which people maintain is the law here. We could not find the law that actually states this either.

Our fence was either built in 1929 or when the land was subdivided in the late 1940's. It is very old anyway and looking down between the two fences I can see that it is very much on a lean. But to take our neighbour's point I could see that their fence was dangerous and our shrubs were not helping the situation. Just to make matters worse, the bamboo which grows in front of their fence has worked its way up into our garden.

So out came the saw, the cutters and our battery operated hedge cutters and a massive cut back took place.

After two hours of cutting back we finally managed to make a small gap in the shrubs. A start anyway. Unfortunately we disturbed a small red robin who obviously had made its home in the wilderness.

The fence that is beginning to fall down, after we removed two of the concrete panels which were hanging on by a thread.

One day later all the shrubs have been cut down to ground level, although they will recover but will not be so tall. The small conifer has gone completely. Unfortunately the bamboo will sprout again, and there is no way that you can get rid of it completely. It is a curse!
Of course we became very keen then and decided to tackle the shrubs and bamboo beside the footpath. The front now looks like it has had a very bad haircut. I am hoping for some speedy growth next year. Walter made nine trips to the dump! I think I have repetitive strain injury in both elbows!

A visit to Amersham

This morning we travelled around the M25, without any traffic problems. Hurray! The aim of the journey was to meet up with Margaret, who hails from Invercargill, New Zealand, but who now works in Amersham. The weather was glorious.

Buckinghamshire is certainly a beautiful part of England, also a very expensive area with large houses and trendy shops. And lots of upmarket restaurants housed in very old buildings. We were very impressed with the flower displays.
We loved this old market alley opposite an old market building. The shops were tiny, not for three very tall people though.
We decided against eating in the expensive pubs and restaurants, and as the sun was shining we opted for sandwiches. This lovely little garden in Beaconsfield (a short drive from Amersham) was a perfect place for a picnic.
We were fascinated by the huge number of cars parked on the streets in Amersham and Beaconsfield. In fact we had great difficulty finding a park in both places. Except for a few people in restaurants, there was hardly a person about. The trendy shops were certainly empty. Where were all the people? No doubt these are free carparks for all the people who catch trains into London.
We then travelled through country lanes, bordered by newly built mansions on very large sections. I wonder if the parked cars came from these houses? Then on to Chalfont St Giles, an idyllic village. The church was especially interesting as the walls were covered in religious frescos, painted before 1400. This was a common practice then but of course in most churches they were later plastered over and destroyed. Margaret and I sat in the sun for a while, and had a discussion about weddings and gravestones.
We stopped at a pub for some much needed refreshments.
In the village we found Milton's house where he lived for about 18 months during the 1600's. It was a beautifully restored house and contained pictures and old copies of Milton's work. Fascinating! Milton was a man ahead of his time, in his ideas of social justice and equality, and a leader in Cromwell's government. 'Paradise Lost' was written later in his life.
The house is Grade 1 listed, due to its historical value but the garden is Grade 2 listed as the Queen planted a camellia there, which modernised the garden. However it is still a very old garden and so tranquil. The hops on the old roses were the largest I have seen. A feast for the birds.I could have sat here for the rest of the afternoon.And we drove back home on the M25, without any traffic problems. This must be a record! A lovely day!

Birthday Parties

Two birthday tea parties in a matter of days. First it was Barbara's 75th birthday tea party at the Tea Rooms in Bexleyheath. Lots of small sandwiches, cakes and scones washed down with cups of tea. Delicious!

Barbara about to blow out her birthday candles!
We all had a great time with lots of eating, laughing and talking.
Then it was Isabel's 8th birthday tea party with the family. I made little sandwiches (not as elegant as the ones in the Tea Rooms), and NZ cheese rolls. Emma and Isabel made lovely cupcakes. The birthday cake was a chocolate ice cream log. All washed down with beer, wine and soft drink. Not quite the English tea party but enjoyed by all.

Isabel opening her presents.

Ready to start!
Great celebrations!

Signs that jump out at you!

On Saturday evening (and I was not drunk) I reversed the car down our road and into the 'No parking, private road' sign which one of our neighbours erected on the corner of the road.

Luckily there was no damage to the car, and Lucy and I managed to push the sign, which is on bollards filled with concrete, back up.

The picture below shows a near empty road (work day) and the sign which Walter and I pushed closer to the fence. The sign was further out when I reversed into it. I blame the sign of course.

There are 6 houses on this part of the road plus the entrance to Joydens Wood. 5 of the houses use the road for parking, with a total of 18 vehicles (14 cars, 3 vans and 1 trailer). Two houses have driveways so at least 4 cars are not on the road all the time. Then you add cars belonging to visitors. And our motor home, when we are loading/unloading it. A negotiating vehicles nightmare, especially for people like me!

On Saturday evening the road was bumper to bumper full of cars on both sides of the road, even the two driveways had cars in them. And I had to reverse down the road between the cars, until 'wham' I hit the sign.

I hate that sign!