As many of you will know, we’re between houses at the moment. Having sold ours on 12th September, we’re living in our Static Van in Shropshire, whilst legal issue are sorted in connection with our new home in Yorkshire. It’s all very stressful at the moment and we were glad of a break in the Highlands, which we’d had booked for months. Unfortunately, most of our clothes are still in storage, together with all our other stuff, so we had to go away without much of the equipment we’d normally take. We’d been given a moving date of 3rd October when we move out of our house, so didn’t think we’d ha ..read more

We’d seen a Made in Shropshire market advertised at the National Trust property at Dudmanston, near Bridgnorth, so headed there for a mooch around the stalls and a walk down the Dingle. I haven’t seen a NT car park so full for a long time and, sure enough, there were lots of visitors around the market and in the orchard cafe area. We had a wander around and a look at the items on offer which were generally of excellent quality, although for once Alison’s money stayed in her pocket. We headed into the kitchen garden and spotted some lovely pumpkins, ripening nicely ahead of Halloween, and lot ..read more

We’ve been planning to visit Lake Vyrnwy since we’d bought the van a couple of years ago, but had never got round to it until today. It’s about an hour’s drive to the Visitor Centre, where we parked up, wrangled with the cash only parking machine, then grabbed a couple of hot drinks before having a walk to the dam, then picking up a map. It’s a super place on a sunny day and relatively quiet today, now that the kids are back at school. You can hire bikes, go paddle boarding on the lake and follow miles of trails with fantastic scenic views. We spotted a Kingfisher and a Dipper, which is alway ..read more

The good people of Bishops Castle had been planning their annual Michaelmas Fair for months, only to have the local council and committee pull the plug, due to ‘protocols’ around the period of mourning for the late Queen. Fortunately, they’re a resourceful and independent bunch and stuck a metaphorical finger up to that decision and went ahead anyway. Walking into town It was a glorious late summer’s day and there was a pretty good turnout, especially as the event had been on-off all week. There were no food stalls due to the confusion, but plenty of shops open and a display, not only of old ..read more

There’s some dispute about whether this was or 5th or 6th trip to The Anchorage Cottage in Staithes – whichever it is, it’s clear we love the place. We’re deep in house hunting mode at the moment, so a break away for a week was just what we needed, even if it did involved three house viewings whilst we were in God’s Own Country. The Anchorage is actually in Cowbar, across the beck from Staithes, which has the advantage of easier parking with the permit provided by the owners. It does mean regular walks up and down the very steep Cowbar Hill but it’s worth it for the views looking back. On S ..read more

Alison was gifted an “experience” voucher for her big birthday in January, which she’d used to book a Foraging Day in Whinlatter forest for the two of us. It seemed like a good opportunity to grab a week in the Lakes, so we booked Ale Cottage in Ireby near Cockermouth. It’s about 2 hours from home and we took the chance to call into Tebay Services for lunch. I’ve got to say that the standards seemed to have slipped since we last popped in. The food was distinctly average and the level of service was less than ideal. The views, though, were as great as ever. Saturday We were soon at the cottage ..read more

We got back from Scotland on Sunday and used Bank Holiday Monday to take up the carpet on the stairs and landing, before the arrival of the decorator on Tuesday. Having sorted him out, we headed down to Bow House and left him to get on with it. When we arrived on Tuesday afternoon, the whole site smelled of flowers, with the musky scent of fields of rape everywhere. Weather wise, we’ve had a great week, with some sunshine and decent day time temperatures, although it’s been chilly in the evenings. We’ve used our time to do some walking, some chilling and to catch up with a friend who’s been w ..read more

It’s been busy, busy, busy at home, as we try to get our house ready for sale, so a week away was just what we needed. We were finally going back to Gorteneorn Bothy in Ardnamurchan – a booking we’d moved 3 times because of the pandemic. We had an easy drive up to the Corran Ferry, which takes cars across Loch Linnhe and on to the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. The Loch looked great with the sun shimmering on the water. The drive to the Bothy along the forest track is stunning and I managed to capture it on video this time. We spent the week walking every day in glorious sunshine – we’ve done Oak W ..read more

It’s been a few weeks of birthdays for our grandchildren – we’ve seen Ruby for her 1st, Lily for her 10th (along with her sister, Brooklyn) and we’re just back from a fleeting visit to the Highlands for Isabella’s 7th. We were up at 6.30am on Friday to get a flying start to the 6 hour drive up to Roybridge. Whilst Alison took Ralf for his morning walk, I set about making breakfast, but was interrupted by the door bell ringing at 7.15am. Now, someone coming to the door that early in the morning usually spells trouble, but on this occasion, it was a dishwasher engineer who had the wrong house nu ..read more

Amazingly, a year has gone by since the birth of our latest granddaughter, Ruby Rose, so we took the opportunity for a few days away to attend her first birthday party. It also gave Alison a chance to go wedding dress shopping with Ruby’s Mum, Gabrielle, in Bristol. We drove down on Saturday morning to the Moose Hall in Swindon for the party – a straightforward drive for once but time was of the essence, so we ate our sandwich lunch on the move. It was freezing in Wiltshire, despite previous claims from our southern based offspring that it’s always warm down south. Ruby seemed to have a good t ..read more