Nearly home again

 Once again plans made earlier in the year didn't work as hoped and we found ourselves on a campsite near Glouscester for a couple of nights. We are familiar with this area as we used to attend the Ukulele Festival GB in Cheltenham and the Tall Ships Festival in Gloucester.

This time we had time to explore both places a little more beginning with an afternoon in Cheltenham.

Followed by a full day in Gloucester to explore the docks and shops without the festival crowds.

The docks provide a wonderful open space in the city which people were taking advantage of to spend their time eating lunch.

As usual, the old buildings fascinated me,

Last crafty update of the holiday,

So, at last, we made it home. A bit tired, lightly tanned and sporting a rather wonky pair of glasses inspite of the best efforts of my optician 😂😂

I'll be back soon with the usual craft based posts xx

all aboard the bus

 Our next campsite had been booked at the beginning of the year simply because they had space and it didn't look too far from the coast, however it turned out better than expected. We don't usually use the Holiday Park chain of sites but having visited Asbourne heights in the summer we were feeling quite positive about Wood Lane nr Charmouth, Dorset.

We were pitched near the top of the site at the end of a row of just 4 vans, beautiful view down the valley when the sun came out, just no so obvious in this photo. Small groups of vans were arranged in short rows and circles down the hillside and the vans seen here really are not that close together just appears that way in the photo.

Facilities excellent, staff very friendly and helpful, small reception shop, cafe, swimming pool on site. Also cheaper than the previous nights site at just £21pn

The only downside is road noise from the main road along the south coast but we got used to it.

As you may have guessed, our favourite way of getting around is by bus especially on the narrow lanes so we popped over to the bus stop which turned out to be a blue bench and headed off to Lyme Regis.

After a couple of nights we moved on to Cheddar for a night. This gave Ian chance to take his bike out so I pinched some of his photos.

Crafty update,

100gm skein texel

last instalment coming soon then normal crafty blogging will resume x

Billy No Mates

Follow the Atlantic Highway down into Cornwall they said, beautiful views they said, they lied !

Wet and foggy!! All the way to our next campsite. A couple of weeks ago we messaged some friends who live in Cornwall to say that we would be in the area, most replied to say that they were heading to the motorhome show in Bath that weekend but one couple said they would join us on the Saturday.

We therefore arrived on the Friday, booked a table in the pub and expected a quiet night, we even had the campsite to ourselves.

Unknown to us, the news of our arrival travelled fast and by 9pm we had taken over the corner in the pub and another van had appeared in the car park along with some bikes. Brilliant night, a long time since we have staggered out of a pub at 1.30am.

Ian took time out to cycle back to the nearby airfield on Saturday so I've included some of his pics.

Saturday evening was again spent with friends but we did have a slightly more sensible bed time :-)

From  this site we negotiated the narrow lanes and the local traffic jam and made our way to Tavistock C&CC Site which we had booked early in the year.

 We had planned to visit Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre but found out last week that they had not re-opened as planned. Unfortunately we were not impressed by the site, we were directed to what must have been their smallest, most uneven pitch. We were hidden away next to 4 empty safari type tents and couldn't even get the van level with our ramps. After complaining twice, they relented and gave us a tarmac emergency pitch.

This is the first time that we have had an issue with this club but it left a bad taste.

Still, next stop will be a holiday park, I wonder what that will be like?

Crafty update,

Headband No 2

smokin'

From Minehead we carried on down the coast past peaceful villages, 

over Porlock hill and with this being the steepest hill in the UK it meant that going down the other side involved a fair amount of braking. We had new brake pads fitted before leaving home and by the time we reached Lynmouth the brakes were gently smoking !

Good excuse to explore and have a go on the cliff railway.

The top village of lynton has small shops along with a small museum where they have a fairly unique way of describing their items, I described the place as containing the contents of the villages' attics, a real mix of items.

Eventually the brakes cooled down, still smelt a bit warm but were safe to travel and we made our way to a campsite near Woolacombe in Devon for a couple of nights.

Crafty update

100gm approx. ryeland waiting to be washed.

Minehead revisited

 We have visited Minehead a couple of times before, once a few years ago on the bike as part of the Round Britain challenge and again three years ago when it snowed.

This time it was somewhat warmer this time, 29c in fact which is rather a lot more than their usual September average of 17c 

Once parked up we went in search of ice cream at the site reception and headed into town taking the  shadiest route possible,

First stop was the pinball arcade (of course) where we picked up a couple of free games that had been left on the machines and then had a challenge match which, to my surprise, I won !

This was followed up with a walk along the front and a tour of the charity shops,

Parked up in the shade was a nice classic, small motorcycle and we had seen another couple of similar aged vehicles riding around.

As usual we called in at the railway, trains weren't running due to work being carried out on the nearby level crossing but we found some shade on the platform.

One last thing about Minehead , they have padlocks !! I'm guessing that this is something to do with covid as we haven't seen them before. Some have names and dates, others a re blank but any lettering may have worn off in the gales.

Crafty update

Ist headband completed, the request was for rustic hand spun so I've used a dk/aran weight and I've just realised that this is a photo of the back and you can see the join. I knit in the round, aim for the part of the pattern with the fewest details and will embroider in any missing stitches at the join so the 'jog' in the pattern isn't so obvious.

I also finished bobbin no 2 of yarn.

Speak soon xx