Whistle stop tour to Cornwall

Ventured into the wilds of Cornwall this weekend.. was lovely to have a few days away...

This was taken at Cotehele woods on a very bright and sunny sunday..
A beautiful walk..

This is Calstock..

This is Amber.. taking in the view...

This little guy was soo close.. i was actually able to not need to pan in to photograph him..

Still pining for my old camera and struggling a wee bit with the olympus.. but..

I will get there!!

My Panasonic Lumix died yesterday..

SO, i got the Olympus out of retirement.. and found these pics still on the card.

This was the day Claire phoned to say she had seen an animal on the beach, and wondered if we could help.

sadly.. when we got to the beach behind the house, we found it was already dead..
it was one of the dolphins that frequent the shores of Brunei.. such a shame

Its odd to see these pics again, as it felt such a long time ago, but still felt like yesterday..

There were also some other pics of the house before we left Brunei too.. How long ago was that now?
7 months at least.. wow, where has the last year gone.. this time last year we were readying ourselves to go to New Zealand.. wow what an amazing time that was....

But hey that was then.. this is now..
Here iam , in wet n windy wiltshire, and i Love it.. yes i miss the friends and the weather in Brunei.. but..

These are my Boys, and home is wherever we live..

and anyway.. who knows what lies ahead...

x

Saturday..in Trowbridge.

Steve and i walked into Trowbridge this morning.. this was the first time for us as we usually like to walk by the Canal to Bradford on Avon, but Ste needed a haircut.
these are just a few pics taken in and around the town centre..
not my finest hour but..

time for a cuppa tea

and always time to feed the birds....

Sharing chips with the pigeons

On the up side.. i came home with 3 Large bunches of roses and carnations.. all for £5, they are now residing beautifully in the lounge.. adding a great splash of colour to the house..

lovely 

x

Glastonbury

through the mist.. on the way to Street for the day..

its was an amazing sight to see...

not wanting to labour the point, but i was so happy to have witnessed this unusual sight..

right place at the right time...

brilliany!

Petrol prices....

In Brunei we paid about 20p a litre for petrol..
since we returned to the uk the petrol heres got more n more expensive..

this is what it was at Tesco in trowbridge today..

Ashton Keevil.

Out for a drive.. just to get out and look around the local surroundings as its such a fabulously sunny day!

came across this old petrol station , derelict, and unloved.. but a real find!

i think the pumps look more like works of art or rockets!

Ive been told that there are many old places like this, throughout the UK, as they are far too expensive to remove them and make them safe....

i drove through the back lanes towards Westbury after id taken these.
Didnt realise Westbury was the Home of the White Horse... well thats what the signpost said anyway!!

Trowbridge is the County town of Wiltshire. Its sadly another one of the Had the heart ripped out of it places, and been lumped with one of them God awful shopping Malls.. (Mall or Maul as they used to say in Brunei)

Went into Trowbridge  earlier today, as Alex had to go in to sort out some odds n ends .. So, I decided i would have a wander around and see if i could get a few photos ..

Heres what i found.. and i hope you like them..

This was taken it what i assume used to be the market area... sadly..ive never seen a market here..yet!

The Great british workman..having a sarni n a Ciggie.. at least it was balanced.. !!

Taken near the shires shopping MALL!

This elderly gent stood gazing in the doorway for ages.. then just bimbled off...

how i love taking photos...

x

Disaster

Ok..

Lemon luscious , or Lemon drizzle cake..

made it a thousand times, but today..

well... i used a different tin,

WRONG!

YOU CANT FIR A 2LB CAKE IN A 1LB TIN!

so why did i try..

not really sure..

but it was going so well!

Until.....

oops.. houston we have a problem..

looked good till i tried to turn it out, and i realised it was still uncooked in the middle...

Bugger!

oh well..

the edges tasted good, and..

at least the meuseli cookies worked out!

Flapjacks?

Alex is on another health kick...
protein and carbs and pretty much everything...

Hes discovered he adores flapjacks, but i have always claimed im unable to make them..
YES i know they are simple, and kids make them at school.. but they were my nemesis.

So i decided to try making them again last week.
A Mary Berry recipe from her book that my dear Dad bought me in 1995..

i couldnt believe it!

It worked.. i used a recipe that required choc chips, but added dried fruit instead.
(Alex wont eat Chocolate.. HIS body is a temple)

Well now, 4 batches of Flapjacks later.. i think im getting the hang of ALL things Flapjacky!

Sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds. macadamia nuts, cranberries, raisins,pecans etc etc
Honey, agave nectar or golden syrup..
Mixed spices, lemon orange or ginger?
the variety is seemingly endless....

I think before, i was too keen to get them out the tin, and didnt leave them to cool, so assumed that they hadnt worked, as they would collapse and fall to pieces.. BUT now.. I know!

today Flapjacks.. tomorrow.................

Warminster

MMMMMmmmmmm

after Frome last week, the idea of Warminster this week was rather appealing..

its a mere 10 miles from us here , and we thought it would be a nice few hours out of the house..

Sadly, Warminster has become one of the  Many Generic towns that the UK seems to have..
You know the usual, Morrisons, Subway, M&Co,Macdonalds, Peacocks, the usual!

There were a few independent places but mostly of the eatery kind..

It was a pretty chilly day today, and we nipped into a small Cafe to have a coffee..i have to admit the cafe was rather nice, and served really good coffe too.. (im not admitting that their apple cake was nice, as it was Steves Not mine!!)

i did find this notice, which i thought rather amusing...

Maybe next week we will try salisbury.. One of my most favourite places in the world.

(next to Angkor Wat, Muara Beach, The Hoe, and the small shack we used to drink at after Bukit shabandar!)

anyway... watch this space!

Flooded Wiltshire

Lots of rain and already sodden soil = Flooding. (Im pleased to say the floods here are not to the proportions of Australias inland floods,  thankfully.. )
This was the sight that greeted me at the bridge i cross every day.. i would say the gap to the top of the bridge is normally about 5 feet.. and as you can see, its slightly less than that in this pic.. id hazard a guess at maybe 6 inches from the top..

in the above pic, you can see the rail along the road from where the other pic was taken..

The road i usually take to work, via Holt, was sadly closed as it was 2 ft under water.. so the long way round to work it was for me!

I did manage to try and get a few arty shots before i headed off to work, quite liked this one..

This was what greeted me on the way home from work,5 and a half hours later.. the fields were totally underwater now (i usually leave work in the dark so today was quite unusual)

The sun was just going down in the direction of bradford on Avon,and the view over the flooded fields was eerily beautiful..

Lets hope the lake that is Staverton lake, soon subsides and then the cows can return to their fields...

although its very beautiful to see, you have to wonder whats happened to all the wee animals in the fields..

 Alex decided he would go out for a bike ride, this is what he looked like when he got home!

well.. Boys will be Boys i Guess??

Frome

Cheap Street

Theres no place like Frome..

thats for sure. how many streets have you seen with a small stream running down the middle of it..



Frome was a lovely place with a great Farmers market.

it was nice to go somewhere with unusual shops NOT the usual mish mosh of starbucks Asda Primark and the like..

unusual shops, independant ones with not your usual run of the mill crud..

Wholefoods shop

Beats wearing them!

I really liked Frome.  Wasnt expecting much to be honest. After Devizes much hyped market, and the feeling of deflation when we went there..i was kind of thinking it was going to be similar..

Thankfully, it wasnt.

Frome... Ill be back!

St Valentines Lamp.
which is lit every valentines day

Day off work.

Had an interesting morning..

returning wrongly charged items to Tesco and getting double the difference..(go figure)

and then on to meet my sister Mandy at a local garden centre..

cold day here in the uk.. strangely it feels colder here now, than when it was actually very cold..

maybe were acclimatizing in reverse?

few piccies of today..

The dog below was very unimpressed at being photographed...

the pig, wasnt at Tesco.. he was photographed at a Farm shop on the way home.. and yes, the sausages from here are lovely..

Im at Tesco and its cold..

and im wearing a scarf and a jacket,soo very last year!!

mumma pig..

these are her babies..

a walk by the Kennet & Avon Canal

I always say Pictures speak louder then words..

had a wonderful walk with steve today.. one of them days that makes ME Glad that Im back in the UK

i will let the pictures do the talking..

Bradford on Avon Road Bridge

old mans beard & blue skies

Isis.

Bradford On Avon

modes of transport!

view from our front door