On the rails . . .

I had a lovely day out with friends yesterday - we took ourselves off to enjoy a day on the Severn Valley Railway (click on the link here if you're interested).

Travelling in First Class (thanks to Sharon's SVR pass) we meandered our way along the banks of the Severn river from Kidderminster all the way to Bridgnorth, where we alighted (as one does when travelling by steam train!) and spent a wee while wandering around the town, perusing the lovely shops and having a yummy lunch.

Then we got back on board, in Third Class this time - just to experience it, of course (actually the First class compartments were already full) - and choo-choo'd back along the line to the pretty little village of Arley.  We alighted once more, and had a leisurely walk across the river to a quaint tea room (attached to the village Post Office) for a delicious afternoon tea of jam & cream scones with a pot of Earl Gray.

All too soon, it was time to hike back to the station and hop on the next train back to Kiddi.

 Quite a civilised way to travel, methinks and definitely a lovely way to spend a Monday.

: - )

We've been . . .

. . . enjoying the Great British summer !

a day mooching around beautiful Stratford-upon-Avon

moving my craft room outside - finishing some projects and starting a new one

 

a trip to London for the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace

having lots of lekker braais

and

• watching the Ashes, and not really bothering who wins, but enjoying some great cricket

• following the Tour de France and cheering for the Brits and the Saffa

• making a first-ever attempt at homemade ice-cream (it tastes yum, but is more like a frozen pud than ice-cream...so lots more practise is needed.

And most importantly, 

loving the blue skies, bright sunshine and high temps  :-)

ps. not liking the high pollen count and resulting hayfever though !!

Buttercup blossoms . . .

On Friday, the two Gills and the three pups had such a lovely walk in the Woodgate valley.  The Buttercups are in full bloom and there were just fields and fields of them whichever way you looked.

 

 

Having been away on holiday for most of May, we'd missed the best of the Bluebells but it was just lovely to see all these pretty little wildflowers.  

Gill discovered some Southern Marsh Orchids too. {Aren't you impressed that I remembered their name ?}

 I was wishing I had my proper camera with me so I could have taken a better shot, as the little petals are so pretty. This "taken with my iPhone pic" doesn't really do it justice.

Ben, Jerry & Breagha had a great time, swimming in the river and lolloping through the fields - they have to jump as they run in order to see where they're going, so it's quite funny watching them bob up & down.

But the minute there's the mere mention of the word "treat", they come hurtling back to where we are. 

I loved Gill's caption for this pic:

The grass is always greener on the other side . . .

The rain's back today, but there's the promise of a sunshiney week ahead to look forward to.

On the visitor front, we've had Louis & Wil staying for the weekend to play with puzzles attend MPP11, and judging by the amount of puzzling into the wee hours they did, they seemed to enjoy their stay.  But no doubt Ali will tell you all about that over at Puzzling Times sometime soon.

Hope you've had a good weekend too,

xoxo

Rain, rain go away . . .

Waiting for the rain to stop so we can go out for walkies . . .

. . . and then deciding you may as well just take a nap instead.

It's a dog's life !

We're back !

Ok, ok so I know it's been a R.E.A.L.L.Y long time since I updated this page, but we have a good excuse...

We've been on holidays !

Alright, so "surely not all this time since February?", I hear you ask.  Well no, ok, I concede.  But never mind that.  We're back, we're all well and here are some pics . . .

Mid-May, I left Ali in charge of the pups, the household chores and the puzzle budget (yeh, right... who am I kidding?), and joined my Mum & Dad and Chris on a lovely cruise.  We congregated in Brum and flew to Venice, then boarded the beautiful Splendour of the Seas and spent the next week sailing to Split in Croatia, Kusadasi in Turkey and the beautiful Greek islands of Mykonos and Cefalonia.

Ephesus & Kusadasi

Mykonos

Cefalonia

Venice

Split

It was altogether just lovely.

Then just a week or so after I got back, it was time to pack our bags again and this time Ali & I headed south to Harwich and sailed away on the Brilliance of the Seas to spend two weeks exploring Scandinavia & Russia.

Copenhagen, Helsinki & Stockholm

St Petersburg

Tallinn

the west coast of Sweden

Once again: altogether just lovely.  We had calm seas and perfect weather (besides a wee bit of rain in Denmark) and so much fun discovering all these lovely destinations.

So you see, we HAVE been busy lately . . . 

:-)

ps. if you think the pics are just way too small, click on them and they should miraculously get bigger.  (The operative word is: should)