In January, Steve and I were very lucky to go on a dream trip to Antarctica via the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. It has been my dream to make this trip for a long time and it was everything I could have wished for. Here are some pictures from the first part of the journey – we tried to visit Ernest Shackleton’s grave in Grytviken, South Georgia but we couldn’t get close due to the presence of numerous and possibly aggressive Elephant seals (bit like scaffolding on a National Trust property). I hiked part of the route Shackleton took across the mountains in SG to reach safety in Stromness and we also saw King, Gentoo and Rockhopper penguins as well as Black Browed Albatrosses and their chicks. As you can see in the first photo, taken in Punto Arenas, Chile, London is 13,000 miles away and we were exploring a wonderful new place!
You can just see Shackleton’s graveKing PenguinsHiking the Shackleton TrailGentoo PenguinAdorable Rockhoppers
We needed a break from a couple of busy part-time jobs and decided to take a week off to visit some National Trust properties as well as seeing family and friends. Coincidentally, I also had a Royal School of Needlework class, a quilting class with Megan Manwaring and a visit to some new picture framers to add in as well.
We also stopped at Aston Pottery where I picked up four new plates to coordinate with the set I bought 24 years ago when we first moved to the UK – still going strong and haven’t lost their colour even after all the dishwashing.
Here’s a few photos of our lovely week away touring familiar places as well as new houses and gardens to explore.
Mottisfont House, Hampshire which featured a display by artist Pauline Baynes who illustrated the original Narnia books by C. S. Lewis. I loved the sepia photo of the lady with her dog as the wee chap looks exactly like our Norwich Terrier Hamish.
Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire – magnificent archways, a stunning library and tile floors worthy of a quilt. The estate was owned by Rudyard Kipling’s daughter.
Lovely dahlias at Aston Pottery in Oxfordshire. Well, I think dahlias are lovely but my friend hates them because she says they look too plastic and she remembers the earwigs that used to invade them in her parents’ garden when she was a child.
Nuffield House in Oxfordshire was the home of William Morris the founder of the Morris Motor Company (not the artist). He made so much money in business that in his lifetime he gave away £11.1 billion in today’s money, but known as Viscount Nuffield he lived a simple life in this relatively small house. In fact, all the Nuffield Trust medical facilities in the UK are a result of his generosity. I loved the blue glassware in the dining room and Lady Nuffield’s sewing box.
I have always wanted to see puffins in the wild but, since they spend a great deal of their life at sea or at the other side of the world when they migrate, the chances are limited. My husband and I had a great time seeing the puffins in Wales last weekend. On Sunday afternoon we took the boat out to Skomer Island where we were told we would see a veritable blizzard of puffins. There were thousands of them alright but I wasn’t prepared for how small they are and how fast they fly. I gave up on trying to take pictures and just enjoyed watching their crazy antics. However, I did manage to get a couple of shots that have been enlarged by my telephoto lens and the cropping tool on my computer.
Interesting fact – the multi coloured bills of the puffins only exist during the breeding season. Both male and female puffins lose their coloured bills once they head out to sea. Amazingly, there have been records of puffins from Skomer Island arriving in Argentina fourteen days later!!
What’s not to like about living in Somerset and being able to walk along the Grand Western Canal in nearby Devon? As well as taking these pictures, I also saw my first Kingfisher yesterday. They are such beautiful birds – bright turquoise and orange – but too fast and small to get any good pictures on my iPhone.
Had a great visit to Forde Abbey in Chard, Dorset yesterday. A former Cistercian Monastery, Forde is home to the Mortlake Tapestries (which I especially admired) and had a display of embroidery pieces featuring samplers, petit point and the smallest bead work I have ever seen (no pictures allowed). Outside the beautiful floral borders featured chrysanthemums of various hues and a fountain which is reported to be the second highest in the UK.
During lockdown, which feels interminable this time, my husband and I have explored more of the Great Western Canal as well as getting to know some areas closer to our new house.
Narrow boats waiting for the Summer boating season and the Waytown Limekilns where the lime was extracted from the rock in huge furnaces and then shipped by barge down the Great Western Canal.
Culmstock Beacon – in 1588 this stone hut was built to enclose a pole beacon on the the edge of the Blackdown Hills in Devon. The beacon was one of many used to warn of the approaching Armada – the stone hut still stands today and commands the most amazing views!
Wellington Park in Somerset was created in 1910 to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII. The gardens are very well tended and include tulip and hyacinth displays as well a stunning magnolia tree and cherry blossoms.
Just loved this walk amidst the yellow forest flowers! This path is in a section of the Grand Western Canal that was never built and is just across a couple of farmer’s fields from our house. Lucky us!
My husband and I have discovered the Grand Western Canal, running a few miles from our home, starting from Tiverton, Devon. The canal was proposed as early as 1796 to link the Bristol Channel to the English Channel to bypass Lands End. However, the proposed canal was never completed because the railway removed the need for its existence.
The eleven-mile section in Devon that had been finished remains open, despite many threats over the years, and is now a designated country park and local nature reserve. We have chosen to walk sections of the canal, from car park to car park, with the idea to eventually walk the entire thing if we feel fit enough one day. The park is very well maintained and the majority of the paths are hard packed and not muddy which is a benefit for walking around here!
Here’s a few of the magnificent views that can be seen along the first five miles of the canal from Tiverton to Sampford Peverell in Devon.
We were very lucky in 2020 that we were able to get together with family on December 25th despite lockdown restrictions in other parts of the UK. Our daughter and son-in-law live in Warwick and we had a great walking tour of the town during our short stay.
We’ve been in our new house in Wellington, Somerset for just over a month now, but already we have explored a lot of the outlying countryside – a good outdoor break for the lockdown blues!
First we found Wellington Park in our new hometown and it is a real gem dating back to the coronation of King Edward VII around 1901.
Wellington Park
Next we took a walk along the Taunton and Bridgwater (yes, the ‘e’ is missing in the town name) Canal. We discovered a wonderful tea room where we can take visitors in the future plus we loved the Dr Seuss-like trees created by the balls of mistletoe in the branches. The narrow boats are much shorter than in Henley-on-Thames because the locks are much shorter.
Taunton & Bridgwater Canal
The National Trust came up trumps for our next visit when we discovered the gorgeous property of Knightshayes Court. The Impey Trail has a lung busting hill but it is a great place to walk for building up stamina and steps.
Knightshayes Court
Of course, we had to head to the coast at some point and a bitterly cold walk on Saunton Sands blew away all the “cobwebs” and gave us a new appreciation for the power of nature. Man, it was cold!
Saunton Sands
Our latest expedition took us to the Valley of Rocks in Exmoor National Park. The nearby town of Lynton has a steep chair railway that takes visitors from the town down to the beach level and brings them back up at the end of the day. It’s been used since Victorian times. There’s a narrow cliff path leading from the town to the Valley of Rocks. Nimble goats graze on the gorse bushes down the side of the rocks – how do they do that without falling over the side?
Valley of the Rocks
I love our new house and I think the surrounding area provides lots of scope for new adventures for a person who loves to be outdoors amidst the majesty of the natural world. I’ll keep you posted.
It was a strange day on Sunday, November 8th with low hanging cloud and continuous drizzle. We went to Avebury to see the largest Neolithic stone circle in Europe and the grey sky provided an eerie background for the stones. Then we hiked up a very large hill to get a glimpse of the Landsdowne Monument and the Cherhill Downs chalk horse – both were visible only close up and we missed out on what should have been a spectacular view from the top. Yes, we’re in our second lockdown but getting out into the outdoors like this, no matter how wet you are, makes it palatable.
