Portsmouth

Well, hello there! The first week of the summer holidays found us driving back and to to Portsmouth every day. E had a week's work experience at the Mary Rose Museum and so, to save petrol and money, I bought an all attractions ticket and spent the week loitering around the historic dockyards. The weather was kind and there was such a lot to see that I had a lovely time. 

After dropping E off, I generally started the morning with a pot of tea in Boatyard 7 and then chose my main attraction for the day (some, I enjoyed so much that I did them twice!). Lunch was a picnic in the Porter's Garden followed by a bit of patchwork and then another potter round the dockyard before collecting E and driving home again. She had a fantastic week but was very tired and fell asleep in the car every single journey!

R has wanted to visit for years but never managed it and E didn't get to see anything except the Mary Rose, so I feel another trip during the holidays is probably on the cards.

Here are a few photos of my week:

The Victory:

The bell of the Mary Rose:

 The Mary Rose herself. Next year she should be dried out completely and the ducts will be removed, allowing a much better view. The sense of history is spine tingling though. My favourite part was a hands on exhibition where you were allowed to handle a bit of the original deck.

 The cafe where I had my morning pot of tea and a little read of my library book:

 Spinnaker Tower:

 The Warrior:

 The Porter's garden:

Time for a little patchwork:

 Beautiful stained glass in the museum: 

 Taking the water bus to the opposite side of the harbour and going on a WWII submarine:

 My favourite fact of the week was that Nelson used a Spork! After losing his arm he used to give them to his friends so that they could invite him round to dinner, safe in the knowledge that he would be able to eat. I also learned that a cannon is only called a cannon on land - on a boat it's referred to as a gun and the cannon balls as round shot. My favourite artifact from the Mary Rose was a beautiful backgammon board, however the rooms were kept quite dark and flash wasn't permitted, so the photos were rather dark and out of focus.
If you live near enough to visit and have never been, I would heartily recommend it. After spending an entire week there, I would happily go along again with R and E when they go.

Other happies recently include:

Another trip to Cambridge:

 .... and buying a blender. I am now Queen of the breakfast smoothie!

 It has really revolutionized our breakfasts. Not only are they actually 'delicious and nutritious' ( a phrase which normally instills fear into E's heart) but they really do keep you going all morning without a single hunger pang.

Anyway, that's all for this week. E went off to Germany on tour with her orchestra this morning - after a 5:15 drop off I'm starting to flag slightly, so a cup of coffee might be in order. Sadly, I can only drink decaff but, bizarrely, it does still seem to wake me up! I'm looking forward to catching up with all your lovely blogs.
Toodle Pip for now. x