Bristol

Saturday saw our last uni open day, this time in the beautiful city of Bristol. The weather was a little unpredictable with rain one moment and glorious sunshine the next - I lost count of the number of times the raincoats were put on and taken off. Despite this, we had a good day and, more importantly, E liked it, so onto the UCAS list it goes. The architecture was lovely and I would have liked a bit more time to look round the city itself.

We did find time between talks and accommodation viewings to snatch a quick lunch at a Greek deli - I had a mixed platter of pitta bread and dips but it disappeared before I remembered to take out my camera!

I did manage a shot of their interesting light fittings though:

We came across this bit of graffiti and I took a photo thinking it was a Banksy. I did have my doubts, however, as the other works of his that I have seen have been covered to protect them. In fact, when I looked it up at home, it turned out to be the work of another artist - very similar style though.

Other happies this week:

'Good on yer Madge' traybake to celebrate Her Majesty's record as the longest reigning monarch:

 Harvesting some of our fruit. I gave up on the hope of the tomatoes ripening any more in the greenhouse and they are now in with the apples.

 Doing a few more rows of E's Dorset blankie. Just look at all those ends that need sewing in - I'm usually quite good at doing them as I go along but not this time!

 Making apple rings on the pasta drier:

 My bedside posy is still going strong: 

 I was lucky enough to win this beautiful scissor fob in a giveaway held by the lovely 'Josie Kitten'. 

 The 'borrowers' are always taking my scissors and failing to return them, either that or I manage to lose them  at the bottom of my yarn basket. Hopefully, this will keep them within reach! Thank you again 'Josie' - I love it.

 Look who managed to sneak into the shed and snaffle a load of the chickens' food! R caught her and the girls gave her cuddles and a load of extra food on the patio - that told her!

 Finally, using my memento from Barcelona - I no longer have to make paella in my wok!

 That's all for this week. I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of autumn and that the start of term has gone smoothly for all concerned.
Toodle Pip. x

Wellington Country Park

Following on from 'Waterloo 200' this year, we decided that a visit to Stratfield Saye would be a nice idea. This house and estate were given to Wellington in 1818 as a sort of national thank you for his efforts in the battle. The estate is only about 30 minutes away from us, although we have never visited anything other than the associated park before. The weather on Sunday being glorious, a picnic was assembled and off we set. Well, you know what they say about the plans of mice and men .......... research is a wonderful thing and whilst copying down the postcode for the satnav from the internet, it would have served me well to cast a glance at the opening times! Yes, dear reader, the house closed for the year a mere week before our visit! Were we downhearted? Well, a bit to be honest. Fortunately, the Wellington Country Park is just next door and with a picnic burning a hole in our basket we simply changed venue.
The girls and I had been once before many years ago but I had forgotten how lovely it is. It's rather pricey to get in but there are lots of activities for little ones and a beautiful lake to walk round. I took a few snaps en route:

The picnic before the wasps descended! 

 A grebe which entertained us with its diving skills:

 Numerous pond skaters:

 A small farm. The girls were debating whether or not they were too old for this but I had spotted a donkey and was through the gate before you could say 'second childhood'!

 There was an enchanted forest:

 An impressive collection of dinosaurs:

 ...... and a crazy golf course. R, E and I drew, with L coming a very close 4th!

Despite missing the house and the Wellington collection in the stables (apparently, his funeral carriage is there, made from 10 tonnes of bronze cannon captured at Waterloo), we had a fantastic afternoon and plan to make a return trip next April to see the rest.

Other happies this week:

 I was missing my lunchtime gazpacho that I enjoyed in Barcelona, so made some using this recipe from Jamie Oliver. It was delicious, although it tastes much better in the hot Spanish sunshine!

 My cheap supermarket flowers - enough for 2 vases downstairs and a small bedside posy:

Enjoying the September sunshine after a week of rain:

Still loving my breakfast smoothies, although I think I may want something a little warmer when the cold weather sets in - can you have a warm smoothie?!

You can tell it's autumn when the jigsaw puzzles come out:

The finished article. 1000 pieces in 3 days - we would have been quicker except Hamish kept sitting on it!

Well, that's all for this week. Term starts again on Thursday and, despite having 2 months off, E is doing the homework that she discovered in her bag a few days ago! Enjoy the rest of the week.

Toodle Pip for now. x

Barcelona

Hello there, long time no see. We've been away for a few days on holiday to sunny, 30 degrees Barcelona. We are usually masters of the last minute holiday but this year we took it to a whole new level - booked it at 2:30, flight at 7! We caught the plane from Heathrow by the skin of our teeth and spent the next 4 days in something that actually felt like summer. I really liked Barcelona - gorgeous architecture, friendly people, Gaudi, Picasso, Veggie Paella and Sangria - what's not to like? Well, apparently R didn't! It appears that he'd rather have spent the 4 days on a man-made beach, with a beer, furtively ogling the young girls. Separate holidays next time I feel! Separate lives maybe?
Anyway, here are some of the bits that I enjoyed:

A highlight for the girls - segway tours of the city:

To top it all off, we then missed the flight home. R insists that arriving at an airport the recommended 2 hours beforehand is for wimps. Despite us all trying to dissuade him, he then decided to reorganize the bags to allow for 1 light rucksack to take round our supposed 4 hour stopover at Berlin. The removed articles (now basically in a bin bag) he had wrapped in film and attached to a small suitcase which morphed into a large, unwieldy, wheel-free, difficult to transport mass. Needless to say, by this time we were too late to check in and then somehow it was everyone else's fault. I'll leave it to your imagination what the atmosphere was like when we had to spend the rest of the day at the airport and were £900+ the lighter for the additional flights home, with no stopover in Berlin!
So, if I was feeling blue beforehand (thank you so much for your kind comments by the way), our holiday didn't do much to dispel it. All there is to look forward to now is the start of term!