Wednesday 22nd July a day on the coast

It was raining heavily on camp so we gambled that the weather would be better on the coast, and this turned out to be correct. We visited Maryport first, but the wind on the harbour was so strong that we didnt stay very long, driving along the coast road to Silloth


where it was a little less blustry and we found a very good (though not much to look at) cafe called "The Blue Dolphin" it's on the main street, and for £4:25 each we had a excellent meal of scampi, chips, baked beans and salad, really tasty!
While on the coast we were if fitful bursts of sunshine, though we could see that the clouds were still covering the mountains, and as expected we ran into heavy rain on the way back to camp.
We met Keith Chambers, prked by the side of the road sketching the shore of Derwetwater and invited him back to the caravan for a couple of hours chat and a cuppa.

Tuesday July 21, 2009 Wet,wet,wet!

The day started off dull, so we set off with the intention of driving down to Tarn Howes, but by the time we had negotiated Keswick the rain came down, and it remained with us all day, even now at 6 pm it is drumming on the roof of the caravan.

We got as far as Kendal, then doubled back to Windermere to have lunch in the Booths supermarket there, chicken in white wine, as usual it was very nice, then back to camp for an afternoon reading and snoozing and on the net.

The weather was so bad that for once I didn't take a single picture, so an Autostitch composite from my evening walk yesterday is all you're getting today!
This is the path from the lakeside past our campsite, it connects to the road to Grange.

Monday July 20: Wastwater

The weather has remained cool but pleasant enough, so we drove up the western side of Derwentwater, then headed west across the beautiful Newlands pass.

Picking up the coast road we headed south past sellafield, then inland to Wast water.
I took a great number of shots despite the mountains being shrouded by cloud and here is one.

From here we headed to the coast and had our lunch in the sea front tea room at St Bees
Sunny there but so Windy! before heading back to camp.
A very pleasant day

Sunday 19th July 2009

Possibly because of the recent rain it hasn't been quite so crowded here in the lakes and we have been enjoying ourselves touring around.
This morning we drove down to Ambleside then over Kirkstone Pass to Pooley Bridge. e had lunch there and then via the back roads made our way to Hawes Water, where we found to our surprise that the water level was very much lower than it was when we came last year
We

Day three (Saturday) and better weather

cWe set off south and once again I marvelled at this old tree on the shore of Buttermere, some years ago it was torn apart by a storm, yet every year puts out a new crop of leaves, hope springs eternal, eh?


From here we went on to Whitehaven, as we sould see that the clouds that enveloped the mountains had cleared on the coast, we had a rather nice fish and chips lunch, and on my return during the aftrnoon I walked up to the memorial seat half way up Cat Bells to photograph the view
Altogether a lovely day, especially as the weather forecast had been bad!

At last he's blogging again!

After a rather hairy early few months to the year where I had a
PSA (prostate cancer blood test) test that was high ,leading to a biopsy later in March, that caused a massive infection (next day) whch meant a fifteen day stay in hospital .

At the time I went for the biopsy i was told that ony one in 15,000 people suffer any serious infection, so I assume I was lucky to get it!

It was serious, happily I was fortunate to survive, and had just recovered when I was advised that I have Prostate Cancer, and they wanted to remove the offending bit of plumbing.
I then went for a bone scan and an MRI scan and the the story changed.

I was then told not to worry we can't see the tumour on the MRI scan, just take these hormone tablets, they will shrink it, give you a CT scan followed by a course of Radiation treatment.
By the way the bad news is that the Hormone treatment will make you Impotent.

(I thought the Doctor meant important so bought a top hat so I could look the part.)


The hormone treatment isto be followed in October by a course of Radio therapy. This will be for 37 days every week day (but I will get weekends off)


The doctor had a sense of humour and said that on the way out they would give me a Chiffon dress (my choice of colour) and high heels .

I remembered the character in "it 'aint half hot mum" and decided that if the tablets and injections were as powerful as they said I would change my name to Gloria!

The plan is that in September I have a CT scan then go for radiation treatment, which hopefully will get rid of the problem...

In the meantime i just have to go for a monthly injection of female hormones.

Anyway these small irritations apart it means that we can get away, between appointments, and here we are in the lake district, taking in the scenery and enjoying the weather.

It has made a big effort (in the usual way) and for the last twenty hours the rain hasn't stopped!

We got here yeaterday and at least had a fine first evening though today was not so hot, the streams are really swollen with the rains!

First December snow

In Amberley Close, hopefully it won't remain with us for very long! we had hoped to go through to York to shop fr some Christmas Presents that we can't obtain in Hull as they are sold out already.
The above photo by the way was sent directly to the blog from my new Camera Phone!

A new toy

In the form of my first camera phone! It's a Sony Ericsson K771i, with a 3.2 megapixel camera and I have been very pleased so far.
The first image is of Fungi growing on a stump near the bus stop, came out rather well, I thought.


I took it into the town centre and really enjoyed shooting away with a camera that seems to pass un-noticed when you use it!
Here's a shot of one of the Street Vendors.

It seems ideal for candids and using as a notebook, and there is enough in the way of definition when working a image sizes suitable for the web, as shown in this pic of a seasonal shop.



And this one of the Santa figure in the window

Camera Phones really are great for this sort of Photography, and with the provided 256 Megabyte memory card it has a capacity of over 300 photographs!

Naturally you can't do a lot of cropping on an image of so few megapixels, and it doesn't have a zoom, but then this does mean that you have to be more careful in framing the shots to make maximum use of the available image area, and that can't be a bad thing.

Slightly better weather for a couple of hours!

The weather has really been atrocious this last few days, but today it cleared for a little while and we went for a run onto the moors, and had lunch with our friends in Castleton. I did manage to get one decent photograph, and it is of Fryup Dale.
I was hoping to take more, but as usual the weather closed in and put a stop to that idea!

Bonfire Night and lovely weather!

The last couple of day have been rather damp with a continuous fine but very wetting Drizzle, so it was a real challenge to get decent shots!

In total I took 16 shots, but only three were passably sharp, despite the Nikon D60's vibration reduction system, it couldn't of course cancel out the fact that the people moved during the necessarily lengthy exposures.

October sunshine

I went for a ride on the Honda Dylan this afternoon, seeking the elusive autumn colour that has kept me on the lookout now for over a month.
Amazingly out in the country there is still little sign of Autumn, though the odd tree here and there is showing some signs.
However there are other opportunities and here's one.

Beverely Minster looking at it's best under a rather pale sun: the quality of the Fuji S9600 zoom lens comes into it's own when dealing with all that fine detail.

5th September 2008 and Rain, Rain, Rain!

Today has been the most dreary of days, weather wise, since it has rained almost the whole day, not including the whole previous night!
Here in Hull we were waiting to see whether a flood warning would be issued, but perhaps surprisingly the day passed without this happening, though there's no doubt that the city's storm pumps were working at full capacity!
We took the opportunity to renew our season passes to "The Deep" (Hull's aquarium) and I played around with using high ASA (3200) on the Nikon D60. It was then processed in Imagenomic noiseware community edition and the reduction of noise without much detail loss was very impressive.
And since we all need cheering up after the appalling weather, here's a pic from Whitby on a better day.

31st August 2008: Last leg of the journey home

The overnight temperature had fallen sharply, so we woke to a heavy dew outside and a thin fog, but we were up and away by ten past eight and for once there were no accidents (despite the normal number of lunatic drivers on the motorways)
We made good time and reached home for half past one, even though we had two long breaks for a tea break and lunch on the way.
Looking back on the holiday we had mixed feelings, certainly the weather had been pretty poor for much of the time, but against that we had had some good days, enjoyable meals and pleasant visits to National Trust properties: while it hadn't been optimum, it hadn't been a disaster either, as we say in Yorkshire: "It were fair to middlin'"

30th August 2008 :sunshine and Snowshill Manor

The weather here haas been the best we have had this holiday, and a very enjoyable day it's turned out to be too, we spent the mornng touring around the lovely cotswold coutryside and watched the harvest being brought in, before visiting our intended destination of the day
Snowshill Manor and Garden. the manor house is built of yellow stone, as are most Cotswold houses and it is set high on a hillside above the vale of evesham.
It has extensive gardens with beautiful flowers, but the main attraction of the house is the collection of amazing crafsmanship objects of all kinds it houses.
The house was bought by an eccentricCharles Paget Wade in 1919, and was virtually in ruins. He rebuilt it, but not to live in, rather to house his incredible collection (he lived in an outhouse in the yard!!!) a statue of St George and the Dragon are on the wall outside the outhouse.
It's kind of reassuring to know there are people out there who were actually madder than me!
The house front has been altered: on the right it's 17th century, on the left 19th, and you can see the join(as Ernie Wise would say) in the stones of the wall.
The gardens are a treasure, with an incredibly ornate clock on one of the levels, and some beautiful flowers. The garden is arranged into "rooms" and is very popular with humans and insect visitors.
Admission to the house is by timed ticket, as there is limited space and so much to see, if you are ever in the area don't miss it!
Tonight is the last night of this Temporary holiday meet and people are sitting outside, it is still over 20C and looking down over the hill we can just see bourton On the Water in the distance.
It has been a memorable day!

29th August 2008: homeward bound via Bourton on the water

We woke to the by now usual fine rain and coastal fog, and were on the road just before 8:00 AM.
Progress was good until junction 23 on the M5, where an accident reduced the traffic to a stop start situation. We left the motorway and diverted onto the north bound A38 and rejoined it two junctions further to th north, and managed to get back on at just before the accient site, which by then had cleared so we were able to continue at a normal speed.
We reached Bourton on the water for just after two pm, and were surprised at how much better the weather was, the whole distance through Cornwall we had been in fog and rain and it had cleared as we entered Devon, but here at bourton it was actually 23C and Sunny!
This was the warmest temperature we had experienced during the last two weeks, so we decided there and then that we would leave going home till Sunday and enjoy a day in the area.
After an hour or so's rest we set of for a run round and bought fish and chips for tea at Stow on the Wold, sitting on a bench outside the shop, sweltering in the sunshine!
We stopped off in bourton and had a walk along the river, which was busy with visitors, I took several pictueres, first of the memorial cross

Then others as we walked along the river

28th August Last day here and Mevagissy

The day got off to a bad start weather wise, it was raining and there was a sea fog: hardly what you would hope for in cornwall!
However we decided to make the best of it and drove to Mevagissey were though not sunny, it was a least mild and not raining!
I took a couple of shots to make this panoramic, and quite afew others around the harbour, and wondered will I ever see the place when the tide is in? no matter how often I go there it always manages to be out.
It was good to see that there were both pleasure
And fishing boats using the harbour an that is was so busy
It really is a colourful place, lots to see and photograph!
We had a good couple of hours around the harbour and snacked on a savoury pasty and one containing apple, rhubarb and custard! And very nice too!
After Mevagissy we followed the cost roads in the direction of St Mawes and rediscovered that incredibly narrow road (read narrow squeeze for a push bike never mind a car!) that drops into and out of Boswinger: Pat has marked the map "Don't go here!" with your wing mirrors in the shrubbery at either side, hairpin bends and a 1 in 4 hill (at least) it's not a good place to meet traffic coming the other way (we did) and no place for a nervous driver (we met one of those too!)

27th August 2008:Godolphin House and Coverack

Godolphin House has only recently been acquired by the National Trust and frankly is a wreck inside at the moment, but no doubt the Trust will work their usual wonders on it given a year or two. For the moment the interior has one or two fine rooms, but the remainders are in a parlous state, it must have been a dire place to live in for the family in it's latter years!
The gardens too have gone to seed, though they are being worked on with great industry and i'm sure a trnsformation is under way.
I have always been fascinated by these giant "thistles?" and here is a picture of one.
After eating our packed lunch in the car park we drove down to Coverack on the Lizard and were very fortunate to get parked right on the harbour, an easy walk for Pat who was suffering with a knee that had decided to ache. It really is a compact harbour, and yet I had to do a three image panorama to get it all in and also of course a couple more pictures of the boats, looking out of the harbour, and back into it.

26th August 2008 Godrevy Beach and along the coast

With the bank holiday traffic out of the way, the coast seemed like a good proposition, we took the back roads across to Hayle, and despite the dire lack of road signs (and misleading ones where there were any! we got to Hayle and shopped for our Pasties (and a piece of chocolate cake) at Hampsons in our book the suppliers of the best Pasties that you will buy!
Since it was too early to tuck into them we drove along the coast to Godrevy, a National Trust coastal property with a sensational beach and views across to St Ives.
Unfortunately today the sun wouldn't come out for us, so no blue skies, but the view across to St ives was good, and the crashing waves made a great foreground for the lighthouse on it's island.
The coast road skirts the cliff top and there are spectacular views down into the bays, this one is to one called "fishing cove" with "Point Navax" in the distance.
A little further along the coast is Porth Towan, and we stopped to watch the surfers, enjoying the large breakers provided by the strong on shore wind.

Our finally visit of the day was to the Wheal coates Tin mine at St Agnes Head, it's amazing how often the cornish miners sank shafts on a cliff edge and worked out under the sea!

25th Augusr 2008: Trelissick Gardens

Where to go on bank holiday Monday? working on the principle that you can expect the coast to be packed we decided to go to a Nationa Trust Property we hadn't visited before "Trelissic Gardens".
Near Falmouth and not too far away, and we arrived there bang on twelve noon, just in time for Dinner!
The restaurant there isn't cheap, but it's good and we enjoyed a very tasty lunch before entering the gardens. As we walked through the entrance there were some lovely flowers that look to my untutoured eye like orchids, and there was a splendid lawn surrounded by flower beds stretching down the hill.
There are literally miles of walks along the hillside, though the gardens are not at their best at this time of year as most of the flowers have gone to seed.
At length we reached the hilltop and the great lawn with a view out over the river and of the front of the great house.
Though the gardens were given to the National Trust the house remains the residence of the family and isn't open to the public.
During our vist there was a Dahlia exhibition given by the "Cornish Dahlia society" in the Stables and it was well visiting. I took the following two images, first of an exquisite basket of flowers, and second of a grouping lit from above under a window, they looked as it they were on fire!
Last shot of the day was of this amazing tower near the entrance. Despite appearances it is described in the brochure as a water tower!


We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and even on the Bank holiday monday. it was pleasant and there was plenty of space and a very relaxed atmosphere.