Our Easter Holiday in Devon

I've just got back from a great week in the caravan in Devon. We stayed in a CL (Certified Location, these are small sites certified by the Caravan Club and take a maximum of 5 vans only) called Wrenwell Meadows, in the pretty little village of Denbury, just outside Newton Abbot. This was our first CL, as we normally stay on the larger more commercial sites. There is a 5 star site called Dornafield about a mile away from our little CL, which is where we normally stay, and although a fabulous site it has just got too expensive. Our CL cost a quarter of what we would usually pay, and we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was.

We had a field with horses on the front side and the adjoining field had sheep in. We saw foxes, pheasants, owls, buzzards, greenfinch, blue tits, robins and other birds just while we sat in the 'van. The weather was lovely virtually all week, and when it did rain it tended to be late evening or at night when it didn't bother us. We got the dog drying routine down to a fine art and just protected the seat cushions with towels for any remaining dampness.

On our first night we decided to eat out as it was quite late by the time we had set up the 'van and Ian was just too tired to cook dinner. So we went over to Broadhempston to our favourite eating place called the Coppa Dolla, a lovely olde worlde restaurant in a pretty Devon village. We had a super 3 course meal, finishing off with a crunchy brandy basket with hot cherries in kirsch sauce and the nicest cornish cream ice cream I've ever had.

The next day we went down through Torquay and Paignton to Dartmouth and crossed the river on the car ferry. Dartmouth is a very pretty town at the mouth of the River Dart and incredibly picturesque. We wandered around looking at all the lovely old buildings and browsing the shops and then bought lunch to eat in the car before returning home via Totnes.

Another of our trips was onto Dartmoor which is only a few miles away from Denbury and drove over to Widecombe (home of Uncle Tom Cobley and all), passing the beautiful scenery of the moors and the great rugged granite peaks of the Tors.

Thursday we went out again for a meal at the local pub, the Union Inn which was having a Folk Night, and I had crab cakes, followed by duck with cherry sauce - lovely! Afterwards we went through to where the folk singing was going on and had fun joining in with all the songs with great merriment.

On our last day, Friday, the weather was glorious, so we drove down to the South Hams and Salcombe, one of our favourite places, but a nightmare trying to find anywhere to park! We returned via Kingsbridge, Slapton and Blackpool Sands, back to Dartmouth and crossed the river on the ferry again before driving up through Paignton and Torquay. It's lovely to see the sea and coast again, as we are about as far from it as you can get where we live now.

On Saturday we drove home back up the M5, which took us about three and a half hours with no delays or hold ups and the weather was again kind to us. Unpacked the 'van and left it on the drive, rather than take it back into storage. We'd like to go away somewhere more local for the later May bank holiday and have already booked a couple of weeks back on our pretty CL in Devon for August - and I can't wait!

Kaleidescope Fun 2!

These are my latest efforts at kaleidescope art, both based on photographs of my aquarium. The first is of a shoal of green barbs and the second, one of our red clawed crabs called Buster.

Monthly Weight Loss Report: March

I hit my 2 stone target this morning, so thats 28lbs lost in total, which is great. I am really noticing the difference in the way I feel and look, not to mention the clothes I can fit now. I'm down two sizes so can fit into clothes I haven't been able to wear for a couple of years!

My next stage is a 3 month timescale to lose the next stone (14lbs), deadline for which is May 31st. Which works out at an average 4 & 1/2 pounds per month. Easy Peasy Japaneasy! (She says optimistically :-). Will post an update again at the end of the month, so come back and see how I do.

Kaleidescope fun!

I've been having so much fun this weekend playing with my kaleidescope creating program called Dazzling Reflections from Poppy Hill Designs. I even managed to create an animated gif with them, the first time I've tried this. I used a photo of a lovely sunset with dainty birch trees silhouetted against it that I took in Wales last year when we were on holiday in our caravan. I made 5 different kaleidescopes with this particular photo and put them in Serif's PhotoPlus X2 to create the gif. You can see one of the kaleidescopes and the photo below.

I have done lots more as well, many with lovely bright colours and most are in .png format with transparent backgrounds. You can see them all at Flickr. Make sure you view the original size if you want to download a .png. Theres a piece of fun art using some of these more colourful ones below as well.

Happy Valentines Day!

It's Valentines Day, and a very special day for me and Hubby. It's exactly 8 years to the day we got married and we're celebrating our Wedding Anniversary as well as Valentines Day.

We have had a lovely day, he went shopping and came back with 8 beautiful red roses, one for each year we have been married, and a gorgeous romantic card. (He knows not to get chocolates!).

This evening he made a fabulous lobster thermidor with savoury rice and chips. He had gone shopping in the market in Birmingham and came home with Oscar, a live lobster, who we kept in the sink wrapped in a wet towel until it was time for his demise.

Celebrating my 5 Year Blogoversary!

My First Blog Post on 6th February 2004, I hope you enjoy it.

I was clearing out all the clutter on my side of the study on Saturday when I came across a guide book of the Brighton Pavilion which I'd visited a few years ago. Showed it to Ian and he suggested driving to Brighton, which is on the south coast, the next day as he had never been there. So on Sunday we were in Brighton (only took 2 hours from Poole) by 12 o'clock and went straight to the Royal Pavilion (www.royalpavilion.org.uk). What a place! The Banqueting Room with the huge Chandeliers suspended from Dragons, the silver gilt plate displayed on the sideboards and the great dining table laid ready for a banquet.
The whole huge room decorated completely in the most lavish and ornate Chinoiserie style has to be seen to be believed. Then more beautiful rooms until you come to the Music Room,
even more stunning! Then upstairs to see Queen Victorias apartments. There was even a micro mosaic portrait of the Prince Regent made by the workshops of the Vatican out of tiny pieces of coloured marble.
You couldnt tell it was a mosaic unless you looked really closely. I couldnt resist pointing it out to some American ladies behind us who were amazed when they realised what it was.
After lunch in the Princess Adelaide Tearooms in the Pavilion we wandered around The Lanes, a maze of little alleys full of jewellery and antique shops, then wandered down to the (very shingly) beach and had a look at Brighton Pier. Although it was cold it was a beautiful sunny day and we had had a lovely afternoon in Brighton and we are now looking forward to celebrating our 3rd Wedding Anniversary on Valentines Day (Feb 14th) next week.

Monthly Weight Loss Report:: February

It's been a while since I posted about my diet and the reason is, it's been a little bit irregular over the last few weeks. I lost another pound, then put 2 back on, then lost again, then gained it back! But this week I feel confident enough to say I have definitely lost a further 2 pounds so thought it was about time I updated the blog :-)

I have been on the SlimFast diet for 4 months now, started at 280lbs and have lost a total of 26lbs so am quite happy with my progress. It's never been my intention to lose a lot quickly. I've tried that before and then piled it all back on again really quickly. So this time my plan is slowly but surely, and so far it seems to be working. I have lost the huge bum I had when I started and have gone down a size. I just look so much better but know when I lose the rest of the weight it will be incredible the difference I will feel.

I want to lose another 3 stone this year (42lbs) and feel I have made a good start. I will be posting on a monthly basis this year, rather than weekly as I feel that will be more interesting for my readers. Hopefully each month I will be able to give a really positive report so wish me luck.:-)