Celebrations

It's been another busy week here with many celebrations....

Last weekend  my niece got married and we travelled to Herefordshire, to a lovely informal country wedding, held in a beautiful location. 

The day was filled with joy and happiness and it was good to spend some time together as a family.

This fantastic cake was made by the groom's mother and they also had an amazing cake with very tasty selections of cheese. The bouquet and flowers were also all done by the bride, my sister and the groom's mother. They had all attended flower arranging courses and the results were stunning.

On the way home we stopped at Symonds Yat to see this view, something that has been on my wish list. The Peregrine falcons and their young were still there, but sadly we could not see them with the telescopes.

Tuesday was another proud moment as our daughter graduated from Portsmouth University. The three years she has spent there have flown by and she worked so hard to achieve a good result. Her boyfriend and my son's girlfriend have also graduated this week from other universities too.

The fields have been turning colour from green to gold. The farmers have been working hard to bring in the corn before the thunderstorms appeared. It looked so colourful on the way to work that we came back for a walk in the evening to enjoy the view and also capture it. The sea and the Isle of Portland is in the far distance.

The colours and flowers in the garden have changed too ....

The vintage collection of sweet peas I bought from Sarah Raven have been so lovely.

When my husband retired in March one of his leaving gifts was Afternoon Tea at Summer Lodge, Evershot. It has taken us a while to use it but to enjoy a leisurely tea in such beautiful surroundings was just what we needed after a hectic week.

The food was delicious, the sandwiches included cucumber, smoked salmon, egg, and cheese and tomato. There was also gooseberry fool, scones and cream and a great selection of cakes - yum! It's just as well we skipped lunch!

Afterwards a walk around the gardens and then the village was equally delightful. My husband's Dorset ancestors originate from this area too. They would never have believed that a future relative would be taking tea in one of the manor houses!

We have started to clear out things with our attempt to move and down-size. It is always good to find good homes for treasured items. We put some water colour paintings of one of our favourite artists on eBay. We were so pleased when they were bought and the purchaser turned out to be the original artist! He and his wife came to collect them.  He told us that back in the 1980's he was so popular that he never kept any of his paintings. The two we sold were very special to him as they were pictures of their previous home. Meeting him and his wife made our day and something we never imagined would happen when we put them up for sale. We still have 3 other paintings of his that we are keeping!

The house move has had it's troubles this week too. I am so sorry but I am struggling to get around to leaving many comments. Thank you as always for popping up and leaving me your comments, sorry for this lengthy post!

Sarah x

Sunrise and Seagulls at St Ives

  Following on from my last post it was lovely to hear that St Ives was a favourite spot for many of you too. However, it is not only the tourists and artists that find this town appealing but the seagulls too (there is one in most of the pictures below!) They woke us us early every morning during our holiday, but it did allow us to see many sunrises.

 The views from the bedroom window as the sun rose.

 One morning as I was so wide awake that I went for a walk. I had the whole of St Ives all to myself apart from a few fishermen and refuse men, it was quite magical, as you can see. There was also a fellow photographer who stood yawning, tripod ready to capture the sun rise. 

 The seagulls were fighting over some rubbish they had found. Last time we visited St Ives my husband was just starting to enjoy a lovely ice-cream as he lent over the railings admiring the view from the harbour, when a seagull swooped down and took the cone straight out of his hand! This time we were prepared to hide the food from view!

This was our neighbours on a nearby roof, they had 3 chicks. Maybe the adult above needed a quick afternoon snooze after the early morning rise. It was amazing how close to the edge they were!

When we visited Penzance we met Tommy the seagull who was a favourite of many of the locals in the park. He was very tame and came right to our feet and the cat seemed to know him too. We obviously didn't put any food down - someone else had dropped it.

We don't have as many seagulls in Weymouth, although I have noticed more seagull chicks since we returned home. An elderly friend was enjoying the last rays of evening sunshine on his patio last week and was dive bombed by a seagull who had chicks on his roof. He went inside and put his cycle helmet and returned to the patio but the bird eventually won! Have you had an experiences with birds?

I have to apologise for not visiting any blogs this week, our feet haven't touched the ground since we returned off holiday.this week. Daisy hasn't been too well - she has aged so much over the past few months. We have also put the house on the market - we had lots of interest and had an offer within 3 days! We have spent most of the weekend looking at properties and have hopefully found a new home but there is still a long way to go. A house move is never a straight-forward affair, maybe that is why we haven't done it for over 20 years!. We will be staying in Dorset and hopefully not too far from the sea!

Sarah x

By sandy shores

 We have just returned from a wonderful week's family holiday in St Ives in Cornwall. We were lucky to also have the company of our son and daughter and their partners.

 For centuries the little town of St Ives was dominated by it's fishing industry, then came the tin miners who lived at the top of the town. Later came the artists, who were attracted by the clarity of the light, the fantastic coastal scenery and the inhabitants of the town. With the introduction of the railway in the 1870's the tourists soon followed and it has remained a popular destination.

The sun shone (for the majority of the week), as the waves rolled over the firm white sands. We had a wonderful relaxing time, having late breakfasts, enjoying Cornish pasties and cream teas and taking turns to cook the evening meals.

The younger members did go into the sea body-boarding and swimming. The temperature of the water was 14-16 C degrees. I preferred just to admire the water from afar!

As with all good holidays the week just flew by and many activities that we had planned didn't get done. I did manage however to meet up with fellow blogger Leanne from Todays stuff. We had a lovely coffee at Porthmeor beach cafe sitting in the sun looking out over the sands and towards the sea. It never feels as if you are meeting a stranger as you already have made friends and have many things in common. Thanks Leanne for choosing such a beautiful location to meet, it was so good to meet you and chat like old friends.

Leanne recently wrote about the view of the Godrevy lighthouse, which inspired Virginia Woolfe's novel      " To the Lighthouse."  We had distant views of the lighthouse from our bedroom window all week and the view of it was constantly changing with the differences in light and conditions. I am already missing this view of the sea!

This view of the lighthouse is taken closer, at Gwithian.

 The sea here contains so many shades of blue and these colours will remain in my head for a few weeks as we return back to work and home!

Needless to say I took many pictures, so these are just a few and I will be sharing some more in the coming weeks! Wishing you a good week.

Sarah x'

Back home

As mentioned the post before last, our daughter (H) has finished her 3 year degree at University and returned home, somehow those 3 years have flown by and it is good to have her home once more on a permanent basis again.

The first thing to do after unpacking the car and having a meal, was to go for a walk beside the sea.

 The moonlight shining on the water was quite magical!

The elderflower drizzle cake I made  to welcome her home was delicious and the elderflower ice-cream also I made was amazing - just what we have need to cool us down this week, with the warm weather we have been enjoying.

The garden is looking it's best at the moment too.

 You may have spotted Twinkle in the left hand corner above, watching a bee!

 I have some more competition with the camera too! H took the red scabious (knautia) above and also this fantastic picture of the frog!

Thank you so much for your recent comments, it was good to read about all the open air concerts you have planned too. Wishing you a fun weekend whatever you are doing!

 Sarah x