John Turner's Ramblings

Odds & Ends

2009-10-20T22:28:00.016+01:00

Robin
At the moment, we have a very friendly Robin who seems determined to spend as much time as possible in our garage or shed. Just as soon as I open the garage door, he seems to appear and hop in. Here is a photo of him sat on the waste bin:

Gardening
I mentioned in an earlier Post that I had obtained some bark chippings from the "Newquay in Bloom" team, well, this is a photo of the top rockery suitably weeded and covered; I think that it looks quite good. The fact that the photo shows Maria busy weeding her wall is coincidental.

Earlier in the year I planted some wild flower seed in the top of the walls; it would seem that the only flower to appear, so far, is a Cornflower.

Annette's Dogs
Some readers will know that Brandy, Annette's older dog has been very ill recently. Thankfully, he is up and about again and, as can be seen from the following photograph, he looks well and happy.

Just so that she is not left out, here is a photo of Tia surveying the rockery and wondering whether or not she should walk across it.

Parish Registers for St Mary's Church, Walmer, Kent

2009-10-19T20:42:00.007+01:00

One project that has kept me busy over the early mornings, late evenings and rainy Summer days has been the transcription from microfiche of the Baptisms, Marriages and Burials recorded in St Mary's Church, Walmer, Kent. In a moment of weakness, I volunteered to do this for the Kent Family History Society, who have been most helpful with regard to my own Family History research. It is an ongoing project, which will probably occupy me for all the Winter. The baptisms cover the period 156o to 1945 and so far I have transcribed some 3545 records from 1560 to 1830. The Marriages cover 1561 to 1921 and I have managed 747 records from 1561 to 1837. The Burials cover 1560 to 1988 and I have managed 91 records from 1561 to 1582. As you can see I have some way to go!

Roseveare Update

2009-10-14T19:46:00.023+01:00

It is a long time since I wrote anything about the house and garden so you, the reader, might believe that I have done nothing over the Summer months. Well, the weather did play its part and made it very difficult to keep the grass in order. For the most part I managed but have plenty of problems that will have to wait for another year. We have had some Stepping Stones laid between the front path and patio as can be seen in the following two photos. In addition, the Patio has been slightly extended with the addition on a row of bricks on two sides. They can just be seen on the second photo.

One ongoing problem we have is of grass growing through the fences from the field. An example of this is shown in the photograph below.

The problem is that, because I have wire below ground level to try and keep out the rabbits, it is difficult to cut the grass. My solution was to put wooden planks below ground level, with the wire on the "garden" side. This means that the grass can be "strimmed" from the field side. So far I have completed the section from the gate to the new wall.

The above photo shows the completed project, although not very clearly. Whilst carrying out this task, I modified part of the fence so that the top two rails nearest the new wall can be lifted off for easier access to the rockery area; the supports can just be seen.

One other job that I have done this year is to cut a border around the top "lawn" to make cutting around the Griselinia hedge easier. The border will shortly be covered in bark, recently acquired from the "Newquay in Bloom" team. Unfortunately, there has been no real improvement in the state of the lawn!

Yet another job was to tidy up the area between the shed and new wall. The first thing that had to go was the Pampas, which was really scruffy (It now appears to have taken root in my rubbish dump). So far, it has been replaced by a couple of Hydrangeas as shown below.

Before

After

One more task undertaken was to fill in the ditch that used to run across the entrance to the field. I don't have a photo of what it looked like before but, it now looks like this:

More to follow at a later date.

Italy

2009-10-13T06:33:00.024+01:00

Our most recent trip has been to see Amy & Andrew in Italy. Apart from being convenient to all of us, the temperature in Umbria suited us better than that during the summer months in that it only reached about 26 degrees Centigrade!

The most convenient place for us to fly into is Perugia but the only flights to there are from Stansted, which meant that we had to get ourselves to Stansted in time for an 07.30 take off. We decided against driving and, as there are now no flights from Newquay to Stansted, the train seemed to be the best option. In addition, we had to book an overnight stay at Stansted. Whatever faults are levelled at it, when it comes to organising travel and hotels, the internet has become invaluable and so it proved with all the appropriate arrangements quickly made.

Annette took us to Bodmin Parkway for the start of our journey on the appropriate Sunday and our journey started. The only real problem we had was travelling across London from Paddington to Liverpool Street. Usually, the tube goes between the two stations with no changes but, the day being Sunday, we were diverted all over the place. Never mind, we reached Liverpool Street and jumped on the Stansted Express; 40 minutes later we found ourselves searching for the bus that would take us to the hotel. Our overnight stay was short due to getting up at 04.00 but the rest of the travel to Italy went smoothly and Andrew picked us up for the final 40 minute journey to his home.

For most of the week, I helped Andrew to carry out some improvements to his Polytunnel, including some electrical rewiring, concrete block laying and watering system improvements. I was also put in charge of a bonfire to get rid of a pile of rubbish that had built up over the Summer when it is particularly dangerous to have fires. Whilst Andrew and I were doing this, Amy was busy catching up with her wedding photography backlog and Maria rested, sunbathed, played with the dog and did plenty of jobs around the house.

Polytunnel - Centre Bed Foundations

On Saturday we all went to Assisi, which proved interesting; Andrew tells me that they have been to Assisi when there have been hardly any people around. Well on this day it was fairly chaotic and it wasn't until later in the evening that we realised that October 3rd is the anniversary date of St Francis' death. We did wonder why there were television cameras all over the place! The Basilica is a fantastic place with one church built on the top of another and St Francis' tomb underneath. Well worth the visit, as was the whole of Assisi.

The Basilica

Maria, Amy & John at the Basilica

Santa Maria sopra Minerva

The week went very quickly and very soon it was time to go. The return journey went very smoothly without an overnight stay; we left Perugia at about 11.00 and reached Bodmin at 21.00 where Annette was waiting to take us back home. Thanks are due to Annette for the transits to and from Bodmin but especially to Amy and Andrew for looking after us so well.

Madeira

2009-10-09T07:53:00.021+01:00

A little earlier in the year, Beryl & Ian Niven, some friends from Scotland who we had met on a previous holiday, invited us to stay in their apartment in Madeira. We jumped at the chance because it is an island that I have always wanted to visit and so, on the 26 August we flew out from Bristol to Funchal for a week. Very early on I found that my camera would not work and so I bought a 35mm disposable to try and record our stay. The results were not very good and so I apologise for the standard reproduced for this post.

Hotel Regency Palace Pool

Hotel Regency Palace from the Pool

We spent quite a lot of time around the pool, relaxing and chatting and in the evenings went out and ate in different cafes/restaurants, some good, some not, some quick and one, very very slow.
I was not feeling very well one day so the others went off to Funchal to have a look around, but we did manage another trip on which I was present. During this visit, we managed a coffee in a floating restaurant as shown.

On the Sunday that we were there, we hired a taxi and went on a seven hour tour of the west of the island. This was a very instructive trip after we had stopped looking at the inside of churches! As most people know, Madeira is very mountainous and the cliffs rise almost vertically as shown in the photograph below.

Towards the top of the mountains sits the famous Madeira mist, which provides the island with its water supply. It is very difficult to photograph but the accompanying photo might give some idea.

The mist is the very white patch above Ian & Maria's heads.

We toured the North West of the island and visited a couple of very pleasant villages, in one of which we had some lunch. We then headed back via that part of the North coast where there are loads of waterfalls that must be almost a thousand feet in height in places.

We thoroughly enjoyed the whole of our visit and think that we would like to go again and do some more touring. Only time will tell.

Hall for Cornwall

2009-09-22T18:11:00.006+01:00

In the last couple of months, Maria, Annette and I have been out to see two shows at the Hall for Cornwall. The first was to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat", starring Craig Chalmers who was one of the finalists in the BBC show, "Any Dream Will Do", that chose Lee Mead to star in the West End version of the show. We had booked some time ago and managed to get seats in the second row on Wednesday but, as the due date came closer, I remembered that we had also managed to book a holiday in Madeira, of which more later, and we were due to fly from Bristol on the same Wednesday. Oh bother!! Now, the only date that we could actually get to the show was on the Tuesday, which happened to be opening night. Well we did manage to get seats on the second row, but this time they were second row from the back! Never mind, the show was excellent and we had a splendid evening.
The second show was to see the Central Band of the Royal Air Force in concert in aid of the Royal Air Force Association (RAFA) "Wings Week". This time we were fourth row from the front so a very good view and once again we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Service Bands are not to everyone's taste but they do play a wide range of music including film scores, marches and some popular classical. In this concert there were two pieces composed by one of the band members based on Cornish legends, which were very well received. There were also a couple of pieces for violin although more like traditional Irish Music than classical violin. The finale included bagpipes and, all in all, it was very enjoyable evening.

Light Bulb

2009-09-21T21:20:00.011+01:00

Crumbs, nearly 3 months since I wrote anything so here goes.

I thought that I would start with a story concerning a light bulb. On a recent visit to see my Pop in Bradford, he asked me to fix the ceiling light in his living room because one of the three bulbs wasn't working. Up on the largest of his step ladders (Oakroyd has very high ceilings downstairs), I soon came across a problem. As soon as I touched the wiring, it fell apart; I guess it must be about 40 years old at least. So, I thought, remove the complete fitting from the ceiling rose and see if is fixable. Having duly unscrewed the two fixing screws, I was surprised to find that the fixture did not come away from the ceiling! It soon became evident that it was secured from above in Pop's bedroom and underneath his bed just to make life awkward. I went up the stairs and moved the bed to find that a new carpet had been fitted since the light fitting - oh joy; now I had to cut a hole in the carpet but no Stanley Knife in the house. Off I went to the local hardware shop in the village and purchased a Knife, came back to the house and, after carefully measuring everything twice, I took the bull by the horns and cut an X in the place that I believed would give me access to the appropriate floorboards. When I folded back the carpet, guess what? One of the exposed floorboards had writing on it, "Lights". Bingo. The floorboards came up easily exposing the top of the lamp, which was quite easy to undo and disconnect electrically. There was just one problem, how to disconnect it and then get downstairs in time to catch it before it hit the floor? In the end, with the lampshade and all three bulbs removed, I just let it go and it landed fairly softly on one of the chairs. Having carefully checked the wiring, I had two options, either replace the complete unit or rewire the old one. I chose to try and rewire but, of course, there was no appropriate electrical cable in the house so back up to the hardware shop where I was lucky enough to get something which would do the job. I spent about an hour rewiring and then had the problem of pushing the fitting back through the ceiling and getting upstairs to reconnect it. As luck would have it, a friend of Pop's, Brenda, was visiting and she volunteered to climb up the stepladder and hold the fitting in place until I could reach the other end. After that it was quite easy to reconnect, put the floorboards back, refit the carpet, move the bed back into place, refit the light bulbs and the shade and then test it. Quite satisfactorily, it all worked. After all that, all I can say is that if you are ever asked to replace a light bulb in an old house, remember the Scout's motto and Be Prepared.

Gas Boiler

2009-06-30T22:52:00.009+01:00

We knew for some time that we had an inefficient Boiler, which was costing us dearly, especially during the winter months. We therefore decided to have it replaced with one that is over 90% efficient instead of around 75%. This is now fitted and we have had it boxed in so that, approximately, the units match. Three photos show the relative stages.

Old Boiler

New Boiler

New Boiler - Boxed

Jane McDonald

2009-06-12T07:55:00.013+01:00

Maria, Annette and I recently went to see Jane McDonald at the Hall for Cornwall. The show was excellent with plenty of songs, mixed up with some comedic stories including plenty of references to "Loose Women". As backing, there were a musical director/keyboard player, a brass section of three, two guitarists, a drummer and three backing singers so plenty of noise. The theatre was almost full with the only two empty seats that we could see being right next to us. Speaking of seats, I must remember not to buy seats less than 10 feet from the speakers! I know that I am old, but I still like to guard my hearing.
As asides, I have two little stories associated with the audience members. When we were passing through the ticket checks, an elderly woman, using a wheeled walking aid, arrived very slowly and asked the ticket check lady for assistance to reach her seat; this happened to be almost immediately in front of us. The front of house manager duly arrived and she was helped to her seat. Very good of the theatre to be so concerned you might think! The trouble was that towards the end of the performance, this same woman suddenly got out of her seat unaided and got down to the stage rail and promptly jigged around quite happily.
The second story is about the woman immediately in front of me. She was very noisy and was obviously a great fan of Jane. I am not sure what was in her water bottle but, by the time the second half came around, she was, to put it politely rather sozzled. So much so that, at one stage, she slumped in her seat, leaned her head back onto my knee and fell asleep briefly! Sorry, I cannot understand the wish to pay good money to see a live concert and then not know what is going on. As Sir Terry would say "Is it me?"
Never mind, we all enjoyed ourselves, would recommend the show and would go again if we had the chance.

June

2009-06-05T08:47:00.008+01:00

May is over and June has started with a blast of Summer weather that has seen us having more barbecues in a week than we had in the whole of last year.
The foxes seem to have left us now so here is a last photo of all of the cubs, taken with a borrowed 35mm camera.
We have been watching the weather forecast keenly over the last few days, waiting for the news that it is going to rain. Well today, Friday, was the appointed date and, as today is the middle day of the Royal Cornwall Show, it seemed reasonable to assume that the rain would duly arrive. For that reason, I spent five hours yesterday cutting grass so that the rain would refresh everything and I wouldn't cause the grass to burn to a straw colour. Guess what? Today has dawned bright and sunny and the latest weather forecast suggests that we may get a shower tomorrow or Sunday!

More Foxes

2009-05-17T14:17:00.006+01:00

The latest count is five cubs and they are certainly having a boisterous time in the field, although they do stay remarkably close to the boundary fence.
The following is a short video of them playing, well, four of them.

Fox Update

2009-05-15T15:15:00.005+01:00

After not seeing the foxes for the last 24 hours, mother and cubs came out to play today at about 13.00. They are too far away for really good photos but here are a couple taken after the mother had chased off one of the remaining rabbits!

New Wall - Build Complete

2009-05-15T07:40:00.006+01:00

The good news is that Chris has completed the building part of the new wall. The bad news is that our bank balance is a little smaller! Here are the before and after photos:

It is now up to me to do some tidying up, which includes the redistribution of the pile of earth that can be seen. I have a use for some of the rocks, but the rest will go at a later date as payment for the use of the digger that Chris borrowed.

13th May

2009-05-13T19:40:00.006+01:00

51 years ago today, I joined the Royal Air Force as an Air Electrical Apprentice in the 89th Entry at RAF Halton. How I came to join is a little story in itself so for anyone that doesn't know, here is the way it went.
I was in the Lower 6th at St Bede's Grammar School in Bradford, studying for my 'A' Level GCEs, having not done very well, but just well enough, in my 'O' Level GCE's. I was studying Maths, both Pure and Applied, and Physics. Unfortunately for me, I suffered Appendicitis just as the September Term started and spent 10 days in Bradford Royal Infirmary. This put me back in my studies and, coupled with wanting to spend more time with my girlfriend than doing homework, I never recovered. A secondary reason was the inability of my Maths teacher to be able to teach me. Mr Charlie O'Dowd was his name and he was undoubtedly a very clever man but somehow he could not get through to me. I put up with the situation until some time just after my birthday (I cannot remember exactly when) and then I decided to leave school. The problem was that I conveniently forgot to tell either the school or my poor parents. I simply went out of the door in the morning and came home at the appropriate time in the evening. The funny thing is that I cannot remember what I did all day or for how long I played truant. Eventually my parents found out and my Pop went to see the headmaster, Monsignor Sweeney, who told him that I had reached the level of schooling that I could attain.
So, now what to do? My Pop suggested that I might like to join the RAF, following in his footsteps, and, as that seemed like a reasonable idea, I went down to the RAF Careers Office in Bradford and told them that I wanted to join as an Apprentice (Pop, quite rightly, thought I should have a proper trade). The Careers Office staff thought that, as I was over 17, I should wait until September and then join in Men's Service and be paid the full rate; being an Apprentice did not seem a good idea to them. When I told this to Pop, he went ballistic and promptly wrote to someone in RAF recruiting, probably an Air Vice Marshall, which prompted a request for me to attend RAF Halton for a medical and interview. Having attended that, and obviously passed, I was required to attend again in May and consequently signed on 13th May 1958.

Fox Cubs

2009-05-12T19:51:00.007+01:00

Today has been an interesting day. I was busy doing some gardening and dog sitting. As Tia and I were walking back from a visit to the top field, I heard a rustling in the ground behind the hedge in the bottom field. As I walked across the field, thinking that I would see one of the local farmer's Jack Russells, two Fox Cubs appeared about twenty yards away. They didn't stay long before disappearing back into the wilds. I walked back to the house to get my camera and decided to get the dogs back in the house. As I got the dogs in, one of the Cubs appeared back in the field and Maria, Annette & I spent quite a long time watching him/her before he/she disappeared again, to be seen climbing up the hillside and playing with the second cub. I did get a photo of one in the field, but could really do with a real camera with a telephoto lens for this sort of work. Anyway, here is the long distance shot and a photo, taken a little later, of Tia on guard.

Top Garden Wall continued

2009-05-09T06:51:00.012+01:00

Work on the wall has progressed, albeit somewhat erratically. The May Bank Holiday, some bad weather, a collapsed drain and some plastering have all interrupted work, however the next week should see the completion. The main part is complete now, with just the short stretch below the new gate and above the rockery to be finished.

I should explain that the collapsed drain was not ours. It occurred on a Static Caravan Park in Newquay and Chris went off to do a couple of days digging and fixing. The plastering was a job that Chris knew about before he started here; it was just a case of finding a suitable time to do it.

End of Day 4 - New Gate Entrance

End of Day 5 - Field Side

End of Day 5 - Garden Side

End of Day 6 - Garden Side

End of Day 7 - Garden Side

End of Day 8 - Garden Side

End of Day 9 - Rockery

Top Garden Wall

2009-04-29T21:12:00.028+01:00

Ever since we moved into Roseveare House, the top garden has been a cause of concern to me in that it is very difficult to look after properly. As can be seen in the previous Post, the lower section is starting to take shape but the top end, which is virtually all grass and Griselinia hedge, remains a shambles. There are three fruit trees, which would appear to have little or no chance of ever bearing a decent crop so I need to make a decision on them in the near future.
One of the main problems, however, has been access. To cut the grass, I have to lift the mower or make a ramp up the wall; to get rid of garden refuse I have had to lift it and throw it over the "Cornish Hedge" into the trailer. The "Cornish Hedge" itself has partly collapsed and is very difficult to keep looking tidy. For these reasons, we decided to have the wall rebuilt properly and a 4 ft gate put in between the lawn and the field. That work has now been going on, in between showers, for about six days now so I thought that it was about time to show the world what has been done.
The first two photos show the wall as it was and the succeeding ones show the progress.

I mentioned, in a previous Post, a Gorse Bush, well, these photos show where it was; unfortunately it had to go although the roots remain so there is a possibility that we will get some new growth in the future.

End of Day One

End of Day Two

One of the problem rocks that Chris had to deal with - compare it with the size of the wheelbarrow!

End of Day Three

That's all for now; more pictures later.

Conifer Area

2009-04-26T09:36:00.013+01:00

Our long term plan, as has been said before, is to make our garden as easy to maintain as possible. I quite like cutting grass; I find it therapeutic for some reason and like to view the results. Maria particularly likes "stripes" on the front lawn. The grassed area to the top of the drive contains a variety of conifers of differing sizes and to cut around them is a nightmare. One of the tasks I set myself after returning from holiday, was to make this area easier to look after and so I have cut a border next to the wall and around all the conifers. I had considered another area of chippings similar to that in the front lawn but Maria wants to try it this way. The photographic evidence is not easy to see but the following two photos do give some idea of what I have done so far.

Before

After

If you look carefully, you will see a couple of newly planted Rhododendrons; the hole for one of those I had to dig using a clump hammer and wrecker bar! The sub-soil around here is fierce stuff and if the house is built on this, then there is little chance of it ever falling down!

Roseveare in Bloom

2009-04-26T07:34:00.021+01:00

As anyone who has ever visited us here in Gothers will know, our garden is usually a collection of different shades of green. The garden was planted with a large variety of different shrubs with a view to ease of maintenance. During the Spring, however, we do get some colour from the daffodils and various other plants so I thought that I would just show a few pictures that I have taken over the last couple of weeks.

Forsythia

Tulips, Azalea & Berberis in the rockery

Tulips & Primula

Tulips in front of Pieris

Azalea

Gorse

I have a particular reason for including this last photo, which will become apparent in a future Blog.

The Buzzard, the Magpie & the Bunny

2009-04-11T09:15:00.006+01:00

Sometimes, living in the country reminds us that not all is pretty and comfortable. Last year I made comment on the Magpie that was busily destroying the life of a Greenfinch on our front lawn. Yesterday morning as I pulled back the bedroom curtain, something caught my eye on the ground at the bottom of the field; it turned out to be a baby rabbit struggling in the talon of a large Buzzard whilst, bizarrely, a Magpie chased around at the back of the Buzzard trying to have his/her chunk out of the rabbit. I am not a great fan of rabbits but it was a sad sight to see one so young lose its life. As I rushed around trying to find the camera, the Buzzard obviously caught sight of me and relinguished the now deceased Bunny and flew off into the distance. After a Crow and the Magpie had a go at the carcase, the Buzzard eventually returned, picked up the body and once again disappeared into the distance leaving only a load of fur to identify what had been there.

Post Holiday Report

2009-04-07T17:01:00.024+01:00

Ah well, back to the real world after two weeks in the sun (well - not quite) of Tenerife. We had a splendid time, especially the first week when the weather was much better than the second. We also had the pleasure of the company of Beryl & Ian whom we met last year. This came about when Maria & Beryl were talking on the phone a week or so before we went. Beryl was envious so Maria told her to come along as we have enough room in the apartment even if we do have to share a bathroom. Some rapid changing of work shifts and a quick flight booking and everything was fixed. If you read this Beryl, many thanks for your splendid company although I am not sure about all that encouragement that you gave Maria to go shopping.

Very kindly, Beryl & Ian treated us to a meal on the Thursday before they went home and we chose to go to the Hollywood Mirage where we had a splendid meal and listened to a very entertaining Beatles tribute band. Thanks folks.

The weather for the second week turned on the Saturday and we did not manage to get any sunbathing in for four days. This resulted in lots of walking and more shopping!! However the sun finally came back again and we had a couple of pleasant days around the pool at the Beverly Hills Heights with Victor, the Lifeguard, to look after us. What a great job he does.

Maria relaxing during a hard day's shopping

A Sunny spell but note the sky in the background!

Now that we are home, I have managed to tidy up the borders around the bottom of the garden as well as cut the grass, including the bottom of the lower field. I have also erected Andrew & Amy's birthday present, which is a new bird feeder. I haven't seen the birds using it yet but I expect that they will get used to it soon. After a winter of being missing, we have seen a pair of Goldfinches back with us. No Greenfinches yet and only one Chaffinch, which is disappointing.

One of our bird feeding stations with the latest addition

During the late Autumn, I planted about 200 mixed daffodil bulbs and about 40 Hyacinths, the latter coming from Annette's contacts at Newquay Hospital. The results have been splendid for a first year and hopefully next year they will be fully established..

Visitors - Nick, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor

2009-03-19T11:23:00.013Z

Nick and his three children came to visit for the February Half-Term holiday, leaving Karen at home to look after the new kittens!!

The weather stayed fairly good for most of the week allowing everyone to get out on quite a few day trips. These included lots of Geo-Caching with Annette and Clive and even me on one day. The photo below was taken on the Goss Moor Trail where we must have walked about five miles to find just two caches. If you study the photo carefully, you might notice some very muddy boots and trousers. We decided, perhaps unwisely as it turned out, to follow the Fritillary Trail, which turned out to be ankle deep in mud in some places. Perhaps we should have stuck to the road, however that would not have been so interesting. You might notice that Charlotte is not in the photo; this was because she had hurt her back and spent this particular day resting at home. Fortunately the day of rest seemed to work very well. Oh to be young again with the powers of rapid recuperation.!

On another day we all went up to Trevone where we played cricket and clambered around on the rocks. The photo shows me with the two boys; I have no idea why we looked so miserable!

Nick decided to take everyone out for a meal one night so we decided on a local "Award Winning" Fish and Chip shop. Not sure what the award was for! To be fair, it was 18:30 on a Friday evening during the week of half term so we expected it to be busy. We found a table for seven easy enough, which was good; after that things went gradually downhill. I asked what the "Fish of the Day" was, as two of us qualified for the Senior Citizens Special , and was told that it was Haddock, which suited us fine until the waitress came back and said that there was no Haddock! No Senior Special then. The adults ordered the set meal, with Cod, and the children had a variety from the children's menu. When the meal came, we asked where the Bread & Butter was, to be told that they had run out of bread! Anyway the rest of the meal was OK, even if there was no sign of a deduction for lack of bread. The children wanted to have some Ice Cream for sweet, so Nick went and ordered. After 40 minutes of waiting, we decided to cancel the order and leave. we came home and had our own Ice Cream, which was £15.00 cheaper on Nick's wallet. We probably shall not be rushing back there in a hurry.

On the whole however, I think that they all had a good time and we look forward to their next visit, whenever that might be.

Hot Flush

2009-03-16T07:36:00.004Z

Maria, Annette and I had a recent trip out to the Hall for Cornwall to see Hot Flush starring a cast of four women and one man in a very naughty, but extremely funny, musical about women and the problems of the menopause. Lesley Joseph stars along with Sam Kane, who plays about 20 different male characters brilliantly. All the cast however contributed something different to the overall performance.
The theatre has a capacity of 969, if my addition is correct, and I suppose that there were about 850 in the audience, of which I was probably one of less than 50 men, so suitably outnumbered, however even from a man's point of view, it was an extremely entertaining show and well worth seeing.

March Update

2009-03-15T06:40:00.026Z

OK, so I am way behind with the Blog. This, for the most part, is because, as far as the computer is concerned, I have concentrated on producing a Family History of my HILLS/HILL family in book form. This has turned into a marathon task as I have some 1300 descendants of Matthew HILLS, who died in 1644. I have documents, letters and research information from all over the world that need to be indexed and collected into a logical order. Of course, as soon as I started the process, I found anomalies and further discoveries that sent me down different tracks. I also had to learn how to produce PDF Files and how my OCR software worked, all of which proved interesting to say the least. Then there are the photos that have been sent to me by various people. They are stored electronically, but not necessarily in the ideal order or size.

Horace William HILLS - taken about 1885.

In February, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor came to stay for a week and, when I have sorted out the photos, I will make a separate post to give some idea of what they got up to.

Earlier in the year, I was asked if our top field could be used for grazing for horses. I thought that this would be a good idea to keep the grass under control - what a mistake! The field now resembles a bog around the entrance gate and I have now stopped that arrangement as I would rather have the problem of cutting the paths once a week rather than having to look at the mess and not being able to use the field for anything else. Of course, the month that the horses were there coincided with the wettest weather we have had since we moved in here. The photo gives some idea of the problem.

I have had several appointments with specialists for both my heart valve and shoulder. The left shoulder, which was operated on in 2002, is causing me a lot of concern since I damaged it again whilst moving stone for the wall back in November. A visit to the surgeon who operated and another one for a scan have not yet produced a definitive result. The heart valve seems to still be working the same without any further deterioration. I have also had 24 hour heart and blood pressure checks so am feeling a bit like the proverbial Guinea Pig at the moment. One of these days I might get some results!

That is enough for now, more detail later.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2009-02-04T11:21:00.005Z

As the title says, what a difference a day makes. The following two photos were taken 24 hours apart at approximately the same place:

03 February 2009

04 February 2009

More Snow

2009-02-03T20:50:00.007Z

Although no-one should have noticed the difference, this Blog has changed location and is now at http://johnturnersramblings.blogspot.com/. This accounts for the slightly changed layout and the fact that the archive page index looks neater; at least I think that it does.

Much snow has fallen in various parts of the country and Cornwall is no different. Thank goodness that we don't have to go out to work. We did go out for a walk today and I dragged Maria up the "mountain". It was a beautiful day and I hope that the following photos give some idea of what our surroundings looked like.

Early Sunlight over the Rhododendrons

John up the "Mountain"

Maria walking through the Woods

Maria at the Entrance to Roseveare House

P.S. No more Mice - hooray!

Australia

2009-01-20T20:45:00.004Z

On Monday night we went to the cinema, with Annette & Clive, to see "Australia", a film that seems to have divided critics. It didn't seem to appeal to the filmgoers of Wadebridge as there were only about a dozen of us altogether. We happened to enjoy it and although nearly three hours long, the time went quickly. To my disgust, I did not know of the Japanese attacks inflicted on Australia. Well I do now; there is a good deal of information on the internet and this link is just one of them.

Bradford Visit

2009-01-20T19:59:00.019Z

Last week we paid a visit to Bradford to see my Pop in order to help him sort out his Christmas Card list. He was very concerned that he had not felt well enough to send any cards, not surprising since he spent 11 days in hospital over Christmas. Prior to that visit I must just mention that we finally relocated a total of nine mice. We haven't had any more for over a week now so hopefully they are gone for a year or so.
On Wednesday 14 Jan we had an uneventful journey to Bradford; traffic was comparatively light and there were no accidents to hold us up. The only slow part of the journey was on the M1 because there are miles of roadworks with a 50 mph speed limit. We started the job of replying to Christmas Cards on the Wednesday evening and spent all day Thursday doing the same, finally finishing off on Friday. As a result of all that work, I now have a list of all the people, and their addresses, to whom Pop sends cards. This means that I can contact people more easily should he not feel up to sending cards on future occasions.
As well as doing that we spent hours sorting out piles of mail, mostly begging letters, and "returning to sender" those that I felt were definitely not wanted. We also sorted all the bills and sent off a claim for his time in hospital.
Maria spent hours sorting out cupboards and wardrobes and did several loads of washing so that when we left on Sunday, almost everything was up to date, beds changed etc.
We managed to take him out to lunch at Asa Nicholson's on Friday where he proved that he has a superb appetite. On the other days, Joan at the Friendly Cafe brought lunch to him. This is a tremendous help to him and a very generous task, most willingly done. Thanks are due to Joan and her staff.
On Saturday afternoon Maria and I went out to lunch at Murgatroyd's with Maria's brother Paul and his wife Bev. We had a lovely time and sincerely hope that the plans for their business are completed very soon. Good luck with that folks.

We took our leave on Sunday morning at about 10:15 and got into our house at about 16:30, having stopped briefly twice. It was a lovely dry and sunny day with no hold ups apart from the M1 road works. The sun was a bit of a problem since it was in my eyes virtually the whole way. South of Exeter we ran into some rain but, fortunately, it never amounted to much.

That's all for now.

Twelfth Night

2009-01-06T19:37:00.006Z

Last night, being Twelfth Night, all the Christmas Lights and Decorations were taken down and now, although we did not have all that many up, the place does look a little barren. Anyway, everything is back in the attic until next December.
The weather has been cold (-3 in the garage this morning) but beautiful during the day, so much so that Maria and I went for a walk up to the top of the quarry path this afternoon.
I released our sixth mouse this morning, or is it the same one six times? Perhaps they are getting back to the house before me!
On the bird front, a few days ago Clive saw some Long Tailed Tits on one of the feeders, birds that I had never noticed before. Well a couple of days ago we had a flock of eight of them and today six so perhaps the very cold weather has brought them out looking for food. I had to use a hammer and chisel to unfreeze the bird baths after breaking a garden trowel first! They will be frozen over again by now.
Oh well, back to the Family History and photograph sorting. Still a long way to go.

New Year - 2009

2009-01-03T15:39:00.012Z

Whilst preparing for having the wall built, and tidying it up after it was completed, Clive and I moved a lot of foliage, turf and miscellaneous items into the lower field; this was done as a temporary measure because the ground was very soft and muddy and therefore difficult to use my little tractor to move anything. Now however, we have not had any rain since goodness knows when and the temperature has dropped, making the ground fairly hard, so I decided to shift the rubbish to its final resting place in the top field. I took this photo just after I started:

About ten trailer loads of earth, turf and foliage later and the removal of a bicycle wheel, several bottles, some unidentifiable metal, a couple of concrete posts and several large and smaller rocks, the field now looked much tidier and my shoulders ached!

Mouse update:

One more mouse has been relocated from the garage but there is at least one more because this morning I found the trap empty and on its side so they are getting cleverer by the day.

Christmas

2008-12-30T08:00:00.024Z

I started to write this to be published on Christmas Day, however, somehow I was sidetracked and it has taken me until now to catch up.
Christmas Day was reasonably quiet; Annette, Clive & the dogs have been staying with us for the whole of the holiday although Clive had to spend a lot of time at work as was the case on Christmas morning. Having opened presents, Clive went off to work for the morning and the rest of us went to Watergate Bay for some fresh air and to exercise the dogs. Here we are posing for the obligatory photo:

Clive finished work in time for dinner to be served at about 5 pm after which we spent a quiet evening relaxing in front of the TV.

Mice
During the preparations for Christmas Dinner, Maria noticed that some of the potatoes, which are kept in the garage, had large chunks missing. On closer investigation, we discovered mouse droppings and holes in various items of dog food and old paint sheets. We decided to set our traps (humane) that we bought last year and one that Clive came home with. The mice seemed to be able to pinch the bait without tripping the trap until we found one comfortably ensconced in Clive's trap. The following video will only be relevant if you can move it on frame by frame and even then the mouse is a blur as he/she makes a dash for freedom in the brambles in the top field.

Since this release, we have caught and relocated another one. This was in one of the smaller traps and it was so fat that it had to be shaken out; it then ran around my back pursued by Tia. It safely made the brambles eventually.

The weather has been cold and dry with a good amount of sun so we have taken the opportunity to climb our local mountain a couple of times so that we could pose with the recently erected (Christmas Day) Cornish Flag. A couple of photos show us up there being blown about by the wind:

Twice in One Year - Snow Joke brings up the 100

2008-12-14T10:03:00.010Z

After a rather late night watching X Factor etc, and perhaps consuming one Grouse too many, I woke up late this morning and, on opening up the black-out blind, I was met with the following scene:

Now snow doesn't usually last very long in Cornwall so there I was outside in slippers, tracksuit bottoms and a sweater to record our second fall of snow in one year, the last being in April.

It is quite pretty as long as you don't have to travel in it; I wonder what the person making the following tracks thought about it?

Just in case you haven't thought about the title, this is post number 100, so I am up there with Amy again!

Calendar Girls

2008-12-10T19:03:00.007Z

Yesterday we decided to combine some shopping in Plymouth with a visit to the theatre. We set off early-ish and called in at Trago Mills on the way, where we wanted to buy a new "runner" for the kitchen and some spare bulbs for the Christmas Lights. The runner cost £14 and they didn't have spare bulbs so how come we came out of there with a bill for nearly £80?
I had booked on-line for Calendar Girls, starring Linda Bellingham, Patricia Hodge, Sian Phillips, Gaynor Faye, Brigit Forsyth, Julia Hills and Elaine C Smith, but could only get seats in the Upper Circle. Once we had parked, we went to the theatre and asked whether we could get better seats and were pleasantly surprised to get a couple of seats in the middle of Row H in the stalls.
We went off and did some more shopping and had some lunch before getting back to the theatre in time for a cup of tea before the show started. I guess that most people will know the story of the Women's Institute Calendar Girls who have so far raised nearly £2,000,000 for Leukaemia Research so I won't bother with the story. Suffice to say that it was a tremendous afternoon's entertainment, alternatively very very funny and then touching. It was mostly funny and lest anyone thinks the show is for voyeurs of naked middle aged women, then think again. Yes they did take their clothes off, especially Linda Bellingham, but nobody could possibly take offence, as the scenes with the nakedness were very tastefully and cleverly done. Thoroughly recommended, even for an afternoon performance.

Three times trouble

2008-12-06T15:21:00.010Z

It all seems a little quiet since the wall was completed; Clive kindly came along and tidied up the top with just a little help from me and I took out one and a half barrow loads of rocks and rubbish from the ground at the side of the road, which has made the whole thing look more presentable.

On to the troubles as in the title of the Post.

Dishwasher:

About two weeks ago, I came down in the morning to find that the dishes were cold and not very clean. After blaming Maria for pressing the wrong buttons, I had to grovel an apology when we found out that something was not working properly. I found a code E9 fault displayed so went to the book for help; guess what, the fault codes go as far as E6! OK, so ring for help. Help. we were told would arrive in nine days time. On the ninth day, nothing and, on ringing back, the help line was "temporarily out of use". The penny dropped when we heard that MFI was in administration; guess who had installed the kitchen? No prizes there. On the same day, Maria heard someone delivering mail so went to pick it up, only to find that it was a letter for the previous occupants of the house. She rushed out to find that it wasn't the postman but a lady to whose house the letter had first been delivered. (stay with me here) They got chatting about this and that and she came back in with the suggestion that we should contact a local firm, F&K. Having made contact, they arranged for an engineer to visit the following morning. After dismantling the kitchen and then the dishwasher, he fixed it by cleaning out the water input supply and charged me £51 for doing it. I thought this was good value for nearly 2 hours work and much better than the call-out fee of MFI's service which was somewhere near £90.

Central Heating.

For some time, I have been puzzling about how the various components of the underfloor heating work and, as we have been here over a year now, I rang my contact plumber to ask his advice and get him to service the boiler. Unfortunately, he is not registered to work on LPG gas so he said he would contact someone for us. Sure enough a day or so later we had a phone call to arrange a time for a visit from CN Heating Ltd. On the due day Carl turned up and spent the next 2 hours servicing the boiler and explaining and carrying out small adjustments on the various parts of the system. Carl comes originally from Bradford and was very chatty and extremely helpful. As a result of his visit, we now have heat in the Boot Room, for the first time in memory, and hopefully a more efficient system. One more very useful contact. We also know where the pump is for Bedroom 1! His bill came to £69, which we thought was really good value.

Problem 3 - SKY.

Yesterday when we switched on the TV, the Sky channels were not working so I thought that the satellite must be down. Not so, as the fault continued all day. In the end I rang Sky and went through about half an hour of setting up, disconnecting, switching off and reconnecting so that finally we got the services back just in time for the Celebrity Jungle final. Apparently I had "static" in the line. Not sure about that but it is working now so all is well and, as everyone knows that problems come in threes, we should have no more hiccouphs for a while, not that I am in the slightest bit superstitious.

Wall - Build Finished

2008-11-27T09:07:00.009Z

At last, Chris & Jason and their diggers have gone leaving us with the finished build as shown below. A big thank you is due to them, especially Chris who did the actual wall building. We believe that the entrance road to the house now looks so much better and we can be sure that nothing is going to collapse in the foreseeable future.

There is some work to do yet to tidy the whole thing up. As can be seen in the photo, there is one section of foliage that is very much higher than the rest. Hopefully, when we have some decent weather, Clive is going to help me level that off as he has done lower down.

The last thing to do is to level and re-seed the side of the road, which, as can be seen, is currently a patch of mud.

Wall - Day Eleven

2008-11-24T22:23:00.006Z

As can be seen by the latest photo, the end is nigh. Hopefully, tomorrow, Clive and I will sort out some of the top foliage so that is is somewhat neater, with less bracken than now. It will also give me chance to get rid of some of the rubbish that the hedge is made of; for instance, I know that there is a concrete gatepost semi buried that could do with being removed. Chris thinks that they will finish on Wednesday, which will be a relief not only to us but also to all the residents of the Residential Park, who have had to contend with road restrictions and mud for the past three weeks.
Next report tomorrow; the weather is set fair so here's hoping for really good progress.

Wall - Day Ten

2008-11-22T12:40:00.003Z

Although I took photos yesterday, they were so out of focus that I decided to delay an update until today. Just one photograph because, from the bottom, it is almost impossible to see the difference from the last one. Hopefully, given a bit of a break with the weather, the whole thing should be finished by Wednesday next week.

Wall - Day Eight

2008-11-20T08:44:00.008Z

On this day, Jason was away fixing his car so Chris worked alone. This was undoubtedly the best for weather that we have had so the working conditions were relatively good. This was also the day when we took delivery of the second, and last, load of stone.

The following photo shows Chris and the small digger taking out some of the vegetation in order to prepare the ground for the next day's building.

So, at the beginning of the next day, this is where we are:

Wall - Day Seven

2008-11-19T08:51:00.008Z

The latest photos of the wall; this time I have included one from the top, which shows the new build approaching the old. The half way mark has been passed and, if the weather stays good, by the end of this week it should be very close to being finished as far as building is concerned. After that it will be a case of tidying up, reseeding the verge, and rounding off the top.

Wall - Day Six

2008-11-17T19:49:00.006Z

Another rather damp day has made work on the wall somewhat difficult; the photos were taken in very poor light and have been adjusted for brilliance and contrast so may look a little strange, however they give some idea of the progress made.

Fourteenth of November

2008-11-15T08:59:00.009Z

14th November is a memorable day because, amongst other happenings, in 1946 Maria was born, in 1948 Prince Charles was born and in 1964 Maria & I were married. We didn't celebrate much this year, just went out for a meal with friends Dot and John. I thought that then and now photos would be appropriate, but unfortunately, trying to get a flash photo of Maria with her eyes open is the next thing to impossibility; John did his best and managed to get this one with one eye open:

Next to our wedding day and a photo taken outside the Sacred Heart Church, Thornton. What happened to all that hair? Maria still has that glorious smile though!

The following photo will be of interest to some of the people who read this, I just hope that they recognise themselves.

Maria and her four brothers:
Left to Right:
Paul, Terry, Maria, Brian, Michael

Wall - Day Five

2008-11-14T16:53:00.004Z

After a day off for bad weather, excellent progress has been made today as can be seen:

Next report due on Monday evening, always assuming that the weather permits work.

Wall - Day Four

2008-11-12T20:41:00.006Z

Another good day for Chris and Jason, the results of which can be seen in the two photographs below:

The weather forecast for tomorrow is, shall we say, a little variable; in addition, Chris is by himself so we wait with interest to see what progress can be made, however the wall is looking very good indeed. Next report tomorrow.

Wall - Day Three

2008-11-11T20:27:00.010Z

Although I have titled this Day 3, it is only the second day of real work so I think that the progress is very good indeed. Today Chris brought along Jason as a labourer to shift stone and earth and retrieve the old stone from the wall. The weather stayed fine so, as can be seen, at the end of the day a substantial wall has appeared.

The weather is set fair for tomorrow, so we hope for similar progress again.

The Wall - Plan 'B'

2008-11-10T11:56:00.008Z

We have made a decision and are now into Plan B for the wall on the entrance road to Roseveare House. After much soul searching, we have decided that we shall have a granite support wall built; this apparently counts as a Cornish Hedge because the inside is filled with earth and traditionally has a turf top. The following two pictures show the hedge before work started and the progress after Day 1.

It was supposed to be Day 2 today but it has poured down most of the morning so no progress apart from the delivery of 10 tons of granite. The forecast for tomorrow is better and Wednesday is good so we hope for the best.

"W"All fall down

2008-10-30T15:23:00.010Z

Whilst we were away we had an agonised phone call and photo from Annette, who had promised to check the house in our absence. This is the photo:

Quite obviously, the Turf Wall that I had been building had partly collapsed into the road, caused I suppose by not being strong enough in this particular area to support the amount of infill required to make it almost vertical and straight. Annette was left with the problem of deciding what to do about it. Fortunately someone stopped and offered some cones as a warning; this offer was gratefully accepted. Annette got Clive to come along as soon as possible and between them, they managed to clear everything from the road so that traffic could pass with no trouble. The following photo shows how well they did:

On returning home, I cleared all the loose turf and soil , as shown in the following photo, and decided to go to Plan B.

What was Plan B you may ask? Well I didn't have one so I thought that I had better come up with one quickly. More news to follow, when I have some.

In the meantime, many thanks to Annette & Clive for their hard work. Why does everything happen when we are away?

89th Entry Reunion

2008-10-13T16:33:00.017+01:00

On Friday 10th October we left the Mepham home for the Ramada Hotel at Pembury, just outside Tunbridge Wells.

As the event had been organised by Mick, it was only right that we should spend both Friday and Saturday nights at the hotel with everyone else. After booking in - what a great room - Mick ensconced himself in the Bar area of the hotel and waited for the others to start arriving. I spent some time with him but also went for a walk to the local Supermaket whilst Sue and Maria went off to Tunbridge Wells for some retail therapy. An evening meal was part of the deal and we had been allocated a separate Dining Room so we all gathered for a meal and chat, renewing acquaintances and, in some cases, making new ones.
Saturday dawned fine with the promise of a glorious day. Once again, I decided not to go on the shopping trip with Maria and Sue and settled for a meander around the local Garden Centre in between meeting those members who arrived on the Saturday.
The evening get together proved very successful, with the staff looking after us very well.

Maria with Sue Mepham.

Anne & Gerry Klippel with Virginia Dalgleish.
Roger Gulliver looking on and the fit brigade dancing.

A good night was had by all with enough people dancing to justify the Disco. My efforts to dance all the way through "Tiger Feet" only went to prove that I am not as young as I used to be - I hope nobody had a Video Camera running!!
I cannot remember what time we went to bed, but we were up in the morning in time for breakfast followed by a very brief AGM. We look forward to meeting everyone again next year in Southport.
Having said our goodbyes, it was back to White Cottage where Jane & John Baker and Virginia & Dag Dalgleish joined us for coffee and chat. When they left, we spent the rest of the day relaxing in the Autumn sunshine.
The following morning, after a leisurely breakfast it was time to say goodbye to our hosts and make the long journey home. This proved to be a fairly easy journey with no problems.

Many thanks to Sue & Mick for entertaining us so well and we look forward to being able to return the favour.

Hever Castle

2008-10-10T10:01:00.002+01:00

After the busy Wednesday, we had a leisurely breakfast and then set off for Hever Castle, the childhood home of Ann Boleyn. The weather was superb, allowing us to wander around the grounds in comfort. The following photos show one of the many huge trees, the Castle and Maria & Sue framing a very interesting background!

Photo Detail

Having spent some time exploring outside, including the Water Maze, we then looked around the house, which is very interesting with some very small and steep stone circular staircases. By the time we had looked around, we all should have been experts on the Tudors but I fear that old age and a fading memory has meant that I remember very little.

Visit to London

2008-10-08T09:29:00.002+01:00

October is the month when we usually have our 89th Entry of RAF Halton, Reunion. This year, the reunion was organised by Mick Mepham near to Tunbridge Wells in Kent. We were lucky enough to be invited to stay with Sue and Mick before the event of which more later. We travelled up on Tuesday 7th October to their "cottage" in Crowborough, East Sussex.

"White Cottage" Garden

Maria and Sue had done some prior arranging and had booked seats for "Dirty Dancing" on Wednesday evening so we travelled up to London late on Wednesday morning and then meandered from Charing Cross to Covent Garden where we had a drink after which Mick and I paid a visit to the London Transport Museum, whilst the ladies wandered around looking at shops.
After we met up again, we made the decision to visit the Portrait Gallery; Sue had a particular wish to look at the Tudor Gallery. Having spent some time studying Henry VIII, and his various wives and associates, we popped up to the top of the building for a coffee and a splendid view over the roofs of London. The Portrait Gallery, now free to enter, is well worth a visit, if only to see what these historical figures did look like. It would take days to view everything in any detail.
From there we walked on to Picadilly where Sue had booked a 'pre-show' table at the Criterion Restaurant. This is a Marco Pierre White establishment and it was a real treat to sit in those surroundings and to have a good meal served by staff who seemed genuinely interested in ensuring that the customer enjoyed the experience.
We took a taxi from there to the Aldwych Theatre for the show, which we thoroughly enjoyed despite the fact that it really is a 'girlie' show and most of the audience knew every word. Anyway, the dancing was great and it was interesting to see how a theatre produces a show from a film where some of the most significant action takes action in a field and lake - very clever.
Because of the time, we took another taxi back to Charing Cross in time to catch the 22:45 train back home. A long day but most enjoyable and we really must thank Sue and Mick for doing all the organising.

Bedruthan Steps

2008-09-30T15:42:00.016+01:00

As the last day of September disappears in the mist of the Cornish rain, we think back two days to one of our very few trips out this year. The weather was set fair so we decided on Saturday to make the most of the early part of Sunday, when the grass was too wet to cut, and pay an overdue visit to one of our favourite places to walk. This is the area between Bedruthan Steps and Mawgan Porth, where the National Trust has its Carnewas car park, cafe and shop.
We started with a coffee, booked for Sunday Lunch next week, then strolled off towards Mawgan Porth. The weather was superb and this meant that the sea was shown in its best blue with white breakers. A couple of Kestrels hovered motionless over the edge of the cliffs - oh for a decent camera - before swooping off out of sight. After some commotion further up the coast, a whole gaggle of mixed gulls flew past us, obviously heading for somewhere, or something, interesting. I took the following photo of the two of us - it has taken me about five years to figure out how the timer works on this camera.

This photo of Maria really shows how blue the sea was.

After the walk, we stopped in the shop and I bought some gardening gauntlets before travelling home via Annette's where we had a cup of tea. I then managed to cut the last of the lawns that needed doing. All in all a very pleasant and successful day.

September Sun

2008-09-27T10:33:00.010+01:00

After the dreadful Summer, September has cheered us all up with lots of sunshine and very little rain recently. Lots of gardening has ensued with both Maria and I spending lots of time weeding and trimming shrubs. One nasty experience was to watch a Magpie killing what I take to have been a Greenfinch. When the Magpie spotted us, he flew off holding the poor bird by its wing with it still trying to escape.
I have now managed to paint the large shed with preservative; there is no point in showing before and after photos since they look remarkably similar.
With Amy and Andrew in mind, I decided to block up the hole at the side of the house where we believe mice came into the house (we heard them scrabbling about only a foot or so from where I am sitting and Tia used to go mad and jump on the window sill to try and get at them). I found a gap between two blocks and have stuffed it full of rocks so we wait and see if that is effective. As a consequence of that action, I decided to create a border as shown below. What I need now are some shrubs that don't mind being in shade all day - suggestions please!!

One day recently, one of our "neighbours" from the residential park stopped and asked whether I would like some more turf as he was replacing some of his lawn with chippings. I said yes and a few days later, I brought four trailer loads down as can be seen below:

24 hours later, the turf was in place and my wall was a little higher and longer:

Anniversary Time

2008-09-20T07:34:00.001+01:00

Although Roseveare House became officially ours on 17th September 2007 we actually moved in on the 19th, so we have just celebrated our First Anniversary here. Just where that time has gone I don't know but gone it has. Both of us have been extremely happy and, despite the fact that I retired at the same time and we spend nearly all the time together, we have disagreed on very little. Have I missed work? - NO.

So, what have we achieved in our first year?
The house has remained virtually the same with no decorating needing to be done. Vertical Blinds now adorn the Conservatory and indeed the rest of the house and blackout blinds have been added to the Master and Second Bedrooms. Lighting has been added to the loft space and the space over the garage.
The earliest job outside was to sort out the Septic Tank, which now seems to be working perfectly. In the garden, we have had the Patio constructed outside the Conservatory and one of the areas of conifers "degrassed" and replaced with chippings. We also had an extra gate put in to join the main garden to the bottom field and replaced the old metal gate between the road and the fields. Speaking of gates, Nick managed to dig out an old gate, which was probably the original gate to the property. He also managed to trim the large conifers for which I am most grateful. The main garden has had a border cut and all the turf cut out from that and the patio has been used to construct a turf wall, which makes the approach to the house a little tidier (long ongoing project). The lawns have been cut regularly and parts of them now look more like lawns should, with expanding turf and less gaps. In the lower field, I have started creating an area for general sports use.
My own personal disappointment has been my inability to progress the top "lawn", which remains a bit of a shambles. Even worse is the patch of ground on the approach to the house below the large conifers. I think the grassed area needs flattening so that it can be cut properly, but I cannot decide how to do it. One other project that should have been done this Summer was the treatment of the two sheds. We bought the wood preservative but failed miserably to do the painting, partly due to the abysmal weather; the wood just never dried out properly.
Rabbits continue to cause some havoc and my efforts to keep them out of the garden have only been partially successful. Learning to shoot straight might be the ultimate solution!
Finally, how did we celebrate? Well, apart from the odd glass of wine, I had a bonfire, which may not be considered good for my carbon footprint. Perhaps a Garden Shredder would be useful as a Christmas present!

Anyone any good at making Smoke Signals?

Here's to the next year!

Pop's Visit

2008-09-16T09:07:00.016+01:00

On the Friday after our return from Italy, Emma & Paul drove Pop down to Cornwall to stay with us. They were having a long weekend and chose to stay in a local hotel rather than us so that they could have some time to themselves.
On the Saturday, they took Pop to The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Fortunately, the weather was good for the whole of the weekend, which is something of a miracle considering the so called "Summer" that we have had. They all seem to have enjoyed themselves. Emma and Paul came to tea with Annette and we had a very pleasant evening.
On Sunday, I managed to get Pop onto the "Tractor" so that he could have a look around the whole of the garden and fields. The photo shows him with rather a surprised look on his face, but he managed it well enough even if he did comment that his electric buggy was easier to drive.

We went to lunch at Trevose Golf Club where we were treated extremely well; thanks Clive for the arrangements. After lunch we all sat in the bar, drinking coffee, admiring the magnificent view (see the Trevose Golf Club home page for that view) and watching the golfers come and go. After a leisurely drive home the rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around the house, which was very warm in the sunlight. A few minutes(?) of siesta was enjoyed by all before Clive arrived and it was time for a snack tea.

On Monday morning, Emma & Paul arrived to collect Pop for the return journey to Bradford.

Thanks to them both for taking the time and trouble to bring Pop down. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and hope that we see them again in the near future. They seem to have had a relatively trouble free journey home as we had a phone call from Pop at about 5 o'clock to say that he was home.

Italy

2008-09-11T06:08:00.033+01:00

After Nick & Karen collected Charlotte & Curtis, we had a short period in which to get the bedding washed and the grass cut before we set off for a week's holiday with Amy & Andrew in Italy.
We had decided to fly from Newquay to Stansted and thence on to Forli; the only problem with this was the ten hours spent at Stansted awaiting our connection. The seating in the airport is not the most comfortable but we managed. We considered taking a train to London or Bishops Stortford but the weather was pretty miserable so we decided that walking around the shops in the rain was not a good idea.
When we reached Forli, Andrew was there to collect us for the 90 minute drive to Città di Castello and our home for the next seven days. We had a lovely relaxing time doing very little except throwing the football for Jasmine. I say relaxing but the farmer starting his tractor right outside our window at some unearthly hour was a little startling on the first morning.
During our stay we spent some time at their "new" house, which is still some time away from becoming habitable, however some vital changes have taken place and they are now close to having an electricity supply to the property. The photo below does not indicate the full extent of the work needing to be done.

We also visited Montone, which is a very attractive little hilltop village, beautifully kept, with steep streets and the obligatory village square where we had a very peaceful drink as can be seen in the photo of Maria & Andrew below.

Because Amy & Andrew had a business meeting in Florence, we all went by car and train and had a couple of hours wandering around, trying to make the most of our comparatively short time there. We had no time to go inside any of the galleries and the Duomo was closed so we just managed to get to some of the main tourist areas, notably the Piazza Della Signoria, Uffizzi Galleries and the Ponte Vecchio. We also managed to get something to eat before meeting up with Amy and Andrew and climbing on board the train for our journey home. Florence is certainly a fascinating city with some magnificent architecture and art but I think that to make the most of a visit would need considerable planning and unlimited time.

So, after a splendid week, Andrew drove us back to Forli, where we caught our flight back to Stansted and onwards to Newquay where Annette met us and brought us home.

Below is a photo of our hosts to whom we say thank you very much for looking after us so well and transporting us around. It was really appreciated and we hope to do it again in the future.

Visitors - Charlotte & Curtis

2008-08-22T19:49:00.015+01:00

We had hoped that the weather would change for the extended stay of our two oldest grandchildren. They were keen to go to the beach but, as it turned out, they spent more time playing in the fields in between showers. It wasn't a total disaster as they did manage to cut the bottom field one day as can be seen by the following photo:

In addition, Curtis managed to cut the "cricket pitch" using the cylinder mower. This was quite funny to start with because when he pulled the 'self drive' lever, the mower pulled him along with the cutters in the air, however he stuck with it and finished the job in style.

The three of us also spent several hours building the Turf Wall, whilst the children also decided to start building a 'den' in the top field in the middle of the bracken.

We did manage to get out and visit the Screech Owl Sanctuary one day and Charlotte was one of those selected to help in the flying display. The following photo shows her posing with a Tawny Owl.

We hope that they enjoyed their stay and that their muscles are somewhat larger now after all the digging. Perhaps their next visit will bring more settled weather.

Visitors - Paul, Emma, Holly, Jack & Barnaby

2008-08-14T19:05:00.001+01:00

No sooner had Nick, Karen, Connor and Joe gone home, leaving Charlotte and Curtis for a further week, than we had a visit from nephew Paul and family, who were staying in rented accommodation just outside Newquay. They came for lunch and the afternoon on Monday; fortunately, the weather stayed fine so we could get outside with the children who enjoyed rides on the "tractor". I took some photos but failed to get the one that I really should have got, which was all the family together. Paul took one of Barnaby on the tractor with me, but unfortunately I haven't received it yet so I have included one of him "driving" his Dad's car. He is absolutely fascinated with cars so looks like following in the footsteps of his Dad and Granddad.

They are a really lovely family and it was a pleasure to have them in our home. I hope they enjoyed their brief stay and that we see them again soon.

Holly

Jack

Barnaby

Visitors - Nick, Karen & Family

2008-08-13T10:48:00.012+01:00

As will be noted from my last post, Nick, Karen & family arrived before Andrew, Amy & Molly left. Nick, Karen and Curtis had stayed Friday night with Annette & Clive, whilst Charlotte and Connor stayed with us.
On Saturday, Andrew, Amy & Molly departed and Joe stayed on for another week with his cousins. The weather remained variable but they managed an afternoon out on the beach with some friends of theirs and went to Crealy with Annette on Sunday.
One day, the weather looked good so we set off for Newquay to have a picnic on the beach but didn't get as far as Quintrell Downs before we were caught up in a traffic jam which looked to go on forever. Plan B came into operation and we turned around and came home and had the picnic in the field. We put up the paddling pool and slide and the children got wet. In the end, the sun went and the rain came but at least we had some fun in the meantime.
On the next Friday we all went to Flambards at Helston where the weather stayed fine for us all day and the children and Nick went on lots of rides. The highlight was Maria holding a tarantula, albeit, somewhat reluctantly. What a time for me to have forgotten the camera!
Maria and I left about 3.30 and came home so that I had time to cut some of the grass. As I write this, that was nearly a week ago and I still haven't managed to cut the fields as they are still too wet.
One of the jobs that I have been promising to do was to dig out the old garden gate, which was buried vertically by the side of the garden wall. When Nick asked if there was anything he could do to help one day, he probably didn't think he would spend a couple of hours digging. Anyway, he did a great job and the gate is now awaiting disposal, when I can figure out how to get it to the scrap metal tip. Hopefully, the photo gives some idea of the size of the gate - thanks again Nick.

Post Script

2008-08-11T11:08:00.002+01:00

Just in case anyone thinks we are a scruffy family, as seen in the previous Post, we had just finished playing cricket during which game I managed to throw the bat further than I hit the ball and then broke the bat completely.

JDT

Family Visit - Andrew, Amy, Joe & Molly

2008-08-10T07:33:00.018+01:00

It has been a while since I updated the Blog so here goes.

A couple of weeks ago we had the first of our Family visits, with Andrew, Amy, Joe and Molly arriving for a week. Molly, Amy's niece, seems to have adopted us as extra grandparents, which we find very pleasing. Over the week, the weather was pretty appalling, which made trips out very hazardous. Even playing in the garden and fields was a recipe for yet more wet clothes and feet. We did spend a day at Cornwall's Crealy, which was OK until fairly late in the afternoon. We still got wet but that was self inflicted on the water slides and log flume. Unfortunately, late on the rain came when we were at the far extremes of the park. Of course, the little train back to the entrance was not running so, hidden under cheap(?) plastic rain covers, we did manage to make it back to the cars. The four of them did manage a couple of trips out, including Padstow but what a shame that they saw Cornwall in this weather. I suppose that, when they came in February, they were lucky in that we spent time on the beach and the children even got into the sea.

Because they were leaving on Saturday, and Nick and family arrived on Friday, I asked Andrew to take a Family photograph on Saturday morning, the result of which is below. It is not often that the opportunity arises when the whole of my current family are all in the same place, so thanks to Andrew for organising it and for Clive who came along especially before dashing off to another engagement.

Left to right as you look

Standing at back:

Amy, Andrew, John, Karen, Nick, Clive

Standing Middle:

Charlotte, Connor, Curtis

Seated:

Maria, Annette

Front:

Joe with Brandy and Tia

July Update

2008-07-17T21:17:00.008+01:00

So far July has been a time of consolidation in the garden but today saw a step forward with regard to our conifer patch, which has now been covered in gravel; hopefully, this will keep down the weeds and make upkeep that much easier. Compare the following photograph with the one in June.

17 Jul 2008

One other "improvement" has been the introduction of a 'Rabbit Fence' in front of the large conifers but behind the other bushes. This hasn't stopped Public Enemy Number 1 completely as I still have to seal off the space under the lower gate but I will get there in the end. Fortunately the couple that still find their way in haven't destroyed the "lawn", which is progressing reasonably well.

Now we are waiting for the families to arrive and fill up the house for three weeks. Let's hope that the weather improves so that the grandchildren can spend lots of time out of doors searching for Snakes, Frogs and Toads.

Horticultural Question

2008-07-05T21:04:00.007+01:00

I have managed to identify a large number of the plants in the garden but this one has beaten me, so far. Any ideas anyone? (The Red Fluffy Flower)

July has started with some rain then some more rain followed by the odd downpour so I have spent a lot of time reorganising the pictures on the Blog. I also found some missing links. If anyone reads any of the archives and finds anything missing, or wrong - spelling etc, then please let me know and I will do the corrections.

Garden Update

2008-06-30T21:40:00.006+01:00

The following two photos show the changes in appearance of the main lawn. We have not quite decided how to finish the area around the conifers but no doubt a decision will be made in due course.

01 Apr 2008

19 Jun 2008

Elsewhere, the fight against the grass continues; below is a photograph of Annette's head as she drives the mower through the bracken in the top field (there is a pathway there - honest).

23 Jun 2008

We have now had a new gate fitted adjacent to the Patio and the end of the wall made to look much better; more progress and a smaller bank balance!

28 Jun 2008

A couple of weeks ago, the metal gate from the road to the field finally collapsed so we had to replace that as well. All the gates are now relatively new so there should be no further expense with regard to them.

28 Jun 2008

Snake Update

2008-06-29T22:53:00.006+01:00

I found the snake again today and it is a Grass Snake I believe. This time I had a camera so if anyone has a different opinion, here it is.

Birds

2008-06-26T06:52:00.009+01:00

Just a few words on birds during the month of June.

Magpies:
Our pair of magpies has turned into a family of five.

"One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a time of joyous bliss."

I look forward to the Silver turning up!!

It was quite funny to watch the young, in their early outings from the nest, chasing baby rabbits around the lawn. They have now learned to live in peace! It was also funny to watch two of the youngsters trying to eat a rubber ball that had been left in the field by Brandy! One other habit the whole family have is to get as much seed as possible from the feeders, which obviously are not designed for large birds. They have stood on rocks and reached up until I moved the feeders away from the rocks. They then stood on the bird bath and launched themselves at the feeder, thus knocking seed to the ground, where they able to eat in comfort.

Blue Tits:
We had one, and possibly two, families of Blue Tits in the roof. All now seem to have successfully flown the nest.

Sparrows:
One family of sparrows have now vacated the nest that was in the garage roof.

Swallows:
There are some swallows in the area although we don't see them very often. I did catch one coming out of our large shed one day and subsequently found two flying around inside the garage. They had, I guess, come in over the top of the roller door and forgotten the way out. They soon vanished when I opened the door and haven't been seen since.

Robins:
These are probably the friendliest of the garden birds, or possibly the least afraid of humans. I can almost guarantee that if I am digging in the garden or hedgerow, a Robin will turn up, look at me and then jump down and pinch the worms and insects that I have disturbed.

Buzzard:
Looking out of the kitchen window one day, I spotted a Buzzard sat on top of an electricity pole; when viewed through binoculars, it was sitting on top of a rabbit, which it was tearing apart. It subsequently flew off, complete with its prey.

Others:
The Goldfinches disappeared for a while but have now turned up again. I have not seen any sign of a family of them, which is a shame. We still see the odd Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Dunnock with plenty of Blue, Great and Coal Tits. We have a pair of Wagtails who rarely come into the actual garden but spend hours in the field. Likewise Blackbirds prefer the field to the garden as do the Wood Pigeons.

That's all for now; I was hoping for some photos but cannot get close enough, or do not have the camera when I do get close.

P.S. Nothing to do with birds, but I did see my first snake in the top field the other day. I think that it was an adder but wouldn't put too much money on it. As usual - no camera!

Father's Day

2008-06-17T06:48:00.012+01:00

On Sunday, Maria and Annette went on a planned shopping trip to Trago Mills and left me dog sitting and to do what I wanted. Unfortunately, the weather in the morning was very wet, which precluded a walk for the dogs (I have become a fair weather walker) so I caught up on a couple of TV recordings including 'Doctor Who'. Very strange!
As the day progressed, so the weather improved and I got out into the garden to carry on the fight against weed and grass. The shoppers arrived back at some time in the afternoon having spent four and a half hours in Trago - phew!
We had decided to have a barbecue for tea so preparations were made in anticipation of Clive arriving from a day at work. By the time we were ready to cook, I was still getting all the garden tools back in their homes, and, as Clive had arrived, he took over the cooking duties in a very attractive pinny, as can be seen below! Thanks very much Clive.

He did a great job, and, as the evening was very pleasant, we ate outside using the picnic set that Maria had bought some time ago.
Thank you to all those who contributed to a very pleasant day for me. The cards and presents were much appreciated.

Annette's Birthday

2008-06-14T06:56:00.026+01:00

To celebrate Annette's 40th birthday, a day out for the four of us with the two dogs was planned. Fortunately the weather was set fair so we set off for Boscastle, one of our favourite places and somewhere that the dogs can be let off their leads without any trouble. Because we had the dogs we took Annette's car with Clive driving arriving late morning. We took a slow stroll out to the rocks at the entrance of the harbour where SKS took the following photograph.

It is very nearly four years since the flood, which devastated this little village and work is still ongoing although it seems to be largely cosmetic now.

We decided to have lunch in a little cafe down by the harbour, where we could sit outside with the dogs. The photo on the link was taken before the flood. I believe that the only part of the building to survive was the back wall. It has now been completely rebuilt. We had a variety of sandwiches with salad and they were all delicious. Lunch was followed by another slow stroll back to the car with stops at various shops, resulting in a number of small purchases including an ice cream. Annette drove us home in time for a rest before we got ready for the evening meal, which Clive had organised at Trevose Golf Club.
I drove this time and we arrived in time for a quick drink before we went in for the meal. We were treated very well indeed by all the staff and the meal was excellent. Of course, for anyone that knows Trevose, the view from the dining room is spectacular, (see the photo on the home page of their website) especially as the sun was still shining when we started the meal. For sweet, Annette had strawberries and clotted cream, and Ian, the wine waiter, organised a candle and arrived with some of the staff, and, together with the rest of the dining room, sang Happy Birthday, much to Annette's embarrassment.
The meal was completed with coffee and liqueurs, sitting in the bar looking out of the picture window before the drive home. We had a lovely time and, hopefully, Annette also enjoyed her day.

Mary Poppins

2008-06-13T08:41:00.009+01:00

As part of Annette's 40th birthday celebrations we went to Plymouth yesterday to see 'Mary Poppins'. As we had booked the matinée, we combined the trip with some shopping and, despite my general hate of shopping, it turned out to be a very good day out. Fortunately for me, Annette did the driving and I was left in the back of the car to snooze!

The show was excellent; it has a number of differences to the film with some new songs but still included the big show numbers i.e. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Step in Time". There was also some impressive "flying" with Mary flying up over the audience and ending up disappearing over the top of us as a finale; we were in the Upper Circle so a real treat for the many schoolchildren in the audience. Bert, with a better cockney accent than Dick van Dyke (who hasn't?), walked up the side of the stage, across the top upside down and still singing, and down the other side - very impressive. For those who were watching closely, Mary did slide up the bannisters on one occasion. All in all it was a very entertaining show with a splendid cast, including two very engaging children playing Jane and Michael, and I would recommend it to anyone, except very young children.

We drove home afterwards and then we all ended up at Annette's for tea/supper. We hope that today, which is Annette's birthday, will be equally good. As I write this, the weather looks beautiful so here's hoping for the best.

SHOUT

2008-06-11T20:07:00.005+01:00

Last night, Maria & Me, together with friends Dot & John, went to the Hall for Cornwall to see "SHOUT", a musical featuring some of the songs of the 60s and starring Claire Sweeney and Su Pollard. The consensus of opinion in our group was that the best singer was a young girl who played the part of Betty. I am afraid that I don't know her name but she was very good indeed. The most surprising was Su Pollard; although, for the most part, she sounded exactly the same as Peggy in Hi-De-Hi, she has a tremendous singing voice and also the ability to act out the words as written in the song. The outstanding performance featured Su and "Betty" singing a duet including "You're My World". It made the hairs on my arms stand on end. The total cast was six women and one man; he played a variety of parts in many guises, which largely consisted of speaking the TV adverts that were in vogue during the sixties; not PC these days; "You're never alone with a Strand" comes to mind. Anyway, there wasn't much of a story line but the music carried the show through and all the performances were good. In between the songs there were plenty of comic moments and I would say that the whole audience thoroughly enjoyed themselves, not that we could see many of them since we were in Row B and right in the middle.

May Update

2008-05-31T08:44:00.024+01:00

As the last day of May 2008 emerges from the Cornish mist, I thought that I would review odds and ends that have happened.

Before I start, I would like to carry out a survey of anyone who is reading this so, click on Comment and just say hello, or make a comment, and I will then know that I am not just talking to two people - thanks.

Birds:
Today, for the first time, I saw two Goldfinches on the feeder at the same time. Also this month, for the first time since we moved here, I have seen the odd Starling; I would have expected more of them. A couple of days ago I saw some sort of hawk, maybe Sparrowhawk, being mobbed by three crows. The only other bird of prey seen was a lone Buzzard. We could do with something, anyone got a Harris Hawk?, a shotgun?, or are related to the Dingles in Emmerdale? (or Peggy Armstrong in Heartbeat) to deal with:

Rabbits:
These very cute animals are breeding like, well rabbits and are everywhere. I shall have to erect more protective fencing to deter them from reaching the garden.

This one was about 6" long!!

Flowers:
Most of the flowers in the garden are on shrubs but I did like this photograph of the Arum Lily that is just outside the conservatory:

In parts of the garden I encourage wild flowers, particularly Foxgloves; the ones shown below I found in the top field and was so taken with that I transplanted some onto the Turf Wall. Now, who is the expert who can tell me what they are?

Finally, as it has been a tremendous time for May Blossom, I have included the following photo of part of the bank adjacent to our lower field. The yellow bush is Broom but is past its best and the Rhododendrons are not fully formed yet.

And so to June, I wonder what it will bring?

The Turf Wall

2008-05-25T07:41:00.020+01:00

I have rambled on about this project so I thought that I would show my readers (if there are any), just how far I have got.

Remember this?

Just started - 01 Apr 2008

And now:

25 May 2008

To get to the end, I think that this is a 2 to 3 year project!! Assistance willingly accepted!

Ride-on Mower

2008-05-25T07:06:00.010+01:00

Last week was a disaster for my elderly Hayter 13/30. I had been using it mostly for towing my little trailer full of turf and soil etc., but had decided to cut part of the top field. All went well but it suddenly clogged up and when I had removed all the grass I started up again only to find that every time I selected the drive for the cutters, the engine stopped. After some preliminary investigation, I decided that, without a workshop and a means of taking the cutting assembly apart, I was going to get nowhere.

A decision had to be made:
1. Get it repaired.
2. Buy a second hand one or new one and sell the old one on Ebay.
3. Put the broken one in as part exchange.

After seemingly hours on the internet, I was no nearer to a solution so on Monday, I took myself off to my local mower stockist to investigate the possibilities. Options to repair were discussed and to be very fair with them, they would have collected it and told me the cost before proceeding. One of the problems is that the grass does not stop growing at this time of the year. In the end, I decided to put it in part exchange for a new one. The exchange value was more than I expected and the exchange would take place within about 6 days so that suited me. Having consulted Maria we decided to proceed and set the wheels in motion.

Saturday saw the arrival of the new machine, so I had another toy to play with, and I did.

Brandy - A little concerned!

Whilst the patio was being laid, I cut all the paths in the top field, then the whole of the lower one. At the end of the day I used the towing facility to move yet more turf and earth to the wall and promptly ran out of fuel on the entrance road!!

Patio

2008-05-25T06:10:00.026+01:00

It has been our plan for some time to have a patio outside the conservatory, well, yesterday that plan came to fruition. The delivery of the slabs etc. caused some concern as I persuaded the lorry driver to come into the field so that the delivery was as close as possible to where it was needed. The lorry got into the field OK but getting out again proved more difficult and, when he finally extracted himself from the entrance track, I spent an hour or so repairing the track and sweeping mud from the road!!

I had done some of the preparation by removing the turf so Dan and Ashley (who I persisted in calling Adrian!!) turned up about 09:45 and left at about 17:00 with the following results:

Before

After

Whilst he was there, I asked Dan if he could finish off the job by tidying up the end of the wall that butts up to the patio. We then thought that it would be a good idea to have a gate into the field as well so, hopefully, later this week he is coming back with a gate. After that, all we shall need is some decent weather, the barbecue dusted down, the patio furniture oiled and we shall be ready to go.

13 May

2008-05-13T20:57:00.015+01:00

There are some dates in a person's life that stand out as being memorable. In my case, six dates come to mind. They are: 18 March 1941 - my date of birth. 14 November 1964 - I got married. 23 January 1967, 13 June 1968 and 24 November 1969 - Andrew, Annette and Nick's arrival dates in this world. That is five, so what is the sixth you my ask?

13 May 1958 was the day I signed on in the Royal Air Force. I was one of about 155 callow youths who joined the 89th Entry, Royal Air Force Apprentices at RAF Halton. For those with a mathematical background, you will note that that is 50 years ago today.

Some of those boys are still in touch and some of them will have met up today at the National Memorial Arboretum to remember that momentous day (for some of us) 50 years ago. Regrettably, I was not able to attend but I have been thinking of friends made all those years ago and hoping that they have had a good reunion. I shall be at the next Annual Reunion at Tunbridge Wells in October.

Instead of celebrating, I have spent the day, amongst other things, in climbing up and down a ladder, cleaning the guttering. This is a soul destroying task slightly worse than cleaning windows, which I hate. I then had to fix the exhaust on the Ride-on mower before cutting the 0.81 acre field alongside the house. The Strimmer came next and I would like to think that I am getting better with it but the results leave a lot to be desired. In the meantime, Maria has been hard at work with a myriad of different things including washing, ironing and loads of weeding. We finally packed up at about 7pm, had some tea and settled down for the evening. For me that means catching up with the Blog, sorting the e-mails and tidying up some Family History.

A Day in the Life of a "Retired" Aircraft Electrician

2008-05-10T09:45:00.011+01:00

I thought that the story of yesterday should be the subject of this post. It started badly because, since I returned from holiday, I have been suffering from a bad cold (not man-flu) and my night's sleep was interrupted, resulting in about two hours sleep.
I gave up and got up at about 07.00, made myself a cup of tea and then checked my e-mails before doing about an hour's work transcribing Maidstone Marriages from 1761/2. This is an ongoing task for the Kent Family History Society.
At 08.00 I made more tea and took a cup to Maria. I then had a shave and shower followed by a leisurely breakfast.
The first job of the day was to fix one of the Black-out blinds in our bedroom. It would not stay closed and I had been told how to fix it by the company. The fix turned out to be good so tools and stepladder were brought down to the kitchen. Maria promptly asked me whether or not I had fixed the extractor fan in the en-suite; it was making a funny noise! Back up two flights of stairs complete with tools and stepladder. Having removed the fan, I located the problem, removed some damaged tube, reconnected everything satisfactorily and returned everything to its home.
Now what, thought I? For some time, Maria has been complaining about the state of the path to the front door, saying that it was slippery so I thought that it was time to improve its appearance.

Before

Armed with Pressure Washer, wellies and the oldest pair of jeans that I own I started the process.

During - Note the state of the Wellies and Jeans

About three and a half hours later, I put everything away and the path looked a lot cleaner, which is more than can be said for me! Everything off, I had my second shower of the day. The path now needed to dry so that I could fill all the gaps with sand so we had a very late lunch, quick siesta, watched "Deal or No Deal" with a cup of tea and then started the process of filling in the gaps. That took about an hour, but made the path look rather grey so we are now awaiting some gentle rain to tidy the whole thing.

After

I followed that with lifting some more turf and building my wall a little higher before calling it a day and settling down for a quiet evening, including a chicken salad sandwich. I did do a little more Marriage transcribing in between watching a little television and we finally went to bed at about 23.00. I read a couple of chapters of 'Oliver Twist' before having a good night's sleep - hooray!

Post Holiday Update

2008-05-07T20:46:00.016+01:00

We have had glorious weather since we returned and therefore all the grass has been cut, including the two fields, some weeding has been done and further construction of my "turf wall" has taken place.
Today, Maria was washing some bedding and was complaining that the sheets did not fit very well on the rotary clothes drier. I decided to, temporarily, supply one of the longest lines in Cornwall, stretching all the way across our field. It now seems as though it will become a permanent feature although positioned slightly differently. If anyone is interested, it was just over 34 of my golfer's paces long. Anyone got a longer one?

Holiday Time

2008-05-05T07:31:00.017+01:00

We have just arrived back from our annual two weeks in the sun of Tenerife so I thought that a brief resume of the holiday was appropriate.
Our outbound flight was from Bristol at 06.30 so we left home just after midnight arriving at about 03.00. The rules have changed again so we could not offload the cases outside the airport. Off we went to our parking zone, catching the bus back with all the luggage. In trying to get into the airport, Maria tripped over the kerb and damaged an elbow. Whilst I waited for the check-in to open she went off to try and get a plaster but found herself being attended to by two First Aiders - ah the benefits of Health and Safety!
The flight took off on time and we duly arrived in Tenerife and on to Beverly Hills Heights. Unfortunately, although we arrived at about noon, we could not gain access to the apartment until about 16.30. Nice apartment and we thoroughly enjoyed it; good view over Los Cristianos and only about 15 yards from the pool. We had never stayed here before but we would certainly not mind going back.
For the most part the weather stayed sunny and warm and, because I managed to damage a knee, we spent a lot of relaxation time around the pool; another novelty for us as we usually prefer the beach.

Beverly Hills Heights Pool.

We met some very nice people, especially Beryl and Ian and eventually had a couple of meals out with them. They managed to get us to imbibe too much one night, resulting in a very interesting walk back up the hill to bed!

Beryl, Ian, Maria & Me on our last night.

The journey home was fairly uneventful, apart from an hour's delay and having to pay 27 Euros in excess baggage!! We arrived home at about 21.15 to find the house just as we had left it (apart from slightly longer grass), thanks to Annette and Clive, who also had a cup of tea ready.
So, back to normality. Well I have developed a cold and sore throat already but I am hoping that it is not going to last too long. I have sorted through all the snail mail and the 350 e-mails. Today is going to be devoted to the garden as the weather looks set fair.

April Garden Update

2008-04-17T17:21:00.014+01:00

Just a couple of photos to show what I have been up to during the month.
The first photo shows the main garden, which now has a border virtually the whole way round, although it is by no means finished. The grass has also been treated for moss so is looking a bit black in places. I managed to get the scarifier to work and took out a mound of dead moss and thatch. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, we should have a lawn instead of a patch of green stuff.

The second photo shows what I have done with all the turf that I have taken up and should be compared with the photo on the post from the 6th April.

The third photo has got nothing to do with the garden; it was taken on a recent walk with Annette's dogs from the top of our "mountain" and I rather like it.

Fox Alert

2008-04-17T17:06:00.004+01:00

Today was a first for me as, at about 10:30 this morning, I got to within about ten yards of a fox in the garden. It was scrabbling about in the bushes on the left hand side of the main garden, presumably scavenging for some bread that I had put out for the birds. It soon dashed off to the bottom of the garden, over the wall and into the rough area below the field. That seems to confirm what happened to the various bits of rabbit that we have found recently, with the latest today (two legs). Recently Brandy was seen rushing around the garden with something in his mouth; when Clive caught him, he was extremely reluctant to let go of another rabbit leg; Clive subsequently found another two legs. Oh well, there are still plenty of rabbits left, so there might be some fat foxes around!

April Plans

2008-04-06T10:39:00.008+01:00

We have decided that the grass around the base of the conifers down the side of the main garden has got to go. It takes hours to cut because it has to be done largely by hand - even the strimmer does not do a proper job without damaging the tree trunks. I have started to cut out a border as can be seen in the following photograph (bottom four small conifers), with the intention of creating an easy maintenance border which can be cut right to the edge with the big mower.

So, what to do with all the turf and associated grass and weeds? The answer came to me after I remembered seeing the faces of bunkers built from turves. The "wall" adjacent to the road leading to the house looks quite precarious in places so I thought that I would start to re-face it with whatever I took out. The following photo shows the nature of the problem (well part of it anyway) and the first few turves in place. I will never be able to do the whole wall/hedge, but it will be fun seeing if I can make it look a little better. If we ever get a patio area outside of the conservatory, that will release some more turf. I will report back as I progress.

The White Stuff

2008-04-06T10:13:00.009+01:00

In my previous post, I hoped that the weather would improve - well this morning, the temperature in our garage was +5 and outside.....

Lonely Rabbit!

Oh well, it is now almost 10:30 and everything has returned to green.

March 2008

2008-04-05T09:41:00.010+01:00

As far as weather is concerned, we are heartily glad to see the back of March. It did rain a lot but the main problem was the wind, which bent the conifers and uprooted one bush altogether. Fortunately no damage occurred to the house even though the roof did sound as though it going to end up in the garden at any moment! On the plus side, we did manage to clean up the upper rockery and do some planting, including some odds and ends from Redcap and South Wales. I have no doubt that some of the couch grass will return, but it will be a little easier next time, as long as I can keep it hoed regularly.

Ah well here's hoping that April is kinder!

The rabbits are multiplying rapidly giving Annette's dogs many more targets to chase.

Birthday Boy

2008-03-20T06:52:00.012Z

OK, so I am a little late with this Post, but other projects have delayed it.

Ah, another year older and still here!

My 67th birthday was a low-key affair on Tuesday. Maria and I had a relaxed breakfast before driving to Plymouth so that Maria could try and find me a new brown leather jacket. She is always trying to make me more modern, something that I have resisted over the years, however she had already bought me some Jeans (surely jeans are for working, not looking smart) and a new shirt so I wore those for the trip. Anyway, off we went, stopping en-route at Kernow Mill for coffee, a very early Cream Tea and a browse (I did manage to resist the temptation to buy the "Single Malt of the Week or Month").

It is probably quite well known among my immediate family that shopping and me do not sit well together, but I have to say that the day went very well with not much "browsing". We did find a new jacket for me and then got one for Maria as she had just had a small win on the Premium Bonds. We had to wait for a while so that her sleeves could be shortened and took this opportunity to have a snack before setting off for home.

Annette and the dogs came for tea, but, because we had eaten fairly late, we decided to have a snack and have the Fillet Steak on the following day. It turned out to be very nice too. (the Steak that is)

I managed to accumulate some interesting presents, even though a couple of them had come a little early. Lawn Edging Shears, Extending Lopping Shears and a battery operated Air Compressor make up the more practical presents; all of these have now been used successfully. The lawn looks good from a distance with a nice sharp edge, the conifers have been lopped as shown in a previous post and the wheelbarrow is a little easier to operate now that the tyre is at a more sensible pressure.

Here I am posing, reluctantly!

Now all I have to do is study the book I received called "The Lawn Expert", and perhaps I can convert this patch of grass, moss and weed into something like a Lawn.

One of my other presents was an Energy Monitor, which tells me how much energy we use by having various equipments plugged in. Maybe this little gadget might help us to reduce our rather high electricity bill. My thanks go to all those who contributed to my day. Here's to the next!

JDT

March Visitors

2008-03-09T18:16:00.014Z

Saturday 8th March saw the arrival of friends Sue and Mick Mepham from Crowborough in East Sussex. Having stayed with them on a couple of occasions, it was good to be able to entertain them for a change.
Rather than cook on their first night, we decided to book a table at the "Two Clomes" at Quintrell Downs. As usual the food turned out to be good, plentiful and reasonably priced. The evening ended with a twist. Although we had regularly eaten there, we had never been on a Saturday before so were surprised when someone appeared at the table with a piece of paper and some Bingo tickets asking whether or not we were playing Bingo and entering the quiz. We decided to have a go and duly bought a couple of Bingo sheets and later some raffle tickets for the "Meat" draw. The Bingo turned out to be a washout from our point of view and we got absolutely nowhere so it was on to the quiz. After 40 questions we were not very happy about our answers but swapped sheets for the marking and ended up with a creditable score of 31. Meanwhile the raffle took place and one of Mick's tickets won some Gammon so not a total waste of an evening. When the results of the quiz were announced, we were pleasantly surprised to hear our names called out as the winners. A bottle of Red Wine was given as a prize, which was very acceptable since there was no entry fee for the quiz. As a team, we will now retire undefeated!

On Sunday the weather was a mix of sunshine and squalls, however we went out to show our visitors the sights of Newquay, during which we had coffee at a very blowy Fistral Blu cafe. This might be the last time we can afford to go there if Rick Stein gets his hands on it! We then drove up the coast, via Trevose Golf Club and Padstow to end up for a sandwich at Trelawney Garden Centre at Sladesbridge before heading home to batten down the hatches in preparation for the big storm that was forecast for the Sunday Night / Monday Morning. Maria and Sue provided an excellent Roast Beef dinner and Mick and I managed to finish the bottle of wine won the previous night.

It was certainly stormy on Sunday night through into Monday, and, as our visitors were leaving at lunchtime, we decided to relax, have cooked breakfast and watch the garden shrubs get blown about.

Despite the poor weather, I believe that the visit counted as a success and we look forward to seeing them again in October for the 89th Entry Reunion at Tunbridge Wells.

Septic Tank

2008-03-01T10:54:00.019Z

When we bought Roseveare House, we knew that there was a problem with the Septic Tank but decided that nothing was going to deflect our intention to buy the house so we chose not to ask too many questions, despite the very soggy ground around it that had a distinct sort of aroma!
Some time after we moved in I decided to have a look inside the first chamber cover; it was full to overflowing!! I had a look in the next Inspection Cover towards the house which had some fluid present but fortunately the pipe under the Inspection Cover next to the house was clear.
I found a local man who came along with his lorry and emptied as much as he could and, having had a discussion with him, it was decided that the only way to resolve the problem was to have a new Soakaway.

Here follows a quick lesson on Septic Tanks:
Chamber One - Where everything from the drains go. The "Solids" sink to the bottom where biological action breaks down the solids, effectively "eating" them, leaving fluids to flow into the second Chamber.
Chamber Two - fills to a certain level with fluid, which then flows out of the tank into a Soakaway - in theory this should be very clean water!
Soakaway - takes the overflow and dissipates it into the ground.

Our problem was that the fluid was never discharging from the second chamber, which simply filled up, then filled up the first chamber, allowing solids into the second chamber. The Second Chamber then overflowed out of the cover. Digging a new Soakaway was the answer and my local man knew a man with a digger - surprise surprise. He came along, had a look and a price was agreed upon. Unfortunately the weather then transpired against us and it was not until February that the work was carried out.

Below are some before and after photos; I have thrown lots of grass seed at the scar and now await everything turning green. There is some residual smell in the ground near the boundary fence but nothing much; it is also going to be some time before the ground around the tank dries out but, given a decent Summer, everything should be rosy by the end of the year.

The Machinery

Just about Empty

Covered Up

Raked and Seeded

February Visitors 2

2008-02-25T07:05:00.026Z

The house has seemed quiet over the weekend after the departure on Friday of Karen, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis and Connor who had been staying for the half-term school holidays. They were blessed with good weather for all but the last day and this allowed them to get out and about every day. Amongst the list of places visited were Lusty Glaze Beach, The Eden Project and the "Britain in the Blitz" and "Victorian Britain" Exhibitions at Flambards. In addition they managed to find a number of GeoCache locations at Cardinham Woods, Roche Rock and Loe Pool.

Maria, John, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor at Eden

Around the garden Nick and I managed to trim the tops of our conifers at the bottom of the garden (mostly Nick as he is taller)and re-pot some Cornish Palms and a large, and very prickly, conifer, which, last year, acted as our outdoor Christmas Tree.

There is a ladder there somewhere!

On Thursday, Nick, Karen, Annette & Clive went off for a day by themselves leaving the children and dogs with us to amuse ourselves. We started with a walk up to our "mountain" and beyond to help wear out the dogs (and us).

The Children posing with the Cornish Flag.

Back home, I had promised the children that they could have a ride on the Mower and fortunately the grass was reasonably dry and the sun shining so, after drawing lots to establish who should go first, we set off around the top field paths before coming down to the bottom field which we managed to completely cut. All in all, we had a pleasant day with no upsets.

Unfortunately no photos were taken of the children on the mower so on Friday morning I decided to get it out again and record the occasion. This time, having established that they could all reach the brake, I got them to drive it by themselves, something that I think they thoroughly enjoyed.

Charlotte.

Curtis.

Connor.

February Visitors 1

2008-02-15T11:30:00.020Z

Andrew, Amy, Joe and Amy's niece Molly, the first set of our February visitors arrived on Saturday 9th Feb and what a week of weather they had. No rain, little wind and blue skies for the whole of their stay.
We managed some time on the beach at Lusty Glaze on one day, where the children got very wet and an afternoon at Trevone Bay, where it was almost Springlike. Molly even went swimming in just a swimming costume, which gives some idea of how pleasant it was. Below is a short video of Amy doing a Back-Flip in boots - not often seen in gymnastics!

During their stay, we also found time to fly a kite, play rounders, climb our local "Mountain":

Clive, Joe, Amy, Molly, Annette & Andrew.

and do a trial run on the tractor with the children. Below are Molly and me navigating the paths in the top field and Andrew and Molly not really navigating the paths at all!

Finally, a couple of photos of the children with Annette's dogs.

On Tuesday, Amy and Molly drove back home so that Molly could, with her Mum, accompany her Dad to Buckingham Palace so that he could be presented with an MBE from Her Majesty, The Queen. Quite a day out for a 6 year old.

Andrew and Joe stayed on until flying back to Stansted on Thursday evening. We then had a day to change beds etc before the arrival of the next visitors on Friday.

JDT

February Achievements

2008-02-07T10:21:00.006Z

Garden:

Just before the end of January, we managed to finish tidying up the Cornish Hedge down the side of the road; the following photograph shows just some of the dead vegetation that came out. The following day, the wind and rain started again so it was a case of "Just in time".

Mower:

I had success with the exhaust on the Ride-on Mower; having bought two new bolts, I established that neither would fit due to the damaged threads on the manifold. I went to see my friendly Garage in Newquay who found out what size they were and lent me a Tap to try and clean up the threads. I managed to do this without too much trouble and everything went back together successfully; a road or grass test was satisfactory and a little quieter.
I wonder how many businesses would lend out equipment at no cost and with no deposit? So, many thanks go to Treglowns in Newquay, who have probably saved me quite a lot of money and time.

JDT

January Update

2008-01-29T22:07:00.001Z

As the end of the first month of 2008 approaches, I thought that I would have a ramble through what we have been doing and see what comes out.

January, for the most part, has been wet and very windy here in Cornwall but for the last week there has been a marked improvement allowing us to make some progress in the main garden. I have now completed the first tidying up session on the borders and they now look more respectable. I have also started to clear the dead fern and other vegetation from the top of the Cornish Hedge running up the side of the entrance road. I still have to figure out how much to take off the top of the Leylandii at the bottom of the garden. We haven't yet managed to cut the grass because it is so wet. Maria has busied herself with tidying up other borders as well as cleaning both cars on the day that the sun shone; a great job she did as well.

Between us, Maria and I managed to clean all but two of the windows (outside) in the house with the two on the second floor defeating us because my ladders are not quite long enough. The window above the conservatory also proved difficult; pressure washing it and the conservatory was fun; I think that a little more thought and organisation is required to stop me:

Getting so wet and
Almost dropping the pressure washer from the top of the conservatory.

Perhaps a roof crawler ladder would help!

During the winter a friend and I tackled the Ride-on tractor, which had a petrol leak. With the help of two washers that has now been fixed; whilst doing that John noticed a problem with the exhaust, in that it was held on with only one bolt instead of two and even that one was not done up properly. I have two new bolts on order but am worried that the threads in the exhaust manifold are damaged, which might mean taking that off and sending it to the mower workshop for repair. I knew that the tractor was noisy but hadn't realised why! Now if I can get the driving wheels straightened up, we shall be ready for Spring.

We have looked after Annette's dogs on a number of occasions, as well as Annette and Clive. The dogs just love the freedom that they have here and we don't see quite so much of the rabbits.

We also had Dot and John Wastell for a weekend; they decided to leave the metropolis of Newquay for a while and spent a quiet time with us to celebrate John's birthday. The weather wasn't great but John did manage to fix the petrol leak as mentioned earlier.

On this last weekend, it was the RSPB Birdwatch and I decided to have a go at that; it was a little disappointing considering that we are surrounded by garden and trees and I had all my feeders full. In my hour, I managed to spot 4 Greenfinches, 4 Chaffinches, 2 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits , 2 Coal Tits, 3 Blackbirds, 2 Dunnocks, 2 Magpies and one Robin. This morning, I had any number of Thrushes and my ever present pair of Wagtails, which were not "ever present" on Sunday; never mind I don't know what sort of Wagtails they are anyway.

On the Family History front, I have come across a small section of the HILLS family in Minnesota/California in the USA and some very kind soul, Duane Spicer, is currently looking for some more information for me. Considering that he has nothing to do with our family, it is most kind of him. Thankfully, this sort of help is not uncommon in the genealogy world. I have updated the HILLS family file on this site. In addition I have spent some time sorting out some of the 3,000 references on my TURNER Family Tree. The trouble with doing that, apart from the useful tasks of identifying wrong references and merging duplicates, is that it always identifies other tasks that need doing. Oh well it keeps me out of mischief.

So on to the future, well February will bring visitors in the guise of Andrew, Amy, Joe and Amy's niece Molly, followed by Nick, Karen, Charlotte, Curtis and Connor. It is fortunate that half term for the two families is on different weeks otherwise they could have all been here together!!!! Anyway, we look forward to welcoming them all.

BFN

JDT

Maria's Car

2008-01-12T07:02:00.002Z

Having owned her Clio since it was new in 1998, Maria decide that it was time for a change in 2007. She has, for a long time now, wanted a 4 x 4, because they sit up high and give a better view of what is going on. Whilst we were waiting for the house to be finalised, we spent some time looking around and she fell in love with a 3 door RAV 4. I did try to persuade her to buy something more sensible but in the end, she decided that it was right for her so a couple of days before we actually moved house, there it was, sat on the drive at Redcap, along with its predecessor.

The Renault has now reverted to its original number plate and has stayed in the family, becoming a second car to Nick and Karen. We hope that it serves them as well as it did us, mind you it had only done about 22,000 miles in the 9 years that we had owned it!

JDT

Moving from Redcap after 23 years

2008-01-11T09:52:00.001Z

Since the redevelopment of the Cumberland Hotel, followed by the purchase of the Kelsboro and Fort Wayne Hotels, we had been concerned at how the developments would affect us at Redcap, it had been in our minds, and that of our neighbours, that if we got a decent offer from developers, we would sell up and move. No such offer had been made so having returned from our holiday to Tenerife in April 2007, we approached the developers to see whether or not they were interested. Much to our surprise, after a little investigation, they made a joint offer for the two properties, which was too good to turn down.

We now had the problem of finding somewhere to move to and after looking all over Newquay we decided that we did not like anywhere that we could afford so started to look further afield. Having found somewhere that we really liked, we made an offer only to lose out to someone who made an offer that we could not match (the fact that the Estate Agents did not trust our developers did not help). Looking further, we came across Roseveare House at Gothers; where on earth is Gothers we asked? It turned out to be far too close to St Austell to be a viable option but we were persuaded by the Estate Agent that we would really like the place and that we could move straight in with absolutely nothing to do. We made an arrangement with the owner to view on a Sunday morning. As we had absolutely no idea where the place was, we set out on Saturday with the Sat Nav fully operational to plan our route. As we travelled down these very narrow country lanes, Maria was heard to say “if you think that I am going to live out here…” etc. We eventually found the place and both of us instantly fell in love with it without seeing the inside and decided this was the place. Sunday we went back and the inside turned out to be as impressive as the outside. Monday we offered the full asking price, which was accepted (more distrust from the Estate Agent about our developers). We then negotiated to buy most of the furniture in the place and sat back to await progress.
We approached the developer to make sure that they would match the completion date in September and they agreed that we could complete separately from our neighbours. There was a period when we thought that the exchange would never happen with letters to and from three solicitors seeming to be going nowhere however the exchange finally happened and on 17 September 2007 we completed – relief!
We moved in with the help of three truckloads of gear from Redcap, despite the fact that the new house was nearly fully furnished. The Removers were absolutely brilliant and Annette had taken time off work to help, which was another tremendous help. A couple of days later Nick arrived and helped with a lot of heavy moving including the erecting of part of our old kitchen into the garage. Goodness only knows how long it would have taken me to do all the things that he managed to do.
That is the brief version of how we moved into Roseveare House and four months later we love living here and have managed to get both cars in the garage and get rid of most of the cardboard boxes although there are still four in the garage and a couple in the attic.

What happened to 2007?

2008-01-07T21:16:00.001Z

OK it is nearly a year since I last wrote anything so you, the reader, must imagine that 2007 was a very boring year during which nothing happened.

Well apart from selling Redcap, where we had lived for 23 years, and buying Roseveare House, the only other things to happen were that Andrew married Amy in June in Italy, where they now live, and I finally retired from work.

Oh we did have two weeks holiday in Tenerife, a couple of nights away in Peterborough at the 89th Entry Reunion and a few days up in Bradford visiting my Dad.

Finally, Andrew has changed my Blog so I am now in another learning curve to figure out how to edit this one.

I will close this now and write separate posts for the main events of the year.

JDT

Visitors – Andrew & Joe

2007-11-01T09:00:00.002Z

In October, Andrew and Joe came to stay for a few days over half-term. It was a real pleasure to entertain them in our new home and we were mostly blessed with decent weather.

Maria, John & Joe at the Boating Lake

We spent time around the Boating Lake in Newquay feeding the pigeons but mostly we stayed at home; Joe was happy ‘exploring’ the field looking for animal tracks and deciding that the waste tips that are visible from the side of the house were Volcanos. We walked around the bottom but decided not to climb up it, although I have several times since – quite a view.

Without doubt, Joe’s favourite was to drive the Sit-on Mower whilst we cut the fields. Mind you he does need to look where he is going – see photo!

John & Joe cutting the grass!

We spent some time building a wooden dinosaur, which Joe enjoyed as he knows much more about dinosaurs than I do. I believe that he thoroughly enjoyed his stay and would have been quite happy to stay longer.

JDT

Post Wedding Holiday

2007-06-28T09:00:00.009+01:00

Prior to her wedding, Amy had kindly organised some holiday accommodation for us at La Penisola, which is an apartment complex between Orvieto and Todi so on the morning after the wedding we said our goodbyes and went off to collect our pre-booked hire car and set off to find our accommodation. This proved to be easy and the place itself was ideal for us to relax for a few days. We had an interesting time with the restaurant menu, which was, of course, in Italian, however, with the help of the extremely helpful staff, we translated the whole menu onto a napkin. The rooms and food were good and it was very quiet. There was an outdoor swimming pool and the complex itself sat on the side of a lake.

La Penisola Swimming Pool

Lake Corbara

During this part of our holiday, we accepted an invitation from Amy and Andrew to go and visit them in their rented house. We spent a very happy day there and we also went to have a look at the house they proposed to buy (now theirs). They have certainly taken on a lot of work - have a look at Amy's Blog if you want to see how things have been progressing.

We also spent some time visiting Todi but forgot to take a camera with us, which was pretty stupid. I thought that, though interesting, Orvieto was a better place to visit.

We did spend some more time in Orvieto because the Hotel Restaurant was closed on one day so we decided to have a meal in Orvieto. Because we spent so much time wandering around and eating, we missed the last trip on the Funicular Railway so had to catch the bus. That was an interesting experience with me clinging on for dear life as the bus hurtled down the side of the hill on which the town stands, with not much consideration given to passengers or corners.

Too soon the holiday was over and we handed back the car and caught the train as the first part of the journey home. No real problems but Ciampino is the most uncomfortable airport in which to spend a couple of hours.

A Family Wedding

2007-06-21T09:00:00.001+01:00

Andrew and Amy were married on 14 June 2007 in Orvieto, Italy. We travelled to Italy a couple of days before the ceremony along with Annette and Clive and the journey went comparatively well. The drive to Bristol was uneventful as was the flight to Rome, Ciampino. We had pre-booked a coach from the airport to the Railway Station and managed to find that OK. We sat at the back and from speaking to someone who sat on the front seats, we were in the best place (we couldn't see what was going on in the streets of Rome and how the coach driver got through them!!). We eventually figured out how to get tickets for Orvieto and boarded the train for yet another uneventful journey. Andrew met us at Orvieto and took us across the road to the Funicular Railway after which we went by bus to the Hotel Maitani - a really nice hotel with very friendly staff. In the evening, we went out for a meal and met some of the other guests before collapsing into bed.
On the following day we met other guests and walked around Orvieto, which is a splendid little town with a spectacularly fronted Cathedral. In the evening we had a get together on the rooftop terrace of the hotel, paid for by the Bride's parents - thanks to Gill and John. There were a couple of speeches and I presented Amy with a collection of photographs from Andrew's youth. So as not to forget the bridegroom, I gave Andrew a set of Ear Defenders. These did have a practical purpose - he had recently acquired a noisy 2 stroke Strimmer.

John's Speech obviously amusing Amy

I will keep my comments on the day of the wedding very brief as it was absolutely superb:
The Bride was beautiful; the Groom was happy; the guests were well behaved; the weather was perfect; the setting for the ceremony was ideal and David the photographer was brilliant. What a great day. Thanks to everyone who made it so.

JDT

Dog Walking

2007-01-21T19:43:00.001Z

This weekend, Maria and Annette decided to do their shopping together so I volunteered to do Dog Walking instead of shopping.

Saturday:
We left Newquay Boating Lake nice and clean as can be seen from the dog’s appearance below.

We crossed over the Gannel Link Road and then across the wooden bridge to walk down the far side of the Gannel towards Crantock. This was the first time I had done this in the 23 years we have lived here and I won’t be doing it again in a hurry. I expected it to be muddy and the dogs, especially the low-slung Tia were filthy before we had gone 50 yards. Eventually we got past the mud onto the sand, which is where it got very difficult with me sinking up to 2″ with every step. I spotted another bridge in the distance and decided that I would try and cross there to avoid all the mud on the way back. What an effort; I really must get more exercise. We eventually got across and it was certainly much easier on the Newquay side coming back. We finished with a walk around the Lake to help dry off the dogs.

Sunday:
We started this walk from the car park at West Pentire, walking down to Port Joke and then up the coastal path towards Holywell Bay. It takes about 20 minutes for me to reach the headland on the south side of Porth Joke and my calves were suffering by the time we got there as most of it is uphill and we were walking into a stiff breeze. The dogs thought it was wonderful of course. I took a couple of photos of the “white-out sea”, one of which is below.

As the weather seemed about to take a turn for the worse (large black cloud approaching), we carried on to the top of the hill before turning back for home. Instead of following the footpath all the way, we went down on to the beach when we were able; this allowed the dogs to go absolutely mad, chasing each other through the little puddles. That is until they charged full pelt into one puddle which was about 18″ deep” and came to a very rapid halt. It didn’t seem to worry them much and they kept on with their game. I decided to go straight across the beach and climb up the rocks to the footpath which skirts the North side of the beach, hoping that the dogs would run around in the grass and get a little drier. As can be seen by the following photograph, I was only partially successful.

Never mind, it was good fun and we had a nice coffee and doggy treats when we got home - JDT.

Boscastle

2007-01-21T19:00:00.001Z

Last Sunday - 14 Jan 2007 - Maria and I decided to have an afternoon out and, as we haven’t been since the disastrous floods of August 2004, Boscastle was the chosen place. There is still much to be done, but work is progressing and I suppose that much renovation work that may never have been done, has been done because of the devastation. However, I am sure that the people of Boscastle would much rather have done without that day.
The Visitor Centre, which used to be in the Car Park, is now much closer to the harbour and has all the newsreels from the fateful day running on a continuous loop; it is a humbling experience to watch the pictures again and to try and imagine the cars floating past this building into the sea. Apparently, one of the exhibitions from the Old Visitor Centre turned up in South Wales!

Anyway we had a very pleasant day and the photograph below shows what a lovely setting this village has, even in mid January.

Henver Road update

2007-01-21T18:00:00.001Z

Rather belatedly, I have to report that the Cumberland Hotel no longer exists as can be seen by the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs. Work is now rapidly progressing with a succession of lorries removing tons of earth, presumably to make space for the underground parking area for the 45 “Surf Pods”, whatever they are!!

Henver Road Hotels including the Cumberland (Blue)

Cumberland Hotel - Gone

More reports later

Family History Additions

2007-01-20T20:19:00.001Z

Just a quick note to say that I have added Brief Histories of the Turner and Allen families into the Family Names section. I have not quite worked out the best way to present them but will continue to work on it.

Jane Eyre & Thornton

2007-01-03T20:21:00.001Z

Having seen many adaptations of Jane Eyre on the television, I finally got around to reading the book, which I found absorbing, even if I always did know the outcome. I have to admit that I needed to spend some time peering into my dictionary to check up on some words, particularly some of the Archaic ones. I also realised that my schoolboy French from some 50 years ago could not totally cope with some of the French used in the book - never mind, I really enjoyed the read and some of the descriptive passage were absolutely marvellous.

There is obviously a connection between Charlotte Bronte and Thornton, in as much as she was born there on Market Street (There is a photo of the commemorative plaque in October’s archive on Holiday - Day 6). The reason for the double heading on this Post is that I have also just acquired and read “Thornton Road” by Michael Smith of the Thornton Antiquarian Society. There is an enormous amount of information in this booklet and I need to read through certain parts again to identify places on a road, which I fondly thought that I knew quite well - oh how wrong can one be! if I look really closely, I can just see the top of “Oakroyd” on the photograph of Priestly Street.

Computer Ramblings

2007-01-03T20:00:00.005Z

For some time now, Andrew has been telling me just how good Apple Macs are. I must admit that when I saw Amy’s Dad’s machine on our brief visit in October, I thought that it was a great looking machine that saved an enormous amount of space. Imagine my surprise when a large box was wheeled in on Christmas morning. Maria and Andrew had conspired together and she had bought me a similar machine to the one I had seen in October. Now I know that I don’t show my feelings in an extrovert fashion and this occasion was probably no different but I was thrilled and speechless because I had absolutely no idea that she was going to get it. Now my troubles started, with Andrew doing his best to teach me how to use it and explain the difference in Operating Systems between it and a Windows operated PC. I am still learning, but am slowly getting the hang of it.

Above is a photo of the whole thing; as can be seen, it is more like a Laptop stood on end with the keyboard separate. It is very quick and quiet with a 17″ screen and I am sure that, as time goes by, I will find many attributes and benefits. Thanks to all involved in the subterfuge - much appreciated.