Coleton Fishacre and Brixham

For the second of our days out we made the most of the National Trust.

We headed to Coleton Fishacre just down from Brixham.

Want an incredible house, built in the 1920's it is not garish. The architecture is just perfect the shape of the rooms, the turret room, views from each window it's just beautiful.

The gardens are a combination of brightly coloured and subtle and there is a walk you can take through the woods and down nearer to the sea. 

If you in the area I can't rate this enough as a place to visit.

As always we managed to make time for knitting. 

Without fail when I visit any National Trust cafe I like to have there delicious scones too. 

So we stayed for three hours here and decided before heading back we'd take a trip to Brixham as it was on route and I'd not been for years.

Wow it was packed!! Quite alot of mask wearing was involved as Brixham is not a big place and lots of people milling about.

It has a lovely harbour with both yatchets and huge fishing boats in.  The tide was out when we went so it looked like all the boats where stranded!

A quant town, but not one I'll visit again in the height of summer.

 

We spotted lots of people on the other side of the harbour huddled together looking in the water and there was a seal. This was amazing to see and my phone pictures could not do it justice as the seal was eating a very big eel!

Visiting Dad

This post is a very personal share of place and person very dear to me. 

Back in 2014 my Dad for his own personal reasons took his own life.  People may judge and say "it's the cowards way out", but you should never judge someone else's suffering and if it eased him from his demons then I believe and always will that he was incredibly brave for what he did. 

My Dad was a very private person, but oh my goodness he was super fit, he used to run marathons and triathlon. Growing up I used to go on long cycle rides and we'd go swimming together. I swam my first mile with him.  

He absolutely adhore his 3 grand children and would love to play footy with them and take my son rock climbing at Clevedon.  He just loved being outdoors, be it pottering in the garden or out hiking on the hills.  

From my Mum I am blessed to have my passion for knitting that she taught me from a young age and she is originally from Wales a place that I gravitate to the most for peace and a sense of calm. 

I am blessed to have the same birthday as him and too just love spending time in the garden and have recently started running and I love walking in the hills. 

It has however taken me 7 years to be able to finally visit his resting place, but today is the day and I'm so so glad I did. His ashes are scattered in a beautiful church yard at the base of Crooks Peak Hill which is part of the Mendips in Somerset.

So I have come to just sit and be at peace with him and do a spot of knitting under the bush in the shade. Then on top of Crooks Peak overlooking the Mendips towards Cheddar, Somerset, Brean down, the Severn Estuary and take in the incredible 360° view and just be. 

Dartmouth

So I've come away for a short break to see a dear friend who lives in Newton Abbot, Devon. 

We have known each other for about 10 years I think and met through our love of knitting as we both travelled solo to Yarndale when it first opened and met up with fellow solo travellers in the evening for a meal.

Since then we have had several joint trips back to the show and over the past couple of years I've had the pleasure of being able to come and stay at her beautiful flat.

We always love planning in advance what we are going to do and this trip was no different, other than the fact on the Friday we were due to go to a seaside town and have fish and chips, but it took me 4.5 hours to get to her, so she suggested we stay put and have them at home instead! A wise move.

Last week we had temperatures in the 30's which made it unbearable, but the gods where looking after us and it cooled significantly and is much more manageable low 20's now.

So for our first day out we were initially going to drive to Dartmouth, but the Rosy suggested why not get the train and foot ferry. We'll I jumped at the chance, as the train was a steam train!!

You depart from Paighton and the train journey is about 20 glorious minutes. I do so love train travel, you can just sit and watch the world go by.

I just love these stylised billboards.

Loved the name of this train which was made in Swindon in 1951.

This wasn't the train that pulled us but it was a beaut.

The smell, the whistle and the sound of steam trains just can't be beaten.

Almost everywhere I go I have a knitting project I can do a few rounds on.  This was no exception.

Having had such a hard precious 12 months of not being able to travel and with the pandemic still with us and travel being so much more limited, the British tourist industry is very popular!

In England the rules on wearing compulsory face coverings has been lifted, but for me and Rosy we still wanted to safe when indoors or crowded spaces. (The above picture was taken before many people borded the train and they had done seating opposite each other which was good).

I have been to Dartmouth many years ago as I did a river trip up to the famous Agatha Christie home Greenaway which overlooks the river, a stunning property worth an absolute fortune I'm sure!

The river is buzzing with activity, so many yachts, kayak, paddle boarding.   I just loved the so houses too, wow they are so colourful and different. So different from the area I live, with modern day housing estates you could be anywhere in the country and they look the same!

We had a mooch around the town and sat in the park for our lunch which we got from the local bakery. Wow I had a roast chicken roll in a delicious roll, followed by a Devon apple cake which was so moist!

I loved this windowsill isn't it just so colourful and the above picture was the view they had from their window, not bad ah!

We came across a lovely craft shop too which had lots of lovely crotchet and sewing options.

Then we found a perfect seat to sit and watch the world go by as we had an hour before our train back.

The knitting came out. I'm working on a lace cardi I've designed and Rosy is making a beautiful shawl.

We watched families doing crab fishing, oh my so so many crabs and some so big.

I'll leave you with my favourite picture which reminds me of Shetland (not that I've had the privilege to go yet) but I see the image of the iconic cottage that Jim Perez lives in based on the Shetland books by Anne Cleeves.

Stan's trip to Slimbridge

I worked out I have been visiting Slimbridge for around 19 years! I never tire of it and there is always something different to see.

In the last 2 years I have been able to share my special place with my partner who loves it as much as me. 

We now have a VW Caddy Camper which meant we could visit part of the reserve, then have lunch at Stan and go back for viewing the second part.

Naomi got an amazing video of the snails in the pond.

I love going up to the Tower that over looks the estuary. 

 

One of my favourite areas is the walkway that takes you down to the estuary where you can see over to The Forest of Dean and watch the tide coming and going in the estuary. 

The temperature was high 20's so being able to sit in the Shepherds hut with such a stunning view and feel the breeze to do a little knitting was just perfect. 

We then headed back to Stan for our lunch which was nice and cool having been kept in the fridge. Naomi even made a shady spot for me. 

The day Lilly's where in perfect colour with the Flamingos. 

Don't remember seeing so much pond weed before, but makes for a great photo. 

Naomi got to feed the Nene Geese one of the breeds that Sir Peter Scott brought back from extinction. 

One of the new areas that has been built during redevelopment is an incredible theatre with seating on 4 levels with a huge area for shade. We went and sat down and then to our great surprise where treated to an amazing talk about this beautiful Crested Crane. 

A magical day shared with my lady and now you all, hope you enjoy.