Last day.

Today is the last day of my leave. It seems like I have been off for ages, a real break. Its the first time we have spilt the holidays like this and I quite liked it. Go away as soon as we finish work for a ' holiday' then have time at home staycationing after. We seem to have done loads.

We met friends for Sunday lunch and walked around the harbourside

Drove to the beach for the day

explored Tintern Abbey

took a train ride to Bath

enjoyed the high tides, including the hound who likes to splash!

We have been to the mall, completed the back to school shopping, had dinner at a friends house, took grandad to the races and  had a cinema trip, went to watch an 'away' rugby game. Its been a great few weeks off, I have enjoyed being with my family not having deadlines or things to do and places to go. And more importantly not having work stress!

Today shall be spent at home, its raining again, hubs is planning to finish painting the kitchen, I plan to tackle the ironing mountain, I keep putting it off.  no 1 son will continue to look for a part time job to fit in around his voluntary work at The Zoo farm. No 2 son wants to bake a cake then paint his warhammer models. Somewhere in between I hope to get the dog out for a nice long walk, then a relaxing evening is planned with an early night as its back to work tomorrow.

Peace.

I do love my family but after 16 whole days together its nice to finally have some time to myself.

They have all headed out to watch the rugby and I am home alone until this evening. Bliss. Even the hound has settled down for a rest! 

I have done a quick tidy up, sorted the banking and planned the evening meal so now the time is all mine.

Its raining again today so I am pretty sure its going to be a knitting day

I'm still working on my St Aubins Bay shawl

Really loving how the colours are working together and the pattern is actually quite easy to follow. Still resisting the temptation to cast on anything else, really must get some of the works in progress finished. 

Off now to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Camping- Part 3.

Our last day saw us go for a walk. Hubs had spotted this in one of the books I had bought him for Christmas, so glad he took me there. It really was a beautiful and magical place to go.  A nice walk up through the glen and then you have to pay to go and see the waterfalls, but it is worth it.

So without further ado, I give you..

St Nectan's Glen.

Camping-Part 2.

Sunday saw us pack up camp and head up to Tintagel for a few days.

We had booked a site so had access to 'real' showers and a toilet block! and to make junior happy had electric hook up! The site even had free wifi, so after 3 nights in a field it felt like luxury! 

We had hoped that being on a site we would have had more protection from 'the wind' but no, we were right at the top of the site, so was still getting hit.. hey ho..

Sunday afternoon we just relaxed after setting up camp and walked into the village to eat in one of the pubs in the evening. Another windy night, our poor old awning really took a battering . Monday we were up bright and early and set off to find Arthur at the Castle.

More steps! this is from the top across to the other side, I forgot to take a pic before we set off up. but it involved steep tiny steps up the hillside. so worth it though.

then we found Arthur...

The views from the top were amazing

Then it was back down, we were lucky that we went early as coach loads were arriving and the ques to get in were huge.. we grabbed a quick drink in the cafe, then went onto the beach to find Merlins cave

We did find the cave, I just didn't take a pic!

Then it was a steep walk back up to the village.I wanted to visit the Old Post office

and junior wanted to go into Arthur's great hall

We grabbed a bite to eat and then went back to the van for a rest, my poor legs were all walked out!

It was a great day and well worth a visit if you are down that way, my advice would be too get there early if its summer , as by midday the castle was packed and the ques were horrendous.

The final part to our camping trip will be posted in the next day or 2 and I have to say the place we visited was magical..

Camping - Part 1

What a great 5 nights we had down south, yep 1 less than planned.

The weather again, not rain this time but the darned wind.

I should have learnt my lesson by now but I am a sucker for a great view with no protection..

Bedruthan camp site- my little piece of heaven.

The first night was windy, the 2nd calmer, the 3rd was wild, getting out of bed at 2am to tether the awning to the van it had pretty much separated itself, our poor friends tent was collapsing at the front [ she went for a view too!], Despite the wind, the weather was fabulous, sunny days and long sunsets..

we even managed to get down onto Bedruthan beach whilst the tide was out, we didn't manage to do that last year.

Tide In

Tide out

The way down, pretty step steps and narrow in places..

Its a great place, I really do love this piece of coastline, the views are amazing, its wild camping, basic facilities only, which means 2 loos and 2 showers for everyone to use, including day trippers. No electricity, no wifi/internet connection and just 1 tap to get water from. It makes you slow down and breathe. Its nice to have time with Junior when hes not attached to something! we had BBQ's, played scrabble, read books and just enjoyed being together. 

On Friday we  caught the bus into Newquay, why I don't know, it was packed..The bus ride was fun, an old fashioned double decker squeezing through country lanes with holiday makers towing a variety of vehicles.. madness. 

On  saturday we went for a walk to Pollyjoke beach. We drove up to Crantock and walked around the headland.

A nice little walk, not too far, but enough to stretch your legs, we stopped on the beach for a while, enjoying the peace and did some people and dog watching! so many dogs, then, the only time during our hols, a few rain clouds were spotted getting closer so we carried on our walk back to the pub for some late lunch!

Part 2 tomorrow!