On to the Dordogne

Before leaving the Loire valley we popped into the church at St Aignan and were delighted to see that it was still dressed for the wedding we'd heard during the day. 

It looked so beautiful and the alter was stunning. 

Couldn't resist this pattern shot.

The next day we made our way towards the Dordogne area and ended up at another lovely town called Montignac.

It was very hot so we called it a day and stopped for lunch French style.

This morning the market was in town and I bought Jasmine tea and some rather expensive lace, will show next time when I've photographed it.

 

This afternoon we visited the natural caves of St Christophe which have been occupied by man since Prehistory. 

 

This is a long shot of the location.

Who is this person who always seems to be in my shots? And I don't mean the guard on top of the gate :-) 

They even had a church hewn into the rock.

This model gives an idea of how it would have looked in medieval times.

A post from me wouldn't be complete without textures.

And finally ......

Look out !!!! The bears are coming in.

In France and loving it

We sailed away to France on Wednesday and after having a complementary breakfast from P&O, thank you very much!

We set off for sunshine and new adventures.

First coffee at one of the splendid French motorway picnic areas.

And then onto a Camping Car Aire at a wonderful place called St. Nicolas de Bliquetuit on the edge of the river Seine.

I had a wonderful afternoon sketching this view.

And in the evening we were treated to a ship coming up the river that was so big we think it had a helipad on the bow.

It was very dark and this was the best I could do, but it was an incredible sight!!!

We made our way to the Loire Valley the next morning, 7 hours on the road, but it was worth it, as the next day we visited the chateau Cheverney.

And what a treat, a wedding dress and dinner  sevice to drool over....

Plus on course the tapestries....

And the Embroidered bed hangings.

All so sumptuous, it was wonderful.

We even got to see the resident fox hounds enjoying the sun :-)

After all that activity we're having a lovely chill day on the banks if the river Cher...

With another lovely town to explore tomorrow. 

Please excuse me if I don't relply to comments as Internet connection is sometimes a bit weak.

Camping

For the past few days my daughters, their children and I have been on a camping trip, yes, braving the rain, winds and cold nights, we still managed to have a great time.

We kept warm in the evenings with the help of a lovely warm fire pit.....

And of course the obligatory toasted marshmallows.....

To warm ourselves up even more my granddaughter  Beth (above right) took some of us for amazing spa day at Centre Parks where she works.

Thanks very much to those who stayed behind and baby/dog sat.

Our whole group had a lovely day out at  Longleat  where we went on safari.....

 Luckily the monkeys didn't like our car after having examined it, but did take the trim off the roof of my daughter, Hannah's car, fortunately it clipped back into place.

We got to feed the deer, which the children loved.

We were lucky to experience a mixed bag of weather with sunshine after the showers.

And I was lucky enough to catch this amazing double full rainbow after a particularly heavy downpour.

Our youngest member of the pack was very brave and did a scary bike stunt one night in the dark with another camper's headlight on to show the way.

We all whooped and cheered hugely, much to his delight.

We topped off our trip with a shopping trip to the amazing shops in Frome, Dorset...

Where I bought beads, shoes, dribbled over patchwork fabrics and lace and was bought a lovely passionflower tea by my daughter Pru in an amazing well being shop.

Thank you all, daughters and grandchildren for spoiling me and making this year's camping trip so special.

A late arrival

I know baby elephants are supposed to have a long gestation period, but this little girl was well overdue, to be received by our lovely granddaughter Pippa, who is now almost 7 months old.

But after introductions were made, there was playtime to explore with brother Sam.

And then then there was a train ride for Daddy and Sam

What a busy weekend we all had. It was lovely, thank you.

Bursting at the seams

Our allotments are in full production as you can imagine with all this lovely growing weather, and even (the reluctant gardener) has to succumb to some work. I've been harvesting my mint that I dry to make peppermint tea, excellent for the digestion.

As you can see I was allowed to use the inner sanctum of the greenhouse to dry them off, bet Monty Don wouldn't allow silly pegs in his greenhouse :-)

If you want to see some real gardening and some wonderful produce pop along to my DH's blog he'd love to see you :-)

It's been a while...........

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I posted on this blog, its not as if there hasn't been lots of stuff going on. I keep taking pics, thinking I'll post them on the blog and time just slips away.

So in no particular order....

Our beautiful granddaughter Verity, (on the left) went to her Prom last night, she and her friend looked like film stars as they walked up the red carpet, Nanny and Granddad were so proud :-)

And I couldn't post a pic of one of our eldest without showing you the 2 youngest

A very proud little brother Sam looking after his little sister Pippa, our youngest granddaughter.

Meanwhile we've just got back from a lovely week in Northumberland, its a vey long way from the South of England but well worth the trip. We went to a place called Seahouses, which is situated opposite the Farne Islands, know primarily for the seals and nesting seabirds. My DH and his brother took a boat trip out to the islands, and my sister in law and I had a lovely day on dry land visiting Bamburgh Castle and Lindisfarne.

Seahouses harbour

I couldn't resist these lobser/crab pots, not sure which.

Bamburgh Castle

The great hall

Lindisfarne

 We had a lovely girly day and treated ourselves to lunch out and a cream tea in the afternoon, having scrutinised all the pretty craft shops etc on the way.