taraabit

Tues 13th Feb 2018.

It was a rough night with strong winds and heavy rain and although at daybreak the wind had died down the rain continued to fall steadily so we had to don all our wet weather gear to walk to Moreton in Marsh which thankfully isn’t much more than 800m from the site.

Moreton in Marsh is a historic market town in north east Gloucestershire at the crossroads of the Roman Road “Fosse Way”. It is situated in a relatively low lying flat area surrounded by the Cotswold Hills.

It has a good selection of cafes, pubs and restaurants, shops and a small supermarket, it has a weekly Tuesday market in the centre of town. The White Hart Hotel was used as a shelter by Charles 1st after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1664. We seem with our visits to National Trust properties to be following his trail.

Michelle waited outside the supermarket and was quickly surrounded by a group of teenage girls on a school trip making a fuss of Layla, I went inside and bought the makings of a chicken tikka masala for tea. We wandered around the market, a little depleted by the weather, and bought a few items we needed, we then went into a cafe for a welcoming hot drink.

After lunch in Homer we again donned our wet weather gear and went for another long walk which appears to have had the effect of sending all three of us to sleep with an afternoon siesta.

The TV has decided not to work so its back to the iPads for the evening entertainment with a modicum of wine to pass the time away.

The photos don’t do Moreton any justice, it is a pleasant pretty town and worth a visit.

Monday 12th Feb 2018

Homer isn’t good at speed, well 0-60mph in about 10 mins if there’s a good wind blowing, he hates long slow inclines and steep hills even more. Today on route was the notorious “Fish Hill”outside Broadway in the Cotswolds, there are two lanes on the upward stretch to allow for slow vehicles, we had to travel up in second gear, took a while, could have eaten a nice cheese sandwich whilst ascending, never mind we made it in the end.

We had a free one night voucher for a Caravan and Motorhome Site so we decided to head here to Moreton in Marsh, only 55 miles from home and a gentle 90 minute ride, it was Layla’s first outing in Homer so we didn’t want to go too far, she behaved superbly staying in her bed between our seats the whole way.

This is a very pleasant site, it takes 184 units but there is plenty of space and I don’t feel it would seem crowded if full, the facilities are excellent and the wardens very helpful and welcoming. Off the edge of the site there is a children’s play area and a dog walking field, we took the opportunity for the first time to let Layla off her lead and run free, as there were no other dogs to distract her she came back every time she was called.

Saturday 10th Feb 2018

Today we chose to ignore the fact it was very cold, 5 degrees C and raining, to visit Croome Court SE of Worcester.

We hadn’t appreciated that the house wasn’t near the car park and visitors centre and it was about 3/4 of a mile along the winding path past the church, ice house and rotunda to the main house, no distance at all in the normal scheme of things but not too pleasant when the weather was distinctly miserable.

Croome Court was the family home of theEarls of Coventry, it was inherited in 1751 by the 6th Earl and he employed contemporary designers, architects and crafts people including Capability Brown and Robert Adam, to transform the house and gardens.

However by the 1930’s like many of these families the money and resources to maintain the property had run out, it then went through a series of owners until being taken over by the National Trust.

When we emerged from the house, which is slowly being restored, the rain had almost stopped and we headed back to the car park where we let Layla out of the car, put her on her lead and shared a vege pasty with her outside the cafe, we then went for a long walk around the grounds.

Friday 26th Jan 2018

Today was the first day that Layla was allowed out in public and we felt the need to take some exercise, so after a quick stop at an agricultural outlet ( Telford Farmers Market) to purchase a new pair of wellingtons fr me, we headed for a National Trust property near Bridgnorth, Dudmaston Hall.

We knew the House wouldn’t be open but looked forward to a walk around its pleasant grounds, unfortunately it was closed. Not to be beaten however we drove 100m down the lane opposite it’s entrance to Old Saw Mill car park, part of the Dudmaston estate.

Here we parked up put Layla’s lead on and headed off across the car park, then through the gateway to the fields came a couple with their 4 month old Cocker Spaniel puppy, Layla’s first encounter with another dog other than her siblings some time ago. They spent a few happy moments gambling around each other and hopefully all future encounters will be as pleasant.

We walked approx a mile in total not overdoing this first walk, which when your legs are only 15cm long must seem a long way, she enjoyed every minute sniffing and snuffling, wading through a puddle etc and showed no signs of fatigue on our return to the car.

Looks like we are going to get a lot of exercise in the years to come.

January 21st 2018

We have been feeling somewhat housebound for the past almost three weeks since the arrival of Layla. Like all puppies she has not been allowed out into any public domain until all the appropriate inoculations have taken their course. She has visited the Vet and now has her identity chip and second jab, Friday 26th is D day when she will be allowed out into the wider world and we can take her out exploring with us. On Jan 30th she revisits the vet to have her rabies jab and application for her pets passport ready for a journey to France in March.

She has almost doubled in size and has put on over half a kilo in weight, met most family members and is a star attraction with her antics.

January 2nd 2018

The famous song written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon and performed by their blues band Derek and the Dominoes is a favourite song of mine.

Today a new family member Layla, a nine week old Cockapoo moved in with us, one definition of Layla is : arabic for dark night, and as our Layla is jet black it seemed appropriate. Storm might have been an appropriate name as she is certainly very lively dashing everywhere until she collapses with fatigue.

I’m sure she is going to bring a new dimension to our lives and travels and I expect will feature in future blogs.

Jan 1st 2018

After lunch in a local pub and a mooch around the shops in Oxford we caught the bus out to Blenheim Palace, free to me, courtesy of the bus pass.

The purpose of our visit was to experience the trail of lights that stretch for a mile through the grounds of Bleinheim Palace, we had pre booked by Internet so after collecting our tickets from the office we set off.

There are no need for words to describe our visit, the photos will have to do, even if they do not do justice to the wonderful experience, as many of the displays were in need of a video recording to show them at their best.

December 31st 2017

The majority of today we spent sight seeing and attempting to take photos of the marvellous buildings in the city centre (ok until the battery ran out on my camera).

Then this evening we walked back into Oxford and had a pleasant meal at Prezzos an Italian restaurant which we had prebooked. This was followed by a return to Alison and Peter’s motorhome where we saw in the New Year and watched the fire works going off all around us, making our way to bed at 1am somewhat weary. According to the app on Peter’s phone we had walked over 9 miles today.

Saturday 30th December 2017

Today we drove 89 miles to Oxford where we intend to spend the weekend on this site which is approx 1 mile from Oxford city centre.

We had a reasonably trouble free journey, it was dry and sunny but there was a strong wind blowing which caught us every now and then but as I stuck to the inside lane doing a steady 60mph it didn’t cause us too much trouble.

We were greeted onto the site and shown to our parking spot, because there has been a lot of rain recently we are parked on the tarmac roads that usually are used to access the grass pitches. Five minutes after stopping we were sitting down to a picnic lunch and a welcome coffee, approx an hour later our friends Alison and Peter arrived and they are parked behind us.

After they had eaten we walked to Go Outdoors which is at the entrance to the site and had a mooch around, I bought a torch and some batteries only to find out later the torch didn’t work, so that will be a return visit tomorrow. From there we walked to a pub approx half a mile away and had a couple of drinks before returning the site and enjoying an evening meal. we spent the rest of the evening in Alison and Peter’s motorhome playing games and enjoying a drink.

Below is a photo of Homer and “Fluffles” named after a character in Wallace and Grommet.

December 20th 2017

Having a free day before Christmas we drove to Church Stretton, a small market town in Shropshire situated 13 miles south of Shrewsbury on the English /Welsh border, gateway to the area known as The Marches.

The town is surrounded by hills including the Long Mynd and Caer Caradoc, on the edge of town is Carding Mill valley an area now maintained by the National Trust, you can take an enjoyable walk along the stream from the car park to a small waterfall, Lightspout, It is a round trip of 3 miles and dependant on the weather you will need walking boots/shoes. A great place to picnic in the summer, but very busy at weekends.

Historically there are remains in the area of iron age hill forts but Church Stretton has it’s roots as an Anglo Saxon settlement near to Watling Street, a Roman Road. The church dates from Norman times and there are examples of buildings from across the centuries throughout the town. It has been a market town since the 12th century with it’s charter being granted by King John.

For us it holds a special place in our lives as just over 10 years ago Michelle and I visited here on our first “date”. We enjoy visiting the antiques market housed in a former four storey mill building, there are lots of good priced cafes and pubs and independent shops, today we spent two and a half hours there and could have spent longer but we suddenly realised that the parking fee had run out thirty minutes before!