A little break in North Devon part 2.....Clovelly

A couple of things were included with our stay at the hotel. A free cream tea, bottle of wine etc. and also a ‘day out’ voucher. We opted for a visit to the village of Clovelly. I’ve often thought about visiting it, however it is a bit of a drive from where we’re live and you have to pay to visit it. That is because it is a privately owned village and has been run by the same family since 1738. (We had hotel vouchers for the £7.50 per person fee.)

Another strange thing is that there are no vehicles allowed through the village. A few local vehicle skirt around the village and stay at the bottom, but that is it. You park at the top, in a large car park, pay your dues and make your descent down through the village. And it is a steep cobbled descent! It’s not a walk for anyone with mobility problems. The view from the top is beautiful....

Part of the way down, in a little garden, someone had made a wonderful bug residence!...

A lovely view of the old rooftops....

The author Charles Kingsley lived here for a short time, but loved it so much, he returned many times...

We continued our walk down the cobbles. There were some quirky doorways...

The only way to get supplies from top to bottom, is by pull-along sleds! A lot of the cottages had them outside. And then it got windier and steeper as we got nearer to the harbour...

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Eventually we were at the bottom. Clovelly has quite a small harbour. The fishing boats are smaller ones. Lots of crab baskets stacked up, ready to use. The ladders going down the harbour wall to the water are new looking, but still made of wood....

We sat on the harbour walls with two very cold drinks, the sun was beating down and took in the view....

One can only imagine what it is like to live in Clovelly, as it is so very different. We could have gone back to the car park by trekking up the hill again. However hubby’s back was feeling the effects of such a steep descent and my knee was just starting to niggle, so we cheated and caught the Land Rover back up, going around the village. 

So I’ve ticked Clovelly off my list of places to visit. It’s not somewhere you’d go back to again and again, but I’m definitely glad I’ve been. 

We had a lovely time away. I’ve fallen in love with the hotel and its location. We don’t have big holidays abroad, so I’m saving my pennies like mad to return, perhaps in November or December for a night or two (they do some special offers in off peak times) and I do love the beach in the winter. 

In the here and now, it’s washing, ironing, going back to the gym and eating sensibly again. Until next time, cheerio for now, Ann x

A little break in North Devon

Hello everyone!

Last week hubby and I had a little holiday (3 nights). A few months ago, I had a little windfall. I gave our son and daughter some of it. My daughter put it towards her holiday this year. My son has squirrelled his away, as he is thinking of going travelling at some point. So it was our turn for a treat, particularly as hubby’s back was so painful during our holiday in Cornwall in June. So I booked a room at the Saunton Sands Hotel in North Devon. It’s a beautiful white Art Deco hotel built in 1933 (during WW2, it was painted green, to stop it being used as a marker for the bombers)

We left Tuesday morning and stopped off at Woolacombe for a coffee (turned out to be a cream tea!) and a wander. The weather was glorious, more like midsummer. There were loads of people taking advantage of the weather, on the beach......

Then it was back on to the coastal road to Saunton Sands. I had booked a room with a sea view, but also a balcony, hoping that it might be fine enough to sit out......

 Little did I imagine, when I booked, that we would be having such gorgeous weather. So we spent the time, sitting out on the terraces, walking along the beach ( we didn’t walk the full 3 1/2 miles) and lounging and reading by the pool, which was incredibly warm.  Each morning, around 7.30, I sat out on the balcony with my coffee, watching the sunrise...

and watching the dogs being walked on the beach and felt incredibly relaxed.

The first and last evening, we ate at the hotel and the middle evening, we walked down to a more casual, sister restaurant by the beach. All the food was delicious. We saw some beautiful sunsets.....

Thursday morning, we took a trip to Clovelly, but that will be a post in itself. I’ll leave you with some phots of our time away. Cheerio for now, Ann x

Birthday celebrations

The earlier part of last week was spent doing plenty of food shopping, laundry and other household chores. My pile of ironing had grown again, not because I have been a bit lax, but a lot of my summer clothes I had washed and thought, ‘they’ll need to be vacuum bagged and put up in the loft soon.’ However, the weather is still very warm here in the South West, so I’ve sorted through them. I’ve kept back some summer dresses which I’ll continue wearing (with a cardi, if necessary) and put the rest in the loft pile. So there was a bit more ironing to do than I had originally thought. Still, I steamed through it (pardon the pun!) and am now smugly up to date.

While shopping in the supermarket, I picked up these Gladioli......

Such a gorgeous colour and only £1.70! It makes you wonder what they pay the growers for them, doesn’t it?

I did go to the hairdressers, via the Range, like you do. I had a little mooch around the craft section. I picked up a couple bits and pieces, but I’m going to the Creative Craft Show at the end of September, so I didn’t want to buy too much.

Wednesday, it was my daughter’s 23rd birthday. Until she was 5, her birthday date had little significance (apart from to our family of course) But on her 5th birthday, I left home in the car to pick her up from her reception class, the radio blurted out that a plane had flown into the twin towers. I pulled over and immediately rang my mum, who was at my house, to put sky news on. We made sure our little girl still had a happy birthday, but the adults couldn’t believe what had happened.
This year we celebrated her birthday with a meal at Chiquitos, where we wore sombreros (for a short time!) We had a lovely evening, with lots of laughter but a some point in the day, we all remember what happened when she was 5.

I’m still bringing in tomatoes from the garden........

I’m hoping the larger ones will redden up. The mini plum ones have, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Blue Cross baking for Friday was just a toffee loaf cake with salted caramel drizzled over it, nothing spectacular but it went down well. I had the pleasure of being with this gorgeous mum this week. The rest of her litter were having a snooze in their pen, but she opted to lounge on a blanket just by the pen and cuddle one of her daughters as she fed.....

Today I have been to Exeter City and watched them draw with Leyton Orient. It was very warm sitting in the stand. Hubby left early this morning and won’t be home until late tomorrow evening. He has to work away most weekends. So I have full control of the remote. So Midsomer Murders it is then!

Hoping for another fine day tomorrow, a visit to the gym and then I want to start trimming back more lavender in the front garden. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, folks. Cheerio for now, Ann x

A quieter week

After last weeks gallivanting, this week has been far quieter. I’ve been catching up on the housework and the ironing pile has been reduced from an Everest type mountain to more of a Devonshire tor.

I saw Waitrose had a lot of half price products. This coincided with my having a couple of ‘spend £40 and have £8 off’ vouchers. So I spent an evening making a long list of the products I would use and the following day, whizzed around, tallying up as I went along. Once I got to just over £40, a folded shopping bag went the trolley as divider and the second part of the list was done. By doing two transactions, I could use both coupons and save myself £16, so quite pleased with that!
I’m not loyal to any supermarket. I tend to use whoever has sent me the best money off coupons, or has the best deals. Apart from Asda (where I would have to go to Taunton or Newton Abbot), Tesco/Lidl/ Morrison’s are a short drive away and Sainsbury’s/Aldi are walking distance.

I’m still bringing in the tomatoes..........

these mini plum ones are so tasty. My beefsteak tomatoes are still deciding whether to redden up. I might have to bring some of them in and put them in the window sill.

I was waiting for a windy day to pull up the first of my carrots. My brother-in-law said it would keep the carrot fly at bay. I haven’t grown these particular carrots before, so was interested to see what I would produce. I only pulled three, as there was only hubby and I to cook for. I was pretty pleased, they were enormous and very tasty...

We’ll have some more with a roast tomorrow :)

This came up in the Facebook memories, taken last year.....

I didn’t grow any this year for some reason and have to say I’ve missed not having sunflowers in my garden. So next year, I’ll make sure I do!

Yesterday’s baking for the Blue Cross was Apple and Cinnamon Scones.....

The recipe (one I found on google) was for 9 large scones, but I cut out 18 small ones and just amended the cooking time. Blackberry jelly accompanied the scones.  I didn’t think they were overly ’applely’, you had to grate one Granny Smith apple, but everyone said they were very nice, so that’s all that matters.

This morning my son and I had breakfast in town before he started work at 11.30. He had the big breakfast to start his working day off well. I’m normally very good and just have scrambled or poached eggs, but I was very naughty in this instance and had American pancakes with smoked bacon and maple syrup...delicious!  Extra time at the gym tomorrow, haha!

So thats me done! I’m off to prep the chilli con carne for tonight and then put my feet up for a hour to watch The Ashes. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, cheerio for now, Ann x