Outings and thoughts

Thank you for all your comments on my previous post regarding WiFi.  It was good to read that I am not alone in my opinions regarding technology but also good to have the other side of the argument raised too.  I came across this interesting article recently and also this one which is the other side of the coin - I think you will be able to guess which type of school I would choose!

I'm thinking of buying shares in National Rail as we are using the train so often lately!

Last week we had another day out and this time we took a train to Honiton where we spent a couple of hours wandering round and visiting the little Museum which is the tiny building bottom right in the photo above.

Honiton is famous for its lace - the art of lace making was introduced to Honiton by Flemmish refugees in the early 1500s.  In the early stages of its production it was made by first working individual motifs which would then be incorporated into a background (sounds a bit like Irish crochet to me)   The pieces I saw were very intricate and when I consider the difficulty I had with a tiny scrap I made as part of my City and Guilds Creative Textile course I am in awe of anyone who could do this fine detailed work especially when one thinks that it would have been worked with very little daylight (tiny windowed cottages) or by candle-light.

We had a coffee in the Lacemakers cafe before catching a bus to Sidmouth - a beautiful ride with stunning scenery all seen from the top deck as before! 

I had visited Sidmouth last year when on my BBB II but had only spent a couple of hours here so this time we had time for a better look.

I like Sidmouth it is a genteel kind of town and maybe because the beach isn't fine golden sand it doesn't attract the hoardes like Weymouth with its long sandy beach, Punch and Judy shows and shops all selling candy floss and plastic flip flops, although in fact those were available in the town should anyone want them and of course the schools hadn't yet broken up so maybe it will be different this week now that they have.

We had fish and chips for lunch in the town and then walked up to the Connaught Gardens where we wandered round enjoying the views.

There seem to be a lot of wildflower meadow beds everywhere this year and of course lots of poppies.

We had a cup of tea in the cafe in the gardens before wending our way back to the town for the bus back to Honiton and just made it to the station for the train home.  I really felt as if I had been to the seaside as indeed I had of course!

Our outing on Frdiay didn't involve a train though.  A friend had sent me a 2 for 1 voucher and an article from the RHS magazine about East Lambrook Manor Gardens and although we had been some years back when our French friends were staying and none of us had been over impressed with it we thought we'd take another look as we wanted to visit the Field of Dreams anyway which is only a couple of miles away from East Lambrook..  The manor house is a lovely golden hamstone building set in a couple of acres of garden.

 We were, as before, not blown away by the garden although I think this must reflect on our taste perhaps and I hesitate to say that I didn't much care for it as everyone else seems to love it.  The RHS article was written and the photos taken in late spring/early summer and perhaps at that time it was indeed beautiful but I came away with my overall impression being of a garden which needed work done on it.  I am not fond of neat striped lawn type gardens with carefully spaced bedding plants as you probably know and I love the natural look but somehow this garden on Friday seemed to have tipped over into unkempt.  I know there will be many people who have visited and loved it so this is purely a personal point of view and as you will see from my photos there were bits of it that were indeed lovely I think it must be a matter of going at just the right time when things are in bloom and not when they are going/have gone over.  Sorry E. Lambrook - what is it they say "If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all"?!

Not far down the road at South Petherton is the Field of Dreams which opened last weekend and we had already decided to go there as the afternoon was fine and this didn't disappoint - it was as lovely as when I went last time.

We drove home through South Petherton which is a lovely little town with golden Hamstone houses and cottages many of which have beautiful front gardens, roses in profusion round their doors and altogether a lovely place to visit.  We have taken to going there for shopping too since it has a really good greengrocer, baker whose bread we like, butcher and delicatesen and a small Co-op along with many other individual little shops and a cafe.  We do try to avoid shopping in the chains and to support individual shops wherever possible.

I have spent some time this weekend catching up on the neglected chores: housework, washing, ironing and gardening etc though as I always think nobody on their deathbed ever said "I wish I'd done more housework" but they might wish they'd been out more mightn't they?!  Whilst the summer is here I intend to get out and enjoy it and if the chores get left well so what?!