CATCH UP TIME

Can it really be more than 4 months since I last posted?  Where did the summer go?  September is  here and autumn with it and the hedgerows are full of berries and ruby red rosehips, the mornings are misty with an occasional promise of sunshine to come and although it is over half a century since I went back to school or even college I always think of this time of year as a new beginning, time for a new start.,

Our summer has been a mixture of hospitals both me and Mr M (I am glad to say all is well with my eye and I am now about to have the other eye done) outings on our own and with friends political upheaval in the UK and so on.

I have done a bit of crafting - now that I can see better I felt that I should do some crazy patchwork and my first piece was a case for my glasses - inspired by my eye op and this side represents the before....

 ...and this after with the ruched fine lace representing the fog I felt my eye was stuffed with in the day or two after the op and the grey stitching the barbed wire I felt was in my eye before all became brighter. 

It was so useful that I made another one for my reading glasses but this time it just is rather than being some sort of therapy and being inspired by anything.

 Then a friend was telling me about some little baskets she had made and sent me the link so I could have a go too and here is my effort but I didn't put a handle on mine.  It's all ground to a bit of a halt now though as I seem to have been out and about more.

We had booked to go away for a week leaving on Referendum day (after casting our votes of course) but had had to cancel due to Mr M stumbling against the bedroom wall and barely breaking the skin on his elbow which then became infected for some reason so that he couldn't move his arm and his hand was like a pound of sausages poor soul.  Two trips to the hospital and 3 visits to the doctor and soon all was well but he didn't feel up to the planned walking break we had planned so instead a little later we went to Brixham for 2 nights and enjoyed a change of scene. We stayed in the brown building overlooking the harbour in the above photo.

 We walked up to Berry Head which had stunning views and an excellent cafe!

This little lighthouse is the shortest in Britain but its position at more than 200 feet above sea level makes it the highest! Cute isn't it?

 A  lovely day - and on the way back we stopped at a hotel for tea and views  before reaching the hotel where we had a lie down on the bed till it was time to go out for some fish and chips for supper!  The short break did us both good and we resolved to reschedule our cancelled break for later in the year.

 We spent a lovely day with friends at Bowood House enjoying the gardens, lunch and good company.

 We went on the train to Salisbury for the day and walked round the outskirts

In all the times I have been to Salisbury I had never been inside the cinema but I had heard it was worth a look and sure enough it was - being a 15th century hall - not your average cinema entrance is it?

Another day Mr M and I took the train to Exeter and on to Lympstone where we did a walk round the village and after lunch we walked back towards Exeter along the estuary next to the railway line.

We walked as far as Topsham from where we got a bus back into Exeter and the train home.  I wasn't actually on the railway line here but had poked my camera through the wire netting fence to take this photo!

Another Exeter walk this time we got a bus from the city centre to Polsloe Bridge where the path set off between a pub and an off licence not a very auspicious looking start but within a few minutes we were in open countryside and climbing away from the city and its noise.  We stopped for our picnic lunch of a sandwich and a shared bottle of lemonade, purchased in Exete,r overlooking this view.  Shame it was a bit hazy but we enjoyed it none the less.

 The path climbed and wove its way round a field of hay that was being turned - the smell was wonderful and took me back to childhood days.The only sound the tractor as it went back and forth and the birds high in the sky - lovely

Soon we were on our way back to a bus stop where we took the bus back into the city and a cup of tea and a scone in the Real Food cafe and then the train home.

So you see we have been out and about  quite a bit and recently we went away on the cancelled break - coming soon as they say:  Planes and ghostly trains, gardens and countryside, cottages and mansions,  the Templars and the law, finance and fire and a birthday lunch.  Wonder if you can guess where we went?  These photos are a few clues.  Back soon with the photos when I get them sorted.