England
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Way Down South…
Having had 10 rainless days here in April, we get payback on first day this time which is pretty much a total washout. So we get a few housekeeping issues at the cottage sorted, watch the rain fall, listen to the wind, until we go to meet Joy & Charlie for a beer at The Shipwrights as it threatens to clear up. Somewhere around the third sip of Tribute the rain comes in horizontally across the harbour and the pointlessness of an outdoor beer in this weather becomes apparent very quickly. COVID restrictions mean indoor beers are banned, so the day is basically over. Sunday is a little better and…
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From South East To South West And A Look At Traffic Lights
Friday May 7th and we now head back to Cornwall, this time for a full fortnight of walking the coastal paths and exploring different parts of this terrific peninsula. The slow arrival of Spring mentioned in our previous post continues to confound. On the long drive down here it is obvious that leaf growth is delayed by the continuing lower than average temperatures; frost prevails, cold winds continue and this week the media showed pictures of heavy snowfalls in Scotland. In fact, a ski resort which has been closed all winter due to COVID has now reopened with good snow – the first time the resort has ever been open…
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Reunion In Constable Country
Dedham Vale is one of those quintessentially English locations full of charm and full of history; the countryside is gentle yet beautiful, the villages within the Vale the stuff of picture postcard perfection. You could film a period costume drama here without changing anything except the traffic. Straddling the boundary between the counties of Essex and Suffolk, this is where the world famous artist John Constable was born, lived most of his life, and was of course the subject of a large number of his most famous works. As you stroll around these parts it’s easy to see why Constable was so enamoured, it’s a lovely area to this day.…
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Nesting Season Is Here Again
Along the stretch of coast between our home in Herne Bay and Birchington to the east, lies a sand/mud cliff rising almost vertically at the back of the beach. At this time of year, as reliable as clockwork, something happens here which makes this walk a little bit special. The colony of sand martins arrive here at the completion of their intercontinental migration, returning to their customary nesting holes in the sandy cliff. Nesting season from start to finish sees much activity, and from the nesting function itself through to so the frenzy of feeding feed the hatchlings. That time is here, and Michaela caught some of the action on…
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Pandemic Perspective
It’s hard to get through a day at the minute without hearing somebody somewhere say “it is what it is” in one situation or another. Whilst we don’t particularly like hackneyed phrases such as that one, we concur with the philosophy that if you can’t change something then there’s no point dwelling on it. We would hope that one thing which comes over on our blog is that we are both of a positive disposition; neither of us, thankfully, are prone to depression or similar, and neither of us are even what you would call worriers. So for the most part we have managed to stay upbeat over the 17…
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Home From Cornwall….For Now
Ten days in Cornwall in April and we didn’t see a drop of rain, now that’s got to be a blessing. COVID restrictions and protocols made it a different kind of visit, with no indoor catering coupled with cold evenings and limited table space making seeking our main meal a bit of a daily challenge but with a bit of flexibility and resourcefulness we avoided going hungry. Our new found virtue of patience, no doubt brought on by the slower pace of retirement, came in handy at times. And so we have completed the first of three UK trips which we have in the diary to fill in some of…
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The Sleepy Shores Of St Mawes
Approaching St Mawes is in one respect just a little bit like approaching a Greek island, in that the very best view you will get all day is the view you get from the ferry as it turns towards the harbour. Of course it is yet another quaint and picturesque location and is great to explore, but there’s no denying that the first view is the best view. The little ferry, which can be caught from either of two quays in Falmouth, is itself a picture of quaint tradition and bobs rather pleasingly over the waves as it crosses between the two headlands. Within Falmouth harbour sits a characteristically grey…
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Sea Life Safari
Pictures speak louder than words for today’s post, as we head out on a sea life safari taking in uninhabited Atlantic islets and spectacular sections of the craggy coastline. It’s an excellent excursion where we encounter large numbers of dolphins who follow us in a display of what our guide calls “bow riding”, as well as multiple sightings of seals, guillemots, razorbills, gannets and other seabirds. The sun shines, the Atlantic is calm and Michaela is able to capture some very decent shots…..
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The Camel Trail: Bicycles, Birds And Beeching
One of the things we find difficult in Cornwall is turning our backs on the magnificent coastline and heading inland, but because our two breaks here will give us a total of 24 Cornwall days in April and May, we feel we can justify one walk away from the sea along the Camel Trail. The Camel Trail is a walking/cycling route following the river upstream from Padstow to Wadebridge, then on through Bodmin to its final point at Wenfordbridge, though today we only walk the 12-mile round trip to Wadebridge and back, by far the trail’s most popular section. The route is more of a favourite with cyclists than with…
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Port Isaac: Fact Meets Fiction
All of those features which make up the classic look of a Cornish fishing village are magnified in the stunning little town of Port Isaac, 12 miles or so north of Padstow on the Atlantic coast. Its sea inlet is narrower, its sides are steeper, its streets tighter, its older buildings more charming, and its whole appearance is one of extreme attractiveness. It has a kind of impossibly quaint perfection. The only slight downside is that Port Isaac is so appealing that it was used as the location for a popular and rather fatuous TV series, Doc Martin, in which it became the fictitious Port Wenn, a theme which is…
