Wednesday, 28 May 2014
From Southend we moved on to our hotel in Maldon - Le Bouchon - which is a first class small hotel with an excellent restaurant where you can book in on a stay and dine package. This trip was done via Wivenhoe to take Bill home and have lunch at the revamped Black Buoy Inn before checking in to Le Bouchon.
The next day (Thursday) we drove to Colchester to buy a UK Sim for Mary's iphone and then to Bill's where he was waiting to take us to lunch at the Jubilee Hotel, at Ardleigh with his friend Terry O'Brien. Our experience with the girl at the Three company where we bought the Sim was not inspiring and we have since discovered that she sold us the wrong package. She was in a hurry to move on to another customer and very smartly dropped us - think he must have been much more interesting than two old Aussies!
Next day was Friday and we went to a village close to Maldon on the Blackwater Estuary called Tollesbury. We took a walk around the Tollesbury Wick Marshes. These marshes make up a reserve of 600 acres of coastal grazing marsh, sea walls and saltings. The reserve forms part of a Special Protection Area for wild birds, particularly overwintering birds. The walk is via a public footpath of 8 km from the marina in the village and return following the sea wall. This sea wall was constructed from the diggings of an inside ditch which then formed the Borrowdyke. Here are two pics selected from our picture gallery on the blog. As you can see it was a beautiful sunny day.
 |
| Lightship |
 |
| Yachts returning to Harbour. Mersea in the background where Marilyn Mckenna is from. |
There are about
three of these buildings built originally to store sails for one of the America's Cup Challenge. One has been converted into a cafe and the others are used for a variety of storage and businesses.
Saturday, 31 May 2014
A short trip to March to be welcomed by Alan and Tina. Jodi and Danielle came round later in the afternoon and Danielle had the youngest Smith descendant, Poppy with her. She is delightful and such a happy little girl. Linda and Roy also visited as they were heading off that afternoon in their caravan for a month's stay close to Yarmouth. We got to know Yarmouth fairly well when we lived in Norwich for six months back in 1995 and from memory there were the usual lovely gardens along the sea front which I expect are still there. I expect that some of the sad looking water front houses have been revamped as it was a nice seaside town.
Sunday I took an early morning walk along the River Nene and around town. Took some photos and came across a road accident which kept March in lock down for about three hours! Nothing much seems to have changed in March since we were last there in 2011. Alan and Tina took us to lunch at the Chequers Hotel, not too far from March near Wisbech St. Marys. Danielle and Poppy and Jodi and Duncan came as well. A great meal, but we are eating far too much!
 |
| Jodi and partner Duncan |
 |
| Canal Boat on River Nene at March |
 |
| The youngest Smith descendant, Danielle Cox's daughter, Poppy |
Alan playing the fool with his two daughters,his wife and granddaughter. Missing Jodi's
two children, Georgia and Mason
Monday, we went to Peterborough to try to resolve the phone situation. Got a bit of the way to resolving it, but still have to do more! Also had to attend to a banking matter, but I did manage to get in some retail therapy and my first visit to M&S. On the way back to March called in on Lynette and Darryl. Lynette sends her love to Janiece and Therese. You will be sorry to learn Janiece that she has lost contact with Neil. She is very happy with her job at the Funeral parlour where her boss is called Charlie Brown.
Tuesday, 3rd June.
A long drive across country to South Wales to visit our friends Ann and Stephen Evans. We met them when we were all on a trip to New Zealand in 2001 and have caught up physically with them three or four times since. They live at Dinas Cross near Fishguard and it was Ann's birthday, so we went to dinner at the Ferry Inn, near Cardigan. It is in a lovely setting and with daylight saving it was still light till around 9.30. There was a striking sunset over the river and the tide was coming in very slowly.
We swapped husbands.
Wednesday, 4th June
Next day dawned very grey and very wet. We lazed around in the morning catching up with all the happenings within the Evans family and going for a tour of the holiday cottage they own next door. Called Mein Mawr (not sure of the spelling) it has been used in a couple of films recently. One was a horror movie which is on You Tube but as there was no reception there I haven't had time to look it up yet. We also toured Stephen's shed. It reminded me of all the hoarders I know, but Stephen claims that he knows exactly where everything is. After lunch, we headed off to do some botanising. It was pretty bleak when we found what he was looking for at Ceibur - Lathyrus Japonicus (American Sea Pea). I think Brian may have deleted the photo I wanted to insert here. We were all posing and pointing at a pretty pink pea flower with everything being blown to pieces.
Then to Cilgeran to see the ruins of a castle and a coracle. The villages around this part of the coast were the home of coracle fishermen. Perhaps the most famous example of one of these unique boats was the one taken by St. Brendan which was re-enacted some years ago for a BBC TV series.
 |
| Coracle in the Friendless Church |
 |
| At Cilgeran |
Then to Manor Deiji to a very old church which is looked after by an organisation called the Friends of Friendless Churches. We took quite a few photos and Ann and Stephen sat in the upper class boxes a couple of which even had their own fireplaces, and Brian and I were of the lower orders in the pews!
 |
| The Upper Classes |
 |
| The Lower Orders |
Finally to a lovely church on top of a cliff overlooking Mwnt Beach. Then back to Glan Y Mor (Welsh for close to the sea) for a delicious casserole for dinner and a cosy night by the fire.
BRIAN GOT SICK OF WAITING FOR ME TO FINISH THIS LAST NIGHT AND POSTED THE BLOG BEFORE I HAD PUT IN THE PHOTOS OF OUR TRIP TO CALDEY. HE WAS TRYING TO MAKE THE PHOTO OF "THE UPPER CLASSES" CLEARER BUT WHILE IT WORKED IN THE DRAFT AS SOON AS HE PUT IT INTO THE BLOG IT WENT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL - WHAT YOU CAN JUST SEE IS THAT THEY HAD THEIR OWN FIREPLACE AS DEPICTED IN THE BOX WITH AN EMPTY PEW ABOVE.
Thursday 5th June.
When I pulled the curtains back, I looked out on a beautiful view of the sea lit up with a very bright sun. Unbelievable after the previous day. Breakfast with home made toasted bread and jam from home grown fruits of which both Ann and Stephen are rightfully proud. We left around 9.30 and Stephen drove over the mountains to Tenby, about an hours drive. Then a small ferry boat across to Ynys Byr (in Welsh) Caldey Island.
By coincidence while we were preparing this section of the blog, the BBC Show Grand Designs was on the TV and it was about the restoration of the old Tenby Lifeboat House. Unfortunately none of us took a picture of it when we were there. But above right is one from the net.
It is now the home of an offshoot of the Benedictine Order of Monks, known as the Order of Reformed Cistercians. The order was founded in 1098 by an Abbot from France because he and his followers thought that the Benedictines had become too worldly. Their aim was to restore the original purity of the Rule of St. Benedict (the more things change, the more they stay the same as far as I can see!) The current monks live a strict lifestyle. They make a lifelong commitment to the monastic way of life and take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and observe a rule of silence between the hours of 7 pm and 7 am. They rise for pray at 3.15 am; and attend eight services including concelebrated Mass and parts of the prayer sessions are sung in the traditional plainchant. According to a guide book we bought, the regime of prayer "is balanced by periods of manual or secular work, designed to keep their feet on the ground to help them earn a living and in modern parlance, to become "rounded" human beings. Initially they tried farming, but the weather being so inclement meant that it was extremely difficult, so they went into the perfume industry and tourism. They also make fudge and chocolate. We bought some, but haven't eaten it yet.
We did a walk through the village up to the Lighthouse and had a picnic lunch looking across to Cornwall. Stephen and Ann did some botanising at a pond on the way round and we ended up on the beach where he was photographing and recording more plants. I'd never thought about it before, but botanists seem very like twitchers to me.
Back on the late afternoon ferry and a wander around Tenby, A pint in the Tenby House Hotel, a drive to a pub for dinner opposite the Carew Castle. Then onto a typical Welsh pub at Cresswell Quay for another pint. And so we returned home, as I was taught to say when I was learning to write essays in primary school "tired but happy after a lovely day in the bush"!
Friday 6th June.
Left Ann and Stephen to their preparations for a baby sitting visit to one of their sons, and we headed off to Ashford in the Water which is where I am writing this. Enough for one day my bottom is getting sore and it is time for a drink!.
Saturday, 7 June 2014
Me again - very rainy day today so mainly indoor activity such as catching up with our blog posts. The weather cleared in late afternoon so I headed off to get some fresh air - two hours later I arrived back at the cottage at about 7.30 - thank goodness for daylight saving. I managed to find the Monsal Head Track but came back via the road route. I recalled the comment of the young Englishman that got lost in the Blue Mountains near Sydney when upbraided by his rescuers for not having a map, compass and some food. He said in defence
" I'm English; when you get lost in England you just keep walking until you come to a pub". Well I came to a pub and they duly directed me
to my home base.
