May 29, 2013 · 6:10 am

I inspired some-one or two – apparently!!!

Huge thanks to my beautiful daughter, Emma, for nominating me for my very first blog award!! Do you think she might be biased? Oh well, I’m just happy she loves me and the inspiring blogger award is a bonus. Emma and her family are the faces behind this little gem, http://addyourpieceofhistory.wordpress.com/

I’m going to cheat a little here because I was also nominated for another one recently from the lovely Jenn over at http://jennsmidlifecrisis.com and because it’s my blog and I can just make up the rules as I go (or maybe I’m not supposed to but I will) and the rules are the same, you get a twofer – that’s a two for one and I get to do this just once!! Wow, that’s great sentence building there, lets just continue shall we?

Now comes the difficult part.

The rules of accepting the Very Inspiring Blogger Award are:

1.  Display the Award Certificate on your website.

2.  Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented you with the award.

3.  Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers.

4.  Drop them a comment to tip them off after you have linked them in the post.

5.  Post 7 interesting things about yourself

Okay, the first two were easy enough and I’ll list some of my very favourite blogs after I’ve dug deep in the cotton wool inside my head to come up with 7 interesting things about myself.

I’m guessing No. 1 on the list at the moment is that I’ve left home and family to go travelling for a fair chunk of this year, at the moment I’m in Scotland and I’ll soon be heading over to spend the next four months or so in Europe

I have a tattoo, an angel in memory of our last baby who died when she was five and a half weeks old

I have a double jointed thumb!!!

I almost died when I was about 8 months old and was consequently diagnosed as a coeliac

Ummmmm, I’m really not that interesting – I’m a worrier and have battled depression more than once – bit deep and meaningful there, sorry!

I didn’t spend a Christmas with my Mum, Dad and brothers until I was 20

Bugger, that’s still only six, I should have read some other blogs to see what sort of things people share – okay, l love being in water, whether it’s a swimming pool, a dam, the ocean or just the shower, it makes me feel good.

Okay, hope I haven’t scared you off, now for some bloggers who I find interesting, funny, inspiring – these are in no particular order, they’ve all wonderful.

The Palladian Traveler

My French Heaven

Homesick and Heatstruck

Jenns Midlife Crisis

Erin Hill Sketching

Dianne Gray author

Travelling Crone

The Brown Road Chronicles

Add Your Piece of History

The Bloggess

Miss Four Eyes

Sketch Away: Travels with my Sketchbook

ParisDreamTime – Andrea’s Sketchbook

Rarasaur

She’s a Maineiac

I hope I’ve played the game correctly, and that you go check out some of these great blogs.

Cheers,

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May 25, 2013 · 11:30 am

My first real castle in Wales!

Another round robin trip today to Pembroke, think I’ve been to some of these train stations three or four times now. You have to keep going back to some of them to get the connections you need, had to change twice to get to Pembroke. I felt like an old pro today, I knew where I had to change, what time my next train was and even where to go when I got there. Except………………. I walked straight past the bloody Kings Arms Hotel; thank goodness they advertised they’re only 200 yards from the castle otherwise I could still be walking!

Teeny tiny stone staircases in Pembroke Castle, Wales

Teeny tiny stone staircases in Pembroke Castle, Wales

The pub had some great features, my room had a fantastic big window seat, the dining room was full of old pots, pans and other bits and pieces, just an all round good place to spend a couple of days. I figured since Wales apparently has more than 600 castles, I should at least have a look at one of them, and for me Pembroke was a good choice. Only a few rooms are furnished, there has been a power of work done over the years restoring large parts of the castle with other parts left in their ruined state. It was full of circular staircases – very tight, cramped stairs and lots of them, leading up, down and along passages, in and out of rooms. Thank goodness there were big holes everywhere so I couldn’t get lost! I was there fairly early, hadn’t seen anyone at all and when I walked into one of the rooms a video started playing and scared the bejezuz out of me; don’t you feel like an idiot when that happens, looking around to see if anyone saw you – even though the reason you got such a fright was because there was no-one else around.

The cavern under Pembroke Castle, Wales

The cavern under Pembroke Castle, Wales

Not content with scaring myself silly once that day I did it again later at the underground cavern. A VERY dark, steep circular staircase leads down, down, down to the cavern – and then f’n birds or bats fly past and scare the absolute crap out of you – I swear, my heart either stopped beating or jumped out of my chest, not sure which, but it was soooooo scary!! Once I got back to the surface – in a hurry, I might add, I sat and did some sketching for ages before heading back to the pub for a drink to help me warm up – hot chocolate, not wine this time.

Pembroke, Wales
Old type barometer in pub at Pembroke
Ruins of Pembroke Castle, Wales
Corridors in Pembroke Castle, Wales
On the walls of Pembroke Castle, Wales
Pembroke Castle, Wales

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May 24, 2013 · 1:15 am

Poor old Newport

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May 16, 2013 · 7:00 am

Ilfracombe – just because I could

Again I chose a place based on the fact it was on the way to where I was going and it was also a good distance to travel in one day on the train. I also planned to have a ‘do nothing’ stay at Ilfracombe because I hadn’t read anything about it, but as usually happens I found places to see and do. One of the more unusual things to see was the tunnels leading to the beach – although it will cost you £2.50 for the pleasure!

One of Tunnel Beaches, Ilfracombe

One of Tunnel Beaches, Ilfracombe

An entrepreneur had six tunnels hand carved in the 1820’s by Welsh miners to access natural rock pools on the seaward side of the cliffs. I think only one of the naturally formed pools is still properly intact and four of the tunnels still in use. At first they had segregated pools, men through the tunnel to the left and women through the one to the right; but somewhere along the line the rules were relaxed and mixed swimming was allowed. I was the only one there for quite a while and it was a bit spooky going through the tunnels and being down on the shingle beach with cliffs all around; especially after reading some of the accidents that had happened over the years. Yeah, I know, I let my imagination run away at times.

A Bath House that used to house, wait for it, salt water baths – of course, is nearby. I’m not sure if it’s open at all but it wasn’t when I was there. Some doctor way back when had the brilliant idea that bathing was good for the health and there’s a boiler still down near the beach that was used to heat and pump the sea water up to the baths. The baths were apparently in little cubicles under the house – all sounds rather primitive now, doesn’t it?

Back view of Verity, sculpture by Damien Hirst - Ilfracombe

Back view of Verity, sculpture by Damien Hirst – Ilfracombe

One of Englands well known and controversial artists, Damien Hirst, lives nearby and has donated a sculpture to the town to sit at the mouth of the harbour for 20 years. It’s called Verity and from what I heard it doesn’t sound like many locals are very impressed with it – see what you think!! I tried my hand at a sketch while I was at the harbour – mind you, my eyes really aren’t good enough to pick out the detail from the distance I was at, so I drew the left hand side.

I also had the good fortune to meet Ruth and her husband Steve, who are the owners of the Harbour Lights guesthouse. Ruth left a little pack of fudge in my room after my first night with a note wishing me a good time and when I left the following day she gave me a postcard of Ilfracombe with another lovely message wishing me safe and happy travels – a genuinely nice person.

So, I enjoyed my ‘do nothing’ break in Ilfracombe, next stop Newport – again because it’s on the way and a good distance to cover in one day.

light at the end of the tunnel – Tunnel Beach, Ilfracombe
tunnels to the beach at Ilfracombe, England
Gate to Tunnel Beach
Just one of Ilfracombes many huge old hotels
Boiler used for Ilfracombe Bath House

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