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Wednesday 31 July 2013

Where to start?

I am so far behind with posting about all our adventures but first the best news of all was received last Sunday morning when Ian looked at his emails and learnt that he had passed his exam., not just scraped through either but a respectable pass so we are now reconsidering our future plans yet again. Just added to the joy of our Cornish holiday, we went last Thursday and returned yesterday.

We stayed at the Fieldhead Hotel  http://www.fieldheadhotel.co.uk/ in Hannafore, West Looe, we were delighted with the service, food, ambience and small details that make a holiday. Just one tiny example, there were facecloths, this pleased me as I like to give my face a good scrub and rarely do hotels includes these as well as bathrobes and slippers for their guests. So lovely again not to stay in a chain but a family hotel with a manager who worked so hard to ensure all was well for his guests. HIs wife was the chef, the meals were of a very high standard, lots of fresh fish, looking back I have had just one meal with local sausages at a National Trust café, all the rest have been fish based so it didn't matter I forgot the cod liver oil tablets.


This was the view we encountered on our walk into Looe last Friday morning, very steep coming back up, in fact there were quite a few steep walks and roads, even worse for driving that I chickened out and left it to dear Ian. Am just so unfamiliar with narrow country lanes, especially with no passing places, farm traffic and cloudbursts on our way to Fowey. Much as we like to leave  the car behind as we did on Friday, to reach places such as Lanhydrock, Fowey, Mevagissey and Heligan Gardens driving was the only way.

In Looe found a lovely second hand bookshop, one of our criteria for a good holiday along with good food, and this one was good, we purchased four books between us.




Our visit to Lanhydrock was fascinating, especially the kitchen areas, even spotted scales identical to mine, indeed much of the equipment is similar to modern kitchens, perhaps made of modern materials that won't rust though. We didn't realise just how big the house is, that meant a very late lunch so we didn't have time to see the grounds. Perhaps next time we go to Cornwall a return visit will be in order.    http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lanhydrock/ 

Another enjoyable aspect of our holiday was the spontaneous conversations that sprung up between holiday makers so we received an invitation from one couple to visit them  in their  Florida home; in the National Trust café we learnt about teaching maths to infants (sorry KS 1) is best done by teachers who don't find the subject easy for they see the difficulties from the child's viewpoint.

Our return visit to Heligan Gardens was to link up with an architect friend with whom Ian had worked in the Middle East. David Rowe is a watercolour artist based now in Falmouth so the gardens were a convenient meeting point where we could catch up whilst seeing some of the extensive gardens. We were presented with one of his watercolours, so delighted both to have one his paintings as well as the memories it brings back for Ian as a colleague and friend. Whilst in the café there was a fascinating conversation with the parents of three delightful little girls, Dad was German, Mum was Japanese, the girls had been born in Russia and now Dad worked in England. Dad kindly took this picture for us, in spite of the poster behind we weren't waiting for Godot.






Just to end, on our way back yesterday we stopped in Honiton for lunch, and found a proper wool shop, The Wool Stack  where I bought a hank of creamy coloured Artesano definition sock yarn. Some luxury yarn for hexipuffs, for a brief second I thought shawl, but having made 236 hexipuffs I would like to concentrate on completion. Joining up this number will take time. Honiton is full of antique shops, found a basket with four divisions for bottles, just £8.50 so handy in the car when shopping, plus an illustrated  book about London between the wars.

A few weeks ago we watched a TV programme about the A303 road so I'm chuffed to say I drove the whole length of it yesterday, even noticed the insignificant parting from the A30, fortunately the journey homeward was better than the jams we encountered going west.

Will end my rambles aware that I haven't mentioned Fowey, the boat trip on which I took more photos than any other time, the bistro and cake shop with dog. Well, another time.

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations to Ian for his exam!

    Your holiday sounds great, and I am looking forward to seeing more pictures.

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  2. Isn't the A303 a great road. I live very near to it. Lovely photos of your trip. Must check out the shop in Honiton. Was it on the main road?

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  3. The Wool Stack is at 17 New Street, Honiton EX14 1HA, the only road off the main shopping street. Shop is on the right as you walk away from the main street. Hope this helps, very well stocked shop, had Knit Pro needles and some good yarn too with a friendly owner.

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    1. Went to the Wool Stack,,, very friendly and helpful. Even the husband is knitting!

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  4. Congratulations to Ian on a very satisfying result. Glad your holiday went so well.

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  5. Sounds wonderful! I love Cornwall. And very well done to Ian.

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  6. Hang on, I must have missed this post. I'll read up about your Cornish holiday next, but first of all, many congratulations to Ian. What an achievement! You must be so proud of him and he deserves to be proud of himself.

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