Photo Scavenger Hunt :: December 2020 #4 My Own Choice

Hi there everyone 😀

Today it’s a bit of a case of ‘two birds with one stone’. I'm joining in with the last of Kate's final link up parties for 2020's photo scavenger hunts ... and starting a new annual blog post series.

The theme for today's scavenger hunt is ... My Own Choice.

I was really hoping to share some new photos that I was so looking forward to capturing during our Christmas break away in the lovely Peak District but sadly, events overtook us and we had to cancel at pretty much the last minute.

Having seen Sharon’s annual review of her year over on Sunshine and Celandines it made me think about something similar. I always make my own photo calendar each year and I tend to do it in November time, looking back over the previous 12 months for suitable photos for each month.

The photos chosen all tend to be meaningful in one way or another and I thought it would be nice to share them here as my entry for the scavenger hunt and as a way of summing up our 2020 ... so here we go ...

January
With no clue as to what the year would bring we started out by ticking off one of the 50 things I wanted to before I hit 60. Martin and I managed our second visit to Warner Bros Studios in January ... we wanted to visit Gringotts Bank and this time we took mum and dad. We were all very impressed and had a long, but lovely, day out together ...

February
At the beginning of 2020 Martin and I were both really hit by a new year lethargy which was just not shifting. I’d been suffering with a terrible dry cough, which had confined me to bed for a few days (mmmmm I do wonder) and I booked us a last minute short break to Windsor which I hoped would kickstart our year. It was a brilliant trip and another adventure ticked off my 50 things list. Little were we to know at the time that this would be our last trip for a good while ...

March
Our March holiday to Dunkeld in Scotland was cancelled and, like the rest of the country, by the end of the month we were confined to barracks and a spring of making the most of the garden kicked in. It was lovely to see everything else coming back to life and putting on a fabulous show for us when we most needed it ...

April
We were all still in lockdown but we were trying to make the best of things and decided that we would do a bit more on the veg growing front. Seeds were bought and started off and new raised beds were ordered ...

May
Since our trip away in February it was May before we really went anywhere again and this was a really short wander around our local castle grounds ... I really wanted to see the wisteria and was so pleased to find it still putting on a fabulous show .... 

June
By June we were allowed to meet up with friends and we managed to go 'out out'. We had a lovely afternoon on a private visit to Felley Priory. We literally were the only people there ... apart from the gardeners. We finished off our visit with an afternoon tea out of the back of the car on the camping chairs ... which ended up becoming a bit of a theme through the summer for us ...

July
The weather was still doing us proud and we managed to make one of a number of visits to a local walled garden, where we had a wander, enjoyed the peace and quiet and took a posh picnic lunch ...

August

We were back in the walled garden, this time we took mum for a wander ... it was still lovely and quiet and absolutely stunning ...

September

Things were starting to get a little more back to normal during September and we did manage to get out and about a little bit more and even managed a two week holiday in Devon. My calendar picture though was from a visit we'd made to Sezincote in The Cotswolds during July, which was a real treat and so different to anything else we'd ever seen before ...

October

My October image was from a walk we did in The Peak District back in August. It was a bit of an effort but did end up being a really lovely day ...

November

In November we were 'locked down' again and my photo for the month is taken from our two weeks holiday, back in September, on the very lovely East Devon coast ... This one is from the beach at Budleigh Salterton, our first big day out ...

December

And so we come to the end of the year, with a photo that pretty much sums up the best of it all ... a fabulous view and another picnic out of the back of the car ...

So 2020 ... it's certainly been different and brought plenty of challenges. It is always good to look back though as there are always things to be thankful for and new memories been made ... stay safe everyone and all the very best for 2021 😘😘😘

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Random Ramblings :: Christmas Eve

Hi there everyone 😀

It's Christmas Eve and we are not long past the winter solstice so the days will now slowly start to get a little longer. With Christmas literally within touching distance it feels like time for what may be my last Random Ramble of 2021.

So what have we been up to?

From scanning my iPad photos the answer seems to be not very much at all.

On my phone there is the evidence of a few short wanders ... for socially distanced catch ups, which is as much as we can all really hope for at the moment ...

.. to Elford Walled Garden ...

... to Fradley Junction ...

... to Lichfield ...

... and a couple of trips to Barton Marina ...

We are so lucky to have so many lovely places fairly close by that we can take advantage of.

There has been the tiniest bit of festive cooking and baking ...

... a bit of last minute gift making ...

... and an even littler bit of decorating ...

We had thought we’d got Christmas sussed this year. We decided in the summer ... that as it looked like we wouldn’t be able to get together with family ... we would book ourselves a Christmas hideaway in the Peak District ...

With government changes to rules and guidance this first reduced itself from a seven to a five day break and then, when it was literally just around the corner, got cancelled completely ... we were just a little bit gutted. We had been so looking forward to hunkering down in the hills in front of the log fire, watching Christmas TV, going for walks and eating ourselves silly.

As ever, in this year of ups and downs, we’ve soon got used to the idea and will just be doing the same but now at home ... the walks may not be as pretty and the fire is gas but there is still lots to be thankful for ... and we might even manage a few doorstep chats with friends.

And, of course, there will still be plenty of room for a picky tea ...

I'm guessing that whatever you are doing it isn't likely to be what you had planned or hoped for, but I think that now more than ever is a time to be thankful for all that we have and focus on what we can do and try not to worry too much about what we can't.

Thank you all so much for following and reading my ramblings across the course of the year ... I'm sure there will be more to come in 2021.

Stay safe and have a Merry Christmas everyone 😀 

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Photo Scavenger Hunt :: December 2020 #3 Tree

Hi there everyone 😀

The theme for this week's Chrimbley themed photo scavenger hunt challenge over on I live, I love, I craft, I am me is ...

"Tree - a snap shot of your tree, this year's, last year's, the black and white one of you as a tiny tot helping to decorate, the one on the village square, that shiny white one in the shop, a native tree bedecked with lights and bird feeders - any festive tree :)"

We always had a Christmas tree as kids and when I left home I went a bit crazy and bought a nice artificial tree and load of baubles ... from John Lewis!! I don't know what I was thinking, I must have had more money than sense 😀

Anyway, it's fair to say that the baubles definitely outlived the tree and it wasn't too long before I became converted to the idea of a real tree and Christmas really used to start with the drive to Cannock Chase to pick a tree. This soon tailed off a bit and we found somewhere a bit more local, but it was still a real big part of the build up to Christmas ...

Things have changed a bit over recent years. I no longer have room for a full sized real tree and this is a picture of Martin with the last tree that we bought back in 2014 ...

... and here it is back at home ready to be adorned ...

... a bit of an arty shot ...

Do you know ... I can almost smell the scent of pine that a real tree brings.

And here she is ... in all her glory ...

... with close ups of some of the decorations ...

This post is actually making me feel a little sad ... I'd love to have a tree like this again.

Since this tree we've spent a couple of Christmases away from home, either on our own or with family, so we've not bothered decorating at home, but when we have been at home we did have a small potted one, which Martin came home from Aldi with ...

It did really well and lasted for about three years, but this year it got a bit neglected in the garden and we have had to wave it good bye. 

I did post a photo of this tree last year, pretending it was ours, but it is a picture of one of the trees at Castle Howard, somewhere I'd wanted to visit for ages and we managed to visit during their Christmas 2017 event, which was just stunning ...

The next link up is due on 31st December and the theme is 'My own Choice'. As we are due to be away for Christmas I am hoping that I might find some photo inspiration for some new pictures, rather than having to raid the archives 😀

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Exploring East Devon #7 :: Another Day in Sidmouth

Hi there everyone 😀

We are back in Devon for today's post. It was the Monday of our second week and the last day of summer. It was forecast for another scorcher and we decided to load up the car and have a beach day on the Jacob's Ladder beach, back in Sidmouth.

Well ... as you can see our timing was a bit out and our plans seemed to be thwarted, at least for now anyway ... not quite the glorious sandy beach that I had in mind ...

We decided to avail ourselves of the cafe in the Connaught Gardens whilst we re-thought our day ...

We'd wanted to eat here when we'd wandered through the gardens previously so it was no hardship at all ...

We decided on another wander around the gardens ... 

... taking in the views with the tide in ... which was completely different ...

We also collected the last of some information that we needed to finish off a Geocache that we had started looking for on our previous visit ...

We then opted for a walk down the slope that you can see in the above picture and down to the beach ...

It looked so different to the huge wide sandy beach we'd seen previously and we decided to have a walk back along the Millenium Walkway and into the town centre in the hope that by the time we made our way back the tide would be on the way out ...

The town centre was quite busy but we did have a bit of a wander. It definitely looked like a nice place to explore on a quieter day ...

By the time we were ready to start to head back the tide was well on the way out and we were able to walk along the beach ...

I soon had my shoes and socks off and paddled my way along the beach through the rockpools ...

... and it was just so lovely that even Martin had a paddle ...

Eventually it was time to head back up the hill ...

... where this was our view ...

It was breathtakingly stunning.

We grabbed our picnic from the car and found a lovely spot back in the Connaught Gardens for a lovely finish to a glorious day 😀

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