Tuesday

Weather a little better today - a few Sunny intervals.    Walked down to Saints Bay - all access to beaches this side of Island is by steep paths or steps. Hardly anyone about and beach kiosks and toilets are now closed for winter,      Nice to be only human being on the beach though.

 

the parish church of St Martin, the standing stone outside,and some nearby houses

 

 

a couple of the tombstones in Churchyard

some pictures of St Martins village

 

Hi from Guernsey

After a rather fraught month or so coping with stresses of having new kitchen and bathroom installed (bathroom still not quite finished!) we are relaxing in Guernsey for a few days.

Green Acres Hotel where we are staying in St Martins is to be highly recommended, especially for the food and the friendly and helpful staff.   

 

opposite the hotel is a farm

the one drawback, if you can call it that, is it is rather a long walk to the bus stop in St Martins (about 15 mins if yiu are fit) but not an option if you have difficulty walking any distance which unfortunately applies to my friend Anne - so we have to resort to using a taxi.   We did get a lift into St Peter Port first day here from local Rep which meant we could then take advantage of Bus which runs all around the Island for just £1.  Fares are only £1 on any bus.     We had a Taxi back to Hotel later.    Weather has been quite warm but mostly overcast since we arrived, today drizzle all day but we did share a taxi into town and visited Guernsey Museum in Candie Gardens (which is at the top of the hill overlooking the harbour). which is featuring at the moment

"Watercolours from The Highgrove Florilegium 

Original artworks for one of the world's most exclusive books "  

   - the first time the pictures have been shown in UK.              Well worth seeing the illustrations are exquisite but no photographs are allowed.    After looking around the rest of the Museum which shows the history of Guernsey we had a coffee and toasted teacake in the adjoining Victoria Cafe.

 

oin the gradens below the Cafe is a statue to Victor Hugo - we would have liked to have visited his house which is open to the public during the year but which closes at the end of September.  The hiouse apparently is owned by the French and this year they banned groups which caused a bit of a headache for the Guernsey Tourist Board who have groups of french tourists coming over for day trips from St. Malo for the sole purpose of visiting Victor Hugo's house..

view of harbour from Cafe

After visiting the Museum we walked down the hill into town

You can walk almost anywhere on the Island but lanes are rather narrow

National Trust

OSTERLEY HOUSE AND GARDENS

 

 

 

high jinks at High Tide at Richmond

On a high tide the towpath is suddenly flooded and this happened the day I was there - people just take it in their stride and the kids have fun!!

the temptation was too great here!

 

Catching up

Been without internet access for a few days so just following up on previous post.  Sad and tragic outcome re lost canoeist,  a 16/17 yr old lad whose body was recovered at 1.05pm following day.    I lost my brother, albeit from an illness suddenly at 17,  and I know how devastated our family were and how the loss never goes away, so can only feel very, very deeply for the Parents.
On Monday 1st August I went on a boat trip from Richmond up to Twickenham Lock, another lovely day,

the skipper and mate

  an assortment of different craft on the river

pedal power

 

this boat is for sale

the approach to Teddington Lock

 

a lovely afternoon for fishing especially just outside your own house

31st July 2011

Left it until late afternoon to go for a walk today as it has been rather warm and the heat doesn't really agree with me.     Walked through St.Margarets down to Marble Hill Park and the imposing Marble Hill House

 

and on to Richmond

 

stayed on the Twickenham side of the river on the way back

 this caught my eye - if I had a large pond I would love to try growing plants in this manner - they are grown in floating baskets and their roots are permanently in the water

this duck seems to have cobbled together a nest made of mainly plastic bags and rubbish - could he be called a feathered recycler!

this was the scene on a beautiful evening by the Thames at Twickenham

 

but it was marred by the big police operation going on 1/4 mile back where they were looking for a lost Kayaker - his upturned Kayak having been noticed earlierby the ferryman

not a thing to brighten anyones day (so far no news has broken that a body has been found so one can only hope and pray that the person concerned made it safely to shore)

this last picture seems to encapsulate the whole thing - a lone woman seems to be just sitting waiting

such an awful thing to happen on such a lovely day

 

over half the things that you see happening on the streets in London ever make the news but this incident unfortunately has see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14359233

Search has been suspended for the night

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/9170182.UPDATE__Police_suspend_search_for_teenage_kayaker_missing_in_the_Thames/?ref=rss