What are you all up to

Well, the rain stopped yesterday 😀. Naturally, after a very wet dog walk. It was still grey!

Dry so far today 🤞quite windy, but it's warm. Dry dog walk, but I'd overdressed and was too warm 😂. Haven't said that in a while. Fields drying nicely 🤞just might get the spring sowing in - I would like to eat!

Garden help tomorrow, so want to go and assess tge garden and priorities. I'm just waiting for the washing machine to finish and peg it out.

I'm impressed with all the cleaning that's going on. It will be lovely to see the sun but I expect it will show up all the jobs that have been neglected over the winter.

Time to shift...

We've come for a short dog friendly hotel break at Rutland Water this week, a part of the country we haven't visited before. The weather's not bad and today we walked from the village of Hambleton around the "peninsula" which is quite a geographical oddity - if you look at the map you can see it's a large land area inside the lake itself, accessed by just a single road. (Ralph knows the walk like the back of his hand/paw, having completed the circuit twice!) 

Far reaching views across the water and the village itself has some interesting buildings including a 13th century Norman Church, an "Old Telegraph & Post Office" and several thatched cottages.

It’s an area we know fairly well moulesy having lived not far away, it’s a really large lake and can be heaving in summer weekends.  Keep an eye out for the Osprey ‘Maya’ apparently she is back in the area already.  We saw the Osprey’s and chicks when we visited the hide there last year.  Enjoy your break. 

At last a sunny warm day 20C best day so far for the last few months of rain and more rain, Washing done and did managed to hard prune a field maple that has got a bit overgrown  very easy to cut and now got a full trailer of branches ready for a tip run in the next few days.

A couple of things to do in Cahors tomorrow and may call on a friend who has had more tests and will see consultant next week but knows she will have to have her gall bladder removed, she said she is bored of not being able to do much and not sure when she will be able to get back to work as a home help.

Enjoy your break  moulesy  a long time that I was in that area as went to the bird fair many years ago and very wet at the time.

Glad you had a lovely time. Not far from milliehull and myself. Sorry you've had wet weather! It's actually been dry all day today, but VERY grey. It did dry up yesterday afternoon.

Read your post completely wrong! 🤣🤣 Left my reply to cheer you all up!

Enjoy your stay it's a lovely area. Hopefully it'll stay dry whilst you're here. 

Yes, just been reading that Maya returned yesterday and have been looking at the pictures on the webcam.

We've only just realised that we're less than a mile down the road from the famous Gardener's World venue Barnsdale Gardens - should really have twigged given that the hotel shares the name! Sadly, they don't allow dogs at all so we'll have to give it a miss, probably not the best time of year anyway.

Too late to edit the above, but have just seen that Maya's partner (seems just to be named "33") has also returned today so all good news on the osprey front.  

Enjoy your stay at Rutland Water moulesy. It is indeed a lovely area. I have traced my ancestors to that area, particularly to the little village of Manton. I expect there is a lot of water in there at the moment! What a pity that Barnsdale Gardens dont allow dogs. They are a well worth visiting. One of my birthday treats is a visit with afternoon tea there for myself, our daughter and our eldest daughter which I am looking forward to when the weather is better.

Good day today weatherwise, we've had a few damp days but not heavy rain, I think we are to get that tomorrow.

The decorating is finished for now. The living room is back as it should be. Just the carpet to shampoo but it will have to wait until a dry day. 

With a bit of luck we should be able to start on the MH next, was hoping for a few days away before Easter but that looks as if it might not happen now.

No grass cutting going on here, will be another couple of weeks at least before that happens.

Just heard on the news tonight that the female Osprey at the Loch of the Lowes has returned and is busy tidying up the nest, male not arrived yet.

Good to hear some are getting away in their vans and that MIL is making good progress.

Bl**dy Essential Maintenance!! Here is my unedited post from last night, just a day late. I will be back later, hopefully.

Our last day here in Scotland before we head further south. It was dry but full for most of the day but warmer than recent days. We had to story up before our so called in at both Lidl and Aldi and managed a couple of walks inbetween. After getting done what I could for an earlyish leave in the morning, we have to be off for 10:00, I managed to fit in a swim in the site's pool. It has been quite a time since I took to the water and might feel the effects tomorrow. 

This has been our first experience of a large commercial site and on the whole a favourable one. The touring area is no where as regimented as the majority of CC sites, and although the toilet block is not up to the standard of both clubs it was adequate, at least for me. The price at this time of the for a fully serviced pitch was about half that of a club site, and just as quiet. Would we come back? Perhaps, midweek around the same time, or at the end of a season. We did anticipate that there would be few tourers on site, however there have been at least 60% of the 40 pitches taken, with as many tonight as at the weekend.