What are you all up to

Splendid photos M, thanks for sharing them.

Well that's another year over, wonder just how many more we can continue touring as often as we do. I do feel sorry, honestly, for all those who have had extended periods of rain, but thankfully so far we have avoided most of it. Today was no exception as we had just a couple of very short light showers and some sunshine too. We took a trip across the Firth to Culross and enjoyed our walk through the town before lunch and around the Palace in the afternoon. Photos are of the Mercat Cross, Sir George Bruce, his tomb in the parish church and views around the house.

We have one very untidy ‘rubbish’ drawer in the kitchen, I don’t think that I have ever done it out but might have to soon as it’s getting very difficult to close. My kids are always shocked that it’s such a mess, I try to explain that I need to have just one very messy place out of view in an otherwise very tidy house. They think that’s weird, but I think we all have our idiosyncrasies, or is it just me.

The rain has just reinforced the fact that we have a problem with one of our gutters. Thought I would try a Trusted Traders guy. Was a bit surprised when he said he would be here around 7.00pm, dark I thought! Thinking this would only be an inspection how wrong could I be. Out with his ladder and cleared out all the muck. It wasn't that long ago that we had the guttering replaced but one thing he pointed out was that the previous fitters had put a screw through the down pipe and it was this that much was getting trapped on. He has fitted a domed strainer which should prevent it being blocked in future. His visit was very reasonable, I was fearing much worse. Also booked a plumber to change one of our bathroom taps in about 10 days time. 

Nellie I thought you were out all year? Like to see your last post of the day before going to watch Newsnight.

David

No DEBSC - it's not just you - we've got one, exactly the same - christened 'The Man Drawer"!! It's full of all sorts of bits and pieces - not sure what, exactly - but I know they'll come in useful, one day.  Trouble is, I've got a garage and a study, exactly the same.

Well my adventures in Cornwall are no way as exciting as some of you lot, but nevertheless we had a great month and i have to say apart from the last week which was a bit dodgy we had some really good weather which enabled me to do lots of sea swimming or just loafing about in my deck chair. In the main most places we visited were very quiet, my favourite beach is Crantock which was just 20 mins from the site, but i did enjoy swimming with  couple of seals off of Godrevy beach. The photo was taken on our last Saturday at Perranporth, it did rain very hard but fortunately we were in the carpark on top of the rocks.

We came home Sunday, nearly delayed for a day as it was very windy but decided to go for it, the caravan did dance about a little bit, but these old coachmans are built like tanks compared to some you can buy today, so made it home ok, got a bit of water ingress round the front which might have been due to the ferocious rain but need to get it checked out.

Well the old girl is now parked up on the hardstanding and doubt she will move much before Mar/Apr next year, pity really, we used to be away all year round but OH not really fit enough now to endure freezing cold nights in a caravan.

Now down to the nitty gritty, grass needs cutting, had a gardener in to do the heavy /high pruning and he did cut the grass just the once so it is not too bad/.

good luck to all, sorry some have had some not so pleasant times, but my old Dad used to say "there is always another day"  

Oh, and I thought it was just me! I am reassured to know I’m not alone in this behaviour. My drawer’s contents has now been reduced and rationalised, in other words some of its contents have now been placed in another box in the garage but some items were disposed of. One day I’ll tidy out that box in the garage which is now reaching almost capacity.

Strangely I also have a shelf in the motorhome which, for me, performs pretty much the same function.

OH has a large shed and he has more stuff in there some of it I do not know what it is used for as he is a Squirrel haha with different things and yesterday we went to our bin area and there was a old shopping bag next to the bins full of electrial stuff in for folks to help themselves to well he did and had a good sort out back in his shed some useful some not.

Weather not sure what to do some sun and then clouds a lot cooler than yesterday as well.

OH had his blood tests results this morning looking ok except blood sugar has gone up a bit I think lettuce leaves for a few weeks ha ha no doubt the doctor will comment next week.

I’ve had to remove all the bird feeders from the feeding station as this year we are plagued with squirrels which are destroying all the feeders. I have a large caged feeder with 3 feeders inside hanging on the apple tree, problem is the birds don’t like it. Anyway I was busy in the kitchen today so I put them all back, but leaving the kitchen to do some jobs upstairs I left OH in charge of squirrel watch. I returned to find him watching Bargain Hunt, I started to moan when he showed me that he had turned the security camera slightly and was watching on his iPad. Now something useful from his tech mode. 

DK, the reason that most of my posts on this section are towards the end of the day, for me at least, is that I leave CT until I have gone through all my other tabs once I sit down of an evening, and then I start at the top working my way through all that have been posted earlier in the day. We will continue to tour throughout the year, and have already booked a site for X-mas week.  Now looking where we will head to after this trip and into November.

It started off cloudy this morning but the sun eventually came out. Today, after doing a round of washing, we visited Kinneil Estate and found a new walk, following the Pony Trail. After lunch we did a short walk in the Nature Reserve before heading into Bo'ness to pick up some provisions, and by the time we returned to site the washing was just about dry. There is a large turnaround of units on this site with lots of hired PVCs (mainly) stopping for just a single night, but it does mean that most of the 23, or so, pitches are taken each day.

Slowly making progress in transferring my Madeira photos onto the tablet! A few village ones here - the traditional "A" shaped houses in Santana are pretty much just a tourist attraction now, I think just a couple are actually still lived in. (The 2 Dutch ladies in the photo apologised profusely for not moving out of frame, and by the time they did a coach load of French had arrived!)

Just along the coast from our hotel was the little fishing village of Camara de Lobos, main claim to fame apparently that Winston Churchill stayed there and painted several pictures of the place (so now there's a Churchill hotel, Churchill restaurant etc etc ...). Many of the streets were decorated for a festival, apparently they have one every fortnight or so! We caught the local bus there and then walked back to Funchal, a very pleasant hour and a half stroll along the coast.