Holiday time (part 2)

It seems like such a long time ago now that I was on my holiday so it's well over time that I shared some more of it.  Maybe it'll take us back to the days of sunshine rather than these horrible wet and cold days that are fast closing in.

After my few days in Stratford-upon-Avon, I went to Dorset for a week, staying in a little cottage on a dairy farm in a tiny place called Pilsdon in western Dorset.  So here are a few photos of the cottage and the farm:

That last photo doesn't look like much, but the calf is just minutes old and is being licked clean by its mother.  I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, having a wander around the farm yard.  Most of the cows are, of course, out in the fields, but as you see there are plenty in stalls in the farm's immediate surroundings.  All of these ones are very pregnant and being kept a close eye on to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the birth.

Now, you'll have to forgive a lot of my photos as I haven't edited them at all so on some there may be a slightly (or very) wonky horizon, or dust on the camera lens :o( Some would be better cropped etc, but I haven't got around to it.  I hope you enjoy them all the same.

Back to the point of the post.  As I said before, I was staying in Pilsdon, which is a tiny weeny place about eight miles north of Bridport.  Attached to Bridport, though also a little place in its own right, is the lovely West Bay, which you will have seen on telly if you saw the crime drama 'Broadchurch' (starring the delicious David Tennant).  I slightly fell in love with West Bay with its long piers with great views back to the cliffs, the quaint harbour, lengthy promenade, wonderful-looking sandy beach (I couldn't get on to the beach in my wheelchair, but I enjoyed the fact that it was there), it's small collection of independent shops and gorgeous little pottery.  So here are a few photos of West Bay that won't do it justice, but will give you a little flavour of the place:

I ventured along the coast to Lyme Regis, although I quickly discovered that it's not very wheelchair friendly as the pavements are narrow, most of the town is built on a hillside which is quite steep in places, and the majority of the shops have at least one step in to them.  I did manage a little wander around some of it, and very much liked what I saw, but I ended up spending most of my time there trundling along the seafront and daring to challenge myself with the cobbles on the cobb (the harbour wall).

(I had a couple more photos of Lyme Regis, but something appears to be wrong with them and they won't load).

Charmouth is along the coast towards Lyme Regis and is the place to go on a fossil hunt on the Jurassic Coast.  I went there one morning just as the tide was going out.  The car park at the beach is attached and in some places sort of turns in to the beach, though the beach is pebbly, as are many of the beaches down there.  I parked as close to the beach as possible and walked the very short way to the tide-line.  I didn't really expect to find a fossil as the best time to find them is after stormy weather and fractious seas, but quite amazingly, I'd only been there a few minutes when I looked down and saw a small ammonite staring back at me in one of the pebbles.  I don't actually have a photo of it, but I do have the fossil itself.  It's only about a centimetre across, but it's mine and I found it :o)  Charmouth itself is little more than a beach, a visitors centre, some houses, a library, and a long street with a few shops on it.  The main attraction is the beach with the small cafe, visitors centre, and tiny shop packed with fossils.  I liked it there though, and here are a few photos.

 (I want to clean up that last one on Photoshop, clearing away the dust that was on the lens)

The one immediately above is of a big fossil probably around 15 cms across, but I couldn't bring it home with me because it was in an enormous boulder that was part of the wave break next to the promenade.  Perhaps if I'd had a chisel and hammer it would've been possible to chip it out of the rock, but I didn't.

Further along the coast, and just over the county boarder in to Devon, is the lovely little town of Beer.  The fantastic thing I discovered about Beer is that they have long rubber mats laid over the pebble beach in all directions so I was allowed full access on to the beach in my wheelchair.  I had a little mooch about the rest of the town, but most of my time there was spent on the beach, taking in the sun and the atmosphere because it's very much a working beach with fisherman tending to their boats and their catches.

I have more photos to share with you of some of the other places I visited, but I think that's probably enough for now.  Besides which, I need my dinner :o)  I'll get back to you soon with another post.

Mix-up

I was away earlier in the week, having a few days up in Bamburgh with some of my family for my dad's birthday week away, although it's not actually his birthday until next week. Anyway, I was with my dad, step-mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew from Saturday until Tuesday. The weather was fantastic, the cottage Dad and step-mum had rented was lovely, and the time together was special. On Sunday we all went on a trip to the Farne Islands, which is one of my most favourite places in Northumberland, and we saw loads of seals, puffins and arctic terns. Actually we got dive-bombed by several arctic terns when we landed on Inner Farne, because some of them had chicks that had decided to take up residence on the public walkway. The parents hovered above, squawking at us and then diving at us in their efforts to get us away from the chicks. That's fine, except that you didn't always see the chicks on the path until you were being attacked by the parents. It was great all the same though, and I got some wonderful photos, although I have yet to download them onto the computer

Monday was spent largely on the beach ... and swimming in the sea! Dad came swimming too, and my nephew, O, came for a paddle. He's only 19 months old and when the waves splashed up on him they were up to his middle, but he wasn't at all phased by it, and seemed to enjoy himself greatly, laughing and giggling his little heart out. When I was drying off in the sun, I made lots of sandcastles for O to knock down. After I built them, he'd look at them, poke them, and then flap his hands to joyfully knock them down. I must have made at least 50 sandcastles that afternoon. After that I buried my feet in a big hole that the dog of a friend of my dad's had dug earlier on. O couldn't quite work out what had happened to my feet at first, so then we (me and my sister-in-law) sat O in the hole and buried him up to his middle. He thought this was great fun, especially when I then built a sandcastle on top of his sand-covered legs. Eventually we had to go back to the cottage - all of five or ten minutes walk away from the beach - to get O fed, bathed, and in bed, but he was very happy and the following day my brother said that he thought Monday had been O's best day of his whole life so far :o)

My brother and his family had to go home to London on Tuesday so that my sister-in-law, N, could go back to work on Wednesday. I stayed with Dad and my step-mum, B, until the early evening, and then slowly wended my way home, following the coastal route, and occasionally stopping off at some of the beaches along the way. It was still warm and sunny then (it's been raining most of the time since I got home), and lovely to take it easy as I made my way back.

It was a very lovely time, and quite a special time too, but also quite hard going on the lungs. There was something around that my lungs didn't like, particularly at night, so I didn't sleep well and had to use my nebuliser a fair bit more than the usual four times a day. I tried to keep from the others how much of a struggle things were, because I didn't want them to worry too much, but it's difficult to get the balance between that and making people aware that there's the possibility of needing further help. Luckily I didn't need emergency assistance, but it's been a bit of a struggle since I got home. Today has been particularly difficult with a sudden lung splat this afternoon when I was out getting my prescription from the doctors' surgery. I avoided having to see the doctor, but only a few minutes after I left the surgery, I ended up nearly collapsing at the pharmacy, and spent the next thirty to forty-five minutes sitting in their consultation room using my nebuliser. I managed to get to the point of being really quite unwell and on the verge of needing an ambulance (or rather, on the verge of agreeing to having an ambulance be called) to being still unwell, but able to get home. I've spent all my time since then sofa surfing, watching the telly, and using my nebuliser to keep/get things under control. I have my community care alarm to hand in case it all goes horribly wrong, but I'm hoping that things will continue to calm and I'll get through at home. Obviously I won't push myself beyond the realms of sense, but I really don't want to end up in hospital if I can help it.

So yes, it's been a bit of a mixed time, as the title suggests - a great time away for a few days with family, but alongside worsening breathing/lungs. Oh yeah, and I'm still trying to catch up with my OU studies, and desperately trying to get an overdue assignment done. I haven't been able to concentrate on study since I got back from the pharmacy/lung splat, hence the watching telly, but I did lots of reading for the assignment yesterday and earlier today, so at least I've done some.

Well now, I think it's time for me to move from the comfort of the sofa and my little nebuliser, to the comfort of the bed and my bigger nebuliser (they do the same thing, but the big one is noisy and not easily portable, so it lives next to my bed). I'll keep you posted with how things go.

Night all.

The letter

Here's a very short and silly little poem I came up with when I was in hospital this time. I don't know why things like this come to me when I'm ill - probably self-distraction - but here it is.

The Letter

I saw a letter on the beach -
No envelope, but free.
It waved and twisted in the wind.
It was the letter C.

Natural beauty

This is a genuine photograph taken at the North Pole, by the friend of someone I've met on the Open University forums. I think it's an amazing photograph and shows just what a beautiful place the world is. I wanted to give credit to the gentleman who took the photo, but I was told that he wasn't bothered about that, just that he wanted it passed on so that the world can see what a wonderful place the world actually is. Amazing, isn't it?

Honk if you're a goose

Early yesterday evening I drove up to the coast at Druridge Bay, which is the most beautiful place, with a wonderful stretch of golden sand that goes on and on and on. To the west of the beach are farmers' fields, countryside and a few villages. I went up there with my dad and we watched the light change as dusk approached, followed by the dark night sky (even at only 5:30pm). Occasionally you'll see a couple of barn owls up that way, but last night we saw enormous flocks of geese come together to make one huge flock that must have comprised several hundred geese all together. They swooped and rose in multiple Vs, honking to each other all the while, like a stadium of football fans who were heading off to the pub in celebration of a win by their team. It was like they were shouting out to each other, 'Come on boys, this way! No, wait, this one's nearer! Hang on, I've heard of this great pub just down there! Way hey! We won! We Won! We Won!' It was an amazing sound, and a awe-inspiring sight. I wish I'd had my camera with me.