Pocklington on Tuesday

On Tuesday morning Emily and I left home at 6am for our trip up to York. We had a good run and made it to Ali and Rob's house in Pocklington (approx. 25 mins from York) by about 10.45am. Yay for Satnavs!! After unpacking the car and unwinding for a bit we headed out to Burnby Hall Gardens for lunch. The gardens were the inspiration of Major Percy Stewart who left the gardens in trust for the people of Pocklington. After lunch we had a look through the Stewart museum which gives you a glimpse into Major Stewart's life and travels. In the garden there are two lakes which hold one of the largest collections of water lillies, in a natural setting, in Europe and are beautiful to walk around.

There was also a woodland garden with a couple of wooden scultures. Robbie had fun showing us around as he had been here on a school trip already.

One of the water lillies

After Burnby Hall Gardens we headed out to see Robbie's school which is in Warter (situated on one of the highest points in the Downs - Ali was telling me this leads to her receiving texts from the school whenever it looks like there is likely to be a lot of snow as the school can become cut off and the roads are difficult to get up.) We also stopped off at the Madhyamaka Kadampa Buddhist Centre which is in a beautiful peaceful setting. We walked around the main house and had a look at the view but, unfortunately, the tea rooms are closed on a Tuesday so we didn't get to have tea and cake.

An old church next to the retreat.

We had a lovely meal in the evening and by 9.15pm, my head was nodding and eyes closing even as Ali talked to me :) so I headed off to bed. We had a busy day to look forward to on Wednesday.

xx

Leah's 6th birthday

Yesterday Emily and I went to my friend Ali's daughter's 6th birthday. Ali and I became friends when Emily and Jake started school and have, therefore, known Leah all her life. She used to tell Emily that she was her sister ;o). Her birthday party was at Manic Monsters in Edenbridge and I didn't expect to have any problems finding it because my Satnav knew the postcode. Turned out I was wrong, as we got near to our destination we found the road was blocked off and turning around caused the satnav to tell us to do a U turn. Long story short, I resorted to the old fashioned method of asking someone for directions - thank you kind stranger! We got there a little bit later than expected but still in time for the fun! Unfortunately, Manic Monsters don't allow you to take photos in the main area so I could only take some when we got into the party room.

Birthday cake being brought in Blowing out the candles

Birthday girl

Happy Birthday Leah!

Matthew

Marc, Ali and Leah

Adam (Emily's brother)

Matthew, Jennifer and Neil

Jake (Leah's big brother)

Goofing around The 2 Emilys

After the party Ali invited a couple of families back to the house. Leah got to open her presents, play her new guitar and hit the pinata. The adults got to relax, have a couple of tea and some snacks that Marc prepared. It was a lovely way to end the afternoon (apart from Jake having to go up to the hospital to get his eye checked out. Someone had poked him in the eye accidentally and it had actually scratched his eyeball above the top eyelid. He's now on antibiotic cream for it. Hope it feels better soon, Jake!)

Back at the house, Leah plays her new guitar

Hitting the pinata

And finally, because it's not often that I get a photo of Charlie where he looks decent (unlike Tom who is very photogenic ;o) ), here's one I managed to capture the other evening. Can't believe we've had him 3 years this month!

Hope you've had a good weekend

xx

Rye

Yesterday morning, while walking the dogs, I decided I felt like having a day trip out. My original idea was to go to Eastbourne but when I suggested this to Emily, she wasn't keen. My next suggestion was Rye. I have a friend, Lynda, who is working at Rye Harbour (almost a little village on its own) at the moment and I suggested we pop in and see her and then go into Rye town centre. Emily agreed. Having never been to Rye before, we programmed the SatNav and set out. Looking on the internet it said it should take about 1 hour 15 minutes - nearly two hours later we got there! We made our way straight to the harbour first and found Lynda who gave us directions on where to park. Long story short, we found our way and then set out to explore. Rye is a town of narrow streets and little side roads. Lots of individual shops, cobbled streets and plenty of history. Unfortunately, yesterday there were also loads of tourists and it seemed every time I went to take a photo someone would step in front of me or I'd have to wait for another group of people to pass before getting a quick shot before the next group passed by. Here are a few of the photos I did take and hopefully it'll give you some idea of what Rye is like.

This setting was right on the High Street

High Street

The Parish church at the top of Lion Street

The walkway down the side of the church which cuts through to Mermaid Street

West Street

Mermaid Street

(I was quite glad we were starting at the top of the street and walking down the hill as the cobbles weren't the most comfortable to walk on)

The Mermaid Inn

(Mum and Dad had stayed there with Iain and Louise on one of their holidays here before the moved back)

The House Opposite (the Mermaid Inn)

The House with Two Front Doors

Corner of Mermaid Street and The Strand

Our car parking was only for two hours so after walking around Rye we decided to head out to Camber, hoping to go and sit on the beach and have something to eat and drink. We weren't planning on staying long (as neither of us was dressed for the beach) but when we got there they were charging £5 to park the car. So, we carried on driving and ended up at The Place - a restaurant near the beach which looked quite nice.

We were both ready to eat by this stage as neither of us had had a proper breakfast

So, when the food came I took a quick photo before putting the camera away and enjoying it!

We're now looking forward to driving back up to York next week to stay with Rob, Ali and Robbie and get some sightseeing in - as well as having lunch with Jon's Dad on his birthday. We'll be gone from Tuesday to Friday but hopefully I'll get another post in before then.

And before I end, Happy 3rd Wedding Anniversary to my niece Theresa and her husband, Will for today.

xx

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

It is one of those lazy Sunday afternoons, I have loads I should/could be doing but don't feel like doing any of it. :o( I know I'm going to pay later because it still all has to be done but preferably not right now. So instead, I'm listening to Ben's Brother and writing this post - it's not all bad! This morning I followed Cathy's tutorial and learnt how to put a frame/overlay on photos - it worked well and I was really excited - until I tried to print the photo off and I can't get it to print with the border at an even distance all round - very frustrating (and having measured the photo paper, doesn't help that it's not a true 6 x 4!) Anyone with any suggestions, please leave me a comment (click on comment at the bottom of the post and it'll open a new box). On Friday evening we went round to Debbie and Dave's for a braai (bbq). Penny and Malcolm were staying with them for a couple of evenings and it was our chance to see them again before they head back to South Africa. The morning had been wet and overcast but the evening was glorious - warm, still and dry and we sat outside until just before 10pm. It was another very enjoyable evening; lots of laughter, going through a couple of scrapbooks I'd taken with me (Penny is also a scrapbooker) and just generally catching up and enjoying the company. Thank you Dave and Deb for a lovely evening. Penny and Malcolm, enjoy your time with Brendan and Kerry and then safe journey home.

Dave cooking on the braai

Jon and Dave (with the inevitable glass of red wine) Emily

Penny and Emily

Food time

And finally, because we haven't had any photos of Tom on the blog recently, a couple from Friday. I was trying out my external flash and he was my subject :).

He doesn't look over impressed, does he!

Didn't take him long to get fed up and go back to sleep.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to take some more photos this week. Emily and I are also looking at going back up to York for some sightseeing at some stage, I just need to chat to Ali first ;o)

Hope you are having a good weekend.

xx