Wednesday, 8 March 2017

From Dorset to Devon to Dorset to Kent

We went to Devon to visit my grandmother (dad's mum) who lives in Plymouth (it is the centre of the universe for those of you who may be ignorant of this fact) and woody's friend Chris who moved to Devon fairly recently.

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We stopped off for a coffee and a loo break at Buckfast Abbey. They make a fabulous tonic wine which is like a herbal port that I love but unfortunately it contains caffeine so more likely to keep you awake than help you sleep. They are also known as Fastbuck Abbey which gives you an idea how popular the tonic wine is!

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In the grounds is the unprepossessing Methodist chapel

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The pub where we all met for lunch did not have working heating and as people came and went we sneaked closer and closer to the fire and added logs to it ourselves as no-one else was doing it and it was very cold!

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Not a clear photo but between the glasses are some rather big eyes belonging to a spaniel who hasn't been fed for some significant period of time like about 5 minutes or so.

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This is some ancient urn that may be worth a fortune (according to grandma) but she can't see all the cracks in it!
Back in Dorset I had a hair cut for the grand sum of £10. As I haven't had it cut for several years this has been a decent saving.
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Yup really cut

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Before...

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And after! Guess who had his cut too!

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The plait was sent to the Little Princesses Trust to make wigs for children usually with cancer

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We walked around the village on our way to friends for lunch. This is the rives what runs through the village famously flooding the church and causing much chaos

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This is the view down to the county town of Dorchester 

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And here are the friends we had lunch with! Duffie...

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Scrumpy

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And Princess Lily

We had a lovely pizza lunch and then sat in front of the wood burner and chatted. I had a tour of the woodshed - nothing nasty there but a lovely creative space for writing and art and Woody gave iPad and iPhone lessons

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Another day, another lunch - a friend who works in Bridport met us for lunch at Oh Crumbs! A cafe run by people with learning difficulties and we had a very cheap, tasty and filling lunch before a wander round the town

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A cappuccino in a glass mug

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And a stop for a quick walk on the beach...

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In February...

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This is the window at my friend Kate's work. You only get to see if you use the loo at the accountants!

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And the high st. The hill in the background matches one in Devon and was supposedly planted to be confusing for the excise men hunting smugglers.

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We collected mum from a friends house on top of a hill with views down over the town of Bridport before heading home for supper

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Valentine's Day found us sampling the Thai restaurant in the county town of Dorchester

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Cornish crab to start

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Moving on to pork and octopus all the way through to duck and salmon main and a chocolate mousse with green tea ice cream and cherry sake. All very tasty!

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This is the floodlit tower of St. Peter's from the car park - an unusual view as not many people come round here and when we arrived it had been shrouded in cloud 

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And driving back to Kent was brightened by this lovely rainbow - always a sign of hope

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And the day after driving round Kent this rainbow in a cloud - all the more magical because it wasn't raining.

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And the same cloud from another location - love rainbows!

Hope all well with you and lots of love
B&W xxx

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