Cardiff and Bath

Finally we have some photos !

The Dr Who exhibition was great and we had the place to ourselves so I could be silly about these guys...they really are still scary even when you know they are switched off ( joke....but I would have screamed if they had moved...what a girl!!) I did touch the Daleks though but didn't get such a good photo....Poor K9 was looking a bit worn out but I gave him a pat all the same...even though it said not to!

I was impressed with Cardiff and would like to go back to explore properly.....and actually eat the faggots and Welsh cakes instead of just eyeing them up :) I took this photo to show the diversity of building styles......
This photo is especially for Roslyn.....the market was just opening up and I was still full of my help yourself breakfast but I am still kicking myself for not getting a few of these for later on.

Very impressive railway station right next to the bus station which is very handy....hopefully next time I am there they will have done up the bus station or I will be on the train instead!
Beautiful Bath and surrounding countryside would need at least a week to appreciate. We trailed up the nearest hill in oppressive heat to get this photo.....a bit overexposed but that was how we felt!!
This is a very interesting place to stand and watch what is happening and take in the surroundings. The weir was being used by a kayaking club and I got a short video of a couple of them negotiating the channel down the centre. The road is being held up by the pillars you can see and of course they are stressed from the modern traffic. The huge hotel above was taken over by the war office during the war ....luckily it wasn't bombed like Dennis and his family were!
And this is a real Cornish Pasty.....too hot to finish before the bus came but just right by the time we got to Corsham.....yummy :) The paper bags were extra strong and must have been partly plastic to keep in the juices.

This is after 8pm on a stroll past the allotments but sadly there were no gardeners there to talk to....lots of great peas onions and runner beans along with sweetcorn , very tidy too.

Last Post from Scotland!

Just a few pictures before we head off to the airport for my trip down to Cardiff.....Dr Who , here I come!

This is an atmospheric scene near where I was staying in Aberdeen.....it didn't actually rain much and I was glad of some cooler weather.

We had a big adventure and went to Kelty on a double decker bus! Naturally we went upstairs and had great fun trying to take photos from there....some came out quite well :) Then we went to Dunfermline Glen in the searing heat and got burnt :(

This is the house I lived in until I was 6....just the top bit mind you! Strangely enough everything seemed smaller and a lot closer together so we were finished there in 10 minutes and caught the next bus

This is Dunfermline Abbey where Robert the Bruce is said to be buried.

This is the view from the bus on the way through Kirkcaldy taken by Mum of course!

Aberdeen

Well I haven't got the photos on the computer yet but I thought I should put something in here for the dedicated few! :)

The weekend started with a train trip up to Aberdeen and I was pleasantly surprised with the smooth and quiet journey. I had opted for the quiet carriage not really knowing what that meant but when the handsome stranger with the Irish accent started having a fascinating cell phone conversation he was promptly advised to take it out into the hallway between carriages so I missed out on the rest of the conversation!

I had found my allocated seat only to find that the guy in the next seat had his papers and a box of lavender plants on my seat. There were a lot of empty seats so I just went and sat where I wanted and it wasn't until halfway through the trip at Dundee that the ticket man came to punch my ticket. I explained that I wasn't actually in my allocated seat and he said " No madam , but you are on the right train !" and smiled sweetly...nice :)

Anyway , the purpose of the trip was to visit our friend Eric and his partner Ruth but I will add more about that when I have the photos organised!

Off to Kelty where I lived until I was 6 and then Dunfermline Glen where Robert the Bruce is buried. This evenings activities involve a bus trip to Glenrothes to visit my only surviving Aunt :)

More Italy :)

We were meant to go to Livorno on the 3rd day but there was a special announcement by the captain at dinner time to say the berth we were meant to use had been deemed unsafe so we were going to La Spezia instead. This was disappointing for Mum as her and Bill wanted to go back to a cafe in Livorno to see their friend they had made there last year but it ended up being much better and I think it was my favourite place. This photo is the waterfront...we appreciated the shade and the breeze as it was hot!

Sorrento was pretty special too and much hotter than we expected too :)

The taxi driver told us this was a good local restaurant but we had plans for the Foreigners club!

Getting there....

This is what you see when approaching Sorrento by ferry. We had real Italian pizza for lunch at The Foreigners Club just to the left of this photo. 29 degreesC that day!

Naples just after dawn.....I got up early to see the first berthing and then went for a swim :)

And I couldn't go through Charles de Gaulle airport without taking a few photos....this is where you go through security to the duty free shops and boarding gates. One is asked to remove ones shoes and given a delightful pair of blue plastic bag slippers to wear for the 2 or 3 metres when one is able to replace the slippers with your shoes!

Cruised out!

Here we are back from the cruise already! Quite an unusual experience but very enjoyable and I would do it again now that I know the ropes :) There are several hundred photos to organise between the three of us so you will only be getting a few even though Mum spent hours on the laptop editing on Picasa...a great tool for fixing up your photos so that they all look beautiful.

This is the swimming pool I had all to myself first thing in the morning....lovely salt water so very floaty!!! I didn't make it into the bubbly ones though ....next time!

There must have been thousands of these sunbeds...the red road is for people wanting to walk or run around and everyone else is supposed to keep to one side but I kept on getting in the way of people...very polite they were!

Edinburgh....cakes, castles and nearly crying!

This photo is for my workmates! They are familiar with that look when cakes are around :)

This is Princes St gardens complete with the hundreds of people out enjoying the lovely weather with the Scott monument the rocket-like structure on the left.

The lawn had apparently been dug up the last time Mum and Bill were there so they were very surprised to see the lovely green grass ......complete with human adornments :) I found this difficult to photograph but I should have read my camera booklet and found out the different settings I could have used. The trick here was to get St Giles to appear in the archway.

We had just come out from Jenners where we had consumed a lovely lunch and I finally got my fudge doughnut!

This was taken through the window of the restaurant with Arthurs Seat in the distance and the new railway entrance in the middle. I am impressed with the great improvements to what was a dirty, black and depressing area.

The main shopping street with as many monuments as I could fit in! At the time we didn't realise that the shiny bus thing on the right is actually one of the new trams which was open for public viewing. Just like a lovely new tube train really....40m long and there will be 18.5 km of track.

And of course The Castle! There are hundreds of people up on the ramparts so we thought there must be something going on when the gun went off.....12 times!!!! I was pretty upset as I don't like loud noises, had got a bit of a fright and really just wanted to cry :(

So , here is the surprise I got when on a whirlwind trip to my old school.....Findlay is my maiden name and Douglas Leslie is now a successful lawyer :)

Catching up with Scotland

Hi everyone and sorry for the gap in posting....I have been too busy!! Friday was a trip down to Peebles and Dawyck gardens , Saturday was shopping ( great fun!) and organising photos, Sunday was a visit to Mums partners house to see the photos on his blu-ray machine and then I caught up with a couple of school friends at our old High school ( a surprise for me there!). Monday has been a bus trip up to Dundee via St Andrews using my flash bus pass which I just wave at the driver and it was lovely to see the improvements to Dundee as it was a dirty , grey place when we lived there.

Just realised that I haven't downloaded the most recent photos so the surprise will have to wait!

This is Guildford....I really liked it
This is Hamish and Winston...I really liked them too :)
This is a handkerchief tree at Petworth. The whole place is huge and the house is stuffed full of paintings by Turner , Van Dyck etc. and other art from way back (can't remember dates!) I got a crick in my neck looking up at them for so long.
....and this is Heather and Bill since I finally made it to Scotland and some cooler weather...
.....and this is where I am staying for a while :)

I hear there is snow forecast in Dunedin so I hope all you New Zealanders are staying warm :)

Wisely , Avebury, Stourhead and Kew

Gregor took this one of the alliums at Wisley since my camera battery had run out…..they are very popular over here!
This is the handkerchief tree also at Wisley.
A couple of the bigger standing stones at Avebury….mind-boggling place!
Stourhead was beautiful….very calm and lots of rhododendrons.
This is one of the huge glasshouses at Kew….fantastic!!

Today Gregor took me down to Wisley via Guildford which is a very charming city with great wee shops and coffee bars.The girls at work will be pleased to hear I had a delicious almond croissant there :)

Then it was a short drive to Wisley where we were told to go up the hill as the handkerchief tree was in flower. It's a huge place and there were a lot of other people there but not so many as to get in your way or anything! Anyway, on the way to find the tree i noticed that I could hear a train but it must have been a very long one since it wasn't going past. Turns out that it was the noise generated by the two nearby motorways!!!

It was another beautiful day and very hot….hopefully it will be cooler tomorrow :)

A green and pleasant land

Finally got around to downloading some photos but there are too many to choose from.......
Gregor , Carol and Colin....ages add up to 145!! This is the first day in Hampshire and very hot sunny weather drove us inside to do this on the computer! Lovely lunch at The Blue Bell and a good walk with the dogs and I saw my first fox!
Well we found this signpost and I was a bit confused......as usual!
This is the alpine house at Kew on the first day of exploring Kew. The greenhouse on the right is absolutely huge and full of amazing plants , fish and lizards!! I had to get out after three quarters of an hour as I was too hot :)

I'm Here!

Just a quick post before heading off to Stourhead with my brother. Hopefully I can put photos of Kew on tonight as the two days spent there recovering from the horrendously long flight. The weather is lovely and warm and it is strange to be back in early summer from early winter. Hope it is not too cold over there yet!

What I am leaving behind #3

Well , this is the last post before takeoff and I must thank everyone for their kind wishes and pleas to have a great holiday!! :) I will try my very best to do exactly that and to post as often as is possible to prove it too.
This last week was hectic but enjoyable ; the plant sale went well and I made a new friend! The open garden was fantastic despite a hiccup over the correct address and bottom photo is from there. The club meeting was a great success all round and I went to bed thinking that everyone should belong to a club since it is great fun :)
I had a lovely lunch at Orokonui with Dennis on his 70th birthday and we were impressed with the place although the mist crept in (top photo). Then on Wednesday night it was the free movie "The hedgehog" which I recommend as a quirky little number..... although I had had a large glass of delicious wine beforehand which may have had some influence ;)
And for the last two evenings I have been packing my case and day pack and finishing "The girl who played with fire"....very exciting and bloody ending! The third book is waiting for me at Mums and hopefully we can watch the dvd somehow...it doesn't seem to be on the open market yet :(
Anyway , all that is left to do is have a bath and get to bed since it all starts tomorrow.....Yay!

What I am leaving behind #2

Having waited 13 years to get a new kitchen it now feels very comfortable and easy to work in and when I do cook there is enough room for other people to come in and get what they want without getting in the way! Strangely enough it still gets dirty and messy but is much more satisfying to clean up :)

What I am leaving behind #1

Well at just over a week until departure date I am wondering when the panic is going to set in!
The truth is that for about the last month I have been going about my business in Dunedin thinking to myself "I really like it here!". So, I am looking forward to coming home before I have even gone and this must be a good thing as that volcano could do anything at any time and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it!!
I was watching "Julie and Julia" yesterday and felt very guilty for not posting anything for ages so that is why I am blogging now...great movie too and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I wonder what movies will be on during the flights?
Today I was meant to take my camera with me to take some photos of the big construction site just down from my work but I forgot the camera.....I have been forgetting a lot lately so maybe that is a form of panic? I made a stupid mistake at work today too so I hope that real panic/excitement will kick in soon to avoid any more disasters;)
I am going to be really busy doing plant related stuff ; a talk on edible perennials and companion planting tomorrow , a plant sale on Saturday (helping),an open garden on Sunday and a club meeting on Monday. So I am off to organise the club library books and add some new ones now!