A busy September

 

Well, looking back, no wonder we’re cream crackered. There has finally been some decent weather and we have definitely made the most of it. Hope you enjoy the little montage video which should just about cover it all.

Bryn started school this year; always a defining moment.  Weekends have been packed with kayak trips (both family trips and big boys trips). Christa and I got away on a great wedding anniversary day and found a beautiful isolated cove littered with ammonites.

Lots of cycling too as you can see. Morwennas 1st real hills in Hemyock were obviously no bother. Thanks to Nayfe and the guys at www.chailosim.com for the tunes. Glad to get out with Hal and Nik for what looks to be the last of the Summer sun. Bring on the Autumn, its time for a rest!

 

Bigbury 2012

 

 

Another fab weekend spent with family and friends in South Devon. The weather was a little rubbish, but once the kids have got wetsuits on they don’t seem to notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUPS were all thanks to Will and Amy. Great fun paddling down the River Avon on Sunday. landed on the beach after drifting down the river and had fun in the 3 ft of surf at Bigbury.  Got some great pics of Morwenna learning to surf. Thanks to all for coming, hope we can do it all again. Next time, we have to make it across to the Pilchard on Burgh Island!

 

A great week of fun in Cornwall.

 

 

We owe another great week to Dan, Anna & the kids again. Although the weather wasn’t fantastic, camping in their back-garden worked out really well. We took out our new family-sized kayak and got all 4 of us into it, which will be repeated plenty of time this summer. Its lovely to be able to share my passion with the kids, and they seem right up for it!

Great to meet up with a lot of good people whilst we were down. Most notably, Nick and Jenny Batho took me out on their Westerly Griffon out from Mylor, down the Carrick roads and over to the Helford. Which got me thinking, would the kids also enjoy a bigger boat? Hmmn.

 

Anyway, enjoy the vid. Its filmed on Christa’s new waterproof Sony Camera. Next post is likely to be our Bigbury waterfest. Hold on to your Speedos!

Bude to Ilfracombe. well, nearly.

 

This trip almost cements my growing desire to stitch together all the fantastic areas I have had the pleasure of paddling.

2 weeks ago I enjoyed a fantastic kayak from Lyme Regis to Lulworth Cove. If you remember the previous post, you will see I went from PLymouth to Lyme. Having paddled round Cornwall for charity just before Morwenna was born, it only makes sense to connect this trip together with the paddle out to Lundy I did with John Kellie 8 years ago.

You can probably see where this is going. Its really only a small leap of faith to do the trip from Lundy to the Gower and then the Gower to Pembrokeshire the the circle is complete. Then I can really allow myself the sense of completion.

Anyway, recently married Will Batho joined me on this leg of the journey, and much fun ensued. We cut the trip short by finishing at Appledore and got some welcome help with the shuttle from Nick, Jenny and Amy. Hope you can come on many other weekends like this Will.

Kids and Doors

 

I think the kids must have seen that viral video of a little girl climbing up the doorframe, since this has been their favourite pastime since school finished.

 

Family Bowling reunited!

 

Joe and Alayna came down last weekend with the baby Lily. Lovely to see you all, glad you could finally make it down. There were of course countless photo opportunities with the kids, but here is just a smattering.

Missing the chickens.

 

We lost our chickens this spring to another fox attack. Bugger. Kids were upset, not to mention us. I refused to get any more until we have fully fort-knoxed (fort foxed) the area. I’ve compared our eggs versus the ones from the shops-guess which is the odd one out?

We will be doing some work on the house this summer, so I going to build a low wall around the enclosure, then the welded mesh that stops foxes. There was I thinking that chicken-wire was to keep foxes out, but it seems its only to keep chickens in. Oh well, you live and learn.

The garden just isn’t the same without them, but the kids are now very clued up to other nesting birds. This is an old blackbird nest that we found empty. Bryn has just found a pigeon nest up his favourite tree, so watch this space for baby pigeon photo’s!

What a great day

 

Christa is away walking from Stonhenge to Avebury, so its been up to me to entertain the kids.So what better than to remove the telly? Socket set out and wall mounting off. It is nowhere to be seen and the kids dont miss it. Lets hope it stays that way.

 

After a lovely morning playing in the garden and planting out the butternut and spaghetti squashes, the kids found our 1st strawberries that were ready for picking. Netting them has definitely helped keep the pigeon damage down. That and a friends air rifle.

Then up to the Blackdowns to meet up with Chris, Roz, Alex and Harry. Lovely circular walk at Tristam for 2 hours (well done kids) ending in local beer, then fish and chips AND pizza. Well, why not. Enjoy the vid

From Plymouth to Lyme Regis.

Well, I wasn’t sure it was possible to do this trip in 5 days, but the weather forced me to think again. In the end I had only 4 days to do the trip, since gale force 7 was expected for this afternoon. So the last 2 days were 60 km and 50 km respectively. Even my blisters now have blisters!
 
Don’t let anyone convince you that the South Devon coast is straight forward. Forget the English Riviera, there are some of the majestic and unspoilt beaches I have ever seen, either at home or abroad. There were literally dozens of beautiful coves and beaches without a soul on them.
Needless to say, if they had been in Cornwall, they would have been mobbed. This is the Bantham at different ends of the tide.
 
Even if you forget the distance covered, this is a technical section of coastline to navigate, particularly on Spring tides. Start point had 4+ knots of overfalls steaming out to France AND and whirlpool! Needless to say I didn’t get the camera out at that stage.

Thanks for all the support from our friends, but particularly to my long suffering wife, who understands my occasional need for solitary confinement.

Fun in the Kitchen

 

This is a little of what goes on in our house over the deep mid-winter. It just goes to show that kids don’t need many toys to have fun.

  

Morwenna loves to help mum in the kitchen. When cracking the eggs for a cake mix, she declared that the eggs (above) were smiling! There were only 2 eggs in the bowl so one must have been a double yoker. Diner also tuned into a set of carrot finger puppets in a bed of leeks and onions.

 

We opened the next 2 more carefully and as you can see, the chickens would have had twins! There are always enough pens and paper to go around, but for some reason this winter, Morwenna took to maths on the kitchen floor with a piece of chalk. Well, now she’s drawing with the ashes from the fire. I liked this one the best.

Taunton Half marathon

 

It’s that time of year again. Please open your hearts and empty your pockets for the good people of St. Margaret's Hospice. I run my socks off in the Taunton Half Marathon AND I'll match the top 3 contributions anyone makes. What are you waiting for, dig deep and make me pay!

http://www.justgiving.com/alex-bowling

A proud moment

 

Ok, I know its been a while since the last post, but this ones a cracker.

 

the fiddle and the drum

Cousin Kian has given Bryn his old set of drums, which has provided hours of fun. Luckily they’re so small that they don’t make that much noise. Still, when I’m playing them the kids run screaming.

The first section of film is 1 minute of Morwenna at her first violin concert.  Its only 1 note, yes,  and I know its not even the right note, but still she is up  there giving it a go and I was enormously proud.

Well done to Christa for dragging her kicking and screaming into afternoon classes. If she doesn’t get anywhere with the fiddle, at least she will have learnt to persevere. When asked about her afternoon, she said her highlight was the when the mayor applauded her all on his own for being so brave. ‘It was amazing. He is the mayor for our whole Country.’