Dartmouth to Exmouth sail kayaking.

 

Seal-pupping time of year.

 

Whilst Christa was away on the 3 Peaks Challenge with Lucy and co. we managed to get a little trip round Looe Island. The seals that Mike and I saw round the outside of Caldey Island in West Wales had already pupped, so It was a suprise to see this calf in Cornwall still carrying (or was that just my imagination). I wonder what time of year grey seals normally pup in the West Country

 

Overnighting in the Lugger

 

 

 

Another successful camping trip

 

Even if it did try to rain on our parade!

 

A mid-week sneak off!

 

Well there have to be some benefits to being self employed. They were predicting good weather about a week in advance, so best take advantage of it. Dropped the kids off at school and whizzed down to Axmouth.

Another busy weekend.

 

You’ve got to love the start of the Spring good weather, for a renewed sense of vigour. Stretch out the sails and break out the belt sanders and spark plugs!

 

 

 

Fun with the kids in the garden

Well, finally go the sails out on the lugger this weekend, but whilst I’m editing that video, check out the kids getting busy with the kitchen furniture.

We are Sailing!

 

Well, nearly.

After kayaking and kayak-sailing the stretch of coastline from the Isle of Wight to Porlock, I have decided it’s time for a change. My hips will be grateful for the reprieve too! I may not be ploughing through the miles as I used to in a kayak, but it should be more relaxing.

We are going to keep a Drascombe Lugger on a mooring at Mears Boatyard at Axmouth. Its an interesting harbour mouth to get out and in from, more on that later.

Anyway, here is a picture we took on the weekend 1 hour after low water.

House Work

 

You may have noticed that there have been less blog posts recently. Well, there’s a reason for that. We have had a very intense 5 months working on the house.

Re-roofing, and structurally changing the load bearing elements of the roof and floors to tie the house together. The attempt has been to prevent the house from pulling itself apart. When houses are Listed, they tend to be neglected due to the paperwork associated with making changes to these old houses. Which runs completely against the process of Listing buildings in the first place. I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Anyway, here are some of the before and after photos.

 

Well done to Joe and Prymo for the structural work, Rowan for much of the internal work, Greg for the plastering, Paul and co. for the decorative fascia work and Christa for both painting and for living in such a bloody mess without so much as batting an eyelid!

Kittens

 

Funny, no matter how distracted we have got from family life with all the work to be done on the house, life still goes on. The children keep growing, the bills need paying and now we have to kittens!

Brother and sister, Lilly and Patch. Gorgeous little creatures that have enriched our lives.