Life on the land ... September

 ... getting to know Loggerheads and a taste of freedom ...

1st September and we venture a bit further from home and find Burnt Wood just down the road ...

Lots of footpaths to explore here

Sitting in the sun on our return from the walk

Early on Saturday 5th saw us on the road heading north ...

and by 13:30 we were coming into Largs briefly seeing the Isle of Cumbrae over the water with Bude in the distance.

We travelled with granddaughter Lucy in her car with George sharing the driving ...

for our eldest daughter's socially distanced hen party. Louise and Rob, like many couples around the globe, had to cancel their wedding earlier this year and they re-booked for later this month, and then had to cancel once again due to another lockdown.  Such a shame.

Sunday morning was very cold and windy and saw Lucy, George and me walking along Largs beach front to our daughter's home.

Sunday afternoon all the girls drove into Glasgow visiting George Square and Merchant City where we found that the statues had a lot on their minds!

Queen Victoria

Glasgow City Chambers and a close up view of the beautiful carvings in the roof

The Duke of Wellington statue stand outside Glasgow's Museum of Modern Art in Royal Exchange Square in the Merchant City area ...

and James Watt in the Glasgow Green area!

Glasgow has some amazing street art and artists.

This whole gable wall overlooking Ingram Street car park

is covered in the most amazing mural

by Smug ... we also saw works by this amazing artist around Melbourne, Australia way back in February last year (that blog is still to do!)

Thursday 10th saw us back at Still Rockin' checking that all is ok ... it was ... and couldn't help taking another picture of her sister ship

Rock 'n' Roll also moored at Thames and Kennet Marina, Reading.

Sunday13th saw us at Burnt Wood again for our daily walk ... we did other walks too but I don't seem to have taken any photos of them.

where the flora and fauna is lovely to see ... the holly was a lovely glaucous blue/green ... (click on any of the photos to enlarge in a new window)

and we saw bilberries and toadstools too today.

The following day we went off in the car ... my boating readers will know where this is ... we went to this place because we could have breakfast in the cafe and in the hope of meeting some of those boaters ...

and yes! 

Narrowboat Cleddau ... good oh!  But there was no one onboard.

We continued on our walk along the towpath and decided to turn back and call at the Junction Inn for a coffee and low and behold ... 

there was the crew!  Sue and Ken with the bonus of Jennie and Chris too.  We chatted for a which taking up 3 tables between us and then walked back to Cleddau for a bit more catch-up ...

This photo borrowed from Sue's blog ...

and this one from Jennie's.

It was so lovely meeting up with friends.

A few days later we paid a visit to Dagfields Craft and Antiques Centre near Nantwich ... we were looking for a kitchen table and chairs.  We have found what we want now but not from here ... we thought this place was very expensive for a whole lot of 'tat'!

Saturday 19th we visited Bridgmere Garden Centre ... a lovely place to visit ... lots of plants, formal planting as well as the more commercial stalls/shops within the complex.  I wanted to see which plants were suitable for my our new garden.

This exhibit of an English county cottage and garden ...

won the top award at Chelsea Flower Show in 1988 ... and looked delightful and these are my chosen plants too for the garden - Cosmos! 

Sunday was another warm, sunny day and we booked a visit to National Trust Property Attingham Park

and once again were drawn to water!

The park has lots of history both ancient and more modern ...

and it has deer too - wow ... isn't he handsome!

We had a thoroughly lovely afternoon at Attingham

and that's us!

What a busy time we're having ... and so enjoying it too!

Monday 21st we'd arranged another boating meet-up ..

t

this time on the Trent and Mersey near Sandford Lock ...

another wonderful afternoon ... so good to see Lisa and David again.

No more photos for September though folks although we did keep up our daily walks, discovering more country lanes to wander whilst the summer changed to autumn and we waited for the legal process of buying a house to progress.

Life on the land ...

 August 2020

We moved into our rented bungalow in Loggerheads (North Staffordshire)  the 4th of August

It's a neat little bungalow and will manage us for the time being until we can buy our own house

It has two bedrooms, one double above

a single one, bathroom

and of course a kitchen - we were waiting for a cooker to arrive!

No photo's of the living room as the carpet in there was being cleaned.

Our first delivery directly to us for over 13 years arrived on the 5th, flowers and a card from Sue and Vic - what a lovely surprise that was!

With lockdown being eased we used took some time out to visit family - they are actually 'local' to us now!  We are overjoyed!

There's a lane behind our house so of course we had to explore ... 

The lane was quite steep and led to an open green area near a newish housing estate.

and a children's play area currently closed due to Coronavirus ...

a lovely space to be used during the summer except of course no one can use it this year.

We had some lovely warm sunshine which unfortunately we couldn't make use of as the lawned are outside the bungalow are too steep to sit out on ... and then the weather broke ...

12th August at 9pm we had the mother of all thunder storms - put your sound on to hear and see what it was like!

Until the 14th August we slept on the mattress from Still Rockin' on the floor so we were so excited to take this delivery and start to build - a good night's sleep ensued!

We have tentatively started to look at houses/bungalows for sale and saw on in Cheswardine that might suit us.  We were early for the appointment so popped into the parish church for a look see whilst we waited - very nice.  The bungalow that we looked at was ok but had an extremely small rear garden - not for us then!

21st August saw us back at Thames and Kennett marina to give Still Rockin' a dust down - lots of cobwebs and spiders to be removed!

An empty boat!

30th August and we're still looking for a property ... 

we saw this one ... it's near Audlem ... and we like it.  

An offer was made and accepted and we've been waiting for the process to be completed ever since!

Of course whilst there we had to take in the Shroppie and enjoyed a towpath walk ...

and a cup of socially distanced coffee at the Shroppie Fly - outside of course ... waiter service only!

One last photo - a zoomed picture taken from the kitchen window looking towards Wales - not too shabby that!

Still Rockin' for sale ...

It seems like a long time since we left our lovely floating home of the past 6 years at Kennet and Thames Marina on the 4th August and a lot has been going on in our lives since then which I'll blog about over the next few weeks.

Unfortunately for us and due to Covid and all the vagaries that the pandemic has caused Still Rockin' is still for sale.

For more information and video please click this link (will open in a new window)    Thames and Kennet Marina, Reading.  So please, dear reader, spread the word - help us to find Still Rockin a new owner.