Off to Dorset

Our bags are packed and Em and I are off to Dorset for some time with my parents. At the weekend Alice and I are off to visit Prague for three days. Then we return to Dorset so I will be back to blogging on Friday 31st.
See you soon. Jane

Knitting update

In 2003 my youngest Emily was a Brownie Guide, which is for 7-10 year olds. I knitted a Brownie Guide doll from the Jean Greehowe booklet of Mascot Dolls for her to take on Brownie camp holiday. At the same time I knitted another Brownie doll wearing the uniform that I wore as a Brownie back in 1977.

Earlier this year Emily moved up to the Girl Guides and decided it was time to ask for a Girl Guide to keep Brownie company on camping holidays.

So this is work in progress on a new Girl Guide. Emily has a different uniform to the one in the booklet but its very easy to change, my next step is to start sewing up all the pieces of the doll and to start filling.

A day out in London

Friday morning we caught the train up to London, it takes us just under 2 hours to get to Victoria Station.

We caught the number 73 bus and got off at Selfridges as Emily wanted to look inside; on a previous trip we had found her a cuddly leopard, Tiggles, in the childrens department.

This time she bought a Hello Kitty pen, pencil (x2) and a matching keyring. We also picked up a perfume sample of the new Vivienne Westwood 'Let it Rock' perfume.

We caught a number 10 bus to King's Cross Station. For those of you who don't know, this is where Harry Potter catches the Hogwart's train from platform 9 3/4 at the start of the new school year. Between platforms 9 & 10 there is the "entrance" to platform 9 3/4.

Next to Kings Cross Station is St Pancras Station. This is undergoing renovation at the moment but is still an impressive looking building more like a cathedral that a station. It was a cathedral built for steam engines and serves the Midland Mainline and will, from the middle of November, be the new Eurostar terminal. That's the train that goes through the tunnel under the English Channel to France at up to 186 mph.

We caught another bus, number 205, to Paddington Station to visit Paddington Bear. The original Paddington Bear that used to be on display in a glass case has been removed to a museum for safety and now there is a bronze statue of Paddington in the middle of the restaurant area.

After lunch we travelled on the Tube - Bakerloo Line to Picadilly Circus. When we came up to street level we were right by the statue of Eros.

From there we walked down to Trafalgar Square. which was being decorated for the Indian Festival starting this weekend celebrating the 60th anniversary of Indian independance.

Late afternoon we met up with Tony in Trafalgar Square and then walked along St Martin's Lane past many of Londons theatres. This is the Coliseum Theatre and the globe revolves slowly and is lit up at night.

Browsing in the transport book shops. Eventually ending up in Leicester Square. Which in turn leads into Soho/China Town.We went for an early evening meal in Wong Kei in Wardour Street, this is an authentic cheap restaurant with surly waiters and usually really good food. Unfortunately our meal wasn't up to its usual standard, disapointing but hopefully it will be better next time. We travelled back to Victoria Station on the number 38 bus and caught the train home.

Congratulations

Alice

you are off to University.

A, A & B grades.

We are really proud of you

Love

Mum, Dad & Em xxx

Rain!

Last week after we returned from France we spent a few days in Dorset with my Parents as Em stayed with them whilst we went to France. We visited Wookey Hole caves near Wells, it was a fascinating walk through the caves.

When we came out of the caves there were some beautiful gardens to walk through and then some Dinosaur exhibits

In the Wookey Hole bear shop I bought Chloe from the Charlie Bears range. I already have another Charlies Bear, Joshua


Friday we visited Dunster Castle near Minehead, Somerset. It is a National Trust property and has a long history including being a loyalist stronghold during the civil war (Oliver Cromwell, 1600's) This is a picture of Dunster Castle in the distance and the village of Dunster in the fore ground to the left is the yarn/wool market.

The yarn/wool market was used for filming an episode of Poirot. It was supposed to be a village in Cornwall

The last two days have been wet so we stayed at home and I finished some UFO's

One shirt for Emily that I started last year, thankfully it still fits and she loves it as it has a bear. and a little white cat on who are friends.

I also made two sleeveless blouses

Not much knitting was done!

We had a lovely time visiting the Chateaux of the Loire Valley. We stayed for one night in Vernon, this is a photo of the Church and Tourist Office.

Day 2; we went to visit Monet's Garden at Giverney. It was beautiful and as we were one of the first coach loads of tourists we had the garden to ourselves for almost half an hour. We also visited Monet's house. Later we walked up through the village and stopped for coffee before rejoining the coach and continuing our journey to Tours.

We stopped at Chartres for lunch and explored the cathedral, the colours of the stained glass windows were beautiful.

During the afternoon we continued our journey pausing at Chateau Dun then onto Tours arriving early evening.

Day 3; We visited Chateau Villandry, it was restored in the early 1900's and the medieval garden was recreated from plans of the original garden. The chateau was beautiful and the gardens were stunning.

Late morning we continued on our tour pausing for a photo opportunity at Chateau d'Usse - Sleeping Beauty's castle.

By lunch time we had moved onto the medieval town of Chinon which had a medieval fair on, so we wandered through the streets stopping to look at the stalls

Day 4; We visited the town of Amboise which has Chateau Clos Luce, the home of Leonardo Da Vinci for the last few years of his life. We walked through the chateau and then the grounds which contain life sized models of many of Leonardo Da Vincis' inventions, it was fascinating

For lunch we walked down into Amboise, which is another beautiful old town

13.00 we left for Chateau Chennonceau which was once the home of Mary Queen of Scots, (daughter of King Henry VIII & sister of Queen Elizabeth 1st). The chateau was very busy with visitors and it was difficult to see the rooms due to the number of people inside. The chateau was stunning to look at and the gardens were beautiful but different to previous chateaux we visited.

Day 5; We left Tours and began our return trip to Paris via Fontainbleu. On our way we stopped at Blois for coffee, we saw a chateau but didn't have time to visit. This chateau is one we'd like to visit in the future Just after lunch we arrived in Fontainbleau, we had lunch in a little cafe then visited the chateau. We didn't have enough time to see all of it but it was impressive and beautiful.Day 6; finally we return to Paris to catch the Eurostar and find that we have time for an impromptu sightseeing tour, so our coach circled Paris pausing at the most popular sights, before delivering us to the Gare du Nord.