Is that a Sombrero?!

We were back at the Shuttleworth Trust a couple of weekends ago for their "Festival of Flight" show. Some of my little group went both days, but it was also MrEH's birthday weekend so I opted to attend just on the Sunday - which was an excellent choice as the temperature was a LOT cooler thank goodness - those who were there the day before said it was really quite unpleasantly warm! The show days are structured into two parts with the main flying during the afternoon, then a shorter evening display after a 90 minute break, thus getting the "golden hour" light. 

As always the Trust get together a cracking mix of aircraft - choosing from both their own collection and many wonderful visitors too - it's always hard to know what to peg as the highlights and sometimes it can be the most unlikely things too! I think most people would probably include the beautiful Avro Anson Mk 1 at the top though - it flew alongside Shuttleworth's own Anson (a Mk 19) and then did a beautiful solo display too - ticking all the boxes for almost being worth the ticket money on its own!

The Flying Bulls aircraft are fairly rarely seen in the UK and so always create a bit of a buzz when a show books them - this time was no exception with them bringing over their DC3, P-38 (pictured above), B-25, P-51 and Corsair. Originally planned to be hosted at Shuttleworth itself for the weekend as I understand it, they ended up staying at Duxford instead (they were also booked for their summer airshow the following weekend) possibly because there were simply so many visiting aircraft at the Bedfordshire venue they ran out of space?! Their P-51 flying with the DeHavilland DH88 Comet was quite spectacular - two utterly beautiful aircraft, both of which are a joy to see fly, and truly special to see in formation.

Invariably mixed in with the serious stuff we are presented with a bit of lighthearted fun too - the "Barnstorming" is a favourite and not something you see in too many places, but this year's "World Cup formation" made up of an American,  Canadian and  Mexican aircraft got the crowd alternately laughing at the awful jokes being made and enjoying seeing a couple of aircraft types not frequently seen. The pilot of the Mexican Cap 10 - Stu Goldspink - got fully into the spirit of it too - look...

Somehow that stayed in place right through his display too!

A more mainstream - but none the less popular for that - attendee was the RAF Typhoon Display team - sadly just a #BoringGreyJet this year but it did at least display in the evening slot and during possibly the best light of the day. The timing on the display also served to start to thin the crowd out a bit with a fair few folk heading away straight afterwards, helping to avoid problems with getting out. It's always good when a venue plans like this and it is something that Shuttleworth are really very good at. Indeed, other venues not all that far away would do well to take notes!

Bristol Blenheim

All in all an excellent day with good pals, some great flying and very nice weather indeed. I chose to shoot with the Canon R5 borrowed from my pal Tim - and it confirmed my suspicion that Shuttleworth is just perfect for a full-frame camera. Indeed I have now taken the plunge and ordered a full-frame mirrorless camera of my own in the shape of Canon's fairly new R6 Mk3. It will be the single most expensive camera I have ever owned, so here's hoping it is the right choice for me!

Robyn

Frugal Friday…

Lundy Old Light

Some of you may recall that one thing we were utterly determined about when we were paying down the original mortgage on the flat was that we wouldn’t turn down opportunities to do things on the basis that we “couldn’t afford it”. Sometimes we might opt to say no to something because we are choosing to direct our finances elsewhere, certainly, but other times when an option for some fun is offered we will grab it with both hands! We’ve taken that policy forwards to the new mortgage too - unsurprisingly! 

When a few weeks ago I was given the chance for a week on the lovely island of Lundy later in the year, this was definitely one of those situations - although this time round MrEH doesn’t have the spare holiday time so the trip will just be for me which means it is my personal spending money that needs to cover it, obviously! Lundy is not a cheap location to spend a holiday, so I was well aware that before saying yes, I would need to run through my finances. Budgeting for this sort of thing really does help to ensure that you can properly enjoy the thing when it comes along without having to fret about how much it's all costing.

The accommodation will be shared with 4 pals which helps bring the cost down on that, at least a bit. The ferry is a fixed cost - nothing to be saved there and no other way of accessing the island, so that was an easy one to assess!  The costs for food and drink while there are also a bit fixed - we usually tend to eat in the Marisco Tavern for evening meals - opting for the daily special can bring the cost down a touch - and the options for lunch are packed lunches using products from the Island’s shop (not the cheapest, it must be said but when you consider how their supply chain works, also nowhere near as pricey as it could be!) or the Tavern again for a pasty, or perhaps a portion of cheesy chips! The accommodation has a kitchen, so that adds options as well. We will undoubtedly be in the Tavern most evenings too, although my pace of drinking is generally slower than MrEH’s so I’m not expecting a wildly alarming bar bill! 

The other thing which required serious thought was how I would travel down to Ilfracombe and back. Unless I want a horrifically early start, I’ll need to be in Ilfracombe the night before we sail - so the cost of an overnight stay there needed to be seen as another fixed cost really.  I then turned my attention to whether I could get down and back using public transport rather than taking the car - it won’t necessarily be cheaper, but it could certainly be a nicer way of doing things, and more relaxing. A budget trip down on the friday prior was relatively easy to sort - with travel as far as Barnstaple available from Waterloo for around £20. A good bus service from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe makes the last step pretty straightforward, and only an additional £3.  Getting back was rather more of a challenge as things stand - not least because of the uncertainty of timings on getting away from Ilfracombe harbour! A quick conflab with my pal who is happy to drop me at Tiverton parkway on their way home though, and we've agreed on timings which should be safe enough. Initially this looked like quite a pricey part of the trip - but it turns out a bit of digging around brings the cost down quite substantially, and taking a bit of a gamble it seems I should be able to get back to London, and then on to home, that same night, which will mean a saving of a night's accommodation. Add in a bit of split ticketing, and I should be able to get all the way home for under £40, which is a bit of a bargain really! Allowing that the journey by car would have been a tank of diesel, plus parking costs in Ilfracombe for a week, I am confident that using pubic transport will actually save me some money too. 

For those that don't know, the art of split ticketing is useful in the world of train travel. It involves choosing your train, and then establishing where that train will stop on the way. You then drill down into where you might be able to "split" the journey to bring costs down. On this trip for example the ticket from Tiverton all the way through to Paddington comes in at £40, but a ticket from Tiverton to Bristol Temple Meads on the same train can be had for £7, and the onward Bristol to Paddington section is £25. I don't have to change trains, probably won't even have to change seats, yet still benefit from a saving on the journey. This is absolutely legitimate, there is no reason whatsoever not to do it, and it works surprisingly often. There are even companies out there who will do this for you these days - although needless to say they charge you for the privilege!

Ultimately, the decision has been that yes, it will be an expensive week, but that I can manage the costs, and have several months to set aside the funds needed. My trains are booked, my Ilfracombe accommodation is booked, and I am going! 

Robyn. 

June Reading...

 

Following on from the (mostly Cornwall-based) adventures of May, I confess I was rather looking forward to a more home-based month of June. In theory this ought to mean lots of time for reading, but in fact what all too often happens when I'm at home more is I end up spending more time on various screens, or simply doing odd jobs around the house or garden, rather than picking up a book. The first of those though is something I want to try to scale back a little - maybe this will be the month for that?

I began with a book that's been on my "to be read" shelf for a few months - Rowland White's "Harrier 809", an account of the exploits of some of the Harrier force during the Falklands conflict, and in particular RNAS 809 Squadron, from their standing up and going into action. I'm sometimes a bit wary of this sort of aviation based book as they can be very "dry" and I really am far more interested in photographing aircraft than reading about them! To some extend this did indeed fit that mould, with far more detail about individual sorties and tactical details than I would usually go for - at times I did struggle with it a bit, however the story of the personalities involved and the sheer level of determination needed to go from nothing to a full additional squadron of Harriers and Pilots being deployed kept me reading. Another review of the book said “a lot of acronyms” though - and the full ELEVEN pages of them at the back of the book underlines this! MrEH will probably read this one at some stage, so it will get kept for now, at least.  

Two new books in to report early in the month - an L J Ross - "The Cove" which was on the charity bookshelf in the supermarket (50p) and a Val McDermid - "The Mermaids Singing" which was in a book exchange outside a house near work. I must remember to take a couple of books along there in exchange at some stage. Those have both gone onto the "to be read" shelf. There was also a stack of books from a charity shop later in the month - I really must stop going in there until the "to be read" pile has shrunk at least a bit! 

Next up was a Mark Billingham - one of my absolute favourite authors, and particular the Tom Thorne series, of which this was one. From the Dead takes Thorne outside  the UK for a change, but maintains the usual themes of Thorne’s boundary pushing…the usual supporting cast are less evident in this one which is a shame, the leading characters interactions with the likes of Dave Holland are always entertaining, Holland is there in the background but doesn’t playa y significant part here. I realised early on that I had read this one before, but got fully half way through it before realising that there was in fact a copy on the shelf! As a result it will be heading back to the charity shop. 

A new to me author next - Joanna Cannon with The Trouble With Goats and Sheep. “Quirky” proclaimed the sticker on the cover, and so it was. A interesting twist was that the book is partly set in the summer of 1976 - something which has been very much in mind over the blazing hot June days while I was reading it! Nicely written- with characters you warm to and a good twist in the tail as well. I’ll set this one aside to go to Mum although I’m not entirely sure she will get on with it. 

Ending the month with an Ian Rankin Rebus novel - Set In Darkness. You know I believe that I love these because of the location as much as anything - Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities and it always works so well when a book is set somewhere you can actually picture. His characters are always so engaging though - and I love the fact that rather like the Reacher books, it doesn't matter if you don't read them in the order they were written. I got roughly half way through this before the end of the month, so that is where we will pick up in July...

Robyn

June in the garden...

 

Phew - a much welcomed quieter month after a very busy - although also very lovely - month of May!  

One thing which technically should have snuck in at the end of last month's post was the investment in a new water butt. It's been frustrating us for a while that although we collect the water off the roof of the shed and office, the water from the back of the house itself went straight down the drain. There is quite an expanse of roof there too with the main house roof and the extension as well, so we'd been discussing how easy it would be to fit another butt. The first stage of this task was done when we got the new table in place as there was finally the space we needed.  I got off rather lightly on this one - MrEH realised he had time to take a look at it while I was off waving my camera around at Midlands Air Festival, and by the time I got home, it was all fitted and in place - very impressive work! The first burst of hard rain we had after it was installed saw it fill up pretty much immediately as well - so that will be a money-saving and environmentally friendly bonus. 

One of the issues with a small garden is finding space for all the things you want to grow - and ours is no exception on this. As usual we're using pots for absolutely anything that is even vaguely suited to it - so my tomato plantation - which is spread about the garden in several different locations this year to try to encourage a spread of ripening times - we have a LOT of plants, and could end up positively buried in tomatoes! Some of the smallest bush tom plants have gone into a grow bag - we know they work well that way. Some of our peppers and chillies also end up in grow bags although for the taller ones we tend to opt for pots as they are then easier to stake when needed. A new diversion this year is seeing how peas do in a pot - I mentioned this last month, we're trying it mainly to see if we can stop the birds from noshing the shoots! So far, so good, they seem happy enough and they're certainly growing! Herbs also get scattered round in assorted pots - we have oddments in the ground too - a savoury; red veined sorrel (recovering from being moved last winter) and a bronze fennel (lovely - but spends much of its summer covered in aphids!) plus a creeping thyme in the front, but other than that they are all in various pots and of course my lovely recycled wine boxes too. Having a range of herbs ready to be cut when needed is an absolute delight, and I always add a variety of soft herbs in the summer too.

In the main veg bed this year is the bulk of the "tall stuff" - so our sweetcorn - slightly more plants than we grew last year - and the obelisk with runner beans, plus a row of what will hopefully be giant sunflowers (more for the birds than for us) and a good sized calendula as a companion plant. We are still hoping to get some brassicas in along the back interspersed as well. The smaller/lower stuff is then planted in and around those things - one of our courgettes (which we hope will clamber out and spread across the path and then the grass) the bush beans - a mix of yellow and purple this year. One cucumber has found a home in the centre of the obelisk - the hope is it will clamber up and we’ll be able to find its fruit amongst the runner bean foliage! 

We've continued with harvesting strawberries - although it's been a handful at a time just for eating straight off the plants, for the most part. We did harvest our one surviving cabbage at the beginning of the month - that was eaten in a stir fry and was very tasty. I'm certainly keen to try those again this year, although we may need to up our game with the anti-slug approaches! I think the first harvest of next month is likely to be tomatoes though - look…

I’m hoping the tomatoes don’t all start ripening at once or we’ll be over-run with them - we’ve ended up with so many more plants than I intended thanks to MrEH’s inability to accept that “spare plants” can be either passed on, or composted if not required! It is currently proving to be quite some task to keep up with watering, tieing in and feeding all the plants, and I can see a lot of tomato sauce, roasted tomatoes and passata in our future! 

The other crop which is coming along particularly nicely is our Tromboncino squashes - this is another one where we could be over-run, and for the same reason - the two plants I had planned became 4 at MrEH’s hand! Apparently they are a little like a cross between courgette and a butternut squash - I’ve wanted to grow them ever since we’ve been here but this is the first year I’ve remembered to get the seeds. Being vigorous climbers they are ideal for our little garden as they are climbing cheerfully up the trellis panels and the arches. It must be said though, I’m not sure what the neighbours will think as the squashes do look a bit…well, rude! 

Meanwhile in the front garden the star of the show has been our gorgeous pale yellow rose which has been flowering its head off for the past couple of months - I mean just look at it! It’s been cheerfully sprawling not only over our front garden, but over next doors too - we asked next door if they would like us to cut it back - “absolutely not!” came the response! We’ve had endless comments about how nice the front garden looks since we’ve moved in - it’s lovely that other people are enjoying it as much as we do! 

Robyn

Cornish Adventuring - part 2!

 Cream Tea at Tehidy Country Park cafe

 I mentioned I think that we ended up making a second trip to the far South West during the month of May - this time was a part week's holiday spent with the group of pals we go off to Lundy and places with, we didn't have the holiday time free to commit to the full week, but agreed that we could easily add a couple of days onto the bank holiday weekend. 

Waves and surfers at Trevaunance Cove

The drive down on a Bank Holiday Saturday was inevitably full of traffic and diversions, but a fairly early departure still saw us arriving close to the big shared house near Redruth by mid afternoon. Our original plan had been to stop for breakfast on the way - but annoyingly one of the diversions meant that we didn't pass the planned butty-wagon (the excellent Max's Cabin on the A30) so by the time we arrived we were famished! As the rest of the gang were fairly scattered about, we elected to go to the lovely Country park cafe we visited on our previous trip (I blogged about it I think) to have a late lunch there - ciabatta toasties followed by one of their amazing cream teas, that filled a gap for sure! 

Minack Theatre

Saturday evening was spent settling in and catching up with everyone's news, before conversations turned to plans for Sunday - and a brewery taproom was (perhaps unsurprisingly) was suggested as a destination for some of us. Lovely pal Marc decided he was happy to drive, and suggested that MrEH and I hopped in with him & Laura (and the dog!) which we were more than happy to do after nearly 8 hours in the car the previous day. We'd been to Porthleven briefly on our last trip down, but Shoals Brewery is only open on weekends so it was nice to get a chance to visit. We were joined later by more members of the party too  - and passed several very pleasant hours enjoying some very tasty beers.

Early morning at Porthtowan beach

Part of Monday was already planned as almost the entire group had tickets for a short show at the Minack Theatre. The Minack is somewhere I have always fancied going so it was great to have the opportunity, and it didn't disappoint - perched on the cliff edge with the most stunning views! The show itself was more geared up to a rather younger audience, but still entertaining enough, and the chap presenting it had enough “Dad jokes” in his script to ensure that even the adults were kept chuckling! 

Reflective rock pools at Porthtowan

The Tuesday was a roastingly hot day - indeed one that broke temperature records for May in the UK I believe. With three dogs in our party, some of us opted for an early morning beach trip at Porthtowan, some of us paddled, some of us swam, and the dogs had a fine old time running about and in the case of the two Labradors, splashing in and out of the sea and rock pools. A trip to the bakery just down the road from the house on the way back saw us stocked up with baked goodies and the rest of the day was spent relaxing in the garden - chasing the shade, reading and relaxing. 

Coverack

Our final day on Wednesday saw another early morning beach visit with a bigger group this time (and more swimmers!) before a return to another favourite location of ours - Coverack. The excellent cafe there appealed to everyone for lunch, and plenty of ice cream sundaes were enjoyed.  We headed away mid afternoon - not before popping into the little Coverack village shop for a loaf of delicious Vicki’s bread to take home though!  All in all a really lovely few days with great pals - and we may just be plotting some more trips now too!

Robyn

Looking back...

No prizes for guessing where this is - but you might be wondering why exactly it's so surprisingly quiet?   This is indeed exactly as it looks like - Charing Cross underground station in London, but it is one of the disused platforms there - closed in 1999 when the Jubilee line extension was opened - now open to the public by way of the London Transport Museum's Hidden London programme. 

I've blogged about Hidden London tours before I think -  we've done most of those they offer and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Charing Cross is a bit unique because the station has been out of use for a relatively short time and I for one remember using it when it was open, of course. These days it gets used for filming TV shows and films when a modern looking station is needed - one of the notable ones being that it was used in some of the underground scenes in Skyfall. Great fun seeing the escalator where Daniel Craig slid down in pursuit of the baddie - but no, we were not allowed to follow suit! 

Robyn

Places to go and things to do...

 

Peak District - 2021

Who remembers this list then?

Places to go and things to do...

1) The Lake District 
2) The Peak District
3) Go back to the Farne Islands to photograph the puffins again. 
4) Go back to Donna Nook to photograph the seals again
5) Go back to Dublin
6) Belfast
7) Spend more time exploring the bits of Cornwall we've not yet seen
8) Glastonbury - The tor and village, not the festival! 
8) Do a trip on the Settle to Carlisle railway in better weather!
9) Northumberland
10) Ardnamurchan Point
11) Dunnet Head (I've been there, MrEH hasn't)
12) Lowestoft (Bizarrely MrEH's never been there, either!) - We've both been to The Lizard already
13) Arran
14) Islay
15) Blackpool! (Yes, really, I've never been, but LOVE tacky seaside places!)
16) Anthony Gormley's Another Place - Crosby
17) Visit to the Red Arrows at RAF Scampton  
18) Orkney! 
19) Re-visit the National Railway Museum at York
20) Make a short visit to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
21) This one is for 2013 - get to an Airshow where the Vulcan is flying. Last chance to see her airborne.

It first saw the light of day in late 2011 I think, and I posted again with a bit of an update in 2013, but as far as I can see I've not updated it again since. With that in mind, I reckoned it might be time to update it, as I can see a lot needing changed! 

1) The Lake District - we have twice spent a few days there now - first camping, and then sharing a big house with the friends we consider our "CAMRA Family" a few years later. 

2) The Peak District - We made a fleeting visit there when heading up to Chesterfield and had the most glorious walk - we'd certainly like to return and spend some more time though! 

3) Go back to the Farne Islands to photograph the Puffins again - yes! Once again we had weather issues, but we got a decent length of time on one Island, lovely views of Puffins and seals, and MrEH even got dive-bombed by a Tern which is all you can really want from such a trip! Another thing we'd be keep to do again.

4) Donna Nook - I've been back, but (probably for the best) it's no longer considered acceptable to walk out on the sands, so all viewing is now from behind fences at the top of the beach. Still lovely, but not the experience it was.

5) Go back to Dublin - we went on the excuse of attending Bray Air Display for my birthday in 2016, and had a lovely weekend!

6) Belfast - I've been several times, including once with MrEH as well. Another place I'd like to spend more time.

7) Cornwall - well we spent a good chunk of May down there it seems! I never get tired of Cornwall and we find new things every time we visit. Definite plans to return!

(While writing this I noticed that my list had two number 8’s on it - how did I not notice that before?)

8) Glastonbury Tor & Village - yes, we did this some years ago now when on our way back from a weekend in Wales. 

8) - again!  Settle to Carlisle Railway in good weather - not achieved as yet. 

9) Northumberland - we camped up there the same weekend we did the last Farne Islands trip, and we're both keen to repeat the trip. 

10) & 11) Ardnamurchan Point & Dunnet Head - we have plans afoot around these, watch this space (in a year or so!)

12) Lowestoft - yes, done. This leaves me needing just one UK compass point to tick off (Ardnamurchan) and MrEH with 2. 

  Vulcan over North Weald- 2015

13) & 14) Arran & Islay - both Islands still on the wanted list. 

15) Blackpool - made it briefly in 2014 (for fish & chips on the night we were at Blackpool Airport with the Reds) and then for a proper visit for the airshow in 2024. Every bit as tacky as expected! 

16) Anthony Gormley's Another Place - Crosby. Yes - although another fairly fleeting visit in failing light thanks to getting delayed in traffic. Definitely want to get back for a proper look at some stage. 

17) Visit to the Red Arrows at RAF Scampton - well, that one escalated didn't it! Of course having written in 2013 that the team had now suspended all visits so it wasn't going to be possible, I nearly removed it from the list. Then 2014 came along, and as we know, a LOT happened, including me ending up spending a LOT of time at Scampton over the following few years! Such incredible opportunities, and times I will always look back on with a huge amount of joy and gratitude to those who made it possible!

18) Orkney - another one ticked off, having visited lovely Fay up there. Again, we'd like to return.

19) Re-visit the National Railway Museum at York - We've been back a couple of times, including in January when we were in York for a pal's birthday weekend. 

20) Short re-visit to the Edinburgh Fringe - I fear this one may now be beyond us as accommodation in Edinburgh at even the most basic of levels during August is likely to be more money than we are willing to pay. It might perhaps be possible as a day trip from somewhere else though? 

21) See the Vulcan Flying - well yes, and in the end between 2013 and when she retired from flight, I was fortunate to see her a good many times. Great memories, even if tinged with a little sadness that such an incredible aircraft is now grounded. 

That’s pretty decent progress isn’t it! I’m actually quite surprised and impressed how much we have done- and I am now thinking that perhaps a new list is required - or at least an extension of this one! 

Robyn

Airshow season 2026 is GO!

 

BBMF Spitfire AB910

Last weekend I did my second show of the year - Midlands Air festival at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. This has turned into a bit of a favourite of ours - tending to attract quite a lot of the usual gang - as it has a lovely laid back chilled atmosphere without the "race to the fenceline" that so many shows seem to end up with. I'm beyond feeling interested in that these days - so a show where we can rock up several hours after the gates open and still perfectly well find a spot with a great view is a win. 

Grumman Turbo Firecat

My pal Tim and I opted to stay on the outskirts of Warwick - just a 25 minute drive away - and it was there that we met on the Thursday evening before heading to a lovely nearby pub for some good beers, food and chat - a nice start to a couple of days away. The following morning continued in a similarly laid-back fashion as we met downstairs for breakfast before heading off to the show. 

MiG 17

The flying programme included the usual suspects as well as a few things that were a bit different. A highlight for me was a MiG 17 jet aircraft - a type that first flew in the 1950's with this being the first time a number of us had seen one fly. A slightly more angular version of the familiar MiG 15 which we've seen on the circuit for a few years, this has the distinction of having an afterburner system that means it shoots tongues of flame out of the rear - great for photos!  Always a highlight is of course the BBMF - reduced on both days we attended to a single aircraft due to technical issues, but that was tempered by that single aircraft being beautiful Mk V Spitfire AB901 as per the first photo, flown by the lovely Andy Preece - always a joy to see him fly!  Day two saw some more jets - The Red Arrows and the Strikemaster Display Team's pairs display. 

Balloons mass ascent

The other big appeal of the show is that it is almost as much about hot air balloons as it is about traditional aircraft - the picture above is from the most stunning mass ascent on the Friday evening, goodness knows how many balloons in total went up, but there were definitely in excess of 60 because one of my photos has that many visible! I looked around me at one stage - and everywhere people were standing, staring at the sky with broad smiles on their faces, the happiness and joy was palpable! We agreed it was one of the best things we'd ever seen at an airshow, in fact. That night wrapped up with the beautiful "Nightglow" too - again a stunning thing, and followed by a fantastic fireworks display too. 

Hot Air Balloon nightglow

A great show and certainly one we'll go back year on year to we reckon. Next up is another trip to lovely Shuttleworth later in the month, who knows, maybe I will blog about that one too?! 

Robyn

May in the garden…

 

A late start to the month in the garden as we were away for the first week of the month of course. We gave everything plenty of water before we left and hoped for the best - and actually almost everything survived unscathed. Two of the troughs of strawberries were looking quite sorry for themselves when we got back, but a few good soakings and they soon sprang back. We also lost just a few seedlings but nothing we couldn’t re sow. 

One thing that had happened while we were away was various things bursting into flower - the Alliums at the top are one of my absolute favourite plants in the garden, so ridiculously dramatic! Our Lidl bargain Clematis “Elizabeth” is also positively smothered in flower and another Lidl bargain - the little £2.99 rose I bought a couple of months ago is flowering again, not quite the bright yellow it was when I bought it, instead more of a vibrant orange. 

In the front garden both Salvias are flowering and attracting plentiful bees and other pollinators- one of the reasons we wanted them. The rose we cut back fairly brutally at the end of the winter has grown back to pretty much the enormous size we cut it back from and is  now flowering well with masses more buds - we may even get some cut flower from that this year - and it’s definitely going to need a scalping next winter! 

Not many plant purchases this month - although there was a visit to our favourite local nursery and some more herbs found their way home with us - 2 Crimean Basils, I'd anticipated Greek, but these seem to be the same sort of more woody variety so I'm hoping they will attract the bees just as well, plus a gorgeous Tricolour Sage and a lovely sturdy little Tarragon - we both love tarragon! One of the Basils has already been tucked into a pot at the front, and the others will probably end up in pots for the time being at least as well - I'd love to see if I could nurture the tarragon through the winter, although that will take some effort I suspect! These were just £1.20 each - an absolute bargain for really good quality plants. 

We got more seedlings on the go too - although the chilly weather at the start of the month combined with what once again seems to be some really quite disappointing compost means that things are generally seeming to struggle quite badly. Apparently we're not the only ones finding this to be a problem either - and even the RHS are advising feeding from far earlier than would be normal!  The sudden burst of heat during the final week of May made a massive difference though - although of course it hit while we were away again just to complicate things! We got back to beans bursting through and an entire module set of peas - having finally given up trying to get them to any sort of sensible size in the ground this year (we suspect the birds are getting their own back from the RSPB instructions to take in seed feeders!) and those have been mostly transferred to a large pot, although there will be some more to go into the ground too. Two Tromboncino squashes and one courgette were finally deemed large enough to make it to the ground too, and MrEH set up the obelisk and got the runner beans in around that - less this year as we had far too many in 2025 and may be eating them for ever more! We've also got several troughs sown with salads of various sorts - I may well invest in some more troughs so we can keep successionally sowing things like that as well. 

We've had our first small harvest of the year in the shape of the first of the strawberries - delicious they are too - although hopefully some of the salad is also not too far away from being edible sized now also.  June will be a month with the weekends spent at home - so next month's post will catch up with where we're at in terms of the veg planting as a whole. 

Robyn

May reading…

 

 The camping trip at the start of the month meant several books read before the first week of May was even done. We’d had a plan - MrEH was reading a Lee Child so the intention was that he would bring that down for me to take over when he finished it. Instead he finished it the day before we travelled, and left it at home, meaning I was suddenly shorter on reading material than expected - not a happy state of affairs for me! No matter though, a trip to the charity book stall on Truro Market lead to the purchase of a couple more options for just £1each with the money going to the local Rotary Club, so a win all round.

First up was a book I’d brought down with me though- Linwood Barclay’s Trust Your Eyes. Regular readers here may remember that I’m a bit of a fan of Barclay’s style of writing, he does suspense and the twist in the tail exceptionally well. This one is the story of two brothers in the aftermath of the death of their father in what we rapidly realise may be slightly unusual circumstances- but strangely enough that is not the main story here. The younger brother Thomas is described in a way that makes clear he is fairly severely autistic- his main hobby involves viewing the world via mapping program clearly designed to resemble google street view- and this is a hobby that takes his time to the exclusion of almost everything else. It’s while viewing a particular street in Manhattan that he spots something suspicious in a window, and it is this story that then rolls out through the rest of the book. Cleverly written - the final chapters see several twists and turns as well as at least a partial explanation for why Thomas is as he is. Older Brother Ray is the glue that holds the whole thing together with the story mainly being told from his perspective. This one will be heading back with us for MrEH to read. 

Next up, the one in the header picture - J D Kirk - An Isolated Incident - a Truro find which immediately sounded excellent. Set in the Highlands of Scotland (so ticking the always popular “somewhere I know” box) and told from the perspective of  a Police Officer - DCI Jack Logan. Kirk (not his real name) write with humour and pace while still managing to pen a good and suspenseful story - Logan feels like a strong character and the supporting cast are also well crafted, indeed this book is one of a fairly prolific series so I’ll be keeping an eye out for more. This one will also be heading back with us as MrEH has now started reading it! 

Onto the second Truro find  - a “double header” of two Ian Rankin Rebus books, with the first being The Hanging Garden. Rankin (and Rebus!) are sufficiently legend that little needs saying really - and this is much as one might expect, with Rebus tangling with the Edinburgh gang scene while juggling multiple cases including one relating to WWII war crimes. The usual Rankin musical references weave their way through the story, and of course Rebus does his usual trick of breaking all the rules while still ending up smelling of roses! I debated whether to read directly onto the second book - “Dead Souls” and eventually decided to do so as I already had the book to hand. It works well as it refers to various events from The Hanging Garden  although I did realise within a few pages that I already had it, and had read it not long before! Still an enjoyable read though. Unusually in this case I will hang on to both copies as the "double header" has some damage, so if I find a better condition copy of  the Hanging Garden I'll let it go at that stage instead.

Time for what seems to have become a monthly Lee Child Reacher read then - In Too Deep. This one unusually starts out with a battered and broken Reacher -and a bad situation which rapidly seems to be getting worse, too. Of course we know the pattern here by now don't we - I was discussing the Reacher books with a pal and we agreed that they aren’t quite formulaic as such, but there is definitely a degree of a pattern with them. Sometimes it’s good to know what you’re going to get with a book though - these are the Wetherspoons pub of the reading world! 

A second trip to Cornwall at the end of the month inadvertently lead to me stocking up on a few more books - the supermarkets all have excellent charity book shelves and I found a couple there, then three more at a market we visited - one of which was a Val McDermid that I may actually have at home, time will tell (I am writing this section of the post in Cornwall) so Still Life was the next choice. A Karen Pirie tale, always a good read. I have actually read this one before but long enough ago that I had forgotten the storyline as I discovered when I went on to read it, so all good! As with most of her books it was mainly set in Edinburgh although this one does seem to get about a bit too - as I have said before though I do like a book where I know the locations - it definitely makes for a better read when you don’t have to try and picture the settings.

Robyn.

Another garden project…

When we moved in to the house our sellers offered to leave us their garden furniture - and as we had none of our own, saying yes was a sensible decision even though it had clearly seen better days. As it turned out - two of the four chairs were pretty much fit only for the tip, which was fine as we only needed two anyway, and the table was far bigger than we needed, but was “OK-ish”. Fast forward to this winter, and we decided that a smaller table was a must as we want to fit an additional water butt - we already have one which collects the water from the office/shed roof, and the giant blue bucket deals with what comes from the log store roof, but there is a huge amount coming off the back of the house and the extension which is currently just going straight into the drain. The search started for a replacement table that was the right size, the right height, and not extortionately expensive. Let me tell you, it was not a successful search! 

After an awful lot of “too big!”, “too small!” And “we’re not paying that!” we came to the conclusion that what we wanted was something roughly the size of a standard pallet,  at a height we could use for seed sowing and potting on but also for just putting a beer on when we are sitting outside relaxing - but we also came to the conclusion that this didn’t actually exist…which was when our eyes lit on the pallet we happened to have lying around, and a plan was hatched.

Obviously there was a little more needed than just the pallet - but a quick scout through the shed revealed that in fact we already had timber for legs (gained when a store cupboard at my work was being cleared out) and screws are something we’re never short of- we found that all we were likely to need to buy was four right angle brackets to brace the legs to the tabletop. Having confirmed we were all systems go, we cracked on with measuring and cutting legs, then getting all the various components rubbed down and painted - in the same “Cornflower” paint we’ve used for the office and shed walls, of course! 

The pallet was one of those with quite open slats which wouldn't really be ideal for a table, but handily we had another one which could be cannibalised so filling the gaps proved to be as simple  just drilling and screwing them in place. Attaching the legs in a way that would ensure that the whole structure was sturdy enough was the biggest challenge of the project really- the screws we had weren’t quite the ideal length - but we couldn’t get anything longer in place as there wasn’t space to get a screwdriver in with a longer screw. Thankfully some very meaty right angle brackets saved the day. 

Our other main concern was whether the base of  the legs would rot as a result of being in contact with potentially wet ground through the winter months at least - it felt like it would be a shame to put the work and time in only to find that it didn’t last because something as silly as that. That problem was solved when I suggested a small piece of timber screwed to the base of each leg effectively as feet, and MrEH went a step further by cutting a square of plastic to fit between the two pieces to prevent water being drawn up from one piece of timber to the other. As and when the feet do rot, we will simply cut and attach new ones. 

Once all assembled we really were quite impressed - I mean yes, it looks like a pallet on legs, sure, but that’s what it is after all! It’s good and sturdy, exactly the height we wanted, AND it should easily give space for the water butt to be fitted alongside it. Most importantly it looks far nicer than what was there before, especially with the addition of my two wine-box herb planters on top! 

A new garden table for £7 plus a bit of time and effort? That will do nicely! 

Robyn

Frugal Friday…

 

I was tempted to call this a “Thrifty Thursday” post instead when I decided to use the photo above as the header - resisted temptation though! This is of course a bank of Thrift down at Gunwalloe on the Lizard Peninsula, taken on our recent week’s holiday down there. As you know, we budget for our annual fortnight up in the Western Isles, that money is set aside and only used for that purpose and things related to it, so any other trips we want to take during the year are funded separately, and this one was no exception.

We knew we wanted to do a full week away, but we’re also determined that it couldn’t cost a fortune as the budget simply isn’t there for that, so decided from the start that careful choices around where we spent money were going to be the winner here to let us have a really enjoyable week without breaking the bank. Accommodation is of course always the big ticket item for a holiday - thankfully we have the tent and are more than happy to use it - and our chosen campsite is a very reasonable £15 a night for a tent, two people and car. To that was added the single night  in a Premier Inn on the way down - £53 there, but it made the difference between getting a full day in a Cornwall on our arrival day and not, so worth the spend. It also provided us with a good breakfast that day for no additional cost, and full travel mugs for the onward part of the journey. Accommodation total then: £158.

When staying in self catering accommodation of any type when away, it is extremely easy for food to become a really significant spend - when in the Hebrides we tend to have lunch out and about, then cook our evening meal back at the cottage, and we took much the same approach for this trip too. We have two camping stoves, a saucepan and a frying pan, and can rustle up some tasty options using those, this time round we mostly opted for salads of some description with an added protein element, and sometimes some cooked pasta thrown in to the salad. It’s straightforward to cook, fairly healthy and balanced, and most importantly tasty. Breakfasts were eaten at the campsite each day - either bacon & egg butties or simply toast - and an even got a double-Yorker in a box of supermarket eggs! Lunches out and about were mostly toasted sandwiches or pasties, with an ice cream or cake for pudding - not cheap in that part of the world, but also not the most pricey choices. Food totalled a fraction over £200, plus some odds and ends that were purchased directly from our own spending accounts - and some household purchases such as topping up our levels of the delicious Cornish Salt flavoured blends. 

Of course there was diesel - for the journey down and travelling about while there. We used the petrol prices app to find the best priced filling stations, and managed to fill up more cheaply throughout than we would have done at home, including stumbling across one exceptionally well priced for the current time option on the Lizard where the service was still attended too - definitely not something you see in many places these days! We put in £152 worth of diesel while away, including a tankful on the way back which will see us through the next week or so of regular driving. There was also some additional travel - two days spent using a day Ranger train tickets (£11.30 each with our railcard) and buses totalling £12 on Saturday to save using the car on a day when we knew we would be visiting some pubs. Parking in a few places too - although generally we opted for reasonable street parking and a short walk to our destinations - another £6 or so - £63 odd in total there then.

Spending not mentioned here came straight from our own spends accounts - beers here and there, oddments of food as mentioned, and I’m not totalling that up simply because it was all stuff we might well have spent during a week at home anyway. 

The total then - roughly £575 for the bits mentioned above. Not “cheap” - but still an extremely good price for a thoroughly enjoyable week’s holiday. There were ways we could have saved more - by choosing to make sandwiches at the tent to take with us for lunches for example, or by taking more food with us. We try not to do the latter in particular though - because when visiting places that rely on tourist spending for their income we’ve always felt it’s important to try to support that. For that reason we choose independent stores over chains where possible, try to buy local products, and aside from things like tea bags, coffee and condiments, take relatively little from home. We do always empty the fridge and fruit bowl of anything perishable- so the remainder of my bottle of oat milk went with us, plus some apples and citrus fruit. Our trusty plastic box full of gleaned sachets of salt, pepper and sauces came in handy as always - including helping out a fellow camper who had found himself without sugar one morning! 

A truly lovely week, funded from a mixture of personal fun money, a surplus accumulated in our food account (deliberately accumulated for just this reason) and some surplus from our bills account too - it will mean a little less into savings this month, but so be it. We’re fortunate to be able to take trips like this, all the more so at a time when many folk are struggling with the increasing cost of living- and we definitely do not lose sight of that privilege. We didn’t consciously choose not to spend on entry fees to places - there just wasn’t anywhere much we found ourselves interested to visit which had such fees. At Tintagel we arrived after the main site was closed and were delighted to find that we could still explore the area up to the bridge for free. Our time on the trains let us see huge amounts of the county as we passed through it, and included a trip across the Tamar Rail Bridge and back, something I’d never done before. A lot of the things we enjoy are simply free anyway - just wandering about and exploring different places.

Robyn