Exmoor

Had a fantastic week in Porlock Weir with Steve, took loads of photos but wont post them all just my very favourites.

Having this one printed to be framed.


This one printed on canvas.

And the rest are going in a photo book.











And this is our friends, Allan and Maria, watching the waves.

Celtic crosses & little bit of heaven.

Last of the Cornwall holiday pics.  Which is just as well as am off to Exmoor on Saturday for a few days away with Steve, I have been very lucky this year!
 
Was driving home from Minack along the coast road when I spotted a grave yard with lots of Celtic crosses, which I love.  Dad was very obliging and agreed to stop so mum and I could go and take photos, we have him well trained!



 




I knew what I wanted to do with this photo, cross lit and church in silhouette but I don't think I quite pulled it off sadly!

Then we headed back to my favourite place in all the world - Mum & Dad's house!


They have decorated the wall that runs along the path with souvenirs of all their holidays and its something my sister and I have joined in with, I love it! In fact the second wall hanging, the terracotta circle with the swirl in the middle (which my sister brought back from Spain for them) is exactly the same as the middle of the cross above, 3rd photo down. I have googled this to try and find out what the symbol is but can't find it. If anyone knows please let me know!




Its really quirky!


And their back garden, there is nothing nicer than sitting here with a gin and tonic listening to the seagulls and the helicopters from Culdrose flying over head. Bliss.

Minack Theatre, Cornwall

Not only did the sun shine on Monday but it shone on the Tuesday too, doubly blessed as Meatloaf once said. (I grew up in Cornwall, think yourself lucky that wasn't a Status Quo lyric).

So the Minack Theatre; one womans dream hewn from the unforgiving granite cliff face below her garden. I kid you not. Rowena Cade moved to Lamorna in the 1920's with her mother.  She was clearly a lady of great vision and the idea for the Minack theatre was born after she put on a production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream".  Full history, and one of my favourite photographs ever here - the portrait of Rowena sat in her wheelbarrow is wonderful!  Needless to say Minack has the most amazing back drop, I was last there when I went to see a production of "Macbeth" which I was studying for GCSE English, so that would have been around 30 years ago, eek!  Now there is a fantastic museum which details the history of the theatre, a cafe with quite possibly the most breathtaking view of any in the UK and a gift shop that sells Cornish Tablet, ingredients of which are Sugar, Sweetened Condensed Milk and Butter (9%), its not for the faint hearted, or those with type 2 diabetes as my dad discovered.

So onto the photos.

Not a bad place for a ham sandwich.

 This gives you some idea just how steep it is.

 

Dad was in charge of the lunch.

The sea was the most glorious colour.

Brave or mad? Either way I hope he caught something worth the effort of getting down there.

The seats were all fashioned out of concrete and are hand decorated and inscribed with the names and dates of productions.

Next year am going to try to get to an evening performance in the hope that I will be able to take photos as the sun sets, can you imagine?!  Knowing my luck will be lashing down and blowing a gale!

Aren't these beautiful?  And isn't in annoying when you know the name and it has gone clean out of your head?  Agapanthus, phew!

 

Bet this lot were having a FANTASTIC day in all that sun shine, blissfully aware that they were being photographed by dozens of strangers on the cliffs above.  I love being really nosey and peering in where you aren't expected, like this:

Zoomed in on a small area of the beach from the photo above!  Voyeur, me?!  Look for the pink surfboard in both pics to get your bearings!

Last of the holiday photos

On the Friday I managed to convince Em that we should get the bus into Chania - she wasn't moved by the suggestion of lunch by the harbour but liked the idea of some "decent" shopping!

Chania itself is not a very pretty city, clearly this is why all the guide books recommend you head for the harbour which is very lovely!

That said some of the narrow lanes are very pretty too.

The whole harbour has a very Venetian feel to it

 

It was also a hive of activity with tour boots, gift shops, bars, cafes and old men fishing.

It was a great place to order a cool drink and just watch the world go by.

So that's it, my holiday in Crete!  Next  trip away is Cornwall in August to visit my family so there will be some people in those photos!

Some more holiday pics

Cant get my act together enough to actually write a beauty blog post so will just post some more holiday pics. Its still blogging after all!

The bit of the hotel we were in was joined to the other bit of the hotel, down by the beach by a foot bridge.  There was also a pedestrian crossing.  Not everyone using the crossing grasped the Greek driving concept which is pretty much "get out the way, I'm coming through" every day by the pool was regularily punctuated by the screech of brakes as yet another pedestrian "assumed" the on coming car was going to stop just  because the lights had gone red, as if!

View from our bit of the hotel to the beach.

Footbridge

View from footbridge looking into Platanias.

The very expensive rooms in the other bit of the hotel had pools that run up to their terraces.

And finally the beach! 

Day trip to Chania photos to come.

Holidaaay!

Went to Platanias in Crete with Emily for a week - if you follow my tweets or my beauty blog you'll already know that though!

We had a fab time, I took a fair few photos so will share a few at a time so as not to bore you rigid!

First off the flight:

The Alps (I think!)

Loved the patchwork effect of the fields and the road and river running through the middle of the valley, would love to know where this is!

more patchwork, like the curve of the sandbar too.

 

View for most of the week was the pool, from the sun lounger - this is the bar in the middle of the pool.

The bridge to the bar.

The pool and loungers, it really was bliss laying here in the baking heat!

Our room!

Love the retro feel the curtains give this one!

The hotel was lovely - I went for a wander and took some pics one evening.

More to come