Saboohi's 40th Birthday

A full itinery was planned for this special day starting with a frantic drive down to the Devon coast. It was meant to be a leisurely drive but we were told by the Burgh Island Hotel that in order to ensure that the causeway would still be open for us to cross over to the island, we needed to be there by 13.40. Saboohi relished the opportunity to push my little Porsche to it's limit and she certainly did that with constant speeds over 100 mph. We arrived at Bigbury-on-Sea in brilliant sunshine and the island shone like a jewel in the sea as we drove down to the beach - absolutely beautiful. A landrover was sent to pick us up and take us across to the island as the sea was still out and the causeway was full of walkers, kite flyers and dogs. We had lunch in the ancient Pilchards Inn which is the only other building on the island other than the Hotel and Church and then booked into our room. We were staying in The Beach House, the best room in the Hotel that is set into the side of the cliff on the island and looks out across the sea to Bigbury. In the 1920's and 30's it was the favourite haunt of Agatha Christie (she wrote 2 books here)and Edward and Mrs Simpson. It is a proper house and has seperate bedroom, kitchen, living area and shower room and bathroom. A fantastic hideaway. We had a bottle of champagne awaiting our arrival and then I had a massage and manicure booked for Saboohi at 17.00 in the Hotel. Before the massage however Saboohi wanted to try out the Hotel's Mermaid Pool. It is a natural lagoon that forms part of the island and boy was it cold. Saboohi threw herself in but it was just too cold for me. At the Burgh Island Hotel everyone dresses up for Dinner, evening dresses for the ladies and bow ties and evening suits for the gentlemen. It is so rare to dress up these days that it was a real treat and Saboohi looked beautiful in a long dark blue evening dress and plenty of bling! We started with a VERY strong Singapore Sling in the bar which blended very nicely with the bottle of Bollinger! The dinner was, needless to say, delicious. I had ordered a Birthday Cake for Saboohi (see photo) which was brought in by the Chef with a firework on top and accompanied by a number of waiting staff singing Happy Birthday! To finish off this very special day we went out onto the hotel terrace to light 5 Chinese Lanterns, one for each of Saboohi's 10 years and a final lantern for Saboohi to make a wish. A magical end to a memorable day. Happy Birthday Saboohi! Here's to the next 40. xx

14 August 2010: Beatrix Potter and John Ruskin

No walks arranged for our last day today, instead we visited the homes of two of The Lakes' most famous ancestors. Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm wasn't at all what I expected location wise as I expected it to stand alone on a hill but instead it was surrounded by other small houses and cottages. It was lovely inside though and full of her personal belongings and nik naks as well as some of her "grown up" landscape paintings of her beloved Lakes. The house was quite a good size too much larger than Dove Cottage just down the road.

John Ruskin was also a famous poet and painter, a man before his time who had aspirations for humanity that he was unable to see in his own lifetime, like state education for everyone and the NHS. His home Brantwood sits on the lakeside overlooking Conniston Water and is truly beautiful both inside and out. Saboohi fell in love with it and would move in tomorrow if she could. Today the weather was warm and sunny and the lake was glistening, looking its best. A perfect final view to take away with us as we headed off on our 6 hour drive home. We will be back.

13 August 2010: Conniston and The Tarns

Our walk today took us on a 7 mile circular route above Lake Conniston and over to Tarn Hows and The Tarns another fantastic offering from our 1001 British Walks folder! The weather was kind today and the scenery really gorgeous - the picture here is of our view looking down over Conniston. Our walk took us across lush green meadows, up steep but deserted country lanes, on rocky paths tracking fast flowing becks and waterfalls and circumnavigating still and clear tarns. Saboohi decided to take an impromptu dip in Yew Tree Tarn (mad woman) she said it was cool and very refreshing after the 5 hour walk but I wasn't tempted! Maybe another day.

12 August 2010: A wet day in The Lakes

At last a few days away in the beautiful Lake District for Saboohi, Lilia and myself. We rented a National Trust property, an appartment called Bank Wood in the west wing of the old sandstone Acorn House (see photo). This is NT at its best, they have renovated the wings of this building to provide income from 4 appartments so that they can eventually repair the rest of the house. We were very pleased to be donating to such a good cause! We visited Dove Cottage today the simple and small home of the great poet William Wordsworth. Apparantly 14 people lived in this tiny cottage at one stage during his ownership, they must have been sleeping in shifts. We also learnt the origin of the saying "daylight robbery" here, a phrase that was coined when they introduced a tax on glass windows and people had to brick them up to save themselves money!

We set off on one of our 1001 walks of Britain today, starting at Pooley Bridge and then up and over the moors around Ullswater. RAF jets were flying low above us throughout the walk and the famous Lake District rain soaked us to the skin. Lilia had a ball! After the walk we called in to watch the Rydal Sheep dog and Hound trials, it was wet and muddy but it was placed in the most gloriously green valley,such a pretty spot. The highlight of our visit was a hound race called the "dog dash". A pack of hounds following a aniseed scented trail around the lakeland hills ad the first hound back to the valley won. The noise was terrific, from owners as well as the hounds, such excitement and with such a stunning backdrop it was the highlight of my day.

25 December 2009: Christmas with the family

An early start this Christmas morning as we set off from Mum and Dad's house to drive up to Solihull. Due to the snow and problems on the railways, Mum and Dad had not been able to get up to Bryan's house on 23 Dec as originally planned and the snow in Solihull had prevented Bryan from coming down to pick them up by car. Today however was bright and dry and the roads relatively empty as we drove up to the midlands.

It was a typical family Christmas. All the girls were at home and after devouring a big Christmas lunch we spent the rest of the day opening presents and playing games. This year's main present in the Pugh household was the Wii and Saboohi and I had bought the family Wii Fit to accompany it. The Wii is THE gadget at the moment as couch potatoes all over the country get onto their feet and start jogging, bowling, skiing, skating etc We particularly enjoyed the ten pin bowling today and Mum and Dad both got involved and infact did very well! As Dad has not been very well recently and has been shakey on his feet, it was nice to see him up and participating in our Wii tournament.

The evening was filled with the more traditional family games, devided by our games master Bryan. "Play your cards right", Trivial Pursuit (on the Wii!)and "Call my bluff" they got the Bryan Pugh treatment and kept us all entertained until the late hours. And the cherry on the cake of course was that we had snow on the ground today! I can't remember the last time we had a White Christmas but we had one this year.

Sunday 20 December 2009

The snow is deep and crisp but not very even under foot today as we set out to walk around Leith Hill in the Surrey Hills. It was several inches deep in places and the ponds we passed were completely frozen over. It was a magical walk. The landscape reminded me of Narnia from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and I expected Mr Tumnus to appear from behind the trees at any moment! For lunch we stopped at the Stephen Langton Public House in Friday Street. A roaring fire, a glass of Drambuie and delicious pub fare replenished and refortified us before we headed off to complete our walk. The views from Leith Hill at the end of our 5 mile walk were stunning -how lucky are we to live in such a beautiful place?