Devon Break

By shendyNo Comments
A few photos from a very pleasant couple of days in Devon. We went down on Thursday after work as a friend was playing for the Exeter Music Group Symphony Orchestra at Exeter Cathedral. They played Rachmaninov's "Die Toteninsel", Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and his Symphony No 5. The 1812 is one of the few bits of classical music I know, and it was rather splendid - real cannons recorded in Plymouth earlier in the week plus the Cathedral bells and bells from a couple of other local churches piped live into the cathedral. Stirring stuff! Friday morning was spent wandering around the centre of Exeter, where I took some photos of the interior of the cathedral. In the afternoon, the sun was warm enough to go to the beach at Budleigh Salterton - the cliffs sheltered us from the cool wind and it was really rather pleasant to sit out and feel the sun on your skin at long last. On Saturday, we stopped off...
Read More

France 2012

By shendyNo Comments
Here are a few photos from this year's summer holiday in France. A fairly standard trip - a couple of days to drive down (staying at the lovely Auberge de la Hulotte in St Jacques d'Ambur, within sight of the Puy de Dome deep in the Auvergne), two weeks in a gite (booked via Halcyon Leisure) and then 4 nights on the way back (1 at the Hotel Le Pont Bernet in Le Pian Medoc, 2 at Hotel des Pins in l'Amelie near Soulac, and 1 at Hostellerie du Bois Guibert in Bonneval near Chartres). All of the establishments are recommended for both food and accommodation - as is the Logis de France chain. Anyway, on to the photos. A few from around the gite. Some landscapes and bits and pieces. I'm particularly pleased with the hay bales - I've been looking for a particularly photogenic set of these for ages and happened to come across these while looking for some caves (which happened...
Read More

Devon, June 2012

By shendyNo Comments
Just back from a weekend down in Devon - an area I've not really done before. First up was a visit to Bicton Park, conveniently located only a short distance from our B&B (Lower Pinn Farm - clean, comfortable room, a huge bed and an excellent breakfast). Bicton was quite good - lots of different bits of garden to keep you interested. The rest of the weekend was spent mainly in Budleigh Salterton, initially to meet up with friends at the BN Beach Day on Saturday, but we gave up on that by 1:30 as it clouded over and the wind got chilly. Better weather on Sunday as it brightened up at lunchtime. ...
Read More

Cornwall 2012

By shendy1 Comment
SWMBO and I had a break down in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago, staying at the rather lovely Gurnard's Head, just beyond St Ives. A couple of really excellent meals. It was also a good excuse to actually take some photos - I'll warn you now that if you're not interested in photos of waves then there's not going to be much here for you! After we arrived on the Friday, we took a stroll down to the actual Gurnard's Head - quite pleasant, and rather odd with the cloud level somewhere about the height we were at. Saturday morning was spent at Sennen - we had originally planned to walk round to Land's End but couldn't be bothered in the end. The seas were really spectacular, and combined with a blue sky and sunshine to make brilliant weather for photographing the waves. I like this sequence - it gives you a good idea of how big the seas were. In the afternoon we...
Read More

Dorset

By shendyNo Comments
We spent a couple of nights in Dorset last week - the first night happened to coincide with the 20th anniversary of our moving in together, which was nice. We stayed in Burton Bradstock on the Jurassic Coast, also the home to Billy Bragg. I thoroughly recommend the B&B we stayed at - Chesil Beach Lodge. We didn't really do much for the time we were there, not venturing away from the beach during the day and no further than the village for dinner in the evening. I also took quite a lot of photos... The sandstone cliffs are really photogenic, particularly when combined with a blue sky and some light cloud. This is a fence that's been built on top of the cliff to stop people using the old bit of the coastal path - erosion and rockfalls mean that the cliff edge tends to move inland somewhat, and there's quite a drop over that edge. Due to enjoying dinner, we didn't quite...
Read More