Uninspired!

Haven't felt inspired to update this Blog, for a combination of reasons.

The weather is totally getting me down, for various reasons, both personal and weather related, I've been very depressed and as a lifelong, periodic suffer from depression, I know that I have no motivation, whatsoever, in the bad times.

We managed 5 days back at Sandy Balls, where the weather was atrocious, we didn't even go swimming, as it was cold and wet and dark all the time. The walk across and the thought of getting wetter didn't appeal at all.

Our first morning back there was a small window of dry weather, although blowing a gale. I thought it would be good to drive to Avon Beach, park on the road above the beach and cook our breakfast and have a walk on the beach, to blow the cobwebs away and see the big waves.

That was enjoyable, for me and the dog. Mike didn't like it at all, he was too cold. When we got back to the site we found our hook up cable and water hose had been stolen. So the rest of the week really was spent under a black cloud, in both senses.

All the other campers around us were shocked at the theft, this sort of thing doesn't normally happen. What did amuse me was the reaction of the men staying around us, as some of the campers were very camp indeed. We then realised we seemed to be in an all male community and when we saw the rainbow stickers with GCC on them, the penny dropped, we were staying in the middle of a Gay Caravan Club Rally. Who knew? I think I shall have to join, they seemed a lot more cheery than some of the straight, married campers we've seen, who never seem to even speak to each other.

So all in all it was a bad week, with the theft and the weather. We had to move back to M-I-L's for the weekend as Sandy Balls was fully booked for the weekend. More Happy Campers arriving!

At the weekend we were having a bit of a family Do, at my Sister-in-Law's, which was a pleasant diversion from the weather and I did what I do best, catering for 12 and making sure they were all well fed.

The forecast was so bad for the following week, we didn't go back to Sandy Balls but stayed in the house, which was sensible really and due to the high winds delayed driving to our next booking at Chichester.

We drove down here yesterday and it was a lovely sunny day, we took a short cut on a B road as we got near to the site, which was an exciting drive, although just about passable, the road was a river, for about 4 miles, with ditches running like raging torrents.

So here we are, grey skies again and windy but at least it is dry, at the moment. Planning to get the bus into Chichester in a bit and then hopefully a dog walk this afternoon.

These are a few of the photos from our breakfast at Avon Beach.

And on the 13th I thought I had better take advantage and take a photo of the Moon in her glory, as I suspected, rightly, there wouldn't be a chance the next night of the Full version.

The Peace Pagoda, Willen Lake

If you've ever visited Milton Keynes, you'll know what a confusing place it can be to get round. On one of our trying to find Sainsburys trips, we saw this interesting building and decided to take the dog there for a walk.

Surprise surprise, there was a freezing cold wind, so again, wasn't as long a walk as we would have liked. It is a lovely, peaceful place to go though and in better weather, would make a lovely afternoon out.

Olney

We'd seen Olney on a recent Michael Portillo, Great Railway Journeys programme, as it's just up the road from Newport Pagnell, we thought we'd go and have a look. It was famous for it's Lace Making. There are some nice old buildings there but it was a cold wind, also Sunday, so the shops were shut and we didn't stay too long but of course, I did take a few photos.

Two Weeks at The Mother in Law's

Moving back into a house for a couple of weeks didn't agree with me at all! I suppose the bad weather didn't help, as we all know, the amount of rain we had in January has been the most probably since the time of Noah's flood. My heart goes out to those who have been flooded out, or surrounded with water since the New Year. And the poor creatures that have died just doesn't bear thinking about. I wonder if the ecology of the Somerset will ever recover.

Anyway, I didn't like being in a house that seemed too dark and had net curtains at every window, it made us lazy and we didn't do out much. Even on a dull day, sitting in the MotorHome is almost like being in a glass bubble and you get the maximum amount of light, so being a SAD sufferer, it's a great help.

We had planned to do a fair bit of work in the garden, whilst staying in Mike's Mum's house but the never ending rain made it impossible. I'd also wanted to go dog walking with Mike's sister but Rowley hates getting wet, as his coat isn't waterproof at all and besides, the river meadows were so flooded it wasn't going to be pleasant anyway.

One pleasant afternoon in the house was spent helping M-I-L sort out some boxes of her stuff. There were all sorts of random things in these boxes, plus photos and we had a good laugh at some of them and chewed the fat, over memories from the 30 years I have been her daughter in law and discussed other older photos, who the people were in them and the stories from those times.

We did manage to get out a little bit and I'll write about those events separately.