Exploring new Territories

Life continues in our new cottage and amazingly we are almost completely unpacked and nearly everything has found its place to live. We flattened 83 boxes yesterday, and there are still some full of books which kind of travel with us and never manage to get unpacked... maybe this time!!!! My studio needs some organising but that is a task that I look forward to and will evolve as I start to use the room.

The weekend weather was reasonably clement for mid February and we had some friends come and visit. We spent some time almost basking in the sunny courtyard garden ad Dr Fred enlisted help to clear the flags ready for the pots we hope to furnish it with as soon as we get Beryl back!!!

We also started some exploring of the local village and countryside. We went for a nice walk down through the quite picturesque village and up past to the gallops where the race horse breeding farm were exercising some of the horses. Apparently there are 98 horses living there - some have been big race winners…. Not anything I have any idea about!!! They were very stunning though.

We climbed the stile and walked along by a stream for a couple of miles it was pretty and its nice to know we have a pleasant walk right on the doorstep.

Further up the village there is a hall and a small chapel. In the grounds of the chapel there are some gargoyles - they probably warrant further investigation at some point.

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Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors! The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay. The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

Kalamata and random stuff

We suddenly got busy catching up with old friends met on previous cruises - and making some new friends who were working this cruise. Dr Fred got organised arranging Stargazing sessions and future talks, while I'm embroidering a coat! All this takes time and energy inbetween being available for food..... It was formal night in the 1920s style with the Captain's Cocktail party. So we donned our gladrags, smartened ourselves up and went meet the captain and have a to drink in the Neptune theatre before dinner. I have to say I'm quite impressed with the effort that people go to on these formal nights and some people have some amazing clothes And it was particularly good this night because of the 1920s theme They were an awful lot of headbands with feathers in them but they did look good and some of the frocks were just absolutely stunning. They've refurbished the selfservice area. Its now known as the Thistle - and it's very pleasant - al...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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