Hunting the Ash-black slug on Dartmoor - in Devon

Forget the sightings of wildcats on Dartmoor in Devon - I was out hunting giant slugs this weekend. It turns out that the micro-habitat around the River Dart in Devon is home to the rare and illusive Ash-black slug, largest slug in England at up to 30cm long and we were out in hot pursuit.

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Lunch at The Priory Inn - in Tetbury

I'd read some glowing reviews of the Priory Inn in Tetbury, so when I was there recently on a shopping day out with a friend, we decided to give it a try for lunch. It wouldn't have been the obvious choice had I not been looking for it, as it's a few minutes walk from the main high street on the road out of town. What was once a tired roadside pub has now been transformed by the new owners into a gastropub and hotel with 14 rooms.

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Girly delights at Sassy & Boo in Tetbury

Last week I spent a day with a friend visiting the Cotswold town of Tetbury, a place that's a shopper's delight if you like antiques, designer clothes and gourmet food. When I was last in Bath, I visited the Sassy & Boo boutique near the Royal Crescent, so when we saw they also had a branch in Tetbury, we made it the first stop of the day.



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A day out in Tetbury - in Gloucestershire

November can be pretty dull time between the end of the summer and the build up to Christmas, and I decided to brighten things up with a day out with a friend in Tetbury. Tetbury is in the 'Royal' county of Gloucestershire with Prince Charles' country estate of Highgrove just down the road, and Princess Anne also living nearby. It's the sort of place where well heeled Londoners have a weekend house and the picturesque cream stone buildings are filled with antique shops, yummy food delis and smart boutiques. Just the place, I thought, for a girly day out.




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Breakfast at the Glass Boat for Red Maids Founder's Day

Every year in November, my daughter's school parades through the city of the Bristol to Bristol Cathedral, where they celebrate their Founder's day. Red Maid's School was founded in 1634 by John Whitson, the Mayor of Bristol, to provide education for poor girls from the city of Bristol. In those days the curriculum covered the skills required to make them good wives and mothers, such as reading, sewing and household skills.



The whole school gathers on Welsh Back by Bristol Bridge, and to celebrate the occasion, I took my daughter for breakfast at The Glass Boat. This rather smart restaurant is an old converted barge, which is moored in a prime position on the waterfront, where once the merchant ships of Bristol were moored beside the brick warehouses. We enjoyed a seat at the back where the floor to ceiling windows allowed us to follow the swans on the river and enjoy our American pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, while the rest of the school gathered on the quayside beside us.


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Step back in time at the Dennis Severs' house in London

As I arrived at the Dennis Severs' house in the Shoreditch neighbourhood of London, there was not much to distinguish it from the others in this Georgian Terrace, surrounded by modern office blocks. One of the guardians of the house was waiting just outside and gave us a few words of introduction, requesting that we walk around the candle-lit house in silence to soak up the atmosphere.



The house is a cross between a stage set for an 18th century costume drama and a living museum, where the ghosts of the past have just left the room. The house was created by Californian Denis Severs, who lived in the house, with no electricity or modern conveniences, until his death in 1999. For his own enjoyment he created the house as a sensory experience which would transport visitors away from the 20th century - the house's motto is You either see it or you don't.


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Friday Photo - Cheka Kidogo (smile a little) in London

Today I'm joining with the Friday Photo over at Delicious Baby, to bring you a photo from my travels with a story behind it.

This week, I was on the South Bank in London, on one of those wettest of wet days when if it doesn't rain it pours. I love the South Bank Centre because apart from the major art exhibitions & concerts, there's always something free and interactive going on there. Through the gloom I spotted this installation of photographs and videos called Cheka Kidogo which means Smile a little in Swahili.




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A free day out in Greenwich - in London

I wrote in an earlier post about how I arrived by river at Greenwich with a friend, on one of the commuter ferries that ply up and down the Thames, giving us a great sightseeing tour en route.

We stepped off onto the ferry pier just as kings and queens of England had done before us, for here was the site of Greenwich Palace, favourite residence of the Tudor monarchs and birthplace of Henry VIII and his daughters Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I. By the 1660s the palace had fallen into disrepair and Charles II ordered it to be demolished and a new palace was started which was eventually incorporated into the Old Royal Naval College, now a University Campus.


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A river trip to Greenwich - in London

Although we were reluctant to leave the artistic delights of the V & A museum in London, my friend and I had decided to continue our day out in London with a trip down the river to Greenwich.



We emerged from the tube at Embankment tube station to find the pier for the river boat just across the road. The service from here is designed for commuters as well as tourists and leaves every 20 minutes to take you up and down the river, making may stops along the way. The trip to Greenwich cost around £8 return which was not unreasonable considering that the boat was very comfortable and we got an excellent view of some key sites from the river.

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Down by the river in Richmond

Richmond has changed a lot since I grew up there but I still enjoy going back to catch up with family and friends. I always saw it as a pretty regular kind of place, where normal families went about their business and took it's pleasures for granted.



These days it's the kind of place that you can only afford to live if you have a well paid job in the city and is a favourite with business people moving from overseas with their families to spend a few years working in London.

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An artistic lunch at the V & A - in London

If you're visiting London and want a haven to pause from sightseeing or shopping for coffee or a light lunch, there's a cafe I'd like to recommend to you.



The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington is a stone's throw from Knightsbridge where every tourist visits Harrods to buy a tin of Earl Grey tea to take home for their mother and self respecting fashionistas check out the designers at Harvey Nichols. I was there to meet a friend for coffee before a spot of sightseeing in Greenwich (more of that later).

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Friday photo - the view from Richmond Hill

Today I've travelled back to my childhood home of Richmond on the outskirts of London. I'm joining in with Delicious Baby to bring you a Friday photo with a story behind it.

As I walked along the terrace above Richmond Hill to admire the famous view, I paused to chat with an artist who had set up his easel there.




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They're changing the guards at Buckingham Palace

Since my visit to the garden party at Buckingham palace in July, I wanted to see more of the place that the Queen lives and works. The State Rooms of Buckingham Palace were first opened in 1992 to raise money for the damage caused by the fire at Windsor Castle. Now they open in August and September each summer, while the Queen is enjoying her Scottish holiday at Balmoral. I arrived with my son a little early for our tour, and we established ourself in a prime position in front of the palace, hoping to see the changing of the guards, but no guards appeared so we decamped to the nearby St James's park for a picnic.

It reminded me of that poem by AA Milne (see it all here)


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Castles and cream teas - at Dunster in Devon

As I'm having a break in August from the world of work, I decided to take a couple of days to visit a friend in north Devon and together we played at being tourists, visiting some of the local sites. This part of Devon is marked by the wild landscapes of the Exmoor National park, but around the edges of the moor the landscape is green and rolling with steep sided lanes and picturesque thatched cottages built from the local stone or painted in shades of Devon cream.


We called in at the village of Dulverton on the southern edge of Exmoor which is a good place to while away an hour or two, with interesting shops selling farm produce, antiquarian books and stylish gifts and jewellery. We tried lunch at a local gastropub called Woods which has received rave reviews and manages to combine an old Devon charm of wooden beams and deer antlers, with a bustling modern approach and delicious food. We both had salad dishes, mine of scallops and prawns and my friend's of steak, although mine was a little light to keep me going so I topped up with a bowl of chips.


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Camping in sunshine and showers - on the Gower in Wales

After the wet weekend camping in Cornwall last August, when our tent practically blew away and we had to decamp to a friend's holiday cottage, I'd vowed my camping days were over. Nevertheless, when my sister in law suggested a camping weekend together in South Wales, on the beautiful Gower peninsula, I took the optimistic view. In my imagination I was already basking in the sunshine with a view across the fields to the sea, nibbling on strawberries with a bottle of white wine chilling in the cool box.




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Guest Post - Nomadic Matt visits Penzance

While Matt Kepnes was visiting us last week, I persuaded him to write me a guest post on something he'd enjoyed while travelling in the UK. You can find Matt's other travel tips, hints and photos on his website Nomadic Matt's travel site.

While I was in Cornwall, I was fortunate enough to visit to Penzance, a coastal town in western England. Penzance is famous for being near St. Michael’s Mount, a historic church built on an island in the harbor. It’s similar to that of Mont St Michel in Northern France.

My friends and I spent the day driving through the English countryside. I’m in love with the English countryside. Rolling green hills, grazing farm animals, and the occasional house conjure up images of a simple and relaxed lifestyle. Everything is so green, so peaceful, and so picturesque. Every train ride, every car ride sees me staring out the window in awe. The English countryside is my favorite thing about England.


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A visit from Nomadic Matt

For a couple of days last week we hosted Matt, a fellow blogger and traveller who I met though the internet. Matt has developed a great website called Nomadic Matt's Travel site with tips, tales and photos from his travels and was in the UK for a few weeks on his European tour, so I invited him to call in and see us in Bristol.

As you'd expect, Matt is a pretty relaxed and experienced traveller and it was interesting to compare notes on our different approaches to travel. I discovered that while I might study the guide book avidly and make a mental list of places to see, Matt's approach is to turn up, get a map and then wander around wherever the fancy took him. I noticed that he still managed to take in all the major sites of interest but they came to him as a charming surprise as if he was the first person to stumble upon them.

I asked Matt to share with me the things he had enjoyed most while visiting Bristol and it's picturesque cousin, Bath and here is his list;


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A Garden open day at Emmaus House - in Bristol

I think I first heard about Emmaus House in Bristol through my local church, as it's a centre for religious retreats and other courses with a spiritual theme as well as hiring out meeting rooms and serving delicious lunches in the week at their restaurant. Despite being situated in the heart of Clifton Village in a beautiful Georgian building with amazing views over Bristol, Emmaus House in not that well known even by those living locally.

I heard that their gardens were open this weekend, so we went to have a look and were well rewarded as the sun shone and the garden was blooming. We sat first on the Rose terrace at the back of the house and bumped into a couple of friends who were having lunch, so we felt it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to try some ourselves, as many of the ingredients come from the organic kitchen garden. I tried the salmon and fennel en croute and my husband had aubergine baked with tomatoes and cheese, both with fresh salads and new potatoes from the garden.


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A garden party at Buckingham Palace

It may not have escaped you if you read what I wrote here and here that my husband has military connections. So when he asked me whether I wanted to go to a garden party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the centenary of the Territorial Army I was nonchalent at first, but as the day arrived I found myself getting secretly excited. After all it's not every day you get to go through those wrought iron gates and nose around the Queen's private back garden.

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A taste of Spain at Ocean Café - in Bristol

After my visit in April to Valencia I have to admit to having fallen in love with all things Spanish, so Ocean Café in Bristol was the natural place to celebrate my birthday with friends.


The Café opens in the morning for a late breakfast of Bocadillo de Bacon (that great British favourite) and goes on into the evening for Tapas and Paella. We sampled a set menu of all the favourite Tapas - Jamon, meatballs, Patatas Bravas and Calamari followed by Paella and Churros with chocolate sauce for dessert. Unfortunately I was enjoying the food so much that I forgot to take many photos of it before it disappeared.


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