Week 18/52 120-126/365

120/365 As a Fulham supporter, its quite sad to see them getting off to such a bad start to the season, but at least they are above Arsenal in the table (sorry Janice)



121/365 Bank Holiday Monday was the day of the Devizes Street Festival, with all sorts of wonderful things going on all day. I loved the look on this little girl's face as she stroked the sheep



122/365 I didn't grow many vegetables this year, but we did have enough of our own potatoes for one meal!



123/365 For someone who professes to be a country girl, I'm pretty rubbish at wild flower recognition. This one was beside the footpath as we climbed Echilhampton Hill, one of our regular lunchtime outings, anyone able to tell me what its called?



124/365 This is a very small self-seeded sunflower in a pot, rather than a giant bee



125/365 Another of our regular spots is the top of Roundway Hill, a very peaceful place to be on a warm and sunny day



126/365 Devizes Carnival Day, which will have a blog post of its own within a day or two, a fabulous steel band.

August Photo Scavenger Hunt

1) A fountain. This is the Escourt Fountain in Devizes Market Square, since I took this photo at the begining of the month it has been emptied out and given a good clean and refurb - I guess I should have gone back and taken an "after" photo instead.


2) A boat. Silver Hammer on the Kennet and Avon Canal at Devizes.


3) Mountains. No real mountains in mid-Wiltshire, these are all I could find


4) Street Food. At Devizes Sreet Festival on Bank Holiday Monday


5) A picnic. I have to confess to stealing this idea from Eileen, over at In my Playroom


6) Market Day. Thursday is Market Day in Devizes, and most of the Thursdays in August were wet .


7) Festival or Funfair. Bank Holiday Monday Street Festival, I loved this highly patterned rickshaw


8) Bread. The bread stall at Devizes Market, on a non-wet Thursday, late in the day, so not much left.


9) Something bizarre. The underneath view of "Caerphilly Castle", the world's fastest steam engine.


10) Fabric. A bargain buy at £3.99 a metre, I bought up the remainder of the roll.


11) A sport. Closest we get to sport is watching it on TV, MOTD (Match of the Day) is our favourite programme, and welcomed back after a summer break


12) Something Ancient. Ludgershall Castle, about 10 miles from Devizes, and once an important staging post in Ancient Britain.

Week 17/52 113-119/365

113/365 Sunset
Seems like everywhere in the UK had some fabulous sunsets this week



114/365 Grasscutting
I've already used this shot in another blog post, but I like it so much, here it is again, Rog cutting the grass



115/365 Misty morning



116/365 Two Ginger men
Well, I can assure you that I wouldn't part with any one of my three ginger men for this sort of money!



117/365 Swindon
A free bus ride to Swindon to see the Steam Museum and indulge in a bit of shopping



118/365 Carrots



119/365 Frog

Swindon Steam Museum

This may not be everyone's idea of a good day out, but being of a "certain age" it brought back memories for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Isambard Kingdom Brunel is one of my historic heroes, he decided what it was he wanted and just got on with it, despite opposition from all sides, go Issie!



It just goes to show that no matter how silly your name, if you do great stuff they will name something after you in the end.



This engine is the one that holds the record for being the fastest steam engine ever . . .



. . . and here's how it looks from underneath.



One of Queen Victoria's carriages is on show, this is the clerestory roof



A buffet car (I dont think QV would have needed to use this!)



I can actually remember when you used to have to pay one penny (that is when there were 12 of them to a shilling) to buy a platform ticket if you wanted to see someone off or meet someone from a train.



This is one of the windows to the aforementioned QV's carriage



A shot of the front of the old Swindon Railway works, now sadly no longer and up for sale for redevelopment



The steam museum is situated at one end of the vast complex that used to comprise the Swindon Railway and Engine works, which was the main employer in Swindon for many years. Most of the surrounding houses were built by the GWR to house the factory workers, there are rows and rows of back-to-back houses one of which is home to the Swindon Railway Village Museum, sadly we didn't have time to visit - another day, maybe.

G is for . . .

. . . garden, the very best place to be on a sunny sunday afternoon



. . . Guinness, one of my favourite tipples



. . . grill tray, shortly after having cooked (and eaten) some delicious (and cheap) pork belly strips



. . . grass cuttings, one of my all-time favourite smells.

Week 16/52 106-112/365

106/365. All Cannings is a village about 5 miles out of Devizes in the Pewsey Vale, we go there approximately once a month for a beer at the Kings Arms which happens to be one of the best pubs around. Like all the local out-of-town pubs it's quite expensive, which is why we dont go more often. The unused BT phone box in the village has been put to use in an interesting way, it's the HQ of the village book-swap.



107/365. One of the petunias in my hanging basket.



108/365. As I'll be starting to pack soon in preparation for our house move, I left this sign on the fridge, near to the newspaper recycle box. Someone with a sense of humour wrote the additional comments.



109/365. One of the best sunrises so far this year.



110/365. This book turned up in the post, I didn't order it or pay for it, it just turned up. If anyone out there knows who sent it to me or why, please let me know. I have started to read it.



111/365. Sunset



112/365. An autumnal morning

Bournemouth

Yesterday we took Oli back to Bournemouth for his third and final year at Uni. Previously when we've been to Bournemouth we visited the beach to dip our toes in the water, have an ice-cream (me) and a beer (Rog), and generally make a nice day out of the trip. But yesterday, well, we couldn't have picked a worse day to go! It rained heavily almost all day, we could see the River Avon between Fordingbridge and Ringwood almost bursting its banks, traffic in town was practically gridlocked as the Air Show was scheduled, although the start was delayed due to the unseasonally bad weather, but there was still plenty of traffic around. As Oli has lived down there for a couple of years now he was able to navigate us around via back streets and whatever until we reached his new digs. We offloaded him as quickly as we could, although by this time the rain had eased off a bit and was thankfully only a mild drizzle, and then followed our noses to make our way back to the A338 and head off home.

So, many apologies, no nice pictures of Boscombe beach, or my ice-cream or anything else seaside related!

Instead, here are some pictures of my garden, taken this morning on what was an incredibly Autumnal start to the day.