Month: October 2022

Glastonbury and Wells

a delight to wander around

September ’22 saw us taking a family trip to Somerset with my daughter, younger son and their families, so 6 adults, 2 young children and 5 dogs, quite an adventure!

The converted barn was very comfortable, with a large secure garden and a hot tub.

On our first day some of us decided to visit a beach, as the weather didnt look too great for the rest of the week. We chose Brean, as we’ve camped there a few times and love the expanse of beach.

The new puppy, Hugo, enjoyed running around with his doggy family.

That’s a lot of beach for a small puppy

Rainy days were spent relaxing, soaking, and playing board games.

Ian and I chose a day trip out to Glastonbury and Wells.

If you’ve never visited these, they are nearby twns, but very different in character.

Glastonbury is best known for the Tor, which has myths about its past, and the Festival, and the spritual theme continues into the town, with lots of supernatural themed shops and cafes.

There is also a large Abbey, mostly in ruins, in the town, which was a delight to wander around.

The whole city is very colourful and hippy.

Next we drove on to Wells, which in contrast is very upmarket and almost staid, and serious. The Cathedral was a pure delight, they dont charge entry, just suggest a donation, and dogs are allowed in, which is a first for us.

The building is exquisite and ornate.

As the weather was threatening rain we didn’t climb the steep hill to Glastonbury Tor, so on our return back to the Barn we stopped at Burrow Mump, a smaller hill to climb. I’m sure this ruin is very atmostpheric at night. you can just make out Glastonbury Tor in the far distance.

our only other trip out was the what I think is the best garden centre I have ever visited, Monkton Elm. I could have spent a fortune here, if only we had space in the car to get them home.

I did buy a banana plant in the reduced sales, I’ll try to keep you updated on its progress, and as Pete got one too, this is a competition. So far, about 6 weeks later, its had 3 new leaves, so is progressing well.

All in all, we had a great trip, time to spend with our grandchildren and children, and visit new places, and also a few more souvenir pencils for my collection.

Beach Hut Addiction

I could have spent all day taking photos!

I have not written any blogs for a long while as we moved house, and I’ve just not found the time, but our recent trip to Mersea, a small island on the south Essex coast, deserved a blog, so I’m back.

With moving house, most of the trips Connie the van made this year were to carry large purchases, like sheds, green houses and wardrobes. The bulk of her trips were to Ikea, so having got most of the big jobs out of the way, and with a new grandson to visit, we needed a holiday.

We wanted to combine a final campervan trip of the year with a visit to my son and family. A browse of available sites found Waldergraves on West Mersea, somewhere neither of us had previously visited.

The forecasts had been dire the previous week, but improved day by day, and in the end we had lovely weather for mid October.

Mersea has a causeway that floods at high tides, and the day we arrived was such a tide, but we got there shortly after the sea had subsided, and settled in for a G&T before checking out the beach.

It was only a short walk from our plot on the edge of the large site to the beach.

The sun was dropping as we walked towards the town of West Mersea.

If you google West Mersea you will find lots of photos of the beach huts, and they didn’t disappoint. There are around 400, and a large section are identical huts painted in soft pastel shades.

The beach has very large tidal ranges, so can be very narrow, or stretch away into the distance.

While the background was not the most scenic, with a disused Nuclear power station, and many wind turbines, the sun on the water, and the groynes and seabirds was very pleasant.

The following day we ventured further along the beach, which the Puligans enjoyed.

As we approached the town, the huts became random, many different styles and paint palets.

I could have spent all day taking photos!

A few yachts were enjoying the fine weather

As we rounded the end of the island, there were many houseboats, all appearing stranded but on closer inspection each had a channel in the shore.

A boardwalk took us into the small town, and then a slow walk back to camp.

As it was Ians birthday we later walked to a local pub with the dogs for a mid week roast.

On Thursday the weather was forecast to be rainy, so we only took a short walk then, finding the weather was actually very warm and sunny, spent the rest of the day sitting in the sun and reading and relaxing.

On Friday we decided to walk the other direction towards East Mersea, but the coastal path has eroded making it unpassable. So we took the diversion inland and found ourselves at a vinyard, which we had to visit for morning cake and drink.

Our route then took us past the back of the site and onto a neighbouring campsite, where we dined on fish and chips, our holiday tradition.

It was then time to continue on to Dartford, but we will probably return as we thoroughly enjoyed our autumn break here.

I must now catch up on my missed blogs.