Moose on the Move!

August was the month of visitors. You might think that after a month touring around we'd like a little quiet time at home by ourselves... it was not to be. That's ok though - we like our friends.

Shortly after our return to Exeter, England was hit by a heatwave. They had a record high temperature of 36.6 degrees celcius - lovely for us but too much for some of the locals. We took advantage of the heat and headed to the beach. Unfortunately the water was no warmer than in the Arctic so our 'swim' was a quick, painful dip followed by a long stretch of thawing on the sand.

We tried to catch up with a few local friends we hadn't seen in a while once we got back to town. We helped Dayna and Ben move into their new home a couple of blocks away, we had lunch with Kate and a group of her friends (and a cute little dog) at Double Locks and I had dinner with Chrissie and Dom.

Our first visitor that month was Eloise, a good friend from high school. We were her first stop on a tour of the UK she was doing. We tried to show her all the best bits of the South West. After exploring Exeter - Cathedral, Quay and RAM Museum, we headed a little further afield to Dartmoor. We visited Castle Drogo and Becky Falls - it's always pretty and magical there. Bath was also on the cards for Eloise's visit. My fourth visit in 14 months, I manage to talk my way out of paying for my ticket into the Baths.

Land's End in Cornwall was also on the itinerary, a first for me too. We stopped at St Ives for a bit of exploring and got mugged by a seagull. They are very brazen there and I had one take a huge chunk out of my pasty before I even had a bite and another one lept over my shoulder and stole the last hunk! As we sat there dumbstruck the couple next to us said they had just seen one guy have his whole pasty stolen and when the guy behind him started laughing he'd had his ice cream stolen. I wouldn't be surprised if it is something of a local pass-time - watching the seagulls assaulting unsuspecting tourists. Anyway it's a pretty seaside town with an amazing tide.

The next day we visited Lanyon Quoit, an ancient, small stone structure. Figuring that we had seen the most Western point of England we might as well duck down to Lizard and see the Southernmost point of mainland England. So we did. It is spectacular landscape there - great towering cliffs, blue water, wild flowers and little butterflies. On the way back to Exeter we stopped in Dartmoor and went for a little walk over the Tors near Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

After spending a week with us Eloise headed north for Scotland and then ended up in London for the long weekend. It was great to see her here, but doesn't a week just fly by.

We had about a week to ourselves then. I spotted a squirrel in our back yard and then thought I saw a rat it our kitchen (though much searching failed to show any evidence of said rodent behind the washing machine). I took photographs of a lot of my jewellery to send to the sister of a friend who has a website (Lalika Blue) in the hope that she might be able to sell some of my work through there. I'll keep you updated with how it goes. My things aren't on the website at the moment, but it's still worth having a look at.

We were delighted when we heard that Chris' cousin Melissa and her husband James were going to be bringing their son over this way (to introduce little Max to James' Irish family). They had a stop over in London for a few days and we went up to meet them. Max is a beautiful little boy and very sweet natured. We went to see the Notting Hill Festival (yes, the same Notting Hill as in the Hugh Grant film), it is a big, colourful, annual event where you can get curried goat or jerk chicken for lunch.

After we said goodbye to Missy, James and Max, Chris and I took a walk through Hyde park and made our way to Speakers Corner. It is a corner of the Park that is traditionally a place where anyone can go and preach to anyone who will listen about any topic that they care to preach about. When we went there were a few guys talking about Muslim related issues, a couple of people promoting the Bible and some other guys who just seemed to be there to argue with people in the crowd. Very interesting and amusing.

We caught the train back to Exeter the next day, and Leia came with us. After several years living in London she was heading home but was seeing a few things before she left. She spent a week with us in Exeter, mostly relaxing and getting ready for her trip to Berlin.

The day after we got back to Exeter with Leia, a family friend of Chris', Sandi, arrived at Bristol for a few days with us. It was great having her here and being able to show her a few things that she'd really wanted to see. Sandi and I went for a walk near Hound Tor in Dartmoor it was about a two hour walk up and around. We saw Llamas (not wild)! There is a large area in Dartmoor where the cows and sheep wander freely over the road. At one point Sandi had to get out of the car and herd the reluctant cows off the road so that we could get past! Yay for Sandi and her way with large beasts.

Ah, we love Branscombe! Almost everyone who visits us gets to go there! It is nice though. So we went again, with Sandi and Leia. This day it was really misty and quite eerie on the beach. Sandi hadn't seen a pebble beach before and Chris got soaked by a wave while he was trying to feel the water with his big toe. (I caught the moment on the camera!) After cream tea Sandi, Chris and Leia climbed up into the clouds to see what they could see. It turned out to not be very much.

Sandi left us to visit some other friends in Dorset before going home to Perth and Leia left us to visit Berlin. It was a busy month but great to see so many friends from home! (hint hint to anyone else at home who is thinking about coming this way.)

We hope you're all well and happy.
Hugs from us.