Bourton, Cheltenham, and now we're in Norfolk ........

Happy Sunday!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

We're still on our travels and currently making the most of this gorgeous weather, although it's a little bit too warm for me today so I'm sat in the shade!

Since my last blog post we've done a few more miles, and I must confess my craft bag has not been looked at, apart from moving it from one end of the van to the other, each time we pitch up!  There's still time though, we're not back home for another two weeks!

  

From Somer's Wood in Birmingham (my last blog post), we hit the road again and travelled to Bourton-on-the-Water (aka the Venice of the Cotswolds and still one of our all time favourite places)

We spent 4 nights on a lovely little site, Cotswolds Carp Farm.  

Set around numerous lakes, with woodland walks and whole host of wildlife.  And, it's only a short walk from the centre of the village ....... perfect!

We do love this place .......

On a nice evening you can't beat a nice glass of wine and dinner by the river ......

Followed by an evening stroll just as the sun is going down.....

From there we went to Cheltenham, the town where hubby lost his sense of direction (for the first time ever!!!) I got soaking wet as a result, and our love of the Cotswolds began, all those years ago! 

We stayed 2 nights on a club campsite at Cheltenham Racecourse.  Nothing fancy, all the usual facilities, great views of the course though ..... pity there was no racing meeting, I quite enjoy a flutter on the horses now and then!

We stayed here purely for the location ...... right by the Park & Ride into the centre of Cheltenham ...... you see, we had tickets for the Cheltenham Food & Drink Festival!  We've visited this many times when we've stayed in Bourton.

We ate too much, drank too much, and definitely spent too much!  A great day out.

We even saw these guys ..... the Hare and the Minotaur

From there, we set off again and drove across the country to Norfolk.  

We're currently on another 'new to us' campsite (our 4th one this trip!) ..... a little place called the Old Brick Kilns. 

I say little, it's actually quite a large campsite, not far from the north Norfolk coast, in a place called Barney.   It's lovely, nice large pitches, a fishing lake in the centre, and a restaurant and bar on site ...... we had live music last night too which was great.

We're only here for a couple of nights though, then we're off the next part of our adventure.  We're heading to the Norfolk Broads tomorrow ....... that's going to be weird, we're usually there on a boat!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Think I'm actually cooking this evening ....... bad planning on my part I think, it doesn't seem to be cooling down any.  Salad anyone!?

Cheerio until next time .......

We're on the road again .........

Happy weekend .......

How's your June going?

It's been a busy couple of weeks on the island, and we had an absolutely fabulous TT!!  

The sun shone everyday, and the racing was amazing!!!  So many records were broken ...... those boys are fast!!!! 

We had our annual trip to Bushey's for a cheeky beer or two (have to go at least once during TT) 

The Red Arrows gave us a great display .......

And Senior Race Day was on the Saturday, which meant there was an extra day of racing

We were up and the Grandstand, and had a great view of the start.

And on top of all that, I had to get the van ready for our latest adventure.

Yes, we're on the road again ........ I know, we've only been back for a little over three weeks but, we're trying to make the most of the motorhome and fit in as many trips as we can this year.  Plus, the weather is too nice to miss.

We came across to the UK yesterday and drove down to Birmingham.   Not very glamorous I hear you say but, we're staying on a lovely campsite called Somer's Wood Caravan Park, about three miles from the NEC (National Exhibition Centre)

What a little gem!  Not far from the motorway, located next to Stonebridge Golf Course and is so quiet and peaceful.  It was the perfect spot for us as we've started our trip with a visit to the Good Food Show today at the NEC.

We've walked miles, my 10,000 steps were done well before lunchtime!  

It got very busy.  We've tasted all sorts of goodies,  stocked up the van for the trip, bought a new gadget for the BBQ and,  we went to see James Martin in action creating a lovely summer meal ...... will be trying out those recipes  when we get home.

We also bought his gin, which is very nice ....... we were trying that at 10 this morning!!!  Well, it was 5 o'clock somewhere 🍸

We're back at the van now and, it's just started to rain ...... yeah!!  You could almost hear the grass sigh with relief.  Hopefully a good downpour will clear the air.

We're off on our travels again tomorrow, heading for one of our favourite places.  

We usually stay there with the family, in a cottage, but this time we're taking Remi.  We're off to lovely Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds ..... it's been a while!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy your weekend

I think it's time to open that bottle of gin don't you ......... cheers!

Cheerio until next time .......

 

Welcome to June .......

Happy weekend ........

Welcome to June!   Can you believe we're almost half way through 2023 ....... it's crazy!

I hope you've had a good week.  It's been absolutely glorious here.  We've had beautiful blue skies, and warm sunny days all week, it's been great!! 

Perfect weather for all the islands TT visitors.  

We were up at the Grandstand earlier in the week, to soak up a little bit of the atmosphere ......

grab a cheeky beer, or two, in the Trackside bar .......

and of course, pick up this years stash from the Merchandise tent!

Just need to catch some actual racing now!

Because the sun's been shining I haven't spent any time in the craft room this week ..... naughty of me I know, especially as I should be in there ........... deadlines are approaching!!  Dare I say it ..... Christmas is coming!!!!!  More on all that later.

I have got a little something to share with you though, a journal spread I did before we went away.

This was an online workshop with the lovely JOFY (Jo Firth-Young), started way back in the days of lockdown, and I've only just got around to finishing it (I've actually got a few of those!!)

That's the good thing about the online workshops, once you've signed up to them, the content is always there.  So, if you don't get chance to do them live, you can go back and finish them whenever you like.

I really enjoyed playing around with this, spending a few hours using paints and stencils, and pretty patterned papers, which is something I don't use very often these days (maybe that will all change now!)

creating my little garden of flowers.

 

The flower heads are all hand drawn onto the papers, and then fussy cut and layered together, in true JOFY style, to create these bold, funky styled, blooms ...... love them!

To make them stand out, each one was finished with some penwork, outlining each of the petals and adding little doodled details here and there.

I finished off my pages with some paint splatters and a couple of stamped words and I also added a little ladybug, stamped onto a snippet of card and layered onto one of the leaves ..... so cute!

You can see in the background that some of the stencil work has also been highlighted using a white gel pen ....... small detail but so effective.  Helps to create the look of more layers which is what this workshop was about.

This really was so much fun to do, and what a great way of using up all those pretty patterned papers!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy your weekend.

I can just about hear the roar of the bikes ........ time to start the racing!

Cheerio until next time ......