the Giants.....

we had some Giants visiting Perth this weekend for the

Perth International Arts Festival.....

they were magnificent.....

unfortunately today, when we went to see them, the crowds

were ENORMOUS and it was tres tricky to get anywhere near them
or get a good shot without a million heads in the way.....

so I was grateful for all the photos and videos that other people 

shared of them walking the streets.....

I did manage to snap one or two pics though at the start of the day.....

here is the little girl Giant asleep in the arms of the deep sea diver Giant......

after they had 'woken up', the little girl Giant did a bit of a

mid air jig before heading out on her own.....

and then his helmet was hoisted into position and the deep sea diver Giant was off too.....

Australia day...... a snapshot of our evening.....

I don't know if I've mentioned before but Brian has a great view

of Perth CBD from his office window......

and so we decided to hang out there last night to watch the

Skyworks firework display to celebrate Australia Day.....

we got there just as the sun was going down and enjoyed

some fearless pilots doing tricks in biplanes......

bonker lonkers if you ask me.....

a helicopter flew an enormous Australian flag over the city

a few times until the light levels got lower.....

 and lower.....

and lower.....

finally, at 8pm it was time for the fireworks to begin

and for 30 solid minutes they popped and banged and whizzed....

it was magnificent.....

what a lovely way to end our Australia Day here in Perth.....

August...... the month of gadding...... part three

after returning from France and having our day messing about on the water,
 we set off again to visit the north east of England and to celebrate
Brian's parents' golden wedding anniversary.....

we met up with Brian's sister and her family at a rather unusual spot called

The Forbidden Corner - which describes itself as the 'strangest place in the world'.......

 that would actually seem quite an apt description to be honest......

 it is a place full of surprises, puzzles, jokes, statues, tunnels, 

gardens, towers, secret paths and so much more

 and provides a beautiful and fun place to spend an afternoon.......

our final stop on our visit to the Forbidden Corner was this fountain 

which plays a tune every quarter hour......

 however, it's not as innocent as it looks......

after a weekend of catching up with other members of the family

and generally enjoying jaunts out and about, the four of us wended

 our merry way to the Yorkshire Dales......

this is an area I have never visited before and I have to say that

I completely fell in love with everything about it........

the dry stone walling, the laith barns, the tiny hamlets of houses, the light,

the stunning views, the waterfalls which seemed to be around every corner.....

just everything...... it was somewhere that our two days could not do justice to

and I am determined that one day we will return and spend a couple of weeks

exploring it much more fully.......

until that time however, here are a few of the highlights........

the walling and laith barns covered much of the Dales landscape.....

I loved how it all looked and took loads of photos of just such scenes.....

we met quite a few of the locals......

just wandering around on the roads as we drove around......

we made sure we had supplies on hand for yummy outdoor lunches......

a sausage sizzle in Aysgarth at the edge of one of the waterfalls was a particular favourite.....

the draw of water, particularly for Evie, usually results in lots of

wet clothing...... and these few days were no exception......

on this occasion the jeans stayed fairly dry but the wellies

were full to the top of water by the time she had finished her paddle......

I still, invariably, forget to take along dry clothing for her to

change into...... I don't think I will ever learn that lesson.....

we had a short stop in Skipton and managed a little jaunt along the canal

before we headed off to our overnight stop.......

our second day in the Dales included a visit to the beautiful Bolton Abbey

where the children hammered pennies into an old fallen tree trunk

along with many hundreds of others......

and Evie got to climb, and absail down, one of the large trees in the forest.....

the Abbey itself was a lovely backdrop to our wandering.....

and there was even a unique way of crossing the river to get there

{if you didn't want to do it the conventional way and cross the footbridge.....}

after a lunch of bacon butties, cooked again on our trusty little gas stove

in the park at Bolton Abbey, we headed off to Gordale Scar where Evie

did a little more 'rock hopping'......

before we made our way up to the falls, which were just stunning......

there was lots of scrabbling and climbing and exploring to be done

before the sun started to get low in the sky and we headed off

to find somewhere to have dinner that evening......

I would have to say after this little jaunt, that the Dales have become one of 

my very favouritest places in England and I really am looking forward

to spending another holiday here......

I know that Brian and the children would love to do the coast-to-coast

walk one day so that will give us another great reason to spend a

good bit of time in this lovely part of the world.......

August...... the month of 'gadding'..... part one.....

yes, august was a month of gadding about for us.....

and lovely gadding it was too.....

we started the month off in France with my sister,

brother-in-law and their granddaughter, the ever poppity imogen.....

we made our home in a little gite in the middle of somewhere

in southern Normandy...... I actually have no idea where we were

because for the whole of the journey we just followed the car in front

{which happened to have my sister and a GPS in it}

and we had no map...... not even my ipod could tell me where

we were when I looked at the 'where is my location' gadget thingy.....

I really didn't mind not knowing where I was, it was

kind of liberating.....

the gite was lovely and quaint and the garden was HUGE, with an abundance of fruit trees

and raspberry canes, which happened to have quite a few ruby-red fruits on them

{we found these quite early on and had to sample some just to see if 

French raspberries tasted different to English ones......

research, carried out over a number of days,

determined that they tasted just as good.....}

we spent most of our days visiting a local lake for swimming 

{for the adventurous and hardy ones amongst us},

sandcastle building and general relaxing {for the rest of us}, 

which included much crocheting and reading of magazines

{the relaxing that is, not the sandcastle building.....}

we took a jaunt to Bayeux to view the most splendid tapestry.....

the above photo is not one of the splendid tapestry itself,

photo taking of that is not allowed, 

but there were modern replicas hanging around the place that you could take photos of..... 

there were even cushions and wall hangings you could puchase

 if you wanted a Bayeux-esk feel in your loungeroom when you returned home.......

I have to say that Isaac was not everso thrilled about 

joining us to visit this amazing piece of history...... 

he complained about the thought of having to stand around 

for hours while Brian and I 'ooooohhhhhed' and 'aaaaahhhhed' over it.......

however, the reality was that we were each given a little earpiece which talked

us through each event depicted on the tapestry as we walked its length....

 Isaac and Evie both opted to get the commentary designed for children

and it was so interesting that I wanted to go round a second time

and listen to the their one.... 

the result was that we all came away having really enjoyed the visit....... 

phew......

it can be a little tricky on holiday with teenagers as they are not always

interested in seeing the things you want to see and vice-versa but we

usually try to strike a balance of 'something for everyone' and this seems

to get us through most of the time.....

we had a wonderful picnic lunch in Bayeux just sitting in a lovely sunny, 

quiet square eating fresh bread, cheese and pate - which is how we ate

lunch every day - out in the sunshine munching on lovely fresh goodness......

we then continued on from Bayeux to Omaha beach on the north Normandy coast 

to visit the American cemetery and memorial of the D-Day landings.....

it was a wonderful memorial to an amazing bunch of men who gave 

all they had in a fight for freedom...... and I learned so much about

the when, where, what, why and who of the D-Day landings which I have to

admit to having been pretty ignorant about before.....

this was the view from the cemetery over Omaha beach......

our week continued with a visit {by the boys and Imogen}

to a model railway exhibition........

I stayed home and drank more coffee, ate more food and did more crochet......

I had my fill of model railway visits when Isaac was little and I tend

to opt out of such visits now...... 

there were plenty of games of garden cricket to be enjoyed

{this has become one of our favourite holiday games -

often played in pj's with dressing gowns on.......}

and Brian always manages to find something to use as 

'equipment' as invariably we don't have the right 'tools for the job'

{though this year we had taken a plastic bat and tennis ball, which was

a huge step forward from one of our holidays in Oz when we visited the Whitsundays  

and we used a large piece of bark, which had fallen off a tree, as a bat and some 

nuts/large seed pods, which we found lying around on the ground, as balls.......

seriously, there's no stopping us when we want a game of garden cricket.....}

ahhhh, it was a lovely week with much relaxing

and general lazy holiday behaviour.....

just perfect......