Saturday I spend with great-nephew at a theme park outside Exeter - Crealy Adventure Park - lots of scary rides and not so scary ones...
including a trip in a jeep through a Jurassic Park type jungle with dinosaurs...
visiting an emu in the Wilderness park...
tightrope walking in the treetops... this was the extent of my adventurousness....my sister is much braver than me ...and follows her grandson into all sort of narrow and high and wet places..
including paddling in a very pebbly bed stream along with the scudders...
crossing various wobbly bridges...
getting shot at with water pistols in the jet blaster boats...
and being swung and swirled through the air in a bringing up your lunch pirate ship..
which G-N loved and repeated several times...I declined to go on it again after sampling hot sugared doughnuts with butterscotch dipping sauce..... surprisingly delicious ...probably only the second time in 10 years that I've eaten a doughnut ...the best ones being in Portland, Massachusetts with dear friends in 2010.....small mouthfuls of heavenly confection for breakfast.
The pirate ship is guarded by a Johnny Depp/ Jack Sparrow lookalike
and his companion - a pipe smoking Long John Silver.
Spending this precious time with a lively and enthusiastic 8 year old is a delight.... and keeps me in touch with my free/spontaneous/ adventurous inner child ( the same tree-climbing spirit alway close to the surface in my eldest sister) which is usually well hidden under my super responsible/good girl conditioning.
This morning I start my walk feeling grumpy and irritable...I have that end of summer sinking feeling....I can't get warm...I forget my camera...my left thumb hurts....it's overcast and drizzly. The cows are complaining too...they haven't been fed - their hay pen is empty - and all seven of them crowd round the gate...
thinking I must have some food....I guess they associate a human as a bringer of hay. I feel sorry that I disappoint them....and wonder why they need hay when there is so much lush green grass in their field.
And when I turn the corner into the lane leading to the village, it's there again ...the fruit-under-the-hedge anachronism...this time a bunch of grapes along with the strawberries and 2 apples and a bit further down the lane more cherry tomatoes nestled in the undergrowth. So odd.
Back home I finally turn the heating on... start to relax as I thaw out...and start getting ready for the two appointments I have today with two different kitchen designers....writing a list in purple ink about what I want and don't want in my new kitchen.
And holding the memory of an inspiring brochure I picked up at the Self Build and Design show that I visited yesterday at a big exhibition space outside Exeter....Fused Glass Art from the House of Ugly Fish...
A bespoke glass splash back.... fixed to the wall behind the hob .....in lovely colours.. a scene of a landscape.... the curve of beach and sea....a replica of a photograph.
I'm wondering which of my photos I will choose for mine.
This is so vivid and there's so much going on - the adventure park, the mysterious fruit offerings, the cows, your kitchen, the end of summer. xx
ReplyDeleteThanks Belinda... I forgot m camera but remembered I had my phone....yes the fruit does feel like an offering...the bunch of grapes was gone today.... Xx.
ReplyDeleteGreat article.
ReplyDelete