roemin around

Swallow with chicks in phone booth We had a lazy start, it's hot again, to head for the nearby town of Ledbury, but not before taking a photo of the swallows nest on the site facilities block. Ledbury is a very old town with lots of character and black and white architecture to photograph. We were lucky to get free parking in the short stay park as the machines were being upgraded. Coffee and cakes in the old chapel were good value. There's no Costa, McDonald's or other fast food outlet to challenge the local businesses except for a Greggs which was one of the first in the country apparently and keeps a low profile! The only church is unusual in that it has a separate bell tower and is built from a mixture of different local stones. It also has one very modern full sized stained glass window dedicated to a local couple, described by the church warden as the marmite window, you either love it or hate it. Rosemary did the charity shops looking for a straw hat for me b...

The Hereford CCC site has a large well stocked but very popular fishing lake which is why we were here. Many campers fish for weeks after the 15lb+ carp in the lake. I found a nice shady spot away from the carpers, to catch the silver fish and lost count of the roach, rudd and skimmer bream that we (yes Rosemary had a go too) caught. The only carp I caught was not in very good condition. It was a very hot day. I fished all day while Rosemary did house/van work, had some 'me' time and made my lunch. Later on I grilled the chicken, after Rosemary had done all the prep. Then I did all the washing up and made up our bed. The End.

After a quiet night on the Severn we headed for Croome Park near Worcester on our way south. It's a strange NT place being a mix of RAF museum and country estate. The park was used to develop much of our WW2 airborne radar capabilities and still has the remains of a 2000yd runway. Most of the RAF Dufford buildings have disappeared now except for  the hospital which is converted to a 40's style canteen. The house was the first stately home to be landscaped by Laurence Capability Brown for the then trendy 6th Earl of Coventry and is now being restored  by the National  Trust. It was a good walk in the hot sun, passing the rotunda on the way to the house so the Lipton Tea samples from Sunday Foodies show came in very useful. We had sandwiches and crisps in the basement coffee shop before walking back up the hill to the car park. We stopped at a farm shop near Upton on Severn for some massive pork chops, strawberries and chicken for the BBQ later. The GPS took us ove...

We are having a short break in the sun this week. We started by going to the Foodies Festival in Birmingham at Cannon Hill park. It was a nightmare trying to park the van, we heard all of the second half of the England World cup match against Panama looking for a space. England won 6:1 and the Foodies show was rather poor as it was more like a music festival with upmarket fast food outlets and a few chef demonstrations. The free goody bag was excellent and contained plenty of drink samples. We spent the night in a Britstop on the banks of the River Severn at Lenchford Inn between  Worcester and Kidderminster. It was a very nice spot on the River for a beef sandwich and cool shandy, with a nice sunset after a very warm day.

There was steady light rain all night but it had stopped by 10:00 am. We decided to go to the Batsford Arboretum and garden centre for a couple of hours, its just up the road, before we left the Cotswolds. However it started to rain again more heavily and so we left early and had a every wet drive home. We arrived home at 2:00pm having covered over 700 miles and stopping at 8 different sites en route. This included 4 free Britstops, 2 x CMC, 1 x CCC and a commercial site, for the 9 nights that we were away.

We had an excellent breakfast at The Den and Rosemary shopped at the farm shop before we left. We are on our way home via the Cotswolds where we will have one more night away at the CMC site and a birthday dinner in Moreton -in-marsh . We dined at the The Black Boar on the High St. recommended by the site wardens. It was a very good meal and I even had a candle on my lime cheesecake.

We left the racecourse and motored round to Exemouth where there is a quirky 16 sided NT house built by two sisters. The room layout follows the sun for maximum pre-electric daylight. The top floor gallery is decorated with shell patterns and pictures made by the sisters. Very eccentric! We drove along the coast to Sidmouth via Budleigh Salterton for a stroll along the prom and a coffee break. Bought two pieces of chicken and ham hock pie to have with the last of our home grown tomatoes for supper later. We have stopped in another Britstop, the 4th on this trip, near Shelton Mallet. It's  on the A37 so rather noisy but it has a farm shop with a cafe so that's my birthday breakfast sorted.