Today I've mostly bin...

[LAT]

Oh wow! So beautiful!

[SparkOut]

This was from the shore base looking out the other way, takrn earlier this year

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[LAT]

That's stunning! You do have a wonderful workplace!

[Bunnylump]

How lovely!

I've been sitting in my new custom-built summer house which D made me for my birthday. It's octagonal and is on castors so it can rotate*! He's eventually going to put power in there too and build a patio around it. It's very fancy! I'm looking forward to using it for craft purposes, reading and playing guitar. Oh, and having lunch with my pals.

*My oldest granddaughter thinks this is the best bit - Grampa has made Nanny a roundabout! She is already planning sleep-overs in it!

[SparkOut]

A roundabout for a guitar-playing rabbit? It sounds magic. Hmmm...

[Scurra]

I see what you did there.

[Bunnylump]

All right, Mr Rusty!

[SparkOut]

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Not the worst working environment ever

[LAT]

No indeed!

[SparkOut]

If you zoom in on the photo just before the shoreline you can see a few smudges, which are the fish pens.

[Scurra]

How do they use pens when they've only got those short fin thingies?

[SparkOut]

Stressed.

AAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[Bunnylump]

Oh, doesn't sound good!

I've just got back from a "girls'" short break to Dartmouth. It was good fun apart from the car refusing to reverse up a 1 in 4 hill because the gearbox was too hot and the bed collapsing! It was very nice to just forget about the car and just go from where we were staying for a change. We walked to the castle one day (and round a headland in thick fog.) Another day we went on the steam train that wasn't a steam train one way (had a diseasel on the outbound journey as the steam train had refused to work!) to Paignton. Never been to Paignton before and doubt I'd go again (very "seasidy") but we made the most of it by forcing Janet to swim in the sea (this was one of her challenges for her 60th) and playing crazy golf which I was useless at.

[SparkOut]

Sounds very nice (on the whole).

I'm beyond stressed - pumpkin in total meltdown.

[Bunnylump]

Oh no. Poor thing (and poor you!) Sending big hugs all round.

[LAT]

Sounds very nice (on the whole).

I'm beyond stressed - pumpkin in total meltdown.

Sorry to hear that SparkOut. Hope you are all OK.

[SparkOut]

Not really. Please forgive a protective (if ineffective) father for some really, really bad thoughts.

[Bunnylump]

We are all like that when our kids are involved. It's just natural.

[LAT]

We went to Bletchley Park yesterday. It has changed a lot since we all went 14 years ago! Could have stayed a lot longer, there was so much to see and do but didn't want to risk bad traffic round the M25 on the way home.

[Bunnylump]

Ah, I didn't go to that Milton Keynes meet. My last visit to Bletchley Park doesn't hold such good memories. It was the final location in a car treasure trail we did with the children in tow when Dibble was about 4. The treasure trail was very clever, but absurdly over complicated, as the organisers had decided to use some bizarre direction-giving method used in the forces (involving sticks with branches off them!) which nobody could follow. Consequently, it took everyone about three times as long as it should have done, and we ended up going right through lunch time without any lunch. When we got to Bletchley (when it was just about to close) they had plates and plates of sugared doughnuts ready for all the people who actually never even got there (enough to make me feel sick just looking at them) and while we were talking to the organisers*, Dibble sneakily ate several of them. He was then violently sick all the way home!

*Trying to talk ourselves out of having won a giant original drawing by Tony Hart!!

It was such a shame really, as they had made splendid efforts with the organisation. The trail included a visit to Waddesdon Manor, which looks like a fairytale castle
and a trip on a steam train at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.