A few more pictures of our trip to England. We went to stay a few days at the house in Budleigh, the weather wasn't the greatest but we managed to fit in a few trips to the beach. The above picture was taken in Sidmouth, a place we had gone to for years as children. The picture was taken from Connaught gardens, which are even more beautifully kept now than they were went we went there as children. They have a theatre there in amongst the flowers where I remember Morris Dancers performing. There is also a nice tea place for a clotted cream tea. The beauty of the place is when the tide is out there is a huge sandy beach and the water is shallow, so it is a great place for kids. Many a sandcastle was made there and shrimping in the rock pools.

Now he is finally relaxed! Shades of the retirement time to come.

This is a picture of Budleigh beach and the reason it is quieter than the seaside places on either side of the town. The whole beach is made up of pebbles and there is a fairly steep drop off into the sea, so it is a great beach for fishing, you see lots of fishermen down here in the evening with their lines in the sea. Lots of crab pots are usually out in the bay and you can always gets fresh crab and fish at the little local fish shop. The walk along the front is about the only flat spot in Budleigh, the rest is hills which probably accounts for the ages reached by most of the residents from walking up and down them to the village. Two neighbours lived until 102 and 80 is still pretty spry in these parts.

This is the next beach to Budleigh, called Ladram bay. There are some interesting rock formations in the ocean and at low tide you can go around the point and there is a fantastic collection of rock pools - you have to keep an eye open for the tide though as it is very easy to get trapped when the tide is in. I think it is possible to climb up the cliffs in a pinch, but not something I would like to do. I ended up not joining the rest of the gang for this day as I took the opportunity to go to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. It was rather a lot of travelling for one day and my foot hadn't recovered fully. Still, I had a really fun day and worth the travelling. It was interesting to see what kinds of things people in England were making and they had displays from the European Quilt guild as well. It was actually quite overwhelming, almost as bad as the one in Houston. It was held in the NEC in Birmingham, the exhibition centre. There was a direct train from Exeter to Birmingham every hour and then you went one stop on a local train to the Exhibition Centre, so it was very easy. Train travel is so great - you have a comfortable seat and lots of windows to see the countryside. They have a trolley with sandwhiches and snacks that comes along and the coffee actually was not bad. They even serve beer. There are lots of plugs for computers and the like and even have "quiet" carriages where no cell phones are allowed. I managed to get stocked up on a few things I couldn't find in Qatar and also bought a few books to learn a few tricks. The others had a great day in Ladram Bay and I got home to a great meal already prepared for me at the house. We managed to squeeze in quite a bit during our few days at the house and of course managed a cream tea at the mill in the next village. We also seemed to polish off the tub of clotted cream we bought at the grocery store. Time to get back up to the gym and the weather is cool enough now that I might actually venture out onto the Corniche for a walk. It should be nice and quiet during the day as last night around midnight, when I couldn't sleep, I looked out the window at the corniche and it was packed with cars and traffic - night becomes day during Ramadan.