Oh i do like to be beside the seaside......

On bank holiday monday we decided to take the dogs to the seaside for the day, we chose Ynislas near Borth in Wales as we know it's a dog friendly beach and it's easy parking with not too far for the oldies to walk- i'm on about our old dogs not my in-laws who we met there with their dog Josh.

we had a good time and the dogs had fun on the beach and splashing about in the sea.

Jasper enjoyed exploring in the sand dunes.

and the sand-wiches!

The clutch then went on the Landrover and we had to get towed home- oh well the boys slept through it and we still enjoyed ourselves.

AAAHHHH!! How cute is this?

I was "Just Looking" at our labby breeder's website, feeling really broody after seeing all of the "Puppy Pics" on the "Just for labradors" website when i came across this adorable picture.

That's one hefty, orderly chow down don't you think?

Back to the decorating....we're nearly done!

A couple of weeks ago we started decorating our hideous hall, stairs and landing. It was a big job as the previous colour was a bright red and took some covering up.

We painted, paper hung, painted some more, hung a new blind and curtain, ripped up the old carpet and today had new carpet fitted. The only thing left to do is hang new doors which will have to wait til next month now.

I'm pleased with the results of our hard work i won't be embarrassed if someone asks to use the loo now!

Looks much better.

A daytrip on the doorstep.

Today we have used our National trust membership card again and have visited a place right on our doorstep....Shugborough Hall.

Although it's only 10 mins away from where we live Mark had never been and I hadn't been since junior school........too many years ago to remember.

Jonathan was keen to show us round and tell us a few facts as he had been not long ago from school and enjoyed it.

It wasn't too bad but we both thought it a bit run down and nothing at all like it's very glamorous photograph here.

The late Lord Lichfield, the queen's cousin, who lived there had a great exhibition of some of his famous photography which i found interesting other than that it was a trifle boring, extremely expensive- we had to pay £3 to park and £15 on top of our membership to upgrade to access all areas- we chose not to bother- and full of rich old bags who would practically elbow you out of the way to get infront of you!

Do you think i should apply to the National Trust to be one of their critics?

Disneyland

For Christmas last year, Mark's mom and dad bought Jonathan, for his Christmas present, a weekend trip to Disneyland Paris....WOW!


I know we went in May this year before i began this blog, but i thought it too nice an entry to miss, so back tracking to May, this is our weekend in Disneyland and Paris.



We travelled down to Dover by coach to pick up the ferry, it was an extremely long and arduous journey which started at 3.30am and wasn't very enjoyable but at least we had nice people sitting near us and that helped the journey to pass a little quicker.


Once on the ferry we had chance to walk around and stretch our legs, Jonathan was a little unsure and went a nice shade of green!

The journey from Calais to Paris was quite long but we caught up on some sleep and then had the beautiful French countryside to admire. It wasn't too long before we arrived and were able to get some food and have a walk around, although by now it was nearly 10pm so we were feeling bleary eyed.

This is where we ate.


Jonathan liked this fruit and veg stall.





This is the Sacre coeur church, we didn't go inside as it was too late but it looked nice from the outside. The surrounding streets were bustling and typically Parisian and it gave you a true feel of the place.


We then got the coach again for our last lap of the journey, back to our Hotel. It was basic but clean warm and comfortable and we all crashed out and slept like babies.



The next morning one very excited little boy got up for his breakfast, today was "D" day... and he'd waited patiently since Christmas for this day to come, he could hardly contain himself.....Jonathan was pretty excited too!! LOL

Disneyland here we come!!

Wow it was a dream come true and we acted like 10 year olds not just Jonathan.


Though several of my friends had been and told me all about it nothing could have prepared me for the sight that next met my eyes.....




Sleeping beauty's castle.

We had a lovely day despite the rain, which turned out to be a blessing as the queues for some of the rides were up to 45 minutes but once the rain started a lot of the local people went home and the waiting times dropped to about 10 minutes..Result!





Jonathan's fave ride was Thunder Mountain.

We had a really wonderful time, one which we shall never forget.

We even caught a glimpse of these 2 special people which made Jonathan's day but the best part of the day for me was the Disney Parade.. it was brilliant and the rain had stopped too.

Magnificent!


On the following day we had a tour of Paris itself before coming home. We saw the arc de triumph which is quite literally awesome in size.










and Jonathan got his
photograph taken next to the Eiffel tower.

Although it was a tiring weekend it was one of the best we'd ever had.

Dudmaston Hall

You remember i said a while ago that we had joined the National Trust?, well today we thought we'd start using our membership card and went to visit Dudmaston Hall, near Bridgnorth in Shropshire.

Dudmaston is a beautiful 17th century mansion house and although it is now owned by the National Trust it is still occupied by the latest generation of the Labouchere family.

The grounds were magnificent it had acres of lawn, woodland and shrubbery. It even had it's own lake.











The clock tower had just narrowly escaped demolition from a giant red wood tree which had come down in some high winds.




Inside was equally grand and housed one of this country's largest private collections of modern art, which seemed quite unusual in such an old house.

We enjoyed our visit and would recommend it, we took a picnic and sat at a picnic table shaded by some huge ancient trees in the warm afternoon air, lovely.

Dreaded Decorating.

I don't know about you but I loathe decorating. We both do to be fair and a simple 2 day job can last weeks or even months as we constantly procrastinate and disagree over new designs.

The last thing we decorated was the study, it used to be Jonathan's nursery- he is 10 now so that gives you an idea of how long it took us to do something with it. I do hasten to add that Jonathan moved out of that room into a bigger one about 7 years ago so as not to endure the Teletubbies a moment longer than he had to!-

I've got to admit that it was worth the wait and I am pleased with the final result-













I even made my own canvasses to hang on the wall of the dogs- and matched the colour to the paint -aubergine.














But now I'm on holiday from work I thought it the ideal time to start the hall, stairs and landing. It has looked awful for ages now in it's hideous bright red state that makes it so dark and depressing.

We started scraping the layers of paint away and the wall underneath was in a terrible state, it would have needed plastering which we can do without so we have decided to wallpaper it now to cover up the blemishes.

I chose some today and it looks nice, I have done all the glossing I have to paint the ceiling now then i can hang the paper. Watch this space for updates!