JUNE 2025

Well it’s been a busy month!

A blackbird in my garden eating.

Two pics from a local walk.

I went over to Waddingham to catsit for a week while Colin was away.  I so miss the cats but they are happy where they are and, as I’ve discovered, quite fickle!

Here’s Quentin after he escapes the en-suite window and walks along the living room roof down to the orchard next door!

 Ronnie and I went to Doddington Hall (near Lincoln) one day when he was up here and we had a drink at the Dambusters Pub which is close to the Scampton RAF station where the Dambusters left from.  “Regarding the history of the pub, the Dambusters Inn was created in 1999 by Mike Knight and his wife, Amanda. Before that date, there had never been a pub in the Lincolnshire village of Scampton. 
With local support, and, it has to be said, some local resistance, the Knight family created a pub crammed with artefacts and memorabilia from WW2 and, logically, named it the Dambusters Inn.”

On Friday June 13 I met Carol (from Vancouver) in Dublin and we spent a very rainy day doing the Hop On Hop Off bus around Dublin on the Saturday.

On the Sunday we took a five-day Rabbies tour from Dublin (my 11th since 2013, although two of those were only day tours!) to Belfast and the Atlantic coast. https://www.rabbies.com/en-gb/tour/northern-atlantic-coast-5-day-tour-from-dublin

I got on the bus and one of my sister Pauline’s friends from Canada was sat on the aisle opposite me - what a small world this is!!  We surprised Pauline by FaceTiming her at the first opportunity!

Here is Marlene and me outside the Titanic exhibition in Belfast.

 We stopped for a short time in Ballycastle which was a lovely seaside place.

Then on to the Giant’s Causeway which is quite spectacular, other than the tons of tourists scrambling all over!

Dunluce Castle ruin

We stayed in Portrush that night and then went to Londonderry/Derry the next day and walked around the city walls.

We then went to the Grianan of Aileach, a Neolithic burial chamber dating back  to 200BC.

Then we went to the castle in Glenveagh National Park (although the castle wasn’t open but the gardens were lovely).

“One of the finest Court Cairns in Ireland built in the 3rd millenium BC.

Beautiful Acaill Island

On Day 4 we went to Kylemore Abbey with its beautiful gardens 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylemore_Abbey

On the last night in Galway (we stayed there two nights) five of us went out for a fabulous meal

L to R Marlene (from BC), me, Glenys from Victoria State, Australia, Carol from Vancouver, and Marlene’s friend Bev from Chilliwack.

We drove through the lovely village of Cong before lunch in Galway and back to Dublin for the night.

Carol came back to Kirton with me for three nights and we did a Historic Trail walk of the town, which was really interesting.  https://www.kirtoninlindseysociety.org.uk/time-travellers-trail-explore-the-ancient-town-of-kirton-in-lindsey/

The next day Ronnie came up and we went out for Sunday lunch with my friend Linda D. at the great local pub.

After my 137th eye injection on Monday morning Ronnie drove Carol and me to his home in Happisburgh (pronounced Haisboro) in Norfolk.  It’s a lovely village on the coast where I first met him in 1969!

On Tuesday we drove along the coast up to Wells Next Sea where we had lunch.  There are some lovely places including Blakeney where you can walk out on to the marshes and see lots of birds, as well as visiting lovely local craft stores.

Wroxham, one place on the Norfolk Broads.

Happisburgh again.

Carol went by train to London on Wednesday for a few days before she goes home.  I returned home the next day by train.

Thanks for checking in.  I hope all is well with you and yours.

PS. I think I may have given out my phone number wrong!

From Canada it should be

011447849823888