Date Days and Dodgy Knees

It was obvious from week 1 that unless you arrange something, each day just blends into another one.  So one of the first things we agreed on post-retirement was that we would have at least one day out a week to go somewhere we've been saying "we must go there".  

We've been members of the National Trust for quite a few years and although I've visited several local places with my wonderful friends, Del hasn't been to too many.  Scotney Castle was first on our list, so very pretty with lots of flowers still in full bloom and many dragonflies/damsel flies zooming over the water that surrounds the ruins of the Castle.

Scotney Castle

Our second trip was to a wonderful house near Dorking, Polesden Lacey.   The weather wasn't brill but hey-ho it's date-day!   The house and gardens are really quite spectacular and despite a huge deluge of rain meaning we had to run for it (ha ha who am I kidding - "run...").   Here's some photos of our day.

Polesden Lacey

Glorious Sheffield Park and it's beautiful lakes, stunning reflections and giant redwood.

We were really really sad to see the beautiful, tall, regal redwood had been struck by lightening.  140 years old, 38 metres tall.   How very very sad to see something that many children (and adults) had enjoyed climbing on its 'foot' for the family photo shoot reduced to this

Nymans was our next trip, just up the road.   This time we were joined by my daughter Claire-Marie and her husband Duncan who were staying with us for a couple of days.  We weren't allowed into the gardens themselves because we were joined by Skye our beautiful grandpuppy!   Skye is so well behaved not leaving our sides for very long, but enjoying fetching her ball.

However, she rocks a snood.

And has been known to wear the odd sombrero 

And of course, who can't resist a Christmas hat?

We sneaked in an extra Date Day this week.   Autumn has arrived and so has the rain, but today we woke up to beautiful sunshine and reasonably warm temperatures.   Del suggested a walk along the Wey & Arun canal followed by lunch at The Onslow Arms.  Well who am I to turn down lunch out?

Wey & Arun Canal

Peacock Butterfly

Everything is downhill in Canterbury!

 We're very slowly getting into this retirement lark, it's not gone quite as we had expected.   My wrist continues to give me some 'agg' and I'm still under the hospital.  However, it'll be back to normal soon(ish) so I'll not harp on about it.   This week we found that we had a few spare days in a row (Wednesday-Friday), so we thought we'd do the 'retirement thing' and have a few mid-week days away.   

It didn't take much of a decision to go back to Canterbury, one of our favourite sites and we were quite surprised at how much less it costs.   I worked on the Tuesday so left Del to buy the groceries and pack the van with clothes, this meant we could have a quick tidy-up before leaving for our booked arrival at 1pm.

Sally-Satnav took us a completely different way and we went through villages in Kent that we didn't know existed Lenham? Harrietsham? - very pretty oast house villages.   We came into Canterbury from a different angle, but the journey was pretty good.   We arrived just before 1pm and waited in the queue to be shown our pitch by the always very friendly C&CC staff.   As we had decided to go off-grid we were shown to the field named Middleburgh, a lovely green (and dry considering it's October) field where there was just one other camper.

 

Perfect!   Just one little thing....   we were asked to park on the edge of the field "in the sun" - great we thought, except the edge of the field was sloping and it was at this point that Del found he'd left the levellers at home!   Hmm...  it's "only two nights, we'll be fine" - you don't actually realise just how much not being level affects everything in the van.    The water didn't drain, the kettle kept slipping on the gas ring and I kept waking up with my face squashed up against the wall of the van!   Oh well, it really didn't matter, we coped!

On the Thursday we took the bus into Canterbury - another retirement 'thing' - we used our bus passes!!!!!!!!!   I needed to do some shopping so Del went to have a drink while I was left to browse the wonderful shops of Canterbury.    

The restoration continues.

A little bit of France me thinks?

So is retirement actually starting?   I actually have no idea what day of the week it is.....