Happy Birthday Julie

Today is Julie's birthday and to celebrate she has gone to Essex to spend a few days with family - Happy birthday Julie.

The weather in Salcombe is fabulous (as you can see from the picture from our balcony attached to this post), although it is a bit breezy. Essex is much the same, so a good day for Julie and our daughter Gemma to get out and about before going for a family meal this evening.

Pete is still trying to decorate and will be finished in time for the furniture delivery tomorrow (just).

Another different day...

The weather has been better today here in Salcombe and although windy the sun has been shining and it has been very warm out of the wind.

Another working day for us both with a bit of decorating in the evening as we try to prepare our en-suite quest room for new furniture on Friday.

Julie is off to Essex for a few days to celebrate her birthday with our daughter Gemma and some of the family.

As you can see the mist has cleared and we were treated to a clear sky and a sunset hardly impacted by clouds.

What a difference a day makes...

Yesterday turned into a lovely evening and Pete made the most of the evening sitting outside for a while having a cuppa and checking e-mails.

Today was a different story. It started off misty, got a bit better and then ebbed and flowed between until late afternoon when the mist really rolled in and the rain came. Not good, as Pete was just refueling one of the bigger fishing boats in Salcombe - he got a bit wet.

Julie rowed this evening and although the mist had lifted generally from the estuary the surrounding hills were shrouded in mist. She really enjoyed the row and was happy not to get wet.

Pete went to the gym and although a misty evening there was a really good sunset on the way home. he had to take some photographs once he got home.

From the weather forecasts and Facebook comments it seems it was steaming in London and Essex and

although we were promised some of

that for Salcombe it only materialised for about 30 minutes in the middle of the day.

Tomorrow's another day...

Pete's office...

For the last few months Pete has worked part-time on the Salcombe fuel barge operated by Devon Marine Fuels. Today was a working day and it started off calm and misty on the water. Over the first few hours the mist lifted to reveal a sunny, but breezy day. It has been really windy over the last few weeks and it’s about time the town had some settled sunny weather. It turned out to be a lovely sunny afternoon, but windy and cold on the water.

One of the attached pictures is of Salcombe town taken from Pete’s “office”, which is an improvement on his last office view. As a Programme/Project Manager working from home his view was of our back garden (or from the driving seat of his car on a motorway). Although he now has a 15 minute walking commute into town he doesn’t feel he can complain (despite the hills) followed by a short boat ride out to the barge.

The view is ever changing with the weather, tide and time of day and the diversity of craft either based in or stopping over in Salcombe passing by the fuel barge. The yacht club sailing events are always interesting to watch. You also get the odd windsurfer, hoby-cat, kayak or paddle board go by sometimes with the occasional dog perched on the front. As the summer progresses I am promised even more interesting sights) fingers crossed!

Here we go again

Right - No excuses for the gap in postings, just an earnest conviction to try harder and post as often as we can.

Today we went to Beesands and did a 4.5 mile circular walk via Hallsands. At the end we had a drink at the Cricket Inn followed by a meal (once the restaurant was open). All very good and we would recommend it and will definitely be going back some time.

The weather forecast was threatening rain and we were prepared for the worst, however, the worst never came

and we had a great walk in mostly the warm sunshine. The wind was strong in places, but we were sheltered by the hedgerows and field walls and never suffered much from it.

Due to the threat of rain Pete only took a compact camera with him and the attached pictures were taken at Hallsands and Beesands. He really needs to take his cameras with him, just in case the opportunity for photographs materialises. At least this time he had a card in the camera (he doesn't always), a spare card and some extra batteries, both of which were required.

The walk was one suggested by local artist Gerry Miles in his book The South Hams Coast (an illustrated guide with 18 circular walks). The map from the book was pretty good and along with the written directions we managed to

find our way.

Back to Blogging - Agian

Having found a bit of time Pete has decided to dedicate some of his day off to updating the Blog.

The "lie" that was told to us has been proven again in that it does snow here and it does get cold - our weather station reported -10 last night! The snow almost confined us to the estate and if it hadn't been for Julie and some of the neighbours gritting the roads themselves.

The weather put paid to a trip to Edinburgh too - hence the time to consider the Blog,. Still there will be other weekends in the New Year.

As we near the end of our second year in Salcombe we look back at what for us was a significant change in our lives. Overall we would have to say that it has been positive, but there were a few rough patches along the way. These are behind us now and we look forward to our next change as Pete prepares to leave BT after 38 years.

Work for Pete has been busy for a while now and is only just starting to ramp down as he hands off his work to colleagues and tries to remove himself from the corporate whirl. With only a couple of handfuls of working days left we are both looking forward to the Christmas break and a bit if downtime in the New Year.