A Tropical Trip.

We decided that today would be a good time to make out first trip to the Eden Project. It has been open for 10 years but we have never made the 2 hour drive into Cornwall to visit this amazing project which is not only the world's largest biodome but a research and educational facility which supports many world-wide projects helping people to live sustainably and to preserve the world's resources. For more info visit www.edenproject.com .

Lots of fantastic planting and a well laid out site with many aesthetically pleasing design features. Our only complaint was the 'pop' muzac blaring from the children's play tent which did spoil the atmosphere.

Our favourite place had to be the tropical biosphere which had areas showing the wild and crop plants from many different tropical areas of the world. Dotted around were homes/shacks from these areas built with the appropriate materials. Expecting a warm day I had come suitably dressed for the tropical dome but I was a bit chilly in the outside areas. My hand is behind my back because I was holding an empty cup that had contained a smoothie made from the fruit of the baobab tree which was really nice.

Although Peter is now fit enough to march around the cliffs his ankle did not do well with several hours of ambling along stopping frequently to look at more interesting plants or to take photos. Here he has had a rest on a rock on a sandy beach while I went for a second walk around the whole dome.

The biodomes are built against the walls of the giant crater that was once a china clay quarry. Inside a stream pours down adding to the forest feel.

Everywhere I looked there were more fantastic plants.

It's a good thing I overcame my fear of heights on Lundy last year as today I had no problems walking up these hanging stairs to the look-out platform. It was a little disconcerting the way they swayed as they are only held up by steel hawsers from the roof.

Once you get to the platform there is an amazing view of the whole biodome. I did ask and the lower path is nearly 200ft below. The white circle in the corner is the top of a 1-man balloon that they use when they need to reach the higher plants.

After the spectacle of the tropical biodome the Mediterranean biodome was not so exciting but there were superb gardens outside and a very well presented educational area.

Our tickets give us free access for a year so we will be making another visit, maybe in the autumn when the summer holiday makers have left the area.

Will post more photos tomorrow.

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Happy Mothers' Day.

I was woken this morning with roses, chocolates and hot croissants. All thanks to Peter in honour of Mothers' Day, which actually I didn't expect. The boys were never too good at remembering when they were at home so today I was happy enough with phone calls from 2 of them and 2 e-cards as well. But I did enjoy my treats and the roast lamb dinner Peter made tonight. I might treat him to a meal out next week-end (it's OK, he doesn't read this blog). The day started with sunshine and showers and the washing I had forgotten out on the line overnight being even wetter than when I took it out of the machine. We decided not to go for a walk so I set to work in the garden. Having decided the arch must go I got out my trusty bow saw and started sawing. The 'before' picture shows my problem with the arch. The first 7 ft is closely trimmed and looks quite neat. Then the next section is looking rather ragged as I have to balance on a ladder with its feet on ground that is sloping in 2 directions. Finally the top bits are really messy as it's a matter of balancing and praying that the ladder won't shift as I lie on the arch cutting at full stretch. How I have never fallen off the ladder I don't know. Here one side has had all its branches lopped off. I don't like cutting down trees so it does look sad to see it like this. As I cut the branches I wondered if I could salvage the trunks to use as supports to create an archway with something growing over it. If we were planning on staying here long term I would be thinking of roses but as we are not I have a very good honeysuckle growing on the house which roots very easily. I know that leylandii does not grow from old wood but I need to check that I won't build up any fungal infection by leaving the stumps in the ground. (Anybody know if that would be the case?) I could ask a tree company but I wouldn't be sure if they just wanted my money to drill out the stump and roots.

Having worked hard outside I then bravely togged up (overalls, scarf, hood, gloves and safety glasses) and ventured into one of the lofts because we have seen the jackdaws sneaking in under the eaves. That part of the house is very old and there are gaps at the top of the stone walls under the eaves. I did put in some wire netting from the outside but it is rather too high to work comfortably. Instead I climbed through the tiny loft hatch, 12" x 18", and then painfully crawled over the rafters (my poor knees) being absolutely terrified that I would put my foot through the ceiling. I was wearing my head torch which was perfect for this job as it left my hands free to hold onto the rafters. I jammed lots of wire netting into the gaps but even as I worked a twig appeared through a gap further along as a jackdaw tried to carry on with its nest building. Apart from the noise and the yearly increase in population the amount of twigs in the loft would create a fire hazard. Hopefully now they have no way of getting in. I only hope that the little pipistrelle bats that live in the loft in the summer can still get in.

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Another Day In Bristol.

Yesterday's trip to Bristol was a real pot pourri of experiences. The weather was good and I have now reached the age where I have the confidence to chat to strangers. For overseas readers let me just say that we Brits do not usually strike up conversations, if you do and are a man you will probably be considered a perv or a weirdo and if you're female then you're either looking for a bloke or going a bit odd. The only exception seems to be middle aged or older women who are considered safe because they are probably mums or grannys. Coming from an immigrant family and having travelled a little on the continent I know that there if you didn't strike up a conversation with your fellow travellers you would probably be thought to be stand offish or suffering from depression. Maybe I'm being too stereotypical but that's what I've always found. Now at my age and with the prospect of maybe having to travel on my own I'm making a positive effort to strike up conversations. While very confident in certain situations I'm generally a shy and solitary person. So I'm quite pleased at my progress at being more outgoing. Now back to yesterday. The first stop was the cathedral refectory for a cup of tea and a flapjack, (wasn't going to risk the coffee after last time) in the little garden at the back of the cathedral.

College Green, outside the cathedral was a hub of activity with marquees being put up for an event, skaters practising in the seating area, students and tourists sitting out on the grass and surprisingly - a piano. Later I was to find more of these open air pianos scattered about the city. They were simply there for people to play, some sort of arts event/celebration. And yes I did wander over to this one and bash out a few snippets from LOTR. (I should have worked harder on learning more by heart in the summer.) After my brief open air performance it was time for my eye check where everything was pronounced fine, better than 20/20. One more visit in 5 months time and that's me done. Now Peter is working out timings so that he can have his eyes done too.

After the eye clinic I visited Bristol Museum. It is a little bit of everything museum, fossils, history and art but what most caught my eye was the architecture of the place. Lots of grand marble staircases and mezzanine levels with plenty of overhead light flooding the 2 open halls.

For the sake of culture I walked around the 'Old Masters' rooms but was more fascinated by a contemporary room which had a St Ives section. There on the walls were paintings by half a dozen of my mum's friends, (actually Barbara Hepworth was one of the many people she fell out with), including this painting by Peter Lanyon. He and his family befriended my mum when she first went to St Ives and they all remained good friends throughout her lifetime. I don't have any links to the art world but it is fun to see how well known some of my mother's friends are now.

Back out into the sunshine and the hustle of city life. I called in at the Designer's Guild and was very tempted to buy a leaded glass mirror in an art nouveau style but resisted. I also had to laugh when I saw 2 of my favourite blue flower patterned mugs, bought at a summer fair for 20p , on sale for £12.50 each. That put an end to my initial plan to complete the set. Down at the waterfront the area was full of people enjoying the sunshine. There was a piano here as well being played by a boy who had brought his mum and his sheet music.

Bristol isn't by the sea but these shallow fountains make very good paddling pools and the whole area had the atmosphere of a sea front.

I have to admit that I too took off my flip flops and had a cooling paddle and then sat drying my feet in the breeze. It was lovely and warm in the sunshine and I was glad that I had dressed very lightly knowing that it is usually much warmer inland than out here on the coast. I was almost tempted to wear shorts but unless you are young or thin it is not the done thing in towns and cities.
Walking over to the main shopping area I found this remnant of old Bristol.

Out in Broadmead (the open air precinct with a lot of phone shops), there was another piano being played by a man in Victorian costume from the old shopping arcade. (The one where I was asked not to take photos last time. )

Yet another open air piano and in the top left hand corner can be seen the sign showing the entrance to John Wesley's Chapel. I had planned to go inside and take more photos up in the preacher's rooms but simply did not have enough time. Instead of stopping for lunch I bought a drink, prawn sandwich and a dessert from M&S to have on the train home.

I had a wander around the clothes shops and bought some black trousers for work at New Look and funky bright socks at Primark which is now in a big new department store and well laid out unlike most of their stores which are so crowded , hot and untidy that I spend the minimum time possible in them.

For the chocolate lovers there is always the Hotel Chocolate. I took a bus back to the station and caught my train with seconds to spare. It would have been annoying to have to wait an hour for the next train as there is nowhere very interesting around the station. From Exeter I took the Tarka Line train which is a little 2 carriage train. At Umberleigh a group of youths got into the carriage that I wasn't in and the amount of noise coming through to us made us all crane our necks to see what was going on. It sounded like a party in that carriage. I even had conversation with some women sitting across from me, wow! Then at Eggesford, where the train waits for the train coming the other way to pass, we seemed to be held up for a very long time. Then the ticket collector and the train driver went into the other carriage and eventually an announcement came over the tannoy to say that the train was delayed because a passenger had exposed themselves. I'm sorry to say that we all burst out laughing in our carriage. More peering up the aisle and chat from my carriage and eventually everyone sat down, presumably the culprit had apologised, and we made our way to Barnstaple.

I still had to stop on the last leg of my journey to take pictures of the sunset over the sea.

And from the top of our road. All in all a good day.

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A Peaceful Gem.

The weather was completely different today, sweltering hot in Bristol though I have been assured that it rained at home until mid-day. I got to the train station in plenty of time unlike my last trip where I flew onto the train with seconds to spare and had to collect my pre-booked ticket from the the ticket office in Exeter. The only down side was that I couldn't find my MP4 player, the sole purpose of which is to provide me with audio books to listen to on long journeys, (Sam, I think I left it at your place). Instead I took a book and read the whole book during today's travelling.

Once I got to Bristol I took the bus to the Cathedral and treated myself to lunch in the little garden by the refectory. I had the hot dish of the day - vegetable curry, low fat and very healthy and the best chocolate brownie I've ever had, obviously home baked not just bought in. On the down side the coffee was horrible. It was nice to eat outside despite the flying ants that were around. The warm weather had probably brought them out.

The green outside the cathedral was the site of a 'play day' and was filling up with hundreds of kids ready to try out the activities that were being set up. They certainly had the right weather. I had a tourist map of the area and saw that instead of going up the main road I could walk through Brandon Park on my way up to the laser clinic. This was a small semi-wild park on a steep hill with its own tower at the top.

Once I puffed my way up the hill there were some magnificent views over Bristol and out to the hills beyond.

There were plenty of squirrels in the park which were pretty tame. Shortly after taking this picture I was walking along a path through some tree and from about 40ft away a squirrel saw me and ran straight down the path towards me. It was so fast that I couldn't focus the camera on it and after stopping briefly to check if I had any food it went on down the path up to a mum and her little girl who were thrilled to have the squirrel come right up to them.
Later by the clinic I took this picture of a blackbird. Looking at the yellow on its beak it is probably a juvenile rather than a female. Everything is fine with my eyes. My left eye still feels slightly gritty, just the feeling I used to get at the end of the day when I was wearing contact lenses, and although vision in both eyes is 20/20 the left is not as good as the right. This is apparently normal and should settle completely by my next appointment in a month's time.

I had planned to go to the museum to see the Banksy exhibition but the queueing time was 2 1/2 - 3 hrs so I decided to give that a miss. Instead I strolled down to the main shopping area by a new route to look at some of Bristol's architecture.

I found this steep little street called The Christmas Steps which was 'stepped , done and finished in Septmber 1669', goodness knows what it must have been like before.

Once down in Broadmead , the pedestrianised shopping streets, I found a little gem - John Wesley's Chapel. I should have taken a wider shot as the archway sit between high street stores in a totally modern setting.

I had to have a look inside, downstairs there was the meeting room which is still used as a place of worship.

John Wesley preached to congregations in this very room from the higher of the 2 pulpits, the lower one was for bible readings. A balcony runs around 3 sides of the room. There are no windows in the walls of the chapel (for fear of stone throwers) but the room is lit by a central lantern roof light. You can go upstairs to a warren of little rooms where John Wesley stayed. They have been made into an informative museum with letters and note books written by John Wesley as well as books, furniture and clothing that he used. I got too engrossed in reading the information to take more photos which was a bit silly.

After this peaceful interlude I checked out some of the shops but managed to avoid buying anything even in the lovely Indian emporium which specialises in cheap jewellery. Finally a bus back to the station, 2 trains home and I arrived just in time for a barbecue. After we did the washing up Romas re-kindled the barbecue coals and put some wood on (no gas fired gizmos for us, wood and charcoal only), and we toasted some marshmallows.

A view of Bristol from the train station showing the houses climbing up the hills.

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New Eyes - £1000 Each.

It cost a lot but I'm glad I had my eyes done.
Before ...... ........... immediately afterwards.

The whole procedure went well. I'd had a phone call a couple of days ago form the clinic saying that they wanted to change the procedure from LASEK to LASIK. LASEK is the basic procedure which has a longer recovery time and LASIK is the next grade up . I was a bit concerned because I felt rather a spendthrift having the procedure at all and I wasn't sure about an extra £200 -£300 per eye. Luckily the clinic said there would be no extra charge. The surgeon explained to me that he doesn't like to do LASEK on patients over 40 which is why he changed it. The whole procedure was pain free, hardly even uncomfortable. First, after having gone through the possible things that could go wrong, (scary), and signing the consent forms, the nurse went through the aftercare,2 kinds of eye drops every 2 hours for the first 2 days and then 4 times a day for the next week. No swimming, scuba diving or contact sports for the next 4 weeks and eyes shields to be worn at night to stop me rubbing my eyes inadvertently. I kept having anaesthetic drops put into my eyes at intervals. Then the area around my eyes was painted with an iodine solution, not surprisingly there are no mirrors at this point and I didn't have the nerve to take a photo. Then it's into the treatment room onto a swivelling bed for the actual procedure. The surgeon had explained that even though my head would be supported and he would have his hands on my head it was vitally important that I didn't move my eyes. If I moved my eyeball while the first laser was cutting a flap in the cornea of my eye it could result in the whole procedure having to be abandoned. There was a little pushing on my eye as a cone thing was place on it first but then the only difficulty was really concentrating while the laser did the flap. It was also important to keep the eye still while the second laser reshaped the eye. (Your eye lids are kept open with a thingy so you don't have to worry about that.) The surgeon kept telling me to look at the flashing red light which was difficult as I could see 2 lights. Anyway all went well and it was over in 5 mins. I then had my eyes checked by the surgeon , sat with a coffee for 10 mins and that was it. My sight was a little unclear, not blurry, at first but by the check up today my eyesight is better than 20/20 vision and I am clear to drive. I was warned that once the anasthetic drops wore off my eyes would feel very gritty and would probably stream with tears. I did have some grittiness but not much watering and by this morning there was just a little grittiness in one eye. I still need reading glasses but I can work at the pc with or without glasses. Peter is already very keen to have his eyes done especially as he found out that you can pay off the cost in instalments without any extra charge.

We arrived in Bristol a couple of hours early so that we could have a bit of a look around the area. When we parked by the clinic we were surprised to see the pavement covered with a long queue of people. At first we though it might be something to do with the university which was across the road but then we realised it was the queue to get into the museum to see the Banksy (a street artist now establishment,) exhibition. I have planned to visit the museum when I go up for my check up in 10 days time. It shouldn't be so crowded mid-week.

This is only part of the queue, it stretched all along the street where the clinic was and also for about a 100 yds down the main road.This mural a little further down the street is one of Banksy's works.

Peter and I walked down the hill in the warmth of the sunshine to have a look around Bristol Cathedral.

The cathredral is surrounded by some other lovely old buildings.

Inside the cathedral it was so peaceful but very grand with all the stone arches beautifully carved. Some parts of the cathedral are 800 yrs old while other parts are less than 200 years old.

This little dog was carved 700 years ago for the statue of his master (dressed in chain mail) to rest his feet on. It is a very welcoming cathedral with few restrictions for visitors and I couldn't resist giving this pug dog a little stroke on the nose.

There were lots of interesting memorials on the walls and floors and I liked this one in particular. How nice to be remembered for your beautiful character.

We went through this lovely old door down a twisting stone staircase to the old cloisters.

And eventually found ourselves in this beautiful garden. There were plenty of benches to sit to enjoy this peaceful oasis in the middle of a city. There is a tea room there as well but we didn't have too long as we needed to go back up the hill to the clinic. While we sat in the sunshine music floated out from the rooms above the cloisters which house the choir school. We were treated to a superb rendition of Pie Jesu sung by a chorister.

After having my eyes done we drove up to Cribbs Causeway, an enormous out of town shopping area. We went into Asda which was at least 4 times the size of the biggest supermarket in Barnstaple. I had to get a hairband to keep my fringe out of my hours and we had a little explore of the aisles finding a better range of Indian spices and extras as well as some good sauerkraut and dill cucumbers. I had a good wander around the clothing section while Peter kept himself amused by finding cheap dvds which he just had to have. After a coffee and a snack in the cafe we drove up to Tewkesbury to stay the night with our friends. It was so nice to be looked after for once. Today we went back to the clinc for a quick check and then back up to Cribbs Causeway where we finally found the main shopping mall. I had fun trying on clothes but didn't buy anything. A very wet journey home, and I don't like being driven at 90mph in heavy motorway traffic. It got wetter as we got nearer home !

Finally, I had to include this moth, a Large Emerald, that I found on the stair window.

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