Simply Devonly

We made a trip down to beautiful Devon county to visit Grahams Aunt and Uncle. Devon is in the south west of England and contrary to popular belief- is not a shire.

Graham was born in Devon and so we had to take a look around.

On the way through we went past Bath and suddenly Stone Henge loomed out of nowhere! You can see from the photo, that you can't get very close to the stones. So much for visions of romping around and pretending to be a druid. So we decided to forgo the entrance fee and take a photo as we zoomed by. Not too bad for a drive by shooting...

There seemed to be a huge circle that was fenced off, and everyone was tromping around ten metres or so from the actual site.

Devon is home to the most beautiful cottages with thatched roofs and stone fences. Grahams relations live in a lovely little village with narrow lanes and full of cottages. The house that they live in is 400 years old and they have retained one of the rooms with the original ceiling- it is too short for me!

One of the houses in the village

This house is so old it is actually mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086! (The book was commissioned by William the Conqueror to assess the amount of settlements/resources owned by England. To see how much tax he could raise... cheeky)

Patchwork fields framed with old stone fences

The Devon coast



Wuthering heights style.

The hilarious sea taxi, that takes you back from one of the islands, when the tide is in

Choose a descriptive word, quaint/picturesque/gorgeous

During our stay, we were lucky enough to be taken over to Cornwall for a day trip. Cornwall being famous for pasties and clotted cream. We did try a pasty- it was yuck, but the clotted cream was something else. It is like a whipped butter/cream thing that you have on ice cream and scones. A bit unusual on ice cream, but they have it on everything here- from porridge to green beans! I wonder what the heart attack rate is????

We walked through a big park, and there were lots of follies dotted around

Fosse in a folly! Ha-ha dancer joke.

The Cornish coast

I don't know how well you can tell from the photo- but the entrance way is miniature, there must be a step inside.



Very cute Cornish town, where the old marker between Devon and Cornwall is.

Dreamy sunset in Devon

 Murray and Graham enjoyed the trip

 Devon lanes- frighteningly narrow, with steep grassy banks up the side, we were so lucky not to come upon anyone in our huge van.

Action shot at night! This reminds me of sleepy hollow, and the headless horseman.

Melaina and Graham xoxox

Boat life

As you may or may not know, we live on a little canal boat just outside of London.

It is a bit of an unusual choice for London, but it has been pretty fun! Graham's cousin lives on a canal boat, and by lucky chance, another boat became available.

We decided to try it because a) It's about half the price of renting in London and b) It's a good story to have!

It has been lots of fun when the weather is warm- we sit on the roof having picnics and drinking wine. When it gets cold, we light the fire and read some books.

Everyone seems to have the same questions- so here are some common answers:

* Yes we move it, we move it to get water every few weeks and to pump out the toilet (love sitting on the roof in the sun when it's moving!). We can move to different locations, but we have stayed further out of london because it is safer.

* Yes it has a toilet/sink and shower (with hot water)

* We have a fire place to keep it warm

* It has a bedroom, bathroom and a very open plan tiny lounge/dining room/kitchen

* There is a double bed- almost full length, but not quite!

* There isn't much electricity, you can charge your phone/laptop when the boat is running and charging the leisure batteries (lights/water pump etc) but no TV

It is a very narrow long space to get used to, and although we wouldn't do it again- it has been heaps of fun

Our boat- Alcedo is the name

The entrance/lido deck

Looking outside when we are driving along

A mystery kitty friend got on board and made itself at home

You might think swans are lovely and elegant. You would be seriously mistaken. Swans are scary/loud/aggressive and rapey. Geese are worse- they hiss and won't let you pass on the tow path, but ducks murder other ducks! The canal is like living on the scene of mafia wars or home and away.

Grahams cousins boat is far more attractive and larger than ours! Going through the lock

Under the bridge towards the lock

Inside the boat- this is the lounge/dining and kitchen

Picnic on the roof- excuse the rubbish!

 Driving through the lock

 Cap'n Graham driving the boat.

And that is all there is to it! If you have any questions, feel free to ask

Melaina & Graham xoxox

Just touched down in Londontown

Finally, a London Post!

We have been living in London for about 2 months now and these are the photos of our adventures around the city.

A gloomy looking London Eye. We didn't go on it because we were too cheap! But it is so so very expensive

Big Ben!

As we headed up to Buckingham Palace we spied these guards getting ready for the changing of the guards. Not quite the uniform you expect! (I thought the hat was a touch ridiculous!)

They then got into formation, there was another set of guards on horses opposite these, and headed up to the Palace. One set of horses was very well behaved, the others were not, to our amusement.

The great and grand Buckingham Palace..... It's a bit disappointing in real life! This photo was taken between the rungs of an enormous gate. The guards with the bear hats came later on.

One of the golden gates near the palace

We just caught the changing of the guards. There is a big procession, with a full pipe band and hundreds of guards moving around. We didn't get very close- as you can see!

After this, we went through some very very rich areas to get to Harrods famous department store. On the way we passed the most amazing car dealerships (and cars on the road!)

Here I am looking a bit creepy, contemplating how many houses it would take to buy this ha ha.

The ever famous Harrods. It was the most amazing place inside. There was a bakery...for dogs! An opera singer in the flashiest stairwell, more designer handbags than you could count, and a food court that you could blow a month's wage on a single meal. There was a leg of ham for over one and a half thousand pounds!!!

This was not in Harrods. This was in a funny little mall. But the whole entire store was devoted to Pandas...creepy.

The huge M&Ms store in the city. All kind of colours and mixes! Everyone taking the same sort of photo ha ha

These were human sized. We were looking over a stairwell. The whole place was four or five levels

A living wall on a building! Very cool

 Close up of the big man

This remains the best photo I have of a squirrel. They are a little camera shy.

Mounted policemen Health and safety ruining the view haha

 Shakespeare's globe theatre!

Extreme busking in the Thames! He had an amp and played in there for quite a while. You could drop coins on a mat below. He was terrible, but you had to applaud the effort.

Touches of home

Melaina and Graham xoxoxo

From York to London

Hello all, apologies for my terrible posting recently. We have been living in an area where you can barely get the internet. But we have moved now and I should be able to update a bit more.
On the way from York to London we stopped off at North Hampton to visit some friends and they were kind enough to show us around Stratford-upon-Avon. If the name is ringing a bell and you can't quite place it- it's where Shakespeare was born and grew up.

The house where Shakespeare grew up! (Or so they claim)

The room where Shakespeare was born (Probably!)

We went on a tour through the house, and it had a few actors posing in costume from that era, with the house recreated to how it might have looked. It was quite funny though, because there wasn't any hard proof that he actually had been born there, it just seemed that the general conclusion was that he most probably was as his family did live here. One of the rooms has a bit of graffiti from that are hundreds of years old and some are from celebrities that have come to visit over the years like Dickens, Keats, Thomas and Hardy. It is a bit of a mecca for fans through the ages.

The dinner table, with some gloves on show (Shakespeare's Daddy was a Glover) and we were told that you can see through his work that he mentions gloves a fair bit.

There was also the obligatory junk at the gift shop. I thought the above was particularly amusing. Action figure! Removable quill pen and book! Arms go up AND down!!! Wild!

Graham had also discovered that a house was in North Hampton that had been designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Mackintosh was a Glaswegian architect/designer/artist from the late 1800's. His work is very unusual and he worked on some major buildings throughout Scotland/England. The house we visited was 78 Derngate. The house has been lovingly restored to its former glory. I don't pretend to have a great deal of knowledge about this sort of thing- but I can only imagine the migraines you could have got from sitting in some of the rooms too long he he.

The dining room

Inside the lounge/sitting room (it's teeny tiny) facing the stair case

The intricately stencilled wallpaper (who knew they had fan heaters back then!)

The light fittings were all designed by Mackintosh too

Enjoying the stairs



Graham enjoying the bathroom, it was all very geometric. (We had to wear plastic booties lol)

The dizzy looking bedroom. Apparently the lady of the house was quite worried that guests wouldn't be able to sleep as the room was so busy. One guest was quick to reassure her that he didn't sleep with his eyes open.

The famous front door. This is a recreation, but the original is inside.

http://www.78derngate.org.uk/ If you wanted some better information.

xoxo Melaina & Graham