London visit - at last!

We visited Bowness on Windermere on the way to London. This is a lovely place where the swans, geese and ducks mingle with the people along the shore.

Unfortunately our coach broke down on the M6. Here we are standing along the side of the motorway waiting for another coach to pick us up. Not the best bit of our holiday!

This is the view of St. Paul's Cathedral you get as you walk at the end of the Millennium Bridge Walkway.

 The Millennium Walkway was spectacular by night - lit with a variety of colours.

 A view through the Millennium Walkway showing Tower Bridge in the distance.

 A close up view of The Shard.

 Windsor - an interesting phone box replica. Each side had a member of the Royal Family painted on looking out. The Queen on this side, Princes William and Harry and Kate Middleton on the others.

 We did the tour of Windsor Castle. Here you see the front view of the castle and gardens.

 Robert standing on the Meridian Line at Greenwich.

 Also at Greenwich you can see Cutty Sark. You can walk in underneath the boat now as it has had work done recently after a fire which had damaged it some time ago.

 Tower Bridge from the River Thames. As part of the hop-on hop-off open top bus tour there was a river cruise. This provided the opportunity to see the famous landmarks from a different perspective. The brown building at the left of the picture was our hotel - The Guoman Tower Hotel.

 HMS Belfast is moored on the Thames near to Tower Bridge.

 The Shard from the river.

 A close up view of the London Eye. It is right beside the Thames.

 The palace of Westminster from Westminster Bridge.

 These are bicycles which can be hired in London. This bright idea was one of the Mayor of London's - Boris Johnson's. The idea is to reduce the amount of traffic and congestion. We saw quite a few of these in use during our time there.

 At Trafalgar Square we had lunch in the crypt of this church - St. Martin in the Fields.

 We spent some time milling around by Buckingham palace. It is a magnificent building with crowds everywhere you look.

 Of course we had to see and take photos of  Nelson's Column at Trafalgar Square.

 From our hotel we could walk along beside the Thames by the Tower of London.

 There were many impressive buildings to see. Lots of curtain walls you would have been interested in!

 Tower Bridge from the Thames walkway.

 The building to the left of this picture is where Boris Johnson's office is situated.

 At Stratford on Avon it was interesting to watch these folks bringing their canal boat up through the lock.
Below, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. This is a very picturesque and interesting town to visit. We had been there before some years ago. We had also been to Warwick and Bowness before too.
We really enjoyed our holiday to London this special year of the Jubilee and Olympics.

Snap!

Here are Niall's winning shots.
Portrait class and scene of Fermanagh.

 A digitally manipulated "Round O".

 Sport in action class.

 Plants class and digitally manipulated class.

 Black and white class.

 Agriculture class.

 More Fermanagh scenes.

Needless to say he is pleased with himself.

Show Time!

 It's that time of year again.
The Enniskillen Show has been and gone and we have carried off some prizes in the cookery and photographic sections. I had 4 firsts and 2 thirds. Above, the marble cake.

 The cherry cake.

 The madeira cake and the sultana cake.

 Third with the boiled fruit cake and the ginger cake.

 Michelle entered a few items and got 3rd for her carrot cake.

Niall did very well again with his photos. He got 6 firsts, 3 seconds and 2 thirds which means he wins the cup this year again.
Success all round.

A good harvest

 The crops have grown well this year. Dare I say I am HAPPY with the results so far.
The onions are good and need to be harvested in the next couple of weeks.

 The rhubarb has excelled itself. In fact there is so much of it now I think I will make some jam to use it up.

 I have just picked my second batch of garden peas. They have been growing really well too so there are plenty more pods still to mature. I need to shell these I picked earlier.

 I have used a lot of the curly variety of lettuce so it is almost finished now. Rather than pull a whole lettuce, I picked off just some leaves each time so the plants kept on producing more and more.

 The rabbits nibbled the tops of the leeks but that hasn't hindered them growing on. They have a bit to go yet before they are ready to use.

Going potty

Yesterday we had a lovely sunny day - one of those rare commodities in this part of the world.

We spent a good part of the day outside. The trampoline was popular.
The girls were all prepared with the summer clothes and suncream applied.

As there is some serious potty training going on, we had no nappies but Peppa pig pants instead.
That meant not going far without the potties.

We managed through the whole day with only one pair of pants washed and on the line. Kyra had told me that there were over 30 pairs at the ready so we were well prepared. Getting there.

Big bird

 Jubilee is now growing fast. He/she has moved out to the rabbit hutch where there is plenty of room to move around. The other hens and roosters would pick at Jubilee so I must keep him/her in isolation yet.

Every now and again I bring Jubilee inside so that we can stroke him/her.
The feathers are growing well and there is not so much fluff now.

Beach break

 This week we took Faith and Sophia to Rossnowlagh for a short holiday. Gareth and Kyra had a wedding to attend on Friday so we went to Rossnowlagh on Thursday afternoon stayed until Saturday.

 We went down to Bundoran on Friday and walked on Tullan Strand.

 The girls had good fun digging in the sand and making sandcastles, with some help from Nanda!

 They also enjoyed playing the keyboard with the volume turned full on. Here you can see Sophia's tonsils as she sings along!

Two nights were enough for this trial run. I needed to come home for a rest!