Summer at the Duckpond

So, how is it October already!? Where has this year gone? 

We had quite a nice summer, pretty good weather and we managed to get out and about a fair few times plus do our annual road trip to Scotland and back. 

Here's a selection of what's been happening over the last three months:

• We spent lots of time at one of our local outdoor swimming pools, Greenbank Pool in Street. We cancelled the Small Person's swimming lessons (doing them indoors was too high risk) so instead I attempted to teach her myself. Each time we went to the pool, we were able to spend several hours there, mixing swimming and playing in the kids pool with some snacks and a cuppa for me at the poolside. I wouldn't say she was able to swim perfectly but by the end of the summer, she could do breast stroke under the water, glide and do doggy paddle (and a bit of breast stroke) on top of the water so I reckon that's a win. We'll pick it up again next year when the pool opens for the season in May. 

• We had a great road trip to Scotland, visiting the Helensburgh area in the first week and staying in Cramond, Edinburgh in the second week. We took my Mum and brother with us this year and hired a van so we could all fit in. We didn't see any shows at the Fringe (again, we didn't want to take the risk) but we did visit Edinburgh city centre to experience the atmosphere and watch some of the street performers. 

• We went to visit Carters Steam Fair on their Farewell Tour a few times in Bath and also once in Basingstoke. It's sad they're no longer going to tour but also completely understandable as to why they've made that decision. We had great fun working for them and visiting them on lots of occassions so we'll keep lots of happy memories. 

• Andrew took his 1952 Scammell lorry to the Great Dorset Steam Fair (for the first time since 2019). We camped in our usual place (behind the Freak Show) and when everyone had left at the end of the fair, Lily was able to go onto the stage and pretend to put on a performance. 

• We went up to the north of Scotland at the beginning of September, staying near Lossiemouth. It was a holiday originally booked by my Dad for 2021 but I had to postpone it when he had his stroke. We were finally able to go this year and spent lots of time on the beach when we had sunny weather!

• Carnivals are back this year, after being cancelled in 2020 and 2021. Lots of carnival clubs are smaller; it's been a hard few years for obvious reasons but people still seem to be enjoying it and it's fun to be back. The carnival club I'm in are taking part as a walking group, re-doing our Alice in Wonderland theme from a few years ago. My costume is the White Queen and Lily is able to take part with us on some of the nights, wearing an Alice costume. The big carnivals start on 5th November at Bridgwater and run through to 19th November finishing at Glastonbury (which is also a 'photo an hour' day!). I'm going to try and post on Instagram Stories over the season. 

• Photo an Hour over the summer took place on 23rd July (round-up here), 20th August (round-up here) and 17th September (round-up here). October's photo an hour is this Saturday, the 22nd!

• We've all had our jabs for the winter - COVID boosters and flu jabs (being eligible as 'carers' and 'household contact of immunosuppressed'). We also made the decision to get Lily her chicken pox vaccine - she still hadn't had chicken pox yet and we just thought what's the point?, the older she gets, the more horrible it'll be. And she wanted it as well so we got her booked in. 

• We watched 'The Sparks Brothers' on Netflix which was utterly wonderful. I tweeted about it the next day and had a like and retweet from its director, Edgar Wright! It's been taken off Netflix now unfortunately but I think you can still find it on other platforms. 

• Good books I've read over the last few months - 'Nothing But The Truth: A Memoir' by The Secret Barrister; 'Never Greener' by Ruth Jones; '21 Miles: Swimming in Search of the Meaning of Motherhood' by Jessica Hepburn; 'We Shall Remember' by Emma Fraser; and 'Where Are The Women? A Guide to an Imagined Scotland' by Sara Sheridan. 

What have you been up to?

 

May and June at the Duckpond

A two month round-up this time, as I didn't get round to actually writing a post at the end of May!

• We went on holiday to Butlins in Bognor Regis; on a break which was booked back in 2019 and had been postponed twice. It wasn't quite the break we envisaged when we booked it as we steered clear of all the indoor activities (not wanting to risk catching Covid) but we certainly made the most of the outdoor fairground and childrens activities. 

• Whilst we were in Bognor Regis we also explored the south coast area, doing an afternoon drive to Brighton on one day and a drive to Portsmouth and Southsea on another. And we also surprised Lily with a mystery tour to Paultons Park - which she loved!

• TV - obviously we're 10 years behind everyone here but wow, 'Line of Duty' is rather good isn't it! We binge-watched it over about 2-3 weeks and probably ended up with far too many late nights as we wanted to keep watching the next episode. We watched 'Vigil' as well, which was also excellent - although watching it immediately after 'Line of Duty' meant than we suspected everyone in the show :-D

• Music - I've been listening to Arcade Fire's new album, 'WE' which is brilliant. I've only seen them live once (Glastonbury 2014), I'd love to see them on their tour later in the year but it's not worth the Covid-risk. I'll stick to listening to the tunes on repeat!

• After we'd finished in Bognor Regis we headed down to Cornwall for the weekend to see another show at the Minack Theatre, 'Calvino Nights' - which was fabulous. Lily asked to go to that theatre again so we've booked one of their October shows, 'Horrible Histories - Terrible Tudors'. 

• We've been visiting one of our local outdoor swimming pools a lot recently so that Lily can practise her swimming. We decided to cancel her indoor swimming lessons; she hadn't been since last September (when the Covid rates started rising) and she didn't want to risk it herself. So we've been doing lots of afternoons out in the sunshine, taking a picnic and enjoying the water. 

• I did my usual shifts at Glastonbury festival. helping to look after a farm and a lane in Pilton village. I took Lily into the festival on Thursday when the Kidzfield opened and she had a fantastic time, I think her highlight was playing on the adventure castle and watching 'Andy and the Odd Socks' from CBBC. We didn't go on site the rest of the weekend though, there was just too many people and it wasn't worth the risk. 

• The other half turned 44; we had an outdoor fish & chip supper at a local farm shop which was tasty. Not sure he's looking forward to next year though, being halfway through his forties!

• The other half picked a birthday day trip out to the West Somerset Railway to see the steam trains and eat chips by the seaside. 

• May's photo an hour was Saturday 21st (the day of our visit to the railway) and June's date was Saturday 18th. The next date is Saturday 23rd July. 

• Andrew took his vintage lorry out to its first show since August 2019 - the Bath and West show. It rained quite a bit but he still enjoyed it. 

• We watched some of the Jubilee celebrations on the television. It was brilliant to see the carnival cart from Bridgwater take part in the pageant parade (anyone involved in carnival has been following its build progress over the last year on social media!). If you want to see it all lit up, come and see it (and lots of others) during the Somerset carnival season in November. 

• I've been eagerly making my spreadsheet of all the wonderful shows on at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. There seems to be lots worth seeing although I haven't actually booked anything yet - not sure if any of them are worth the risk. We'd be wearing our FFP3 masks anyway but still, I haven't decided yet what to do. 

What have you all been up to? 

 

Edinburgh Hidden Gems - Eating, Sleeping & Doing

I really missed being in Edinburgh this year. I love the city anyway but during festival season it becomes even more magical. Me and Andrew have been up there to visit the Fringe every August since 2011 (and I did a couple of years there back in 2003 and 2004 before I met him) but we decided to give it a miss this year as we thought Lily would be too young to really enjoy the atmosphere or any kids shows. We're hoping to take her next year though so that her first Edinburgh Fringe coincides with the Fringe's 70th birthday.

In the meantime, while we're by no means experts on the place, we do have some favourites - many of which I don't often see mentioned by other bloggers or reviewers. So here's some of our hidden gems in and around the city...

Eating
Choco-Latte, South Clerk Street - Every possible type of cake and chocolate you could think of with sweets literally hanging from the rafters. Pretty decent prices too!

S. Luca's Ice Cream Café, Musselburgh and Morningside - My great auntie grew up just outside Edinburgh and mentioned a couple of years ago that we need to visit Luca's. She'd been there many times as a young girl and so last year, we went along to sample their menu. I'm happy to report that it was delicious! We tried a sharing platter of chicken and potato bits, followed by a Banana Split for me and a Knickerbocker Glory for Andrew and two classic milkshakes on the side. Well worth a visit.

Mamma's Pizza, Grassmarket - If you fancy a gigantic pizza, Mamma's is the place to visit. Lots of options and the best bit is that if you can't finish it there and then, they'll happily give a box to take the leftover pizza home for later on.

Tempting Tattie, Jeffrey Street - It's only little and a bit tucked away but it's a great place to perch and have a hearty meal whilst browsing all the Fringe leaflets and magazines. The potatoes are big, there's heaps of toppings to choose from and there's even homemade cakes for afters too.

The Well Café, Nicolson Square - We only found this little gem last year but it's absolutely lovely. It's part of the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church and is only a stones throw from the Pleasance Dome, Teviot House and various other Fringe venues. They do a range of light snacks, cakes, main meals and even pudding and custard, all at a really good price. We visited the cafe rather a lot last year.

Sleeping
Drummohr Holiday Park, Levenhall - I can only really recommend one place and that's Drummohr. It's a lovely park with a range of accommodation (we've stayed in the Octolodge and the Deluxe Bothy before) and isn't too expensive at all during festival season. There's a 5 minute walk to the bus stop and then a 45 minute bus ride (on a glorious route - see below!) into the city but even after you've bought a all-day ticket every morning, it still works out cheaper than finding accommodation in the city centre.

Doing
Museum on the Mound (aka. The Money Museum), The Mound - A museum where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about money; you can even see what £1 million pounds looks like! It's quirky and often fairly quiet but more importantly, it's completely free.

Geese-watching, on, in or next to the River Esk in Musselburgh - Well, just because they're geese really. And they're quite comical to watch. If you need to relax for 10 minutes, grab a bench and do some geese-watching.

Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum, Morrisons Haven - Every time we walk from the campsite to the bus stop, we go past the entrance to this place and it was only last year we managed to fit in a visit. It's a completely free open-air museum telling the story of Prestongrange's industrial past. There's beam engines, coal wagons, a massive brick kiln and lots of walks across the site - quite an interesting place!

Portobello Beach and Lothian Buses Route 26 - This is the bus route you'd need to get from Drummohr to the city centre and it goes through Portobello with a fab view of the beach en route. Each year we try and fit in a stroll along the prom too as it's really quite lovely, especially in the late afternoon sun.

Best Fringe Seats - We've found the EICC (Venue 150) and Assembly George Square Theatre (Venue 8) have the comfiest seats!

Look up, down and all around - The brilliant thing about the Fringe is that you never know what you might see but Edinburgh itself isn't too shabby and it's worth looking closely at the buildings and architecture.

And on my list to do in the future...

The Original Edinburgh Cheesecake Company, St Johns Road - Somebody recommended this to me as a rather tasty place to get a large slab of cheesecake. It's a bit out of the city centre (near the zoo) and as yet, we haven't yet made it there.

Portobello Swim Centre, Promenade - I'm dead impressed that the City of Edinburgh Council have kept so many Victorian swimming pools around the place. Portobello is home to Edinburgh's only publicly available authentic Turkish baths and I'd like to visit them to see the architecture and just for the fact that they're still open to the public and in use really!

Mimi's Bakehouse, Leith, Corstophine and Old Town - Well, just because it's cakes! And why on earth not? :-)

Cuckoo's Bakery, Dundas Street and Bruntsfield Place - Same as above!



Anything else I should add to my list for next year? The more unknown it is, the better!