Last day of Christmas trip.... Lynmouth...Phew!

Did you read the post about Braunton Burrows?... the footrace that is walking holidays with my parents? Well our last day out (and even my brother and his family were there) turned into the same and low and behold, my brother has the same tendencies!... what happened.. why did the gene miss me...?

Anyway...I've got loads to do today (taking my mom to the airport (your Mom is there .. you didn't tell us!! (don't worry, more blogging fodder!)), so enjoy the pics... tomorrow its back to the sun in Florida.. England is pretty... but so dreary in winter!

Enjoy!

Lynmouth is on the outskirts of Exmoor. Not really famous for anything except the flood in 1952.

On 15 and 16th August a storm of tropical intensity broke over south-west England, depositing 229 millimetres (9.0 in) of rain within 24 hours on an already waterlogged Exmoor.  Debris-laden flood waters cascaded down the northern escarpment of the moor, converging upon the village of Lynmouth; in particular, in the upper West Lyn valley, a dam was formed by fallen trees, etc., which in due course gave way, sending a huge wave of water and debris down that river.
Unsurprisingly the river had been culverted to gain land for business premises (nothing new there then.. how most floods of towns happen); this culvert soon choked with flood debris, and the river flowed through the town. Much of the debris was boulders and trees. Overnight, over 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged along with 28 of the 31 bridges, and 38 cars were washed out to sea. In total, 34 people died, with a further 420 made homeless. you wouldn't know today except for a plaque commemorating the dead on the side of a bridge on the river...

Penny, Britt, me & Lil

My brother and his 'followers'

The footracers!



Tess in water.. take one



New friends!



Sam itching for some cheese sandwich!



Watersmeat walk...

Mom & Tess...apparently other footracers had left them behind!

Just missed him eating a fish

Tess in freezing water - take two



Waiting for the other footracers.. and now its getting dark!



I want to go home... and me Tess and me!

Footrace at Braunton Burrows

OK, let me premise this post by saying that I love my parents....they are fantastic people.. however they have one character flaw and it exists in both of them... they don't enjoy the scenery around them when they go walking. It's all about a footrace... when the dogs can't keep up you know that something is wrong.. it's always been the same, my Mom being the biggest culprit.. picture back to holidays in the Lake District where she'd be half up a hill and Dad and I would be wondering whether we were even going to attempt to get up it.. she has earned her title as 'Mountain Goat'..

Anyway, she's 64 this year and she still hasn't slowed down.. good job I was taking the pictures, else you'd have seen none of Braunton Burrows...!

So enjoy our walk.. parents out front, husband and niece in middle and me dragging at the back trying to capture the beauty of our surrounds...it was about 4 miles in all.. but up and down those dunes is a killer!

Incidently Braunton Burrows played a vital role during World War II. In 1943 Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Thompson was tasked with training the Americans for their assault on the heavily-defended Normandy beaches and finding all south coast places already in use by the Brits, ended up at Braunton . The beaches here were ideal for amphibious exercises, despite the fierce Atlantic surf, and the nearby sands were soon found to be identical to Omaha in every respect – including sand quality, beach gradient and tidal range. Anyone who has seen Omaha beach will instantly recognise an uncanny resemblance to Woolacombe and Saunton. The area is to this day closed for 10 days per year for military training.

me.. at rear

It is a beautiful place .. if desolate

Me taking pics from the rear....there they go into the distance

Me lagging - thanks for this Brit!

Desolate

Nice picture of random rocks

Finally we made the sea!

Dogs in water... where else

Sam wants a stick too

Ma & Pa

Wait for me

The view with a long lens

Family!

All alone on a rock

Brittanys favourite bush (!)

Follow the footprints up the dunes... Grrrr

Tess and bird or stick... not sure!

Tess the dog!



Sam the dog!



Friends, family and retro dinners in UK

So the end of August bought a trip home to the UK. As you may have read already I used Jet Blue and Virgin to get home...recommend both if only for the staff, who are always cheery and professional..Delta please take note. First stop when I was home was to see Anja, one of my best friends. She is a jeweller in Worcester and made my beautiful wedding and engagement rings... I think she looks great in this pic, sporting some suitably expensive pearls..just working on finding her a new beau....any offers filter through me....

The Saturday my Mom pictured below, Dad hiding under the tree out of the sun (yes sometimes there is sun in the UK!!) organised a barbecue for me with my other bestie Anne, my brother and his girlfriend Penny. Penny's kids and then some of the kids from the farm came around too. Also pictured below is Tess, my Mom's lovable Lab..she is so sweet natured and loves all over me when I go back home.Anne catching some rays...she blogged on the barbecue too .The next day my Dad took Anne and I for Sunday lunch ...we went to the The Royal Oak at Broadwas for a carvery. Anne and I decided to have retro starters, she a huge portion of prawn cocktail and I chose Whitebait....we were in retro heaven.. and after a huge carvery lunch we waddled out sated ...a great two days with family and friends..later in the week I would be going for dinner at Anjas to meet her new dog Frosty...