Dover Castle...

Time for another post about our recent trip; I've already written about the charming town of Folkestone where we stayed, and also posted about the not so nice hotel. We used Folkestone as our base for our day trip to Dover Castle, a few miles away. 

On the way to Dover, I snapped this photo of a group of motorbikers; fellow Queenslanders would understand; (changes to the law in this state prevent certain groups riding en masse on public roads without permits.)  

The day that we were going to Dover Castle turned out to be a big Family Day, so the rather large crowds meant we parked way away from the castle and rode a shuttle bus...here's a view of the castle from our farmer's field/paddock carpark...

The castle has formed part of Britain's defences during the centuries and was a vital cog in Churchill's defence plans in WW2. The evacuation of Dunkirk was all masterminded and directed from Dover Castle. DH had been fascinated by the stories of the network of tunnels which lie under this fortress; these tunnels have been dug into the softish chalk on which the castle sits. Many of these tunnels are very old...but a number of  new areas were excavated at the beginning of the Second World War. So the first thing we did after we paid our entry was to go and queue for the tunnels tour. It took about 45 minutes of waiting for our turn...but we had a lovely view while we waited...

The first part of the tour, we were treated as though we were soldiers...brusque instructions were given to only move when the green lights were on and we were sent to a number of 'stations' where we listened and/or saw images explaining how the tunnels and underground rooms worked in war time. 

The Dunkirk section featured holograms and very authentic sounding audio...

After the guided tour of 'barked' instructions for 20 minutes, we were then allowed to continue to look through the rest of the area open to tours...The guide then went back to the entrance to bring the next group through the first part of the tour.

We saw Operations Rooms...

A kitchen area...

 Is that a ghost that DH spied in the tunnel ahead?

 There were information boards at various points...

And during all this time in the tunnels, we were moving farther under the castle...eventually we emerged to see a magnificent view of the sea and the port...

A nice sunny spot too

There is also the Underground Hospital Tour but it also had a long waiting time so we decided to go and explore other buildings in the castle complex...the hill was steep but we got a 'lift' part of the way in a little land train. 

 On the grassy slopes in front of the castle there were lots of activities for families to join in. One activity for children was 'army drill' and obstacle courses...the 'soldiers' dressed in vintage uniforms, may have sounded grumpy and officious...but they were just pretending! lol! The children loved it !

We stopped and joined in a bit of a sing song with this couple who were playing old 'Seaside favourites'. 

The man sitting near the castle wall was making a daisy chain...for himself? or maybe for his little girl :-)

 As you can see, the day was beautiful...lots of sun...but still a bit cold.

Some more entertainers dressed up and wandering through the crowd...

 There were family dogs there enjoying the day too...

I'm just about to cross the drawbridge here...the planks of the bridge were rather rough and uneven making it tough for the young man behind me to push the wheelchair...

I loved the museum inside of what life would have been like in Saxon times ...

Just look at this! It's chainmail! I just had to touch it! It felt a bit like those metal chain gloves that butchers sometimes wear when cutting up large pieces of meat...

A few other views from the castle...

We spent most of the day there at Dover Castle but certainly did not see all of the areas open to the public as it is such a huge complex, full of history!

Number 52 through the years...

Regular readers would remember all those posts that I have written over the past 13 months about the redevelopment of the house block next door to us. From late April last year,the 50s house has been demolished, the block cut and sculpted by large machinery, foundations dug and laid, and an unimaginable amount of concrete has been poured into the site. Eventually from all this organised chaos and dust, 7 townhouses have emerged to take the place of that original house. Being me, I've constructed a little timeline of this development for this post, starting in the 1930s...

On the rise behind, and to the right of these houses is the farmland that would eventually become our street...

1932 approx

After WW2 this area became part of a large housing estate...the next photo is No 52 in the mid 1960s...the house is 13 years old...

The next photo shows No 52 with a little glimpse of what eventually would become our house...

The reason why I have these photos is that No 52 was the childhood home of a school friend of mine and she lent me the photos to scan and use in this blog post...
Here is Irene and one of her sisters in their high school uniforms...they are standing beside the front steps...

The years went by and the house was owned by a succession of people.The house would eventually spend many years as a rental property for its then owner. In the years since I've lived here, there have been about 5 different renters...we knew though that one day the owner would redevelop the site as this part of the suburb is zoned Res B...multiple dwellings. Therefore he wasn't planning to spend much money on maintenance...so the little house languished while waiting for this redevelopment...
March 2013...the tenant had to be out by the 16th...(I bet he didn't get a reduction in rent because the place was almost tumbling down...note those eaves!)

the western side of the house...

a closer look at that fascia...

Then the signs went up, a week after the tenant left...late March 2013

Early May 2013...
I was actually away in New Zealand from late April to May 14, so my dear neighbour took photos for me :-)
Like this one...

 All gone...

June 2014...the back of the block...

 The front of the block...

Our closest neighbours...well one of them...there's a detached house behind this one too!

A peep at the garden of that first house

And as marker that's still there where our front fences meet.

Disclaimer: I've changed the number of the house to 'protect' all those involved. :-)

  

Update on the 'Hire Car Incident'; in York...

Remember the drama we experienced in York? Our hire car was damaged when a fellow guest at the Clifton Bridge B&B decided to jump out of the first floor window of her room in the early hours of the morning. It was our car that broke her fall, and it is believed also saved her from serious injury.

 After many phone conversations with Europcar during the rest of our stay in York, we were led to believe that we wouldn't be charged the insurance excess on the car but when we later returned the car in London we were charged £1000.
But there is good news...
A few weeks after we arrived home we received a refund of  £429 as the car repairs did not amount to £1000. DH had already submitted a claim through our travel insurance for the £1000, so there was a quick call to the company to amend the amount of the claim. Then, last week we received word from our travel insurance company that we would be refunded the balance minus $100...we were pleased with the outcome.
I will finish this post with some photos that I just happened to take of our room in this B&B hotel...we were told it was their 'family room' and wondered why they gave it to us. But we were very grateful that it was on the ground floor at the back, so no lugging cases up narrow staircases. :-)
We had a choice of 4 beds in which to sleep! lol
Two single beds in one corner...

One queen sized bed near the large windows...

Another single bed in the corner near the ensuite bathroom...

As well as all those beds we had a nice 2 seater sofa which was handy when the young police constable came to take our statement...in many of the rooms we stayed in, he would have had to perch on the edge of the bed while he wrote down all the details! lol

Our little house guest...

It's a long weekend here and DD 2 has gone camping leaving her little dog, Jimmy Hans, with DH and I. He's a sweet little fellow and I always enjoy 'babysitting' him. 

A little while ago I decided to make him a quilt...just a simple strip, QAYG one. My daughter's favourite storybooks as a child were the delightful Richard Scarry series and I had bought some fabrics from the range that had been released which used his drawings. So I had decided to use some of these fabrics in Jimmy's quilt. 

The backing is rather 'vintage'...I bought several metres of this fabric to back a quilt that was made of squares. Each of the squares had an outline drawing ironed on it and each student in my class that year painted a square using Hobbytex paints. I then sewed the squares into a quilt and the class presented our teacher aide with this gift on the day she left on maternity leave. So what year are we talking about here....ummm...??

It was 1976 and the 2.5 metres of fabric left over from that project has been hoarded all these years! A couple of times I've gone to 'ditch' it but somehow it remains. I used some of the fabric in 2012, and now this project and there is still quite a bit left! Lol

It celebrates American Independence...

The fabric was purchased at the Coles Variety Store that was in the city...Coles had a huge fabric department on the first floor, adjacent to their famous cafeteria. The price must have been good as I bought far too much! :-)

Last night Jimmy snuggled down on his new blankie...cuddling his toy...

Since we last looked after him, Jimmy has moved with DD2...instead of his backyard being a postage stamp sized, paved courtyard, he now lives in a house with a yard...but he still loves exploring our garden...

But he doesn't mind sitting on my lap while I watch the Old School episode from last night which we recorded...

But running after balls being thrown sure tire a little fellow out...The rug that I made DH 12 years ago, must have looked very inviting...

It's funny though, even though I knitted that for DH, Eduardo also thinks that it is his! 

The June Knit and Natter at Knitch...

I've written about this K&N before...about the beautiful shop with its exquisite range of yarns, about how lovely Anissa, the owner is; about how she 'spreads the word' about our group and consequently many customers and students in Anissa's classes leave the most amazing lot of donations. Add to that, the fact that the shop has the loveliest ambience, and you can understand  why we look forward to the first Tuesday of the month!

At the May K&N, Anissa announced that Stasia Kail-Buckley was joining her in the business and promised us that the shop would look different the next time we came in, with lots of exciting things happening...so...a bit of a walk round the store now...

There were even more knitted/crocheted items on display! Love these throws!!

Some shelf units have been moved to make a seating area...

A closer look at those 2 inviting armchairs....

To one side, just adjacent to the armchairs is another coffee table and a comfy sofa!

Let's have a closer look at those throws draped on the sofa...

Love, love, love these!...and the one in the photo below which is a 'four-patch' with black knitted 'sashing'...

Towards the back of the shop now....

One side of the shop...

The other side...K4BN members are at the table closest to the camera. We were sharing this space with a group of ladies who come to the shop each week to sit and knit and Show and Tell...

Peeping through the shelves at the K4BN ladies working away...

These are bags of donations which had been dropped off for K4BN...

Anissa took photos before re packing the items for us. Here are her photos which were posted on the shop's Facebook page

Some more of those lovely teddies knitted by a customer and other residents of the complex where she lives...

The many items brought in by Shelley including donations from Rebecca at New Farm...

I'm sure that you will agree that the items are gorgeous! 

A Sew-In to Celebrate the Chookyblue Blog's 2nd Birthday...

To celebrate this occasion, Donna invited bloggers to join her in a weekend Sew In.   At this site you will see that over 100 bloggers joined in...http://chookyblue.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/chookshed-party-time.html.

Just like when I was teaching...I planned far more activities than I could have hoped to achieve! Lol. It has turned out to be more a knitting marathon for me rather than sewing...which is not really surprising I suppose :-/

By this morning, (Sunday) this was some of the knitting progress achieved late afternoon and evening yesterday...as you can see, I have more than one project on the go at the moment. (There is also one secret knitting project which won't be revealed at this stage) 

The project resting on the pinks and cream rug is also a rug/throw. It will be my donation to the annual Parish Art Show...it will be entered in the show and if sold, 100% of the money will be go to parish funds. 

I took a break from crafting today to meet DD1 for lunch. Like so many young people, her life seems to consist of work, work, work and being tired when not at work. She has also had a sinus infection that made her very unwell last week. I organised  our lunch at a cafe in Shorncliffe, (a beach suburb in the northern outskirts of Brisbane) so that we could take a lovely walk along the beach path after lunch...and we did!

The serious/worried look on DD1's face is caused by the effort of taking a selfie with my Samsung phone which doesn't seem to have the 'turn around' button of an iPhone or iPad! Lol

This evening I have concentrated on the 'Art Show Throw' as the entries have to be handed in on July 3. The finished item will be a tribute to a parishioner who bought 2 of the throws that I've donated. She bought last year's ' Not Quite 50 Shades with Grey' as well as one a few years ago which was knitted in greens, blues and creams, called 'Over Hill and Dale'. Sadly Marge passed away late last year. This entry will be called 'Memories of Marge' and the colours chosen are similar to a dress she wore at a family celebration not long before she died. 

Progress this evening...all colours have been used once...

A familiar and favourite slip stitch pattern that will knit up fairly quickly...

And the 'blankie' for DD2's dog Jimmy which was on the sewing list for this weekend was untouched. He will be staying with us next weekend when DD2 and partner go camping for the long weekend...so there's plenty of time to work on it ready for his 3 night sleepover! Lol