Bendy

Amelia has a little trouble saying Benedict. He is now known as Bendy.

Now we are 4

Sarah gave birth to Benedict Peter, weighing 8lbs 15ozs, this morning at 3:10. It was a water birth (She is a hippy at heart). She kept a tight hold of the placenta again, but this time it was removed in theatre. She is very happy about this and looking forward to a few days in Okehampton maternity hospital to recover.

Allotment

You may have notices that after a post about the allotment last year all went quiet. Well this year we are going to be more focused and manage to grow something other than potatoes carrots and weeds.

The digging is coming along nicely so that it will be ready for a very productive year.

Dartmoor Walk

Last weekend, when Sarah was still mobile (She is now 4 days overdue and down to a very slow waddle) we went onto Dartmoor for a short walk it was a very sunny afternoon with very good light.

As usual there are more pictures on Flickr, as usual they contain a high proportion of Amelia pictures.

Bellever Forrest

Today was one of those lovely bright autumnal days, so we dug out the book of Dartmoor walks that can be done with an all terrain pushchair and headed for the hills. What a fantastic day to be on the moor. It was so full of colour. We have been a bit slack with the camera lately so what better a day to remedy that.

I do need to get a field guide for mushrooms as some of the examples around look like they may be worth a try. I do have a bit of a thing about pictures of stone bridges the clapper gate bridge here dates from the 13th century.

After a lovely walk we didn't have time to stop at the Warren House Inn because of the the last Grand Prix of the season. I had to watch it live as I have heard the result of so many previous ones that I had recorded. Not quite the result that I was hoping for but still a very good first season for Lewis.

As the sun set the moon was bright in a fairly clear sky so it looked as though there would be a good chance of seeing some meteors from the Orionid shower this evening but it has clouded over.

Norman Lockyer

Time to dust off the blog, I have been meaning to do this for ages. It just needed something sufficiently interesting for me to write about. Saturday it happened. I visited the Norman Lockyer Observatory for an introduction to astronomy.

What a fantastic day. It started with a viewing in the planetarium and continued with an introduction to star maps. We continued with a look at the sun and the moon and a description of the planets. This was followed by a look at nebulae and galaxies. The final theory for the day was a look at telescopes and lenses. This initially seemed rather too reminiscent of A level physics for my liking but with a major difference it was interesting.

Finally we went on a tour of the historic telescopes including the instrument completed in 1871 that had a spectrometer attached and was used in the discovery of helium. It is amazing that it is now used alot by the junor section.

Circus of Horrors

We recently saw the Circus of Horrors at St Georges Hall. The performance was brilliant, the audience were like no other. I have never been to a show where so many people got up and went to the bar during the performance, including one guy who stopped in front of the stage so that he didn't miss anything.

The show can best be described as circus meets the rocky horror show. If you get the chance give it a go

Catch up

Following hotly on the heels of the bug, I thought it was time start posting again.

We had a wonderful holiday in Western Australia catching up with family. Probably the fastest 3 weeks ever. We spent the first 4 days in an apartment overlooking the Swan river looking towards the center of Perth.

The view was fantastic, as was the wonderfully warm air particularly when accompanied by a cold one.

Then it was off down the coast to Dunsborough with its mix of beaches, and countryside. It has a number of well reviewed resturants, we cheched the menu of the Food Farmacy it looked good so we decided to give it a go. On the chosen day the only veggie option was a starter. The waitress had a word with the chief and came back with a list of 3 vegetarian options. The food was fantastic and much cheaper than would be expected in the UK.

We managed to pick up a hitchhiker (huntsman spider) that was unwelcome until we found out it was harmless.

Most of the pictures are of Amelia, but I did manage to get a few without her in, quite a change since before her arrival my pictures did not contain people. Die back is getting to be a problem but the opportunity for pictures is quite good.

Finally we stoped at Busselton Jetty the largest wooden jetting in the southern hemisphere, along with an underwatr observatory at the end.

More pictures are on flickr.

Allotment

Sarah now has an allotment; we are busy planning what to grow. If we are not careful we may need a smallholding as we have come up with a long list that is still growing.