Wookey Hole and Wells

Oliver is staying with us this week and on Monday we had a day out to Wookey Hole. 

 It was my second choice for a day out to be honest, I would have much rather visited Cheddar Gorge but the caves there are still closed to visitors at the moment. 

It's about a two and a half hour drive so we set off just after 8.30am and the weather was sunny for the whole drive.  As soon as we passed through the ticket office it started to rain, we just managed a quick dash to shelter before the heavens opened

A bit of rain never dampens the British spirit though :-)

The rain lasted a good 45 minutes so when it eased we joined the queue for the caves even though our ticket time was 2pm.  

 The Wookey Hole website asks you to book a time for the caves, but it looked as though there was no particular system to letting people in, In fact I don't think they had limited the number of visitors to the sight at all judging by the number of people around.  It was virtually impossible to social distance, although mask wearing was mandatory inside the cave.

They have cage aged cheese (and wine)

It is obviously better, with more to see than my photos show.

On the same site and with access only after you have through the cave is  Animatronic Dinosaur Valley which was actually quite good, you might remember me saying when Oliver was a toddler he absolutely loved dinosaurs, he can still name them all and tell you random facts about them :-)

I don't know if this is a smiley face a grimace or terror because there is a T Rex behind, lol

You can see it starting to rain again, just after we came out the cave!

We had a walk around the vintage penny arcade and parted with a couple of £'s and had a chuckle at our funny reflections in the hall or mirrors

Some of the attractions were closed, because of the virus I assume, although it did say the handmade paper mill was open but when we got there that was closed too so apart from the Pirate Island golf, which to be honest by late afternoon was just water-logged and the ice cream parlor there was nothing else left for us to do, but it was almost time to check into the hotel by then anyway.

Overall I was disappointed really, obviously the weather didn't help but as far as I can see on the website, they are still charging the same price even though an awful lot of stuff is closed and more to the point, they do not seem to be limiting numbers as is suggested.  I wouldn't be rushing back there anytime soon.

The hotel however was very nice, I'd booked us a table for tea at Captain Jack's restaurant, later I saw that the rating was only 2 stars so I wasn't expecting much but it was surprisingly nice, we're not talking posh nosh, and the menu was limited, but it was good.  Our room included breakfast on Tuesday morning, again the food was very nice, no complaints from us.

After breakfast we drove into Wells, Oliver had some money to spend and it was burning a hole in his pocket!

We did have a walk around Wells Cathedral and Vicars' Close too

Vicars' Close is the oldest residential street in the UK, it was built over 850 years ago to house the  Vicars Choral, it's residents today are still the vicars choral, organists and virgers.

Love this, It's like stepping back in time.

 At the top end of the close is the vicars chapel and library

Storm Francis had arrived by Tuesday, we tried to capture how windy it was, I don't think you can quite see it but trust me it was violent!

We had a day pottering about the garden yesterday and today it's raining again so our plans to go for walk have been put off, instead we are having a film day, which means I can get a bit of sneaky knitting done :-)

Take care

-X-

The last of the Jolly July stitching

 I managed to get two more pieces stitched during Jolly July.  Oliver asked if he could have a reindeer ornament this year, I took this Rudolph from another chart, it's not the sort of thing I would usually stitch but I think it looks quite cute 

I also finished Button Tree by The Drawn Thread.  I  decided to use buttons from my stash in the end rather than buy some specially, now I need to find a frame for it.

I'm quite chuffed that I managed to finish all my Jolly July stitching.  The only one that I didn't get to work on was Jacob's Christmas Stocking.  That was a none starter really as I was waiting for threads which only came in the last week of July.  That will now become a focus for me during August.  I've already made a decent start and I'll share that in another post.

I was way ahead with my August calendar girl having finished her in June.  Although I made a boo boo in the making up.  Can you spot it?  I forgot to make a bow by the button!  

I kept looking and thinking something didn't look right, it was on display a couple of days before I realised what was missing.  I don't have enough thread of that colour left to make more cording so it will have to wait now until I put another thread order in

We had Jacob for a few hours on Saturday while Joanne and Gavin took Bonnie to a drive in cinema to watch her favourite film, Frozen.

He's seven and a half months now and sitting up, he also cut two teeth this week.  Growing up far too quickly

Joanne only tried him with this cup the day before, he soon got the hang of it though.

They found out recently that he has an intolerance to milk and now his formula is on prescription.  It only took about four months of Joanne keep saying that he made a fuss over having his bottle and didn't settle or seem comfortable after, and the fact that he only pooped a couple of times a week for the doctor to say well yes it could be!!

He is much more settled now and sleeps better and poops, lol.  It does mean though that now he is eating solids she has to be careful not to give him anything that contains milk or milk products.  

 But as you can see by those chubby legs and hands, he's not doing too bad on it and from what she has been told babies usually out grow it by the time they are toddlers.

See you soon

-X- 

Out and about

We had a day out with the boys again on Saturday, giving Jenny some time to herself.

Witley Court is an English Heritage site about a half hours drive from us.   As with National Trust properties you have to pre-book your visit at the moment, even if you are a member, I booked our 12pm slot the Wednesday before, it does means that you have to take pot luck with the weather but we were lucky, it was a beautiful day, there were a few threatening black clouds at one point, but they soon blew in another direction and it stayed dry for us.

I last visited Witley Court in June last year, you can read more about the ruin in this post and see the photos I took of the inside on that day.

This was the conservatory,  Imagine sitting in here with those views!

Can you spot Oliver?  gives you a sense of how big the house is

The boys had a lovely time, the grounds are lovely and open, plenty of space for little people to run around

Arty loves horses and was fascinated by the one in the fountain

Although the playground is still closed off to the children the boys didn't seem to mind, we had a lovely walk around the lake and the wilderness garden after our picnic and they were happy doing that, picking up cones and interesting sticks along the way, as boys do!

It was such a lovely relaxing day, the boys never keep still but were as good as gold and I know Jenny appreciated a long afternoon to herself.

-X-