Category: Main Blog Posts
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History lesson
10th August 2025 Our nearest National Trust property in the UK is Dyrham Park, a few miles north of Bath. We feel a special connection with it for two reasons beyond proximity: in 2009 we planted an ash tree there in memory of my wonderful Dad, and in 2015 – the year we both turned…
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Picture this
7th August 2025 Well all our stuff is on its way. I think about it, I worry about it, off on an adventure without us to protect it. We don’t know exactly where it is, but I picture it, bumping along, all wrapped up in its cosy “export wrapping”, not quite at the port yet.…
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🎶 “I am sailing…”🎶
5th August 2025 We’re on a musical roll! Did anyone catch Rod Stewart’s recent Glastonbury set on TV? (I know some of our faithful followers were there in person) Hats off to the guy – still rockin’ at 80, no doubt boosted by his large entourage of 80s-era female backing singers 😎. His rendition of…
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🎶 “I like trucking and I like to truck…” 🎶
31st July 2025 The last three days have been a whirlwind of activity as we count down to our return to Barbados in less than three weeks’ time. We have had to shift things between properties as we prepare to load a shipping container next week. More of that in the next blog post. Exciting…
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All Revved up
20th June 2025 The eagle eyed of you avid blog followers, will have noted the comment by my cousin currently residing on the east coast of Australia regarding the “keeping” qualities of my father inherited from his father and grandfather. All three of them would turn their hands to all manner of practical things and…
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Lonely Planet
19th June 2025 Those two words have a special place in the heart of every independent traveller of a certain vintage. Nicola and I are among many who, from a tender age, hoisted our backpacks and hit the road in search of adventure with one of this publisher’s travel guides tucked under our arm. Overnight…
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Mice and the Mechanics
15th June 2025 Nicola’s a keeper (in more ways than one 😉). I’m definitely a chucker. I reckon it’s a reaction to my upbringing. During the 55 years my mother lived in our family home, it became increasingly cluttered. Eventually the front room wouldn’t have looked out of place on ‘The Hoarder Next Door’ or…
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A keeper of things
14th June 2025 My father was very “handy”, always an engineer he would always have a go at fixing this, making that, dismantling the other to see if it could be used for something. This started at an early age. The contents of the garage were fascinating and horrifying in equal measures. Lengths of wood…