Scrabble and a little surprise

We're playing Scrabble a lot lately! For both of us it's a game that has quite a bit of nostalgia to it; I (David) used to play it with my grandparents when I was a child, and Ellie did, too. It's just a nice relaxing game, but we have some funny banter at the same time, and like a lot of things we do, it's often played over a coffee (or, rather, the coffee is usually drunk over scrabble) in a favourite coffeehouse or at home in the "Gwynne-Gibbons Café"!

... which was reinstated to its former glory this weekend by a new bag of Monmouth espresso thanks to Lewis' café & deli in Moseley. If you like coffee, hunt down some Monmouth (made in Covent Garden, London). A friend recommended it to me many years ago and I think it's one of the nicest coffees around - though there are a few excellent coffee-roasters in England now. Far more than in France, surprisingly - but that's another blog-post.

Also this week we've been spending quite a bit of time thinking about ethics and philosophy; Ellie has been reading a book by a hero of us both, Alan Watts - and I have come to the end for the third time of The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. By chance, or perhaps not, the philosophical ideas of both books crossed paths and converged at the same time so we've been having lots of in-car and over-coffee philosophical debates!

Oh, and... yes, I knew there was something else! How could I forget?!  Someone has found his way into the GG residence... we're seeing how he settles in with us; we hope it works out! He's about 16 weeks old and his name's Oskar. And he's rather cute. 

Christmas in France

It's been a few weeks since we've written a post; it's been Christmas (hope you had a lovely one)

The best reason to visit France. This might not look much... but just you try it. 

We've been very much in 'home' mode, and we've also both been busy doing Gwynne-Gibbons and personal work too since we got back. But we thought you might like to hear a little about our trip to France and some other bits and pieces.

An interesting antiquarian bookshop in Saint-Malo

A painter-artist in Dinan

We decided to spend Christmas by ourselves this year, just because we hadn't done so before and we thought it'd be lovely to spend some time in our little flat just cooking, eating and relaxing! We also planned to do a few practical things while we were there too, sort of justifying our trip with those, but mostly they were just excuses for going to France and eating lots of nice bread.

For once, we got our ferry on time in Portsmouth (although we were late back to our car - all the others had boarded the boat and we ended up getting searched by security - getting the boat never goes too smoothly for us!) and arrived safely in France. For the second time, because nothing stays open late in Brittany, we ended up having our first 'meal' in McDonalds! It was really awful, but funny all the same and we needed to eat before the 2-hour drive to Dinan. It was great to walk into the flat though when we got there around 12.30am and see that everything was fine with it - nothing broken or damaged at all which was a relief as we've had some holiday guests in there this year so we didn't know what to expect!

Who says lard is rubbish? 

The first few days were really relaxed just getting ready for Christmas and doing our favourite little walks around the town and the port on the river Rance down the hill. There's a walk we always do down from the flat, through some woods down the hill and along the river to the port - it made us feel really at home and almost like we'd never left. The weather was really warm for the time of year too - about 10 degrees, and it almost felt like spring. We found some nice holly to bring back to the flat to put towards the christmas decorations, which apparently is called 'gui' in Breton and was similarly used spiritually by the celtic peoples as our holly was here and in Wales and Ireland.

We also gave ourselves the mission to visit the two other 'Emmaüs' in the area we hadn't got to before, with the main point being to find some nice old cast iron pots and whatever old random stuff that took our interest! In the first one, near Saint-Malo, we found a beautiful photography book and some other bits, and in the second one on the way to Rennes, we found two fantastic Le Creuset pots for a grand total of 4€... just amazing. We have quite a collection at home now but luckily we love cooking and they all get used a lot. The Emmaüs are such amazing places to just wander around - people give away unbelievably good stuff and it's generally sold for incredibly low prices, particularly in the ones outside the towns. The charity is set up to help adults with various problems relating to social inclusion and in return for helping out working at the depots, they can live on site. There always seems to be a nice community spirit about the places.

In Rennes... 

For our christmas dinner, we actually bought some belly pork - not that traditional, but so much tastier than turkey and a fraction of the price too. We cooked it so that the fat on top was really crispy and tasty, and slow enough for the meat underneath to be melt-int-the-mouth... mmm. It was so nice just getting up, relaxing, eating, opening a few presents, and not having to rush between family places all day like normal christmases! We just stayed in, and had a walk in the afternoon to stretch our legs. It was like a warm spring day in Dinan on the 25th - the sun was shining and it was quiet, warm and still.

We still have never managed to actually send postcards when we've been away - this time we got as far as writing them! Next time...

A visit to Bradgate Country Park

We've been planning a visit to Bradgate Country Park in Leicestershire for a few weeks; I (David) went to university in Leicester and used to go regularly for a good stretch of the legs and to see the deer that live semi-wild there. There are no fences so they roam completely freely over many miles of moorland and through forest. Ellie and I went once last year but far too late in the day and saw no deer (although we did see a gorgeous sunset) so it was high time to return.

We got very lucky with the weather; it's been so drizzly the last few weeks as we pass into wintertime but the day we went to Bradgate was clear and sunny. Almost embarrassingly, we went a good few miles out of the way before we got to Bradgate to visit... a new Waitrose! Did I say almost embarrassing? But it does have a café, and with our Waitrose cards (oh dear, sorry) we can get a very nice free cup of coffee and sit and have a read. We do this quite often... it really is fun! Especially in the lovely Malvern branch. Anyway, I'll shut up now!

So, caffeined-up, we tipped up at the gates. To find that yet again we had stumbled on a Christmas fayre; a really nice one this time. This happened the week before too in Malvern - but with only a few hours at best of light, we hauled our equipment out of the car and set off.

It was a long time before we saw any deer - and around 45 minutes in, we decided to take a few photos of Ellie through the beautiful long grass which fringes the moorland. I'm very lucky to have a beautiful model on hand everywhere we go! 

Not too long after we saw deer in the distance; Roe deer females. Nice - but I really wanted to find some of the Red deer stags, with their fantastic antlers. We kept walking until eventually we found a good group of them. They're pretty used to people being around so we managed to get within around 20 metres of them - just enough with the 200mm lens. I lay on my stomach and watched as they calmly made their way past, chewing constantly and also very vigilant. Ellie had a really interesting experience as another stag looked directly at her for some time before moving on. I was very struck by the calm grace of these animals, as I always was when I used to go regularly.

Suddenly, it seemed, the light was failing fast - so we walked pretty quickly back along one of the main paths. We'd actually walked quite a bit further than either of us realised, and we were fairly freezing by the time we got back to the car!

Bradgate's main entrance is in Newtown Abbot, some 5 miles outside of Leicester. Definitely a highly-recommended place for a very hearty walk and of course to see the deer.

An evening walk

With spare time to enjoy before lessons today, I took a stroll with the camera around Lightwoods. The mist was hovering thickly just above the ground, and the moon brightened as the sky darkened - just an atmospheric British late autumn walk. Reminded me of why I love this time of year!

Please click the photos to view on black.