Happy Trails

Having not had a proper 'get away from the house and go somewhere else' holiday for a couple of years we were chuffed to be invited to stay at Dingle farmhouse, an isolated house owned by a good mate. We'd heard so much about this magical place over the years, so we were very excited to be going there. This amazing place is owned jointly by our mate Jim and his extended family of siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews. Located at the end of a long (very long!) and remote track and nestled near the local marshes and a shingle beach, the farmhouse has not been changed or modified in a great many years, except for some discrete solar panels allowing a water pump to function and enabling a small fridge and a couple of plug points for recharging mobiles to work.

 Blissfully free of tellies, computers, landlines, we spent 6 relaxing days swimming, cooking, chatting, cooking vast communal meals,drinking beer and wine, playing endless amounts of cards and celebrating a significant birthday with a varied crew of Jim's other friends who rolled up during the time we were there. At one point there were 40+ assorted adults, kids and teenagers lounging around the garden, loafing off to the beach or running wild in the wood.

The house is situated just off a patch of marshland and the scenery has an almost 'bleak' beauty about it. 

In late marsh Summer the marsh was covered with wild flowers and humming with insect life, whilst marsh birds, invisible amongst the reeds, sang all day long. It's an extraordinary place that lives long in the memory and was a complete contrast to our usual environment of hills, hills and more hills. 

It was a joy to photograph and a delight to have spent an idyllic few days with good friends. After all, that's what a good holiday is all about.

Geeky!

It's a well known fact to my family that I love gadgets! Don't ask me why, I just do - I'm not the most techno-savvy of people but I do like a nice shiny new gadget!! So, having resisted for some time we finally bought a camcorder - "it's for work" we told ourselves, and have spent the time we've had it filming the cat, the dog and the kids pulling faces and mugging shamelessly.

Face pulling!

Anyhow, I thought it might be fun to get to grips with said camcorder and all it's accompanying technology as well as exploring hither to regions of my beloved macbook and it's applications. The result is posted here - http://bit.ly/eNlxMW - it's not particularly exciting or mind blowing, they are not the cutest kids in the world, and I was particularly grumpy during filming which you can hear on some of the soundtrack (which is a bit wonky in places, like some of the camerawork!) - however, for me, it marks a teeny, tiny technological milestone and I like it! So there!!

P.S. The film was meant to be uploaded on to this blog, however, this could be construed as 'uploading video-FAIL' which confirms my worst fears, that I may, indeed, be a technological numpty! However, I'm still ridiculously pleased with myself!!