Where have I been - to the Forest of Dean!

We had a lovely break away in the Forest of Dean a few weeks ago.

This is where we stayed.  About Time Cottage.

There were 8 of us, my cousins Jill, Julie and Pat plus their husbands Simon, Pete and Martin plus me and Hubby.  Oh and Beanie (Jill and Simon's dog.)

The Forest of Dean is near Gloucester which is close to Wales.  In fact our route there took us on the M4 motorway from London, over the Severn Bridge into Wales and then north back into England to the village of Parkend where the cottage is situated.

There is a steam railway that runs between Parkend and the nearby town of Lydney and we could hear the trains running behind the house.

Pete, Me, Nick, Jill, Julie and Martin

As above but with Pat on the right.

Us girls keep in touch on WhatsApp quite regularly but we don't get to meet up in person that often but when we do we just pick up from where we left off.  

We had a wander around Lydney harbour.  We visited a place called Puzzlewood which is a very unique area of the forest and we also did a forest walk that included a sculpture trail.

We didn't do the whole trail as we needed to get back to the cafe before it closed for tea and cake.  We stop frequently for tea and cake!

We had a pub meal out the first evening and then the other two nights we had a very reasonably priced Indian takeaway and then fish and chips from a nearby shop which was also good.

We did a lot of chatting and played games in the evening and it was overall a lovely break.

Friday's Fave Five - 15/8/25

Susanne reminds us each week to look back on our week and find the blessings and the things we're grateful for.  We join up here to share them.

1)  I'm thankful that whilst I am close enough to my daughter and her family to be able to help out with their children, our two sons also have good in-laws who do the same for them.  This week our eldest son and DIL celebrated their wedding anniversary and his in-laws took their two boys out for what looked like a fun day.

2)  Talking of helping my daughter out my DIL has her hands full during the summer holidays.  Grandchildren Nathan and Ella have a bit of a love/hate relationship at times so it's good to be able to take one of them for an hour or so to give her a break, which we did today - having Nathan here all day.  Particularly needed now because:

he has fractured a bone in his foot.  As you can imagine he is not happy about having to wear the boot!

3)  We had a short break away this week - staying in Marlow which is on the river Thames.

Our room - we were upgraded!

The bath was lovely - but we didn't use it

There was a very adequate shower in the bathroom!

Boats going through Marlow lock.

This is the Compleat Angler - just across the river from where we stayed and where we ate on our second night.

The bridge across the Thames

Marlow Church

The War Memorial - just in front of our hotel.

We stayed at The George & Dragon which is a Heartswood Inn which is the same chain as the Royal Forest near us which we've been to a few times.  The menu was quite similar but I'd say the food was slightly better nearer home.  The service was excellent though and the room was very comfortable with air conditioning.

4)  We were really glad of the air conditioning as it has been very hot this week so we didn't do as much sight seeing as we would have liked, it was just too hot.  Although of course we did browse the charity shops along the high street and I couldn't resist these:

The Crossword jigsaw is brand new - it will be a challenge though - it's double sided and both crosswords can actually be completed! (well hopefully lol)

I managed to load all my TBR books onto Goodreads today so that I won't end up buying books I've already got waiting to be read.  I used the scanning feature which made it quite quick.

5)  On our way home on Wednesday we visited Cliveden House, a National Trust property.  The House is actually leased out to a hotel group so tours are limited but the grounds and woodlands are lovely.  We took a long walk through the woods and down to the river (Thames) and then up to the House and gardens.  We stopped for refreshments in the cafe and then intended taking the easier route back to our car.  Somehow we got lost and ended up back down by the river.  Which necessitated another climb back up - it's a steep incline with lots of steps.  Thankfully my knees held out!

The views were lovely and it was reasonably shady through the woodland areas.

It was a lovely break and thankfully we made it home without being impacted by this:

Picture taken from the BBC website.

This was the scene on the M25 yesterday afternoon - a lorry caught fire and it was full of tyres, hence the black smoke.  Fortunately no one was hurt but the motorway was shut for 17 hours - resurfacing was required.  The M25 is London's orbital motorway and it's always very busy and closures like this cause chaos.  Fortunately we were able to leave it a junction earlier than planned and made an alternative route home without any problems.

Have a good weekend all.

Friday's Fave Five - 1/8/25

Well I have been AWOL again (but I'll explain why below) so it's good to be here and catch up with Susanne and other like minded bloggers to look back on the past week (or three!) and remember the things we're grateful for.  You can find out more here.

This week I'm all about Family!

1)  We had our son and his family here from Vermont here for just over two weeks.  It was so good to see them.  Of course the time flew and saying goodbye to our son last Friday and then our DIL and grandsons on Wednesday this week was hard but we've definitely had some quality time with them.

2)  For the second part of their visit we also had our other son and his family staying with us.  It was a busy and hectic household but it's so lovely to see the cousins interacting like they saw each other yesterday even though it's been a year since they were all together.  And of course we made sure to get all the grandkids together as much as possible.

3)  One of our nephews hosted a get together at his house during their visit so they were able to catch up with lots of cousins, aunts, uncles etc and they all got to meet the latest baby in the family which was lovely.

4)  And then we all (apart from my US son*) went to France last weekend.  Hubby's sister Anne Marie lives with her French husband Jean Marie in Dunkerque and we were celebrating his 70th birthday.  Jean Marie is also one of 8 siblings so it was a huge party.  Thankfully the weather was good and they have a big house with a huge garden.  Their 4 sons did an amazing job and we all had a wonderful time.  There was a good turnout from both sides of Jean Marie's family and although some of us are not great in a second language we all managed to communicate!

*Michael works for the US Government but gets 10 days leave!  Here in the UK he would get at least 20 days leave if not more each year.  This makes it hard for him when he visits.  I know he probably could get more unpaid leave but he's been in this job for less than a year and he's also had to take a few personal days when the kids have been sick so he flew back to the US last Sunday and missed the trip to France.

5)  Thankful that my DIL and the 2 grandsons made it home safely to the US on Wednesday.  They were delayed for 2 hours on the tarmac due to the technical issues the UK had that day and they ended up staying with friends in Boston overnight before driving home to Vermont yesterday but they are home and of course we miss them already but so many happy times over the last couple of weeks.

A few of the siblings from both families in Dunkerque.

 

A trip to the beach is a must when in Dunkerque.

They had a photo booth at the party which was very well used! (And although the photos were printed instantly there was also a link provided to access them all digitally!)

Cousins and Jean Marie (in the white shirt)

Anne Marie - definitely the hostess with the mostess!

Their (2nd?) cousin Maya gatecrashed these pics.
(L-R)Rory, Ella, Maya, Vinny, Noah, Nathan and Miles)
So hard to get all our 6 together for a decent pic.

We all travelled to France on the same ferry.  The children were very excited.

They took in a show.

Made Rocky Road

Getting 4 boys to sleep in the same room worked better than we thought it would lol

Love this one.

And now my house is quiet - well apart from the washing machine which will be going non-stop over the next few days as I work through all the bedding and towels lol.

Have a good weekend all.  Mine will be spent quietly catching up on some sleep and relaxing.