Some not very informative photos

Here are some more images from our week in Cornwall followed by a week in Devon. The sun shone intermittently but it wasn't quite the weather that we had ordered: the sort in which an 87-year-old sun lover (my mother) can sit contentedly in the sunshine while her daughter and son-in-law stride about and look at things. However, Mum womanfully padded around with us - not terribly fast, but covering quite a lot of ground compared to most 87-year-olds. And luckily Mr Life is a saint. Saints occasionally sigh a bit, but quietly.

Above is Lanhydrock House and its formal gardens.

Here are a few of its herbaceous borders, presided over by Mr Life.

And this, I think, is Pencarrow, another fine house. I'd check with Mr Life, who has a better grasp of geography than I have, but he's gone to bed.

Here's Mum, in a blink of sunshine. It started to rain shortly afterwards.

St Ives with lots of other people as well as my loved ones. Note the tents. Many people also had windbreaks on the beach. The British come prepared for inclement weather. Wisely.

Rather a fetching public toilet, I thought.

A St Ives street.

Mr Life is a steam train buff and here he is with one of the various engines which featured on our holiday. A man must take his pleasures where he can.

Our second week was in Devon, near Colyton: very pretty little place.

Here it is again.

Beach huts at Lyme Regis*. Mr Life took far better pictures than I did, but they're on his computer and he's asleep. The man has no stamina. Or to look at it another way, it's after midnight and he has work tomorrow. He has photos of the Cobb, which Louisa Musgrove fell off in "Persuasion" and where the French Lieutenant's Woman gazed out to sea hoping for the return of the French Lieutenant. This would have been more distinctive of Lyme than beach huts, but there we are. We work with the material we have.

The gardens at Pecorama in the small town of Beer. Pecorama is really all about miniature railways (Mr Life chose this outing) but it has rather fine gardens too, so we were all happy.

The moon garden.

The sun garden, with, appropriately, some sun.

We visited Sidmouth, which is a lovely town, but the nearby cliffs look a bit crumbly to me. I fear that this little white house wouldn't be a very good long-term investment. You might well have enjoyed seeing some photos of the nice Regency architecture or the lovely Connaught Gardens. Mr Life has some of these.

Still, here are one and a half Sidmouth houses.

One day soon I'll tell you about my outing today to meet Rachel (http://attica-slowlife.blogspot.com/) of Slow Lane Life (such fun!) and the flats that Daughter 2 and I have been going to see with a view to her buying one (interesting but a bit stressful. My last chicken, flapping her wings with a view to flying the nest! )

But meanwhile I shall go and have a bath and then perhaps I might consider a nice soothing read in bed. Still three and a half weeks of summer holiday to go.

* Mr Life informs me that the beach huts were actually in Seaton. Which proves my point about the rather unspecificness of some of my photos.