Thurlestone Arch

Oh dear, oh dear! Why I hear you ask .. well today we joined some other home-eders for a day on the beach at Thurlestone in South Devon. We took the kayaks and paddled through the natural stone arch at sea, them we swam out the 200 yards or so and swam through the same. The sun was shining, the sea was blue, the raw untamed nature of sea, stone and us made a fantastic picture. I forgot to take the camera.

Indian summer

Driving the Dart Harbour Yacht Taxi around the harbour this afternoon was made very pleasant due to gentle winds, sunshine and interesting people to talk to. The only problem was that it would have been a great day to have a sail. The picture below was taken by John, a colleague who is also a yacht designer.

BRNC Volunteer Band

Since the removal of the Royal Marines Band from Britannia Royal Naval College last year, there has been much effort into creating a brand new volunteer band. This happened last night on Monday 7th September 2009, an historic occasion when the BRNC Volunteer Band was re-born after an interval of 60 years during the tenure of the RM Band. We had over 30 musicians turn up, many of them ex RM Band, and the standard of playing gave me much to be enthusiastic about.

Hazel and Regatta 2009

Dartmouth Regatta 2009 came and went with the usual invasion of tourists all eager to see the rowing, flying displays and the Royal Marines Band. In between such excitement they caught crabs, chalked pretty pictures on the pavement and risked their lives on the fairground rides. I performed my duty as safety boat for the guides rowing practice, and in one of the pictures you can just about see the guide teams rowing to victory against the scouts - hurrah! We had a special treat when Hazel, my older sister came to visit for a few days. She and Lynn visited Greenway House, the former home of Agatha Christie; no doubt you will be able to read about this on Lynn's blog. You can see them both aboard Jireh travelling up to Greenway Quay, where they were charged 75p each for the privilege of landing!

I have driven past the signs for Berry Pomeroy castle on many occasions, wondering why I couldn't see it standing proud on a hill-top, like most of Britain's castles. We found it tucked into the side of a wooded valley, a castle yes, but not in the sense you would normally think. It had fortifications against those dreaded Devonshire serfs, but was in fact no more than a stately home. But what a lovely home it must have been in its heyday! It is today a very interesting castle, complete with stories of ladies in dungeons, tragedy and of course, the attendant ghosts. But all we saw were screaming kids on a birthday party 'treat'! Despite this, it is highly recommended, and a lovely day out.

Guides Regatta Rowing

It's that time of the year again! After the success of managing to not drown anyone last year, the Guides once again asked me to act as safety boat for their Regatta Rowing practice. There were some complete novices who did very well.

Showstoppers!

Phew - we are exhausted! This week we ran a Kids Holiday Club at the church. We had a good turn out every day and the programme was very full, with games, craft, drama, songs and much more. The main theme for the week was that God has a plan for each one of us. We looked at creation on day one, then on days 2 and 3 we looked at David and Goliath, and Daniel in the lions den, seeing how God was faithful in looking after them. On the fourth day we celebration Christmas! The birth of Jesus was a major event in the history of the world. The final day looked at the death and resurrection of Jesus, fulfilling Gods plan for mankind. It was lovely seeing the kids enjoy the activities and hear about how much Jesus loves them.