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My Fourtography Life

~ four children and a photography habit to support

My Fourtography Life

Tag Archives: Devon

3/11/2012 – All good things must come to an end

03 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by My Fourtography Life in 365, Uncategorized

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2012, 365, autumn, boys, castle, childhood, children, Devon, family, fireworks, holiday, home, landscape, photoaday, photography, postaday

365 Photo a Day Project Photo

“Bonfire Night Fireworks”

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The rambling part…

Rain this morning – must be time to leave our castle wonderland…

We pulled in for petrol at a little petrol station in deepest darkest Devon – and found it was on of the few remaining where they put the petrol in for you. A little slice of history.

The good part was that it began to hail so a good time to find somewhere where Matt didn’t have to get out and could stay warm and dry. The bad part was me opening the passenger window for Matt to hand him the keys – and then getting drenched as I couldn’t shut it again!

Home mid afternoon after a long trip with tailbacks from roadworks and an accident. Time for the children to have an emotional reunion with the Wii 😀 and to watch the local firework display from the front garden before hot chocolate, marshmallows and bed (we havent told them we havent changed the clocks at home yet for the hour change 😉 We will change them before morning though)

The ones that got away…ten more photos from this week’s holiday to help us remember (mainly from the point-and-shoot camera so please excuse the quality!)

1. The Snail Ride in the theme park. Tee funniest ride ever. Giant snails take you on a circuit where the only thing of interest is going through a huge shed full of teddies! Teddies fishing, washing, doing acrobatics, on a carousel, having a picnic, taking photos, blowing out candles on a birthday cake…

2. Lx helping the magician on Halloween – she volunteered to help. Her confidence has come a long way!

3. Air Cannon Blasting. When we came to the castle a couple of years ago they had “water wars” (where you launch water filled balloons at each other from special catapults. It was fun – but freezing!). This year there is a new attraction where you launch foam balls at each other instead – in a nice warm building! A great improvement – but somehow not as satisfying as watching a balloon full of water burst over someone’s head!!

4. Dx managed to go in the swing boats – but only once and only if they were put on half speed/swing. The other times he went in he screamed so loud they stopped the ride and let him off!

5. The view from the apartment was just amazing. And we could see Wales across the water (that isn’t a misprint – I do mean the country – not the animals!)

6. Lx and Dx loved the carousel – they rode it as many times as they could – selecting different horses, balloons or carriages each time (and giving me a chance to try out some panning techniques!)

7 Sx still feels the need to practise his “ninja moves” wherever we go. It does give me the opportunity to try out the “high speed continuous” setting on the camera I guess…and it gets me lots of “Good Mummy” points when I produce something surreal he can use on his school home page!

8. This clock might LOOk attractive but it chimes on the hour every hour. It soon loses its appeal at 3am, 4am, 5am….

9. Sx. Just because lovely photos of him are hard to come by…

10. A chance to try some HDR photos of the view

1/11/2012 – I’m the King of the Castle

01 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by My Fourtography Life in 365

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Tags

2012, 365, castle, childhood, children, Devon, family, holiday, home, photoaday, photography, postaday, UK

365 Photo A Day Project Photo

“Hot Chocolate Heaven”

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The rambling part…
So our week is nearly over – about time I told you all about where we are staying…

We are at Watermouth Castle near Ilfracombe in Devon. It was built in 1845 so is not a “real castle” but it looks the part and is grand enough to impress the children – and the adults.

As discussed yesterday, the front of the castle (approached by a suitably grand sweeping driveway overlooking the sea) is open to the public. At the back, part of it has been converted into a set of holiday apartments.

This is the way in…

This is the separate building with the heated indoor pool in…

Come on into the apartment…

The master bedroom…

One of the twin rooms …

The other twin room has normal single beds – but does have an AMAZING glass window!

The lounge/dining room…

the wonderful wonderful view (even with storm clouds overhead!)

So lovely to have a fire today – storms and hail outside!

The little kitchen (it is wider than the archway and extends about six foot each way behind the arch – but is big enough)

The downside of this beautiful place – is no mobile phone signal – and no internet. But it’s not all bad as there is a great little place nearby which has internet access, softplay to keep the kids amused on days like this when it rains…and they serve amazing hot chocolate 😀

30/10/2012 – Happy Birthday Matt!

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by My Fourtography Life in 365

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Tags

2012, 365, autumn, castle, childhood, children, Devon, family, holiday, home, landscape, photoaday, photography, postaday

Photo a Day Project Photo

“My little model – I love her”

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The rambling part…

After a quiet morning yesterday waiting for the theme park to open (it opens at 10.30 but the rides don’t open till 11.30) we decided we should get out early and go somewhere during the morning today. The plan was to go to the nearby beaches and then the associated soft play. Trouble was the children weren’t in the mood for the beach so we just went to the softplay.

It meant the grown ups got a couple of hours on the (very slow) internet for me to catch up on mails and the blog – and to have a wonderful hot chocolate with cream which came with a plate of “spare marshmallows” which I had every intention of giving to the children – but by the time they appeared…the marshmallows had disappeared. Whoops!

Afterwards we had a quick trip to buy pasties for lunch and home for the kids to have a nap as they were at the grumpy, obnoxious stage which indicates over-tiredness. The littlest one needed to be carried to his bed – and even the bigger ones happily went to sleep and needed waking 1.5 hours later. (Look how grand the hallway is!!)

(The view from the apartment…)

Then time for a dip in the pool before a quick tea and a trip to the bar for Matt’s birthday…

29/10/2012 – The Fun continues…

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by My Fourtography Life in 365

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Tags

2012, air hockey, castle, children, Devon, family, holiday, home, photoaday, photography, postaday, swimming, UK

Photo a Day Project Photo

“Watermouth Castle – our home this week”

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The rambling bit…
A beautiful sunny day at the castle today – to start with. It disintegrated into rain in the afternoon but I was in bed feeling sorry for myself by then so Matt took the children to wander round the wonders of Gnomeworld (part of the theme park in the grounds) and to the swimming pool ( in a separate building for use of guests).

I took todays 365 photo today – but the other photos are from yesterday when there was SO much going on I couldn’t possibly post them all!

After our visit to some of the rides yesterday it began to rain so we came back and enjoyed the pool instead. (For those who now about such things – the pool photos were shot at ISO 6400… I am trying to be braver about high ISOs but it is making me covet a new camera…!)

Then there were some fierce battles on the air hockey table.

Lx got VERY excited when she scored!

and they all thought it was hilarious when the air hockey puck flew off the table a few times and into the (empty of people) swimming pool and Daddy had to fish it out!

A few general portraits from the last couple of days…

28/10/2012 – Fun Unlimited

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

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2012, 365, childhood, children, Devon, family, holiday, photoaday, photography, postaday

365 Photo a Day Project Photo

“Spinning”

The rambling part…

Lovely lazy lie in while the children made a “den” in the walk in wardrobe in the main bedroom meaning I could stay in bed and read while they played – bliss!

An early sandwich for lunch and then off into the theme park which forms the grounds of where we are staying. As guests in the castle we have unlimited access and despite the rides being geared to “little” children – all of ours were thrilled to be back and had a lovely time exploring.

 

Dx was scared of these planes last time we came and went round with them at “floor” level – he was so proud today to be flying as high as anyone else!

Sx and Lx particularly enjoy the spinning pots with Sx trying to get them to spin as fast as possible!

Lx was more nervous about the water that you get squirted with on the boat ride!

Dx was still a little nervous of the rides – he held on tight on the “Snail Ride” – the slowest safest ride known to man!

27/10/2012 – A long day…

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

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2012, 365, breakdown, car, childhood, children, Devon, holiday, home, landscape, photoaday, photography, postaday, sunet

365 Photo a Day Project Photo

“Go West”

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The rambling bit…
It was all going so well for our trip away…We had packed, the kids had been to the loo and were in the car. And then the car wouldn’t start.

Back into the house for the kids to have one more game on the Wii before leaving it for the week…

Lx had time to put her spellings into her new spellings test game on the Ipad ….

and I had time to take some photos of their boots (I LOVE their boots!!) Clockwise from top left, Lx, Gx Dx, Sx.

And time for Lx to just be her usually lovely self!

And Dx to look very grown up in his outfit

Eventually the breakdown man arrived and sorted out the flat battery…

and we set off far far later than planned (but at least we were in the warm, drinking coffee while we waited!)

And when we were nearly there we were driving towards the most BEAUTIFUL sunset so I snapped these though the windscreen (I wasnt driving!!)

VERY INSPIRING BLOGGER AWARD

2012 Blog of the Year Award

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