Tales from Brockenhurst and all the rest of it

Before we start, a round of thanks to Runner Susan, aka Leg Torture slash Track Torture Susan for the introduction to Vimeo. I find it much better than YouTube in terms of its privacy settings.

I've had to password these videos so they're not viewable by others outside this blog - just enter "deskbound" if you wish to view them.




We started our holiday from the village of Brockenhurst in Hampshire in the south of England. It is in the New Forest, an area where wild ponies, deer and cows roam at will - according to the official blurb. As we made our way to the accommodation we wondered whether humans roamed "freely" too. Thankfully it wasn't a nudist colony.



We stayed at the house of Lesley, who runs a cosmetics company from home. Her house was by the side of a little ford and certainly provided plenty of entertainment. Animals all over the place!

They certainly come and go as they please around these parts. Moooove? Make me.

Before the TryPiggy could even dump Mrs TryPiggy's luggage on the floor she decided it was time to go running. We went running in the forest where we saw plenty of ponies along the way. They seemed tame enough although the official blurb warns you not to get too close. I wonder why.



If you're going to spend hundreds on a sign, at least try to get the spelling right. A helpful trotter in case you missed it. I'm rather anal about these kind of things - I know.




Throw us some peanuts?



We also had a chance to head to the Isle of Wight from Lymington Pier. The pier is littered with boats of different sizes.



The view from the train:



Among other things, the Isle of Wight is famous for Alum Bay, where the multi-coloured slope face is used to make twenty-one different types of sand.



Realising the financial potential that can be gained from tourists wanting to buy sand, sand is helpfully sold at the sand shop. Fill a container with whatever type you want.



There was this iconic house that drew a lot of attention because of the front garden.




And that was just the front. Round the side you could see the back garden with more of the same. I think it must be a guy that lives there. Maybe even the sad guy I based the previous pig-poetry on.



The picturesque village of Beaulieu was within cycling distance, involving a round trip with 19 miles of cross country. A fair bit of it was uphill. We had to sadly abandon our plan midway when we realised we wouldn't be able to get there and be back to return the bikes in time. I don't think my bacon could take more than 5 hours of cycling anyway. I wonder if they do massages at Butts Lawn. I was hoping for a 6'6" masseur waiting for me at the end of the ride, but no such luck. Dang. Cycling was tiring but there were some fun moments. Gravity is always your friend. (Well, most of the time.)





Not quite Evil Knievel yet, but we're working on it.

After Brockenhurst we headed to the north of England where my other side of the family live.

My little nephew Daniel who was christened on Sunday. He's always smiling - here he is at four months.




There was a party afterwards and many friends of Matthew, Daniel's brother, were invited.

What a handful!

Daniel and his funky great-grandad.



We also had a chance to visit Bridlington, a seaside town on the northeastern coast of England. It wasn't all that sunny a day but here's the pick of the lot.

Ferris Wheel

Another ferris wheel pic

View from the top

Coast

Waves

Clouding up

"Man-castle"

Beach

Donkey rides

Clouds

Sand

More sand

Typical seaside nutrition

Watch out for the air to surface "missiles"!

A great holiday all in all - one I'd been looking forward to very much.

School starts next week - and I begin the usual tussle of work, life, and exercise.