Tuesday, July 06, 2010

I'M BACK!

I'm back from my holiday and first up I have to thank Christine Stovell for being my guest last week. I loved TURNING THE TIDE and hope the taster will send you all rushing out to buy it.

The winner of a signed copy is TracyE with her brilliant seasickness cure - sell the boat. Nice one, Tracy. :)

And thanks to May and Adam for standing in for me.

Having read a really excellent review someone posted about the book I feel I should post a competition to see who spotted the mistake that slipped past me, my editor and my copy editor in this book. (Answers in a plain brown envelope.) But honestly, I'm hoping you didn't notice and anyway it's illegal to have a competition where you actually have to buy something, so maybe not.

So what did we do on our hols? Not a lot to be honest. We sat about reading in the sunshine - a glass of something chilled conveniently close to hand. We went to Dartmouth on a steam train that runs along the coast and saw a wedding taking place at one of the old stations en route, which was fun.

We revisited Brixham for the first time in over 40 years. It seemed shabbier despite the fancy new aparts along the harbour, but we took the ferry to Torquay where we sat outside a lovely Italian restaurant and had great food.

Paignton Zoo was fun. Loved the meerkats and they have some huge giant tortoises. I'm not a huge fan of zoos but the setting was lovely and they some great conservation work, particularly in Botswana which, as you all know, is dear to my heart.

On the way home we stayed for a couple of nights in Frome. Lovely buzzy town with a terrific cultural and artistic life. Wish I could be there for the festival this month.

This is Cheap Street, which is very old and where a tiny stream still runs through a rill at the centre and contains temptation in the shape of a great book shop and a store that sells beautiful Radley bags.

The weather was amazingly kind to us - just one shower in the evening when we were safely back in the cottage.


But it's lovely to be home again.

A kindly neighbour kept my pots watered so everything was looking lovely. Let the taps run for a minute, then make that first cup of tea just the way you like it.

Perfect.

11 comments:

margaret blake said...

Lovely blog, Liz and welcome home. Your comments sent me winding down memory lane. I have trod many of those streets. Sorry to hear that Brixham has gone a bit tatty.

Chris Stovell said...

Hi Liz,
Welcome back and thank you for letting me be your guest here. I'm so glad you had a relaxing holiday. It was interesting to read about the conservation work being done by Paignton zoo - shows what an old-fashioned view of zoos I have - it's good to hear about the wider work.

The photos were lovely, Liz, but the one I liked best was the last one of your home. Gosh, that's going to be hard to match, but I'm sure the right one will come along.

Liz Fielding said...

Mmm. This is weird. I know I've had some comments on this post today - I get emails to show me - but they aren't appearing here.

Twitter seems to be in a bit of a mess, too.

Cyber space isn't working!

Caroline said...

Lovely photos Liz. So glad you had a great holiday. Caroline x

Lacey Devlin said...

Yay! I just checked blogs I posted on yesterday and my comments have disappeared. I thought it was me! Maybe I broke cyber space ;).

Gorgeous pictures and welcome back!

Michele L. said...

Hi Liz,

Welcome back! I loved your post today and all the fabulous pictures!

Michele

Liz Fielding said...

Woo-hoo! Comments are back!

Margaret, my memories of Brixham are that it was a classy sort of place, but maybe it was because we were there during the Torbay Power Boat Race and the people involved with that were definitely "posh". It just seemed tired, but we caught the ferry to Torquay and sat outside a fabulous Italian restaurant in the sun and had a great lunch. It was a good day.

Liz Fielding said...

Lovely having you, Chris. I hope you'll come back when the new book is published.

Have to admit that looking at our house and comparing it with what we've seen, we do wonder if we're a little bit mad. I have to keep repeating to myself - smaller garden, smaller garden - courtyard if possible!

Liz Fielding said...

Hi Michele - darn it, I just checked and I forgot to post the pic of the giant ice cream. Next time. :)

Liz Fielding said...

Wasn't it infuriating, Lacey? All that effort and poof - nothing. But they seem to have turned up today.

Liz Fielding said...

Thanks, Caroline. Need to buckle down and get some work done now. :(