Stormy Day at the Coast

West Bay looking toward Burton Bradstock

Lately we have had some very windy weather, and when this happens we always like to go to the coast to get some fresh air and see the waves. One of the best places locally for seeing some rough seas is down at West Bay in Dorset about 18 miles from Chard. So the Sunday before last, being fed up sitting in doors fed up with the rain and wind, we put on our winter coats and headed off to see what it was like at West Bay. Here are some photo's of the conditions.

Looking out over the new Harbour Entrance.


Unfortunately, because the sea was coming up over this side of the harbour entrance we couldn't walk along it on this trip.

A View looking towards Lyme Regis direction.

Although we walked along here, the waves did tend to come over from time to time, so there was persistent salty spray, which meant I had a lot of trouble seeng out of my glasses.

Jen and Oliver "relaxing" in the Sea Breeze.

This is a rare photo of a phenomenon called "Wind through Tail Lift". It is caused when pointing a dog head on into a gale, when the dog opens it's mouth, the wind rushes through the mouth out of the ar** and thrusts the tail parallel to whatever surface the dog is standing on.

West Bay Harbour.

When you turn back and come back into the harbour, it seems quite calm and placid after the roughness of the sea. We were very lucky, because the rain held off all the time we were there, which was a bonus. The weather is much better now, although very cold, with heavy frost in the mornings. Although nothing to what parts of America are experiencing at the moment.

November Weekend in London

View from London Eye toward Buckingham Palace

View from "Eye" over Houses of Parliament

View looking down the Thames.

Jen with the Eye in the background.

Jen with Jamie at Covent Garden.

On the last weekend in November, Jen and I went on a trip to London, an outing we had booked up before coming to America, so that we had something to look forward to on our return from California.


We travelled up to a hotel next to Heathrow airport where we had tea before going on to the Royal Albert Hall for a concert, " A Classical Extravaganza". It was a brilliant concert, like The Last Night of the Proms", if that means anything in America, but with a laser light show and indoor fireworks. It was given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the Royal Choral Society, The Band of the Welsh Guards and the Muskets and canons of the Moscow Militia for the grande finale of the 1812 Overture. They also had a fantastic violinist, David Garrett, the David Beckham of the classical world. I believe he is American, if you ever get a chance to see him please take it, he was really excellent.


The next day, Sunday, we went on the London Eye, we were very lucky as the weather was good, and we had a great view all around.


After the Eye, we spent a couple of hours at Covent Garden, we rang our son Jamie earlier because he lives in London, and he met up with us there. It was nice to catch up with him and have coffee and dinner together. He took us to Leicester Square, where we saw Dustin Hoffman being interviewed before the premiere of his latest film. We then met up with the coach again outside the Wardorf Hotel, took a sightseeing trip around London before heading back to Somerset after a very relaxing weekend away.

The Decking Project

The beginning of the project. Paul and Rob having a good old English tea break.

The layout of the steps down into the garden.

The finished project.

These are just a few photos of our new decking outside the bungalow for Stacey to see. It was a joint effort between Paul my son in law, Rob, (Paul's Dad), and myself. We started last February, as Rob said we would then have the good weather to enjoy it. Unfortunately we didn't get much good weather last year.