Fruit Picking at Kenyon Hall Farm

The weather was sunny and we decided to go fruit picking at Kenyon Hall Farm near Culcheth.
We arrived with at 6.45pm and the closing time was 8pm, so we had plenty of time.
The place seemed pretty deserted and there appeared to be just 1 person on duty.
Half kilo tubs in hand we set off following the arrows to the strawberry fields.
After 20 minutes we found some old tatty strawberry plants intermingled  with lots and lots of tall weeds including nettles, brambles, thistles and ragwort.
I explained to my daughter all about how farmers have to leave a field fallow every year to maintain the nutrients in the soil.
Then I said that it looks like this farmer has all his fields in fallow or maybe he's selling weeds, who knows?
We noticed that there were several abandoned mostly empty strawberry pots that people had given up on because it was just too much hard work for them, picking strawberries.
We persevered and eventually found the raspberries and tayberries ( a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry) and managed to pick a couple of tubs. I had a few nibbles of the dessert gooseberries which were very nice and I hadn't previously tried these before.

We met another family who had visited last year and they said it was fabulous then and they were surprised that this year was so poor.
All in all we were all disappointed.
I can only presume that the weather over the last few months have caused problems for the farm.
I naively thought 3 weeks of sunshine would have made the fruit er fruity.

Strawberries are in here somewhere

It's a Tayberry

Dessert Gooseberries, yummy

 

caravan insurance damaged shower tray part 1

A few months ago I managed to damage our caravan shower tray when I stumbled into it and put my foot down heavily directly onto the tray and managed to cause a split or crack in the plastic. The plastic seems very thin and we now have to start with a caravan insurance claim.

Not our photo but the damage looks like this

We are insured with the caravan club which is called Club Care Insurance Services.
We phoned them up and asked them how to claim and they advised that would send us a claims form and to try and get 3 independent quotes. We then spent hours on the phone trying to explain to various caravan specialists what kind or type of shower tray we had. Only 1 came to view it and suck air through his teeth and tell us how hard it is to get them out and replace. The other 2 needed our caravan chassis number. 1 quoted for labour only but not parts. I'm not sure which it was but one quote was over £800 and the cheapest was £350 (this was quoted as 4 hours at £25 per hour plus the shower tray itself). A big difference.
All in all, it was a minefield.
After a week we wondered why we hadn't had a response from the insurance company. This was because we hadn't posted it yet and found the envelope in a drawer waiting for a stamp. After we posted it, we had a response within 2 days saying that an independent assessor would be in touch to inspect the damage and to decide if they can authorise the claim.

So that's it so far.
to be continued......
The insurance assessor came to visit our caravan today and seemed to agree that we can make the claim.
Just waiting for the letter from the insurance company now.

Alton Towers A day of queueing

Today was a hot sunny day so we decided to go the place that has you stood around for hours on end. Smart!
The queues started on the M6 motorway.
We could see the matrix signs saying motorway closed after junction 15.
We wanted to come off at 15 anyway, so should be ok, it's only 1 mile to the junction.
1 hour later, we left the motorway and arrived at Alton Towers and walked to the Monorail and queued for that, only maybe 6 or 7 minutes, then we arrived at the ticket booths and queued for about 35 minutes.
First ride we went to was the New one. The Smiler.
The time at the entrance said 150minutes queue from here, but the queue had started at 200 yards before we had even got to that sign.
Halfway around the Smiler's queue was a refreshment stand (Alton Towers are not stupid) When you have a hot thirsty captive audience, who you know are going to stand in the sunshine for 3 hours the best thing you need is overpriced drinks and ice lollies.
Anyway enough about the queues the actual ride was quite scary, daunting and very good.
After this ride we went to the Oblivion ride, which last year I had declined, saying something like 'Not a chance on this earth' but today I went on it and actually couldn't see a thing during the whole thing. Maybe my tightly clenched eyes had something to do with that. After this ride my Biceps are actually hurting I was holding on so hard.
After this, we had our sandwiches, because obviously I'm not paying those prices.
Now it was onto the Hex ride which is a haunted swing with a scary intro where you walk from room to room through the runs of the old Alton Towers (why they don't fix this place up is beyond me what with all the money they are making here.) The actual back story and light effects are quite creepy and caused a few screams, (not mine obviously(honest)).
We went on this ride last year and remember there being more lighting on the tree branch and room, so I guess the millions of people traipsing through the entrance aren't paying enough to afford to replace a few bulbs!
Next it was onto the ride Thirt3en, where we queued for 10 minutes then gave up and went to Nemesis Sub Terra, which was terrific. Enough said.
Then onto Nemesis for the first of 3 times today. This is a very intense ride and you get twisted and looped with your feet dangling. Pretty good.
After the first go around we saw the queue was quite short so decided to go back later and that's when we went on it, twice in succession.
The best ride of the day was Air which is a seated ride that tilts you forward so you are face down in a doggy style position and this is an incredibly comfortable position to ride a rollercoaster in.
It's getting near the end of the day and we are looking to grab a few last minute rides, so we chose Ripsaw which is a large swing which houses about 40 people in to rows in what looks like a large rusty skip. It appears to look very dangerous but we survived. The main fun part about this ride is that there are fountains that squirt you in the face as you are suspended forty feet in the air upside down with the fountains squirt up at you. Many screams and wet trousers!
So onto the photos and videos. All the videos are six second vine videos.

The last ride we went on was The Edge which is a Pirate ship, and that really made me feel sick and I felt sick all the way home and for about 4 hours into the evening.

Wild flowers

Just driving in my car and saw these #flowers by the roadside.
Parked up and took these photos.
I used an iphone 4 (the taller photos) and a Sony xperion SP. (the narrow photos)
Which are the best photos?