Month: March 2025

River, our first born grandchild is 28 today! Where have those years gone? He is now an English teacher.

Time to leave the lodge and so we packed up and put things in the car and headed for Greatstone Beach. The sun was out.

The Snack Shack at Dungeness only opens Friday, Saturday and Sunday this time of year and we were determined to eat there before we left for home. It was very cold by the time we arrived and only a couple of other people as silly as us! They didn’t have lobster on the menu today but I love scallops as well, which was what I had. Such good fish! I have to say the staff who served us were laughing when the hail stones started coming down! Yes, It was very cold but we had a bit of a laugh with them.

At least we warmed up in the car and drove home!

 

 

 

We spent the day in Hythe. A wander around the shops and then found a really quirky cafe – The Lazy Shack on the beach for lunch and a bonus, one of their specials of the day was Chowder.

The staff were lovely and the whole place had posters stuck everywhere, so you spend ages reading them all!

The sun was out when we went in and as we left, there were hail stones!  Time to go back to the lodge and then we watched A Complete Unknown – the Bob Dylan film.  That was followed by a rather tense spurs game but they won and are now in the quarter finals.

Our walk was along Greatstone  Beach. It is such a lovely long beach and Ellie loves that walk. But today we really had to watch her, a dead sealion, dead fish and dead birds , avian flu.  What are we doing to this planet?

On to The Pilot for our lunch. They always have something interesting on their daily specials menu. Today it was Skate with new potatoes and spinach. Of course that it what I had and it was cooked to perfection and so much fish on it. It also had a jug of delicious caper sauce.

Mal chose the Haddock and chips……Huge!

We were so full but such good food.

The Pilot is always busy a testament to the good food and so dog friendly!

It rained for about 5 minutes otherwise we were lucky with the weather.

 

We had a wander around New Romney, checking out the charity shops of course and then I said I would treat Mal to an early birthday meal, a bit silly really when we have the same money but the thought was there!

We haven’t been to the Ship Hotel for a long time and so decided to try it. As soon as they showed us to a table, they brought  a bowl of water for Ellie. Of course she just lay down by us during the meal.

They had a 3 course lunch menu for £16.50, which we decided to try. It was really good and a lot of food…..too much for me , so I kept moving some of it to Mal’s plate!

A really lovely meal, followed by a walk for Ellie.  Mal certainly enjoyed his pre birthday treat!

We booked a pre birthday get away for Mal leaving today. All would have been fine but I spent the previous night with a painful ear again and fluid slushing around it  which kept waking me up if I lay on that side. Not a good idea to go away and ignore it even though we were only going to a lodge in Romney Marsh.

As previously suggested to me I decided to go and queue at the surgery ready for 8am to see if they would give me an appointment. Otherwise I had visions of going to the “walk in” at Deal Hospital and waiting all day. I was second in the queue and somehow a practitioner had a cancellation and I was asked to return at 9.15. How lucky was I?! As I walked out from making the appointment there were 22 people queuing behind me! I went home and returned at the allocated time. Emma took a swab to be sent away and gave me a prescription for drops. I couldn’t believe how lucky I had been.

So I collected my prescription, we packed and headed for New Romney.  We had lunch at The Warren Inn, which is opposite the park and always good food. They have a nice garden as well, so Ellie had a good time in there.

We were early to collect the lodge keys but Tamsin, the Manager was in reception and gave them to us, saying we were “regulars”!

Ellie made herself comfortable. The sofas must be lower here as she seems to have given up jumping up on ours at home.

We didn’t have any internet which Mal was disappointed about as Hammers were playing in the evening. He phoned Tamsin and she said she would call round which she did and apologised but the whole park was out along with some other holiday parks. It was VFast that was the problem, not her fault. I know we complained once about the state of a “luxury lodge” and they have taken great care of us ever since. She also wanted to check that everything was OK. Instead Mal used his phone so we could still watch the game on TV…………….oh dear they lost!

A walk around the orchards and it looks as though Spring is here.

Another lovely sunny day. We collected some bags of compost at the farm shop and another huge bag of Jazz apples!

A Spurs game in the evening, a draw, slightly better I guess.

Ellie had a lovely time on Margate Sands, the sun was out. Mal went quite a way to make use of the dog poo bin. On his way back Ellie decided to do a very long sprint. She ran a long way and I have to say suffered a bit later with a slight limp. I think she forgets her age sometimes.

After the beach we called round at Jem and Dom’s to drop off Dom’s birthday present. We sat out in the garden it was so nice. Their house is very big (three storey’s) and Ellie wasn’t too keen on going down their narrow stairs to the basement, so we went out the front door and then took the wider steps outside down to the basement the other way and then into the garden! We are learning you have to navigate thing slightly differently for an older dog, bless her.

Of course I have been watching Crufts and especially today, the Gundogs. I have to say the Labrador was stunning. BUT wasn’t chosen for the gun dogs. I think it was fourth. So many lovely memories of being at Crufts with my sister and mum. Mum won the weekend, including hotels and dinner with some of the judges.