Visit to Gloucester

This evening I went to Gloucester with Lilla in the little sports car. It was a great trip! We left early evening and the sun was out so we put the top down and put on some music and cruised all the way to the city of Gloucester (pronounced Gloster~ don't ask me) We saw the Cathedral, from the outside, we had only just missed it closing. And then walked to the Gloucester Docks which are famous...I'll look it up and find out why but I think they used to build ships there and they are a ton of warehouses and locks for canals so it had to have been a busy place at one time. It was really quiet when we were there so we could explore at our leisure. The tall ships in these photos are two taht were in dry dock. The one was nearly ready to sail off adn the other had a ton of work left to do on it. Both amazing ships!! Amazing!! The place they sit is pretty amazing too. You can see how they just open the gates and flood the place and the ship floats up and out. Pretty cool! Those were the kind of ships I wanted to see. They were smaller than Tony's ship and also smaller than the Stavros S Niarchos but had wooden tops on the decks so much less steel looking. Just like I imagined it. Someday I'd really like to make it to Portsmouth so I can see the big ship Victory (I think thats it) which is a tall ship all wooden as well. (I know, it only looks wooden, its probably all steel)

Today was pretty nice! The weather was good! Very dry and warm and sunny...ah the sun. my old friend!

Robert took me to see "Mad Lucy's" nursery that he and Lilla are helping to get started and it was pretty cool. She has alot of work to do but I can see what she's getting at. She has pigs, one huge pig, like the prize winner from State Fair (the movie) and the pig had babies too so there were 10 little piglets running around in the mud. She was a Saddleback. One of the type they are famous for here in Gloucester. The other is Old Spot, I haven't eaten or seen any Old Spot yet. I'm sure I will before my time is up here.

After see Lucy's place I came back home and changed and went with Lilla to go paint one of their flats. They are trying to get it ready to rent. It just needed some touching up. We didn't quite finish but will soon. We would have finished today but Rob (they call him Little Rob~pretty cute) came home and called and so I was summoned to go see him before he left for his next trip.

I chased him around for about an hour while he repacked and brushed his teeth and then he was off. We (Robert, Lilla, and I and Rob) joked about sailing the boat from Watchet to Pembrook where he will be camping. Or even just going camping which would be great fun!! Rob will be there for 10 days so through next weekend so we'll see what happens.

Rob also briefly mentioned that Charlie (the delivery skipper for Princess~whom I've talked about in Palma) said I'd be able to go along on deliveries that were in/around England so that is good news, it will be paid work I think and that is never a bad thing.

Tomorrow sometime, I get the feeling we're headed to Watchet. Should be an interesting weekend. I'm likely to not have internet so I'll take good notes. We should be there until about Tuesday I think. Then its back to work for me! We discussed the work today and decided they would start a list for me and I'd just chisel away at it. They call it "woffing" something like that. Means Working On Organic Farms for Free. So I've been dubbed the American woofer. Super. Just call me the dog lady. But apparently Mad Lucy wants a woofer so I'm in demand. People all over the world do this sort of thing. You get food and lodging (or a roof of some kind over your head) in exchange for about 4-5 hours of work a day doing odd jobs. I guess Lilla and Robert did it in New Zealand for a bit. So I'm not putting out any money and helping them out in the process. Its great!

I got an email from Greg today. He mentioned the trip to the Canary Islands. I had asked him about the itinerary. From Portugal to Madiera to the Canary Islands. About 6 or so days. Should be alot of fun, I am really looking forward to it! He also said I could come along to the Caribbean too if I wanted but I'm going to wait and see how this first trip goes before I sign up for that.

I spoke to Tony tonight. I was sick of texting and emailing for the moment. I really like to hear a friendly voice every now and then. Plus he is very encouraging too, so its nice to hear him on the phone.

I just can't even tell you how much this part of the trip has meant to me. This part of my journey up here to stay with this family has really been something! I don't think I've mentioned it before but my Papa used to talk about Wales and the moors and how he wanted to go and see this part of England because it was in his books he used to read. And now I'm here! The Gazzards are planning to take me to Wales too, so that will be really neat!

I can hear the rain, its just started. Hopefully it will clear off for the weekend.

Sheesh, I've just realized how long this got. I better quit for now. So much more to come! I can't wait!

Until tomorrow,

k