Allonby

The right hand side of the building is the cottage we rented, only small but has three bedrooms and can accomodate 5 adults,or a family of 6 for more details visit http://www.woodbine-cottage.co.uk/

This is Jay the autistic Spaniel wondering where the Sea had gone!

An evening view from the cottage, looking across the Solway Firth towards the Dumfies and Galloway coast as the Sun was setting. the place is renown for it's glorious sunsets.

Back from a very relaxing few days in North Cumbria, a quiet little seaside place called Allonby - approx halfway between Maryport and Silloth on the Solway Firth. The whole town comprises two pubs, a post office, an Ice-Cream shop and a corner Shop that sells all sorts of things including Bacon Butties in the Morning and Fish and Chips in the Evening.

The main attraction is that from anywhere in town you are no more than two minutes from the beach. A mindblowing Bay, I would guess at 4+ miles from Maryport almost to Silloth, which is so spacious you can walk for hours in almost total solitude. When the tide goes out (around half a mile) there is a massive stretch of sand, with a few rock pools scattered about.

Even at high tide there is plenty of room to walk for as long as the old legs will carry you. Jay the autistic Spaniel was in heaven, running and swimming to his hearts content.

FOOD

Well the weather continues to be all too much like a typical English summer, and looking at the Met. Office web site, it isn't likely to improve over the next two weeks. That is a bit depressing as next week, we are going for a short break in Cumbria, still Jay the autistic Spaniel won't complain.

At least we are starting to crop some decent vegetables, the picture shows a few standard courgettes (Zucchini if you live on the wrong side of the Atlantic), a small "Burpless" cucumber and the yellow thing is a new variety of courgette of the type known as "One Ball" Is it possible that this was Hitler's favourite vegetable?

A few days ago we dug up some potatoes, one of the many "Pentland" varieties, from 4 seed potatoes we cropped 15.5 Lbs (approx 7 Kg) and our Broad beans have so far produced about 3 lbs (shelled weight) so at least we can eat for a week.