Mushrooms

We popped in to grandparents this morning and Maria noticed the lovely mushroom growing in the lawn. Quite impressive!

Half term trip

We drove up to Yorkshire on Wednesday and had a good break including a visit to Hardwick Hall, a National Trust property just off the M1 and therefore a good place to break up our return trip home. It is best known through Bess of Hardwick who built the new hall as a public statement of wealth and power whilst the old hall, now an attractive ruin, had been her home in childhood. Alison is a little obsessed with Bess at the moment and was pleased to be able to add this visit to her summer outing to Chatsworth.

Sparkshop defunct - Wereder Beermen arise

I think we are now called Wereder Beermen as we begin life in the championship following relegation from the top flight. In fact we are struggling at the moment with barely any games over the past 7 or so weeks and nothing like a settled side.

We lined up last night with 7 players including Dave C in goal, Dougie and Dom at the back, Spanish Dave, Matt C and Vern in the middle and me up front. We were disrupted by an injury to Vern who pulled a calf muscle and had to switch to goal at half time by when we were already behind.

This followed last week's game when we lost 3 - 2 despite scoring 4 of the goals!!

I managed to get a brace, including a penalty resulting from a Dom foray up front where he was pushed competing for a header. Sadly my two were matched by two splendid strikes from the big fella at the back who would dearly like to be the big fella up front one day. In fairness to Dougie they weren't his fault, especially the first when the ball was pinging around with shot after shot raining in until one hit him and deflected back on target and in.

The second was more classy with an attempted clearance proving beyond the actual physics Dougie's body was capable of at that time. The net bulged to a rampant finish which merely encouraged our opposition to go about actually scoring one themselves. The goal came from a very tight angle and just evaded the despairing Rich.

The 3-2 loss was a fair result and we arrived last night with 0 points to our name but hardly a game played. Sadly 3 pint Pete has had the call up from the brewers of Wimborne and is putting in sterling work on their behalf meaning he is no longer part of the squad and he'll be sorely missed.

We ended up 4 - 1 losers but played better than the score suggests. The first half was an even one but we didn't help ourselves. Hilariously we managed to lose the ball from the kick off due to a poor start off but that was nothing compared to putting the next one out for a corner following the opening goal! I'm not sure how Dom was expected to reach the back pass which was to one side and speeding past him before he could move.

We lost the first goal to a mazy run and the second to a missed header and punch from a long throw which gave a free header into an empty net. I was brought down in the box but a clear penalty was waved away before several close efforts were shot in before half time. We were unlucky to be behind but the second half was disjointed. The switch of keepers didn't help and there was a lengthy delay as Dave C slid in and finished the night early for one of the opposition. Despite this there was a fourth goal on the break with a fierce shot powered past Vern.

That goal came the other side of another mazy run and finish for them and a cute side foot from Matt C which went through the legs of two players, the keeper and defender who anticipated a fiercely struck piledriver.

Disappointing but perhaps with a settled side and more regular games we can turn things round next week.

Maria's birthday

It was Maria's birthday last weekend and we had a lovely visit from several of our Plymouth relatives. Grace and Lily joined the party and we had fun with friends from nursery along as well.

The next day Maria and I went for a walk with her new bike which I got to push along!

The evening was fun as well with a night by the wood stove seeing us dancing around in the old shed which is now the utility room until the early hours.

New Forest

The final Friday of our summer holiday took us to Brockenhurst and again the weather was set fair. We had a picnic without a single wasp in sight and a lovely walk amongst the horses and cattle.

Portman zig zag

This isn't a place we've ever been to before despite it only being a few minutes from Boscombe pier. The weather was fantastic and the water was warm(ish) and there was so much space to enjoy the beach.

To add to the visit, the walk down takes you along a zigzag path where many lizards run without fear or bask in the sunshine. I understand they may be an escaped species but they made the journey up and down a memorable one.

End of the summer holidays

One of our final days out was to Moors Valley where Maria enjoyed the many play areas. A good deal has changed since we used to visit and there is even more to do.