Our alarms woke us at 7am and after a ten minute doze we got up, took ourselves into the snug and completed a yoga and a standing abs workout. Fortunately Winston was still asleep so at least we didn’t have him trying to gain our attention by walking all over us and pawing at us like he had done during our previous workouts. Feeling good within ourselves we got on with the task at hand; stripping the beds, hoovering and finishing our packing. As soon as we were in the kitchen old big ears Winston heard the fridge door opening and with his ‘fomo’ head on he dashed down the stairs obviously not wanting to miss out on the opportunity of any food! Maice took him out to do his ablutions whilst I prepared breakfast….cheesy scrambled eggs, toast, jam and cheese. That should see us through until we got home.
We packed the car up and despite eating and drinking most of what we’d brought with us the car was still fully laden. We took Winston for a walk where he had the opportunity to run around the field and walked back via the churchyard. We wanted to check on Juliet who’s buried on her own in a very small rose garden off the main churchyard. She has a vase with some fresh roses in it which kept blowing over and every time we’d pass by we’d stand it up again, just doing our good deed and being kind and courteous. We then purchased our final cappuccino from the village store and made our way back to the car where we harnessed Winston to the back seat. Maice tried to encourage him onto his high-rise bed but he slipped his harness, scrabbled across the mass of coats and disappeared head first between the side of the back seat and the door. Bless him, all we could see was his tail sticking up in the air. Maice had to go and extract him from the narrow gap he’d fallen into and even though he’s put on a bit of weight and is looking a little bit stocky thankfully he didn’t wedge himself in; problem was he just couldn’t extricate himself or turn round in the narrow space. Fortunately Maice managed to rescue him at the first attempt! He was harnessed back up again and sat on the back seat hiding behind the mass of coats, obviously trying to hide his embarrassment and his dignity!
Due to us having paid an additional £11 for me to drive Maice’s car and wanting to get our money’s worth I was driving us home today. Now, I drive an automatic and Maice’s car is manual so it does take me a little while to get used to the controls, so as long as we don’t meet any cars on the narrow roads that force me to do a hill start we’ll be fine. It’s very easy for one to lose the technique of clutch control when attempting to do a hill start!! Positive thoughts, positive thoughts. All things considered it was a good journey home, the roads were relatively clear and it was sunny. Typical! Never mind, we arrived home, me first at 1pm and Maice soon after. All that was needed now was for me to pick up Milly and all would be back to normal.
So, our final holiday of 2023 has come to an end. Despite Maice arriving with the lurgy and feeling under the weather we’ve had a lovely time. Today we’ve received an email from Sykes Cottage, the company we booked Yew Tree Cottage through asking for our feedback. So, what can we say about the cottage. Well, it’s certainly quirky, its full of nooks and crannies, the rooms don’t quite flow and you need to be rather slim to pass from the lounge into the dining room, the passage is so narrow. And then of course we must address the mirrors in the cottage. It would seem that the owners of the cottage must be tall due to all the wall mirrors being hung at such a height which although is ideal for me, for Maice the only thing she can see is the top of her head! Of course she could always stand on an orange box or a chair to propel her to the lofty heights of viewing herself in the mirror but then she’d have to take into account the health and safety aspect of such a drastic course of action. There was always the mirror that stands atop the dressing table but that is so small you can’t see much in that either. What this cottage needs is a full length mirror…..yes, we must add that to our review! The stairs were very high and not very wide which meant walking up and down them sideways. The kitchen was fairly small so we had to negotiate our way around it if we were both in there at the same time. There was no space for our groceries as every cupboard had something in it, rather untidily I might add and the draws and cupboards in the dresser in the dining room were also very untidy. But overall, as nice as the cottage was it was quite grubby/dirty and the more you looked the more you realised this. So, for the first time ever we wouldn’t recommend staying in this cottage. We would however recommend staying in the village of Stoke Fleming which is lovely and everyone we met was very friendly. There are some lovely walks around the area, both countryside and seaside albeit most of them are rather hilly, but then that’s the challenge and we didn’t need to drive anywhere as most things we wanted to do were within walking distance.
As always we feel very fortunate to be able to get away and experience this lovely countryside…..in all weathers. Two friends and Sir Winston in the lovely village of Stoke Fleming. What more could we wish for. More sunshine would have been nice……!
So, Happy New Year and see you in 2024….
M & A and Sir Winston xxx