I've got a trike,

You can ride it if you like, it's got a basket, a bell that rings and things that make it easy to ride and to transport.

I have had a bike for as long as I can remember.   Strictly speaking, my first bike was a trike, it was red and had just one gear.   I graduated to two-wheeled locomotion in the fullness of time and a bike was my main transport until I graduated from university.   Riding a bike is second nature to me.

This is not true for Anita, who learned to ride as an adult and has never felt quite so much at ease as I do.   And since she has had two hip replacements, falling off a bike is more dangerous than it used to be.    So we got her a trike.   It's not impossible to fall off a trike, but it's much more difficult.   And stopping and setting off is much easier since it stays upright.    

We like to ride together along the pathways both locally and when away on holiday, so this is an investment in holiday activities.   I have ridden it.  It takes some getting used to after a bike, but this is just a matter of familiarity.   We'll be having little sorties locally in preparation for longer trips as confidence builds.

Monday garden

We came back home on Monday, we chose not to take the option of breakfast in the hotel, and so we set off looking for something to eat.   We were a bit early.   

When I used to organise business meetings in London, I would arrange them for 9 o'clock.   It was my pleasure to get up early, hit the road at about 6.30 and I could be in central London in less than an hour.   There was never any traffic.   I'd park up, find a restaurant and have a toasted bacon sandwich with coffee, and watch the city wake up as I planned the meeting and enjoyed breakfast.  Walking around the empty St Malo streets at 8.00 on Monday morning reminded me of that.

We found a place eventually, and after a slow start we set off for the Parc Botanique de Haute Bretagne.  What a garden!   We got there at lunchtime so we ate at the little on-site restaurant that was really excellent - the kind of delight that you can sometines find in little corners of France.   And the garden is spectacular, perhaps the best one I have seen.  Worth a visit for anyone who has the slightest interest in gardens.   And only an hour away from our place.  To re-visit.

China shop

Anita stumbled across a little shop selling turkish pottery and some traditional linens.   We have happy memories of windsurfing holidays in Bodrum, and have a china plate in a traditional design, displayed in a cabinet here to remind us of that time.  We went into the shop to have a look.

Everything in there had been carefully chosen, there was nothing naff or ugly.   Mostly it was decorative plates, little bowls for olives or other nibbles, and glass spheres for lighting effects.  I fell in love with this traditional teardrop style vase in a glorious blue with fish designs.  Unfortunately it was too big to go in any of our cupboards or shelves, nor do we grow any kind of flowers that would set it off.

I bought a plate in the same design; more practical and less likely to get broken.   It's in the display cupboard reminding us of the break in St Malo that reminded us of our turkish windsurfing holidays.

The corner café

I'm not sure how the Corner Café at the Bottom of the Street at the End of  Town Opposite the Port came to my attention on fessebook, but I have been following their page there for a little while.   The café seems to be run by a nutcase and I like its quirky individuality.  We stumbled across it in St Malo, and so we just had to go in and get a drink.

The decor is... unusual.  Featuring furnishings that look like they come from fairgrounds or cinemas, and above all, dolls and figurines in various sizes, arising from an ancestral business in doll repair.  The photos can capture what you see, but they don't capture the ambience.  It was a good place to get a drink.

St Malo break

We're just back from a short break at St Malo.   We planned to have one night away, and to combine the trip with a visit to the Botanical Park of High Brittany that is (about) half-way.   We decided to visit the garden on the way back rather than on the way out, and that was a good call.   We left home at 7 o' clock on the Sunday morning and arrived in St Malo walled town at about 9 o' clock.   We cruised around it for a bit to get a feel (Anita hated the narrow streets), and parked without difficulty in a surface car park just outside the walls.  By about 11 the whole place was jumping, with huge queues for the underground parking and all the surface ones full.

The tide was high when we strolled about the town admiring the views, so by the time I got my swimming trunks on, the tidal pool was in play, and I swam there.  Cold or what?  But refreshing.   Bracing even.

Caterpillars

They have been eating the leaves of my gooseberry plants.  Not a leaf left on it.   Maybe the gooseberries will ripen, we live in hope.

But there are two bushes of a different variety that seem to be unaffected.   It could be that whatever laid the eggs just didn't happen to lay them on these plants, but I guess I know which ones I will be taking cuttings from in the Autumn.