An odd week and a windy and wet weekend

 Last week was an odd week. I was busy at work and felt far too tired when I got home to concentrate on any of my hobbies. I even found reading tiring! I think I fell asleep in a chair every evening, which is not usual for me. The weather was all over the place, with the week ending with the first storm of the year, storm Austen closely followed by storm Boelo. We were going to Swanage for the weekend and on the storm warning it was between a yellow and amber weather warning. Since it wasn't due to hit until later in the afternoon we left early and we had a good journey.Once settled into our room we planned our weekend activities. In the evening we walked down to the town and enjoyed fish and chips whilst watching the sea from one of the shelters along the sea front. Mmmm the fish and chips were delicious. The wind was getting up and the sea was crashing onto the beach but it was beautiful and the moon was reflected in the quieter water away from the beach. On the way back to the hotel we picked up some cake and a bottle of red wine. We spent the rest of the evning chatting and reading. I had taken some embroidery with me but I just wanted to chill out.

Saturday started dry but the forcast was for heavy rain so we decided to visit the tank museum. We'd visited a year ago and our return ticket was still in date and we wanted to see the exhibits we didn't have time to see last time. The rain started as we parked the car at the museum and it was heavy!

In the world War 1 part of the exhibition I found some silk embroideried postcards. These are known as WW1 Silks. Many were made by French and Belgian civilians to earn some money. They were bought by British soldiers. The designs were often flowers or birds. The cards became treasured mementos from 'the boys over there'.

During WW1 the soldiers carried items that bought them comfort and these became known as mascots.  The mascots survived the war and the ones below were gifted to the museum.

Other mascots were live animals. My father was stationed in India ad Burmah during WW2 and they had a dog as their unit mascot.

I had to take a photo of this tank and send to my daughter. I loved that he had a face with one eye winking and his hair style is cute.

The shelves in the mockup of a local shop were rather sparse. That caused quite a bit of discussion amongst a group of ladies who had been children during the war. They spoke about rationing and the need to visit several shops as things run out quickly. Ratioing didn't end until 1954. They were also remembering patching their dresses and darning socks and jumpers to make them last longer. 

After lunch we visited the WW2 exhibition. There were some huge tanks and also stories of the men who were their crew. It was very interesting but at times very sad.

As we drove back to the hotel we had to take extra care as several trees had been blown down and there was a lot of smaller branches and leaves across the road. As always some drivers were determined to go as fast as they could. We spent a quiet evening reading and chatting.

On Sunday we wanted to visit Mottisfont in Hampshire. It had originally been an abbey but became a family estate and is now managed by the National Trust.

The property has some large trees so we kept our distance as the wind was still quite gusty.

We took a tour around the house and a brief walk around the garden. The ground was quite waterlogged so we didn't go far. Some areas were also closed as there are quite a lot of old trees on the estate.

There was also a large crocodil asleep in the bath! The children thought this was very exciting and perfect for halloween.

We enjoyed our visit but wanted to get home before the sun set. The clocks had gone back in the early hours of Sunday and so it was lighter in the morning but gets darker in the evening much earlier. The rest of our journey was good with very little hold ups and not too much rain. Our two dogs were very happy to see us.

It was a good weekend but the poor weather conditions made it stressful at times.We are supposed to be visiting my brother this coming weekend. I hope the weather is better.

Tomorrow I must get back to some sewing. I have Christmas presents I'm making and I'm getting a little behind with it.

Take care

Lyndsey