More visitors...Bath, golf and a haven.

Bath

Late Sunday (8th) afternoon Gill (Keith's sister) and Geoff arrived at the Golf club to stay for two nights. We had a look around the club and after they had a freshen up, we had a meal together at Cape. 

Gill and Geoff

Unfortunately George was basically on duty on his own with the chef... so it was some time before we ate, but it was very pleasant.

I then brought them up to have a look at my little home and for a quick walk up on the Carn. They were heading for St Ives and the Minack the next day - I'm hoping they had  a good time - I was unable to join them as I was away for a golf competition!

Early Monday morning I set off for Bradford on Avon near Bath. 

I was playing in a ladies pairs competition with Frieda, her husband John had arranged for us to stay at a wonderful B & B called Herb Cottage.

It had a French feel...

...having parked the car... where was the house?

The path wound around the corner...

..it passed by a wee pond with several fish...

and there was Herb Cottage!

It is a delightful place, a haven of tranquility, owned by a special lady, Suzanne.

When I arrived she had just received news that her 12 year old Grandson had had a brain haemorrhage and was very, very poorly. The family live in Sydney so it's very difficult.

That evening I went in to Bath to see Keith and we went out for a meal. He is looking very well and relishing the summer weather! It was good to catch up on what we've both been up to. Keith suggested a place for us to visit the next morning.

  

And so we took up this advice and with Suzanne's added blessing that she thought we'd love it, we headed for Great Chalfield Manor. We had a lovely walk in the gardens, very peaceful.

We were really surprised at the number of visitors there as it is in the middle of nowhere... I've just discovered that it is used in the Poldark Series which is very popular here. Cornwall's tourism has increased because of it... and maybe at Great Chalfield too?

Frieda and I were booked in for a practice round at 2pm at Cumberwell Park... so off we set. It was only a couple of miles from our B & B, and John came round the course with us and made notes for us!

After about 11 holes we caught up the men in front and began to wait to play our shots... so John went to clubhouse and bought us some bubbles!  Just the thing on a hot day!

Waiting on the 13th

 The course was great and we made our decisions about our order of play, teeing off the odd or even holes (it was a foursomes competition where you take it in turn to hit the ball).

We ate at the club after we had finished and then headed back to Herb Cottage. Suzanne and I had a long chat in the evening, she is a fascinating and lovely lady.

The next morning saw us head back to Golf club for the actual competition. I was very disappointed to find it was not well organized - for something connected to England Golf it was a shambles. Only one lady was there to register us, check handicaps, start us all on the right tee...etc etc.

Anyway... we had a good round... except I kept putting the ball in the bunker for Frieda to play out of!

Wonderful (!) soft sand bunkers... and lots of them!

 We also had a few shots where we had to carry over water which was very exciting!

There was a diver collecting balls!

All in all we had a good round scoring 40 points, we were 5th out of approx 40 teams so we did alright! The winning score was 45... if only I hadn't put Frieda in those 5 bunkers!

Now (Thursday) I'm back home... it's good to be back... :-)