Back from Brittany!

I felt that I should let my reader know that we have arrived home and I will post details of our trip to Brittany shortly.

However, today I have been extremely busy in the garden, mowing two lawns, picking broad beans, runner beans, blackcurrants and stringing shallots.

The Morgan will receive my undivided attention in the course of the next few days, but it should be said that it behaved impeccably on our trip, apart from the usual eccentricities that you will hear about soon.



Just to whet your appetite, the old sod and his steed overlooking the River Rance, Brittany



....and now for a welcome gin and tonic!!

Very excited indeed!!

Two days to go and we're off, with the mounting excitement giving me the 'colly-wobbles'!

Every time we are planning a trip in the Mog I get the same sort of feeling, a mixture of excitement, expectation, apprehension perhaps, feelings that will not diminish until I lock the damn thing away at the end of the drive.



Our cluttered dining table!

Viewing the weather forecast for Wednesday, it seems clear that we shall be driving in very heavy rain, so the bits of towelling we keep in the Morgan will be needed to block up any leaking orifices, as was graphically illustrated in the video, on the Company website, of the new Plus 8 being delivered to Geneva for its launch, although they used sections of the 'Guardian' newspaper for the purpose of catching the deluge!

The trouble with living in the north of England is the long drive, 270 miles in this instance, to reach the Channel ports, but then again, what the hell! Morgans are for driving and as I've said many times before, I get heartily sick of seeing all those for sale with ludicrously small mileages!

...and equally cluttered guest bedroom!

Final preparations are still underway, the automatic watering system for the garden is on, which is a bit of a laugh given the likely weather, reading material has been selected (one book each), luggage has been reduced to a minimum, the camera batteries charged along with my electric razor, maps and itineries have been checked, euros have been bought and distributed, one for me and six for 'er indoors' ( the usual division of assets!) and we're nearly ready.



The sooner I can start loading the Morgan the better and oh, the joy of that moment when we set off on our journey to Brittany and hopefully at least a few sun-kissed days with the top down, soaking up the atmosphere of France once again.

Disclaimer!!

In the recently published monthly magazine 'MOG', I note that there is a regular feature called, 'One Man and his Mog, the diary of a Mog nut'.

It is NOT me!.....just an unfortunate clash of titles.

Brittany calls!

While we were away in Dorset, we had a call on our mobile from Brittany Ferries to let us know that our crossing from Poole to Cherbourg, on the Saturday High Speed Ferry service,  had been cancelled for technical reasons. I immediately pulled in to a lay-by, contacted them and our sailing has now been arranged for the Thursday, saving us £124 and giving us a further two days in France...shame!!

However, as there always are, there were ramifications, the main one being that the RNLI College where we had intended to stay on the Friday evening could not accommodate us on the Wednesday and we are now on a waiting list if there is a cancellation. This has been a disappointment particularly as they offer relatively secure parking for cars, but we live in hope that someone will cancel, in the meantime we have reserved a room at the nearby Premier Inn.

Wheels off ready for cleaning and greasing

The extra two nights we are going to spend at the Hotel Rigourdaine, http://www.hotel-rigourdaine.fr/ overlooking the Rance Estuary, just north of Dinan. This is a place we spotted a couple of years ago and kept its details for future use. It has excellent Trip Advisor reviews and we think it will be a cracker.

From Dinan it is a 170 mile drive to Fouesnant, near Benodet, where we are staying in an apartment for the week, close to the Holiday Park where our youngest daughter is staying with her family.

So preparations for our next adventure in the Morgan are gathering pace, presenting, as they always do,  interesting logistical questions. How can we reduce the amount of clothes we can fit in without the risk of smelling by the end of the week, will the G&T fit in the picnic bag and will that go at my wife's feet in the passenger footwell? Could we possibly take two bottles of gin? etc.,etc. It's a very worrying time!

Not only that, but in typically French fashion the French Government have decided that we now need to carry two breathalisers on our visit this time, they must have known that we were returning!

It's just a question of trying to make sure that everything you should have is on board, indeed as I write this I have just remembered that I haven't put my minimal tool kit in the car. Everything else is there, luggage straps, reflective vests, spare bulbs, warning triangle, spare spectacles, first-aid kit, headlight deflectors and so on.

Sparkling again!

Yesterday, it was dry so I decided to get the wheels off to clean them, using a cleaning solution that I bought locally from an industrial cleaning and valeting company, using it instead of the expensive 'Wonder Wheels' or cleaning kit recommended by the stainless wheel manufacturer. It has worked extremely well and at £12 for 5 litres I think it is a snip!

Needless to say, while the wheels were off I topped up the grease in the sliding axles, checked tyre pressures and then, on replacing the wheels, gave the car a polish.

 It's looking good and I am getting just a teeny bit excited....stupid boy!!!  

Dorset Drowning!

I know that my world-wide audience will have missed my ramblings over the last few days but I have been otherwise engaged, tramping around Dorset in my wellies!

What is the man talking about, I hear you say? Well, in a nutshell, my wife and I have just endured the wettest holiday we have ever experienced, joining my eldest daughter and her family for a welcome break in the aforesaid county.

They had booked a pitch for four nights on a truly delightful and highly recommended campsite http://www.riverside-lakes.co.uk/ and we had been invited along, but, due to our great antiquity, it had been decided that we should try to get fixed up with more conventional accommodation close by.

Before the rain came!

The Sunday following our arrival, was forecast by the Met.Office to be reasonable so we leapt at the opportunity to get down to the beach at Studland so that Max, our grandson and his grandfather (me) could do some sandcastle building and paddling.

Then the rains came, again, in what is proving to be a thoroughly ghastly Summer. As we snuggled up in our lovely apartment our thoughts were with our loved ones, pitched under a spreading oak tree, on top of a hill in a screaming gale and torrential rain. Our worries were soon allayed by an early text informing us that they had survived the night.

Studland Beach

It was a question of just ignoring the rain and the two further days we spent with them were delightful. At one point it was a definite possibility that they would 'chuck the towel in' and strike camp, but they stuck it out showing true British spirit!

The remainder of the week we spent on our own visiting, amongst other places, Kingston Lacy House, http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kingston-lacy/ a wonderful property with fantastic grounds. Fortunately the weather was very good during the time we were there.

Kingston Lacy House

On our final day we drove to Corfe Castle and then on to a truly fascinating property, Clouds Hill, the former cottage/retreat of T.E.Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia' http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/clouds-hill/ , just up the road from the 'Tank Museum'. The nearby church at Moreton is well worth a visit as is the grave of the great man himself, just up the road from the church.

Corfe Castle

T.E.Lawrence's cottage

Throughout the whole period, I pondered on the position of the 'jet stream', the system that controls our weather, wondering whether or not it is going to remain too far south, thus threatening our forthcoming drive to Brittany in the Morgan with more bad weather....and for those of you who have never driven a Morgan in really wet weather, I suggest that you have a look at the video on the Morgan Company website, describing the on board experiences of two chaps who drove the new Plus 8 for its unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show!! 

  

"Is it a kit car mate?"......

I'm sure that many owners have been approached in similar fashion by someone interested to have a natter with them about their car.

In similar vein some two years ago, I was parked overlooking the sea at Fleetwood, when a couple of chaps passed along the promenade and assuming they were out of earshot, one of them said, quite assuredly, to his obviously less knowledgeable companion that 'those haven't been made for years, that must be a replica!'

Ah well, we know better don't we?

Across the bay towards Fleetwood in the distance

Two days ago the day dawned beautifully, lovely to see the sun again in a June that has been apparently the worst on record. In the UK we have probably enjoyed only three weeks of sunshine since the start of the year, which must have made life very difficult for those working Morgan owners who rely on good weather at the weekend to enjoy their cars. Fortunately my wife and I are retired and can take our opportunities on any day.

The conversation as we ate our breakfast was concentrated on deciding where we should go for our next picnic in the 4/4. After a variety of suggestions had been offered, we decided on a place that, although we have lived most of our lives in this area, we had never visited, the ruined Abbey of Cockersands.

Lighthouse, Heysham Nuclear Power Station and the Lakeland Hills

My wife prepared food as I got the Morgan ready, strapping our two collapsible chairs on to the luggage rack and ensuring that our little picnic table was stowed on the back shelf.



With a brief stop in Great Eccleston, boosting our lunch, with a couple of rather splendid locally made pork pies of high repute, we continued, crossing the River Wyre on the Cartford Toll Bridge, then on to Pilling and the A588. This road took us across an area called Cockerham Sands where, traffic permitting, you can really revel in the performance of the car, and where in days of yore, before the sea defences were built, the tide often covered the road.

I remember as a child, on day trips to the Lake District, many occasions when father's Austin 12 only just reached the other end before the sea consumed the road. Turning left at Conder Green, where the little River Conder empties itself into Morecambe Bay, we made our way to the harbour at Glasson and then south along delightful country lanes, bordering the sea, to the car park overlooking the River Cocker estuary.

The Chapter House and ruined walls of Cockersands Abbey

Before setting up our picnic furniture, we set off along the coastal path to see the ruins of Cockersands Abbey, a former abbey near Cockerham in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire. It was founded before 1184 as the Hospital of St Mary on a marsh belonging to Leicester Abbey. It was refounded as a Premonstratensian priory and subsequently elevated to an abbey in 1192. It also continued as a hospital.

The abbey was dissolved in 1539 and acquired by a John Kitchen. The site is now adjacent to a farm house and the only significant relic is the still intact, vaulted chapter house which was built in 1230 and used as a family mausoleum by the Daltons of Thurnham Hall during the 18th and 19th centuries. 
The chapter house is a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The Isle of Man Packet approaching Heysham

The walk offered terrific photo opportunities but our attempt to get up very close to the Abbey was thwarted by a herd of cows and a particularly menacing Hereford bull, which kept making a similar noise to that last heard by us, being emitted by a large male lion, while on a safari in the South Luangwa Reserve in Zambia!

The closest we got to the Abbey was with my telephoto lens!

My wife beat me back to a gated section of the track, that offered protection from this marauding beast, should it have decided to attack!

Lighthouse marking entrance to the Lune Channel and Glasson Dock

The beast that upset my wife

With table and chairs set up we settled down, enjoying the view, when the cry came from the direction of the car, "Your car is it? Do you mind if I have a look?", not at all, I said, raising myself and walking over, prepared to launch into a history of the Morgan Motor Company. This turned out to be absolutely essential, as the man's ignorance was profound, and his first utterance as I reached the car, I have used as a title for this little offering!

Picnic time

Not only that, his dogs, unleashed, proceeded, much to the mounting chagrin of my dearly beloved, to make a bee-line for our sandwiches and the delicious pies that she had placed on the table! With lightening reactions she recovered them to the safety of her bag, although in doing so, some of the still fluid juice out of those scrumptious pies had leaked out.

I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM !!

Lapwing in flight



Oyster-Catcher



Foot Wear!

Some weeks ago I noticed, having driven around 17000 miles in the 4/4, that a small area of the drivers car mat was showing significant wear, from the heel of my right shoe as it operated the accelerator pedal.

The prospect of 'forking out' a load of money to replace the mat did not fill me with any enthusiasm, in fact the prospect of approaching the custodian of the family coffers ( 'er indoors ) about any such expenditure would have been painful and foolhardy in the extreme, so I had to think of a more economical way of dealing with the matter.

What a boring picture!

I then recalled a time in the past, when I was sitting at the local railway crossing, in the drivers seat of our then brand new Volvo S70, waiting for the 10.37 from Blackpool to Poulton-le-Fylde and all stations to York, that I was distracted by a beautiful young lady entering the Hairdressers opposite. This unexpected awakening caused me to lessen the grip on the mouthpiece of the pipe that was smouldering in my mouth, causing hot ash to be showered over my trousers and the velour covered front seat!

It must have seemed to the driver sitting patiently behind, that the occupant of the car in front had suddenly been attacked by a swarm of hornets, as his arms thrashed and flailed about in a panic to extinguish any  major conflagration.

However, immediately after successfully negotiating the crossing, I stopped to review the damage to my trousers, any part of my anatomy and most importantly the car seat. Oh doom and damnation, there it was, a neat hole with a brown burnt border, in the plush grey upholstery.

I drove home in utter misery, crept in and buried myself in the 'Yellow Pages', where I found a likely looking car upholsterer, who I felt might take pity on a poor, stricken, pipe smoking Volvo driver who had by this time broken into a series of cold sweats.

This splendid fellow did a first class job, in very short time, to almost erase the hole and in fact I can't remember now whether or not I even mentioned the saga to my wife at all, or indeed whether she even noticed the slight blemish.

Another boring, but practical image!

Anyway, this was the man I would turn to with my Morgan mat http://advancecartrimmers.co.uk/

The decision was made to do what I think the factory should do on all appropriate models and that would be to extend the area covered by the protective rubber covering as shown in the photos. This does not in any way detract from the beauty of the carpeted area and yet serves as a truly practical protection to an area that is bound to wear.

DONE IN 24 HOURS, COST..... A MASSIVE  £15, and even then I think I gave him an extra fiver!