Helicopter flight

Full album available here.

My wonderful husband knew that this was one of my 'life list' wishes, so he bought me a voucher for Christmas 2017 to experience it.

I tried to take it up in July 2018, incorporating a visit to our good friends Neville & Sarah in Oxfordshire. Unfortunately the weather on the appointed day which ghastly, with heavy rain and high winds, meaning of course the flight couldn't take place. However, a second attempt made in May 2019 was a great success.

My husband deliberately bought a voucher for one, as this isn't his thing at all! However, he did take photographs from the ground. The 'chopper' is a wonderful and exciting machine, and the views across the glorious spires of Oxford (which, we have to be honest, is more attractive from above than from ground level) were fabulous.

A very special experience!

The Isles of Scilly

We wanted to try somewhere different, a bit unusual, unlike anywhere we'd been before. We found it in the beautiful Isles of Scilly

We didn't to travel very far. The Scillies are off the coast of Cornwall, accessed by boat or by tiny plane - we chose the latter (thus fulfilling another ambition in this list: to fly in a small plane). This plane had space for ten people, including pilot and co-pilot. Totally adorable.

The islands have their own very agreeable microclimate, resulting in beautiful gardens and wildlife. We were there in September, and loved the slow pace of life and glorious scenery.

We enjoyed long walks around the islands (five of them are inhabitable; the rest, and there are 140 of them, belong to the creatures); indeed, walks between islands, as there are times of the year when tides are low enough to paddle! We attended a glorious 'pop up' food-and-drink event on the wet sands.

The gardens on Tresco were stunningly beautiful, populated by more red squirrels than we've ever seen anywhere else.

I was able to go snorkelling with the seals, which was a real highlight for me. There's a whole blog post on that here.

Cars aren't allowed on the island, except those belonging to residents - you get everywhere by shanks' pony or by boat. So a tour around the largest island, St Mary's, in a vintage car was not to be missed.

A superb place, and one to which we'd gladly return given the opportunity.