We return to North Yorkshire to see places like The Forbidden Corner and Fountains Abbey.

Beamish is an old Northern mining pit area turned into a fascinating collection of recreations of times past. A great place to visit.

We had a pleasant few days in Cromer, enjoying fish and chips at Number One in Cromer, a crazy golf course, and the Amazona Zoo.

Jasper unlike Amelia and Tabitha didn't need persuading to enter his carrier as we took him to "Cozy Pets Hotel" before driving down to West Sussex for a few days. There was congestion on the M25 but apart from that an easy drive down into the lovely rolling hills of the South Downs. We stopped at South Mimms to patronise "KFC", and took a Chinese meal for two to have when we arrived at the Stable Cottage at Brookfield Farm. Inside a nice supply of biscuits and nibbles, nice high beams so no danger of banging my head, plenty of space. The hot water ceased to be hot after a minute or two for me so I didn't manage to have a shower or a bath, the "Stable Cottage" is right on the road so you have people and traffic shooting past the windows. The code for the entrance gate is the same as for the key safe and I wondered if it was the same for the other cottages on site.

We had a week on the Isle of Man, seeing Manx cats and ruined abbeys. Poor Virginia had an accident on the ferry back to Heysham.

A sweet siesta in Salisbury

We've been away for a few days with Virginia's sister Justine in Frinton, and a very restful time it was. Perhaps 'attractions' have tended to go to nearby Walton-on-the-Naze, or Clacton which isn't that far, and so left Frinton becalmed. Perhaps Frinton has a psychic balance of peace which repels those who ooze stress. It is very tranquil wandering along the sea front, admiring the beach huts (available for rent or purchase). Quite a few people are employed keeping the numerous beach huts in trim. We walked to Walton one day which is only a stone's throw away. The pier there was closed, as was the RNLI shop Virginia and I got cards in on Tufty Club outings. The Round Table fish and chip place that we normally frequent on Tufty Club outings was also shut, but we had sandwiches at a place along the seafront in Walton sadly exposed to cigarette smoke. Virginia did detect some delicious doughnuts for us to have on the way back. Mealwise much nicer was a visit to Parker's Garden Centre in Frinton, we ate inside a tent all having a welcome hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. We strayed to Clacton one day, the pier there has quite a few attractions but the place felt down market.

We go with Virginia's parents to the Oxford area, seeing Blenheim and a Transport Museum and Waterperry Gardens.

Virginia and I have spent three nights in Norfolk, staying at a 'cottage' in Caston. To get the downside out of the way first this was the worst 'cottage' we've stayed in. It was really a grungy annexe facing what could have been a gipsy encampment of cars and caravans and vans and dilapidated sheds. I kept hitting my head on the light fittings. There was a door marked private leading to owner's house, we could see and hear the family as if they were sharing the space with us. The doors are all open with wedges, my bedroom has a glass panel in it Poor Wi-Fi, dirty tea towels. Very few tea bags and no coffee. No folder of local information like shops and doctors (Caston seemed to be economising on village shops and streetlights). We found our way on the Thursday to Grime's Graves where I had last been over 50 years ago. Grime's Graves is a field of neolithic pits where they mined flint, the name Grime comes from Anglo-Saxon Grim which was another name for Odin or Wotan. There was a large party there so I dashed down the pit open to the public to avoid being crowded. Not too bad descending the metal ladder with a protective helmet on (you had to sign a form saying you were fit enough to go down) but arduous climbing back up the 9 metres. You got an impression of just how potholer-ish and dangerous it must have been mining for the treasured black flint nodules, which in their day were much more valuable than gold would have been? There was a small gift shop and exhibition there, the unreliable Satnav took us down into MOD land with barred roads.

We see a lost village in Tyneham, museums in Dorchester, and an Iron Age fort at Maiden Castle when we spent a week in Dorset.

We're just back from a visit to Aysgarth in North Yorkshire. A lovely area, pastoral and peaceful. Dry stone walls divided up the snow streaked hills. Sheep grazed the hills. Villages retained their age-old character. The Aysgarth falls could be heard from the well appointed Robin Hill holiday bungalow we were in, we walked from the bungalow and saw three sets of falls. A great area for walkers not that we count as such. We dined twice at the Aysgarth Falls Hotel which had a peculiar backwards clock, and books around the walls.

Virginia and I went to Kent, seeing places like Bodiam Castle and Sissinghurst Castle Gardens and Scotney Castle.

Virginia and I stay near Winchester in Hampshire, see National Trust places like Uppark and Hinton Ampner, and the Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth.

Look at the Lake District

Virginia and I together with her parents hired a boat from Richardsons in Acle to do a one week cruise on the Norfolk Broads in late May. The helpful people at the now closed "Horizon boatyard" gave us a crash course in handling the boat then sent us on our way. The professionals made it all look easy from steering the boat to mooring it - but such skills need longer than a week for me to acquire.

Down in Devon seeing Agatha Christie's place in Torquay, and where giant bears hibernated in Kent's Caverns among other places.

Virginia and I went for a themed week at "Lindors" in Gloucestershire. The theme was walking and waterways, but we didn't really do any walking meaning I didn't need my new half-price boots after all! "Lindors" is a lovely place, landscaped grounds with gentle rills running through them.

Virginia and I spent a few nights at "Willersley Castle" in Derbyshire during September 2007, seeing history in the area. Our hotel had originally been built for Richard Arkwright we discovered. All I knew about Arkwright was that he invented the spinning jenny. I learnt he didn't invent the water frame, his big innovation and what made him rich was implementing a factory system for processing raw cotton into cotton thread.

Virginia and I have had a week on the Isle of Wight, staying at a B&B in Shorwell. I think she enjoyed it more than I did. We went and saw Osborne House where Queen Victoria liked hanging out. The excerpts from her diaries in various places made her seem almost like a normal person... the overpowering opulence and movie set nature of the place counteracted that. For me the monarchy has had its day.