{"id":98918,"date":"2020-08-14T14:54:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/?p=98918"},"modified":"2020-08-14T14:54:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T13:54:00","slug":"family-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/presenters\/julia-roberts\/family-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Family time…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems so much longer than two weeks since I last wrote a blog, but that\u2019s because I\u2019ve packed a lot in over the past fortnight, some of which has been time spent in Devon with my family. We were supposed to be going to Spain to stay in a villa, which we booked in January, but I cancelled that back in March for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019d all booked time off work, we decided to do a family holiday anyway and were looking for somewhere big enough to accommodate us all in Devon or Cornwall, when Debs Flint told me she was going to be renting her house out as the writer’s retreats are ‘on hold’ at the moment. I\u2019ve stayed before, so knew the house and the area, and when I showed the family pictures of her 16th<\/span>\u00a0century thatched home, which is quirky and packed with history, they were all up for it.<\/p>\n

My son, Dan, and his girlfriend, Katie, arrived on the Saturday and did a bit of exploring before Chris and I arrived on the Monday. They weren\u2019t blessed with the best weather but that didn\u2019t stop them driving out to the coast. This was taken in Clovelly, a very picturesque seaside village not too far away.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

I had been writing for my next novel up until the last minute on Monday, but in the end had to concede defeat and send in my first draft with the final couple of chapters in note form, rather than fully ‘fleshed out’. I have a very understanding editor, and fortunately she loves the story – phew!!<\/p>\n

Sophie and her ‘bubble’ arrived late on Thursday evening, so we had three days together as a group, dining al fresco and playing Jenga, Articulate and 5 Second Rule with very little TV watched, which made a nice change, even though Debs has a barn room that is part-TV lounge and part-gym.<\/p>\n

Sophie, Katie and I made good use of the gym-part of the room though. Katie does yoga every morning, I do Pilates (Debs has an Aeropilates<\/strong><\/a> machine) and Sophie does more aerobic stuff. I particularly liked being able to tell Alexa<\/strong> <\/a>to play music while I was working out, so much so that I\u2019m now thinking of getting an Alexa<\/strong><\/a>, having previously resisted!<\/p>\n

Dan and Katie had treated us to lunch at a place called The Olive Tree in Bude, about forty minutes drive from Debbie’s, where this photo was taken. We liked the food so much that we took Sophie and her family there and were treated again – can\u2019t be bad!!\"\"<\/p>\n

Dan and Katie returned home on the Sunday, and Chris and I went for a little trip of exploration and discovered a small village near Bideford called Instow. We went back there two days later with ‘the gang’ for a yummy cream tea. Well, you have to have at least one when you\u2019re in that part of the world!<\/p>\n\"\"\n

We left on Wednesday and drove back most of the three and a half hour journey with the roof off my car, which made the heat (at times 36 degrees) much more bearable – we were both wearing Ultrasun<\/strong><\/a>, of course. About half an hour from home, we spotted some clouds up ahead and then some forked lightning, so we stopped to put the roof on. What a good job we did, as less than five minutes later we were driving through this torrential downpour!!
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