I’ve got a new toy! What can’t it do?

Ding dong – or in my case… rattle-tat-tat …. ‘AVON calling’
A girl in the village has started doing Avon sales and I placed an order a week ago. What a nice thing when she came to the door, pretty as a picture, and delivered my treats. Its a real bit of nostalgia and one to be repeated.

Last night a young bat fell from the top of our house during day light and into the garden. I watched it crawl along the lawn and then start to climb up the sandstone of the house to try to get back to the roost but it kept falling off. So, I broke all the rules and laws and collected it up in a soft piece of material and moved it a few yards to be higher up. It flew off in a most ungrateful way!
I think it was a Brandt’s Bat and the pic is of one I got a shot of a couple of years ago – also in the garden. Cananyone confirm?

A leaving party for Lolly as she heads to Cornwall to be with Lee and start her new teaching post in September.
The leaving party was excellent – superb company, great food and drink, a marquee, BBQ, bouncy castle and loads of guests brinig tents to poulate the garden.

The shots taken of gorgeous little Millie at the party and the following morning when the sun shone on the detritus of a brilliant farewell and celebration are for her Mummy and Daddy.

The morning after the party I took a little wander up the lane in front of the house along the viking Way and into the large fields of ripening crops where the silence except for birdsong (including Sky Larks) and insects was lovely.

In the afternoon while Hector and Lee were at a footie match Chrissie and I just lay on on our backs on the recliners and watched the many swifts swirling above us and the clouds. And a little extra joy was a glorious damselfly that came into the house.

It was about a boat race between a boat crewed by an old conglomerate – lets call it BEEB – and one crewed by a new, innovative, company.

Both sides practiced long and hard and the new company won by a mile.
So the board of the BEEB did what any board would do: they set up a working party to find out why.

The working party reported that the new company had seven people rowing and one steering and that they at the BEEB had seven people steering and one rowing. So, faced with a crisis of that magnitude they appointed management consultants. That’s the only thing you can do. Isn’t it?

The management consultants, who cost a million pounds, reported back confirming the diagnosis of the working party but suggesting that the old conglomerate crew be completely restructured thus: three assistant steering managers; three deputy steering managers; a director of steering services and in addition, the rower should be given an incentive to row harder.

They had another race and this time the new company won by two miles. So they laid off the rower for poor performance and they sold the boat and used it for a higher than average pay award for the director of steering services!

(I first heard this tale told by Tony Benn at one of his performances with Roy Bailey and laughed myself silly)

Brampton Live Festival 2010 was sadly cancelled so as we had arranged time off we decided to do something else instead. 3 days and 2 nights in the Yorkshire Dales.
Day 1. A66 to Brough, then Kirkby Stephen and Nateby and over the hills to Keld and then over Buttertubs to Hawes and a stop at a tea room.
Hawes to Aysgarth then turned right through Buckden etc and to Kilnsey and to Pately Bridge. WHAT a lovely drive. Saw all kinds of weather and lots of bird life.
On day two we watched the rain come down and Hector promised it would stop in time for our trip to Fountains Abbey. And it did! We had downloaded Mp3 guide comentary so we able to listen on it on our Shuffles as we walked around. We met some really nice people at a picnic table and talked about the National Trust and our gardens and ice cream.
On the way back to the B&B we had a walk around the fabulous adult playground of Brimham Rocks. Fantastic fun and lovely bright and breezy weather. Hector loved it – ever the boy!
Dinner was at a quirky tiny restaurant of my choice and I think I made a mistake. The food was good but the service haphazard and odd AND they had run out of beer.
Waking up to a wet day to go home we stopped just for an hour to visit Stump Cross Caves. Vertigo made it heart-hammeringly scary for me to descend the steep, dark, long, stone, wet and dank steps into the cave system. Worth it though as it was so interesting.

a lot of yellow, originally uploaded by Fi (sleepycat-gallery.com).

I pass this field on a little road going to and from work each day. It smells gorgeous too.

I hadn’t seen swifts around the house before, but now there are several and a joy to watch in an evening.

Overview – The swift is a medium-sized aerial bird, which is a superb flier. It evens sleeps on the wing! It is plain sooty brown, but in flight against the sky it appears black. It has long, scythe-like wings and a short, forked tail. It is a summer visitor, breeding across the UK, but most numerously in the south and east. It winters in Africa.
Where to see them – Look up in the sky in summer, often very high. They never perch on wires like swallows. You might see excited screaming parties of them careering madly at high speed around rooftops and houses, often low, especially towards dusk.
When to see them – April – August.
What they eat – Flying insects and airborne spiders.

Lancaster University gig list autumn1974 – I went to all of them!, originally uploaded by Fi (sleepycat-gallery.com).

This is the line up advertising flier of the Lancaster University gigs in 1974!

I think I went to all of them…

The best memories are Queen (of course), Alex Harvey Band (a real eye opener for a 17 year old girl like me), Cockney Rebel, Sparks (first date with Allistair I think), Horslips were brilliant and of course the exquisite Bad Company. If I remember right Mott the Hoople were cancelled that year.

WHAT a line up!

And look at the prices £1 a ticket!!

Heady days (mostly due to patchouli oil and dank Afghan coats) and happy times and a thrill in the teenage air.

We went together to Hutton in the Forest in glorious weather and fabulous surroundings and met Sally and Jess there for a picnic and Shakespeare’s most popular play. Bliss – until we froze as the sun set and got nibbled big time by midges.

Best film I did at the festival…

Chrissie, Lolly n Me do Beverley.
Hippy flowery tents.
Good atmosphere.
Laughed til we cried.
All squashed up in one tent sheltering from the rain.
I broke my toe (tent guy rope incident).
There was a sneak thief pilfering from tents in the night (scary) who even stole some of our food.
High winds that made our tent into origami.
Saw loads of good live music.
People watched.
Gave up on tents on evening 2 and decamped to Chrissie’s house for the night. GOOOOOD plan.
Ate at least 2 curies each day and quite a lot of wonderful cake.

Solitary foxglovette and sun beam, originally uploaded by Fi (sleepycat-gallery.com).

I should have been packing the car ready for the Beverley Festival but as the weather was so glorious I sprawled in the garden which is full of blooms just now. It was hot, bright and a joy. Hector is still glued to the TV for the World Cup but did go and pick up fish n chips which we ate outside in the garden from the paper – the only way to eat them.

A week full of sorting through boxes and bags and cases full of photographs, clothes, books and paperwork. Thousands of photos are whittled down to a couple of small boxes, but on the way I looked at so many of times past, some way back in the 70’s. Some of me have made me really aware of my age now This morning I have spent an hour shredding all the paperwork that was my Dad’s and related to business and home life in the 1970’s. Strange and poignant to see copies of letters written by Dad and knowing he had been gone coming up 30 years now.
Its left me feeling a bit shaken up – the past snuck up and bit me on the bum!

Hector has had yet another trip to the tip with much of the stuff…. but is going to be happily ensconced in front of the TV for the footie World Cup later. He has a temporary new TV with a bi screen for the duration of the World Cup and set it up in the dining room so he can watch it in HD on a comfy sofa in peace and then when its all over sell the TV again.

There’s only one thing wrong with a massive clear out of a loft that has been untouched for more than 16 years…. the memories and especially the faces peering out from photographs and the poignancy hits you right between the heart strings.

Sally and Jamie and I went to Carlisle to see Bill Bailey live. He was wonderful, funny, clever, a genuinely nice bloke and erudite enough not to need to use any swear words or foul language. This bit of film someone did was of my favourite bit of the show…

I pass these really gorgeous horses every time I take the scenic route to work. This morning I had time to park up a moment and say hello. With muzzles like velvet and a coat like silk they are very special horses indeed.

At least five people have been killed and 25 injured after a gunman opened fire in west Cumbria.

A body, thought to be that of the suspect – taxi driver Derrick Bird – has been found in the Boot area of the Lake District.

The first fatality was in Whitehaven before the gunman drove south, apparently shooting people at random.

During the worst of it we were aware that a relative who is in the emergency services was caught up in it so it was very scary. she is safe but is now involved in the aftermath and dealing with fatalities.

Whitehaven will become synonymous for this terrible tragedy just like happened to Hungerford, Dunblane and even Lockerbie.

And on the same day another story of gun deaths – 3 in this case. On any other day this story would have been the headline.

Wednesday 5th May 2010. Six of the UK’s most deserving women were today honoured at SHE magazine’s third Inspiring Women Awards. The annual event, held in the Ballroom at London’s Claridges hotel, paid tribute to the extraordinary achievements of six ordinary women, all nominated by SHE magazine readers for their life-changing work.

THE CHAMPION: Nicola Minichiello, Olympic Athlete and World Champion in women’s bobsleighing.

When she crashed into a concrete wall at 70mph during the third heat of this year’s Winter Olympics, Nicola’s first thought was not whether she would survive, but of the gold medal she had lost. This commitment illustrates the resolve that got her to the Olympics. Brought up by her single mother on benefits and the victim of racist bullying at school, Nicola’s passion for athletics got her into teacher training. “Sport saved me. It was an opportunity to get away from my environment,” she says. She soon became a dedicated heptathlete. Her speed and agility didn’t go unnoticed and two weeks after her brother’s death from a heroin overdose, when she was 24, she was asked to audition for the British bobsleigh team. “I thought, ‘What the heck, life is too short’.”

Last year she won the world championship with brake-woman Gill Cooke. In the summer she teaches to fund the team – she bought her £8,500 bobsleigh on her credit card, which she is still paying off. Before this year’s Winter Olympics Nicola faced yet

another hurdle when she lost the sight in one eye – due to inflammation of the retina – and was operated on just 16 days before the games. Then came the crash. “It’s just one of those things I’m putting down to experience. Crashes happen.”

Next on her agenda is defending her world title and continuing her work with the Youth Sport Trust. “If there’s one person who I can influence, then that for me is fantastic, especially if it’s a young person. It’s an honour to be in that position.”