Our week off together has so far been a proper Indian summer. Great weather!! And the forecast is for more til the end of the week.
So, on Friday it was the Comedy Club, on Satruday and Sunday we did a few housey DIY chores and on Monday we headed into Northumberland to Staward Gorge on the Allen river (National Trust land) and a delightful walk by the river in shady green woodland light and jumping up and down a bit on a rope bridge. Lovely. Refreshing and a great idea of H’s. On the way there we had a bit of an epic in the car – a stunningly steep bit of middle-of-nowhere road.

Tuesday – glorious weather and a full Lake Windermere steamer trip, Ambleside to Lakeside and an hour stop-off (and a half hour at the wonderful Lakeside Hotel) and back via Bowness. Heaven! Before going back to Jane’s for the car I sat with my feet in the lake and fed the ducks.


On Wednesday more brilliant weather and a day mostly spent on the lounger in the garden under the white flowering buddleia in the company of numerous butterflies – red admirals, large whites, peacocks and tortoiseshells. It was totally restful and lovely.

Thursday dawned dry and bright again and Hector thought a day at the seaside was a good idea. We headed to the East coast to Redcar. Neither of us had been there before. It was pretty chilly in a stiff breeze, but I bought cheapo socks and we covered up in a towel to snooze with a book. I loved paddling in the warmish sea and watching the birdlife on the beach at Redcar today I saw at one time: cormorant, herring gull, oystercatchers, sandpipers, sanderling, black headed gulls, little gulls, ringer plover, common sandpiper. Not bad eh?



At Redcar I noticed some remnants of tree stumps at the surfs edge. Had it been just tree trunks I wouldn’t have been to curious but tree stumps made me think that this was the remains of a submerged ancient forest from before the last ice age. Sure enough on looking on line later I found this info

“At the base of the steps opposite the Information Center, and extending seaward for over 100 metres, were exposed black peat beds, springy underfoot, packed with wood fragments and even tree trunks, some in growth position. This is the Redcar Submerged Forest (aka. Peat & Forest Beds). Other minor examples survive within the Lower Tees Valley, both underlying parts of Middlesbrough and also beneath beach deposits between Seaton Carew and Hartlepool. Here the beds are known as the Hartlepool Submerged Forest. The peat and tree trunks date from a time shortly after the last great ice-sheets (glaciers) to occupy this part of N.W. Europe retreated northward as the climate warmed c.13,000 years before present (BP). When immense ice-sheets form, like those which occupied N. Britain during the last Ice-Age, prodigious amounts of water are sequestered as ice, a process which draws down global sea-level. When the climate recovers, the ice-sheets melt and sea-level gradually rises again. By c.10,000 years BP, ice which once occupied Northern England had retreated, and the newly exposed post-glacial landscape was recolonised by vegetation. Sea-level was still some 150 metres, or so, lower than today and the place where Redcar now stands was part of a forested upland similar in altitude to nearby Upleatham Hill! Continued wastage of the ice-sheets farther north gradually raised sea-level until between 8,000 and 6,000 years BP, it attained its modern position in the process overwhelming the ancient forest and producing the Peat and Forest Beds. The deposit was formerly much more extensive though most of the remains have been removed by modern erosion.

[Source: http://www.tvrigs.org.uk/archives/654]
This is an image from that website

Friday quarter to five – Been lolling on a lounger in the garden since 10am. Weather still wonderful. Our friend Frank dropped by for a chat and stayed for a beer, Hector and he moved a pine desk in for us. Read half a book, snoozed and now freshened after a shower and fancying a glass of cold dry white. (where’s the waiter?) Hector is making dinner – Cranstons steak pie and mash. Yum!
Saturday – more great weather and more summer shoe-horned into a single day spent mostly on a lounger under the butterfly tree (buddliea). I’m reading Dan Browns “Angels and Demons” and will finish it in record time. Its been bliss being this laid back.
Saturday evening – Frank joined us in trying out a different Indian restaurant. The service wasn’t too brill, but the food was great. I had chicken burter which was fabulous. A nice evening and, as always with Frank, full of lots of talking and interesting chat.
Sunday – Hector had to work in the morning and at lunch time he headed off to see Ross and other family. I had a long chat on the phone with cousin Sue and later with Chris M. Its on of life’s pleasures to get unexpected phone calls from friends. The weather was pretty good again so more time under the butterfly tree and I finished the Dan Brown novel.
Monday – got a few chores done in town first things and then spent a lot of the day sorting out my gallery website and doing not much else – except eat too much. Hector due home late evening so we can have at least a drink together.

I adore sweet peas, originally uploaded by Fi in Eden (still awaiting summer).

The wedding in the church today was a proper local country wedding. The church was FULL of sweet peas, every window sill, the pew ends, all the shelves around the pulpit – simply everywhere.

I went in after the wedding party had left for a reception to enjoy the atmosphere, ambience, sight and scent; just me, myself, I..

A perfect start to a week off together (well – actually I have two weeks off). Hector got us tickets for dinner at a comedy club. It was great. Lovely dining room, 8 to a table so we met some lovely people, good food (apple crumble and custard!) and some pretty good comedians. Hector won the compose a joke competition (free tickets to the next one) with his joke about what’s the different between a toaster and Bruce Forsyth…. his punchline was Slice to see you, to see you slice! The comedian enjoyed Hectors name and had the room in tucks about how he hadn’t expected Hector to sound like he does!
Funny funny.
Hectors moment of fame

In the Maritime Museum in Hull this display traced the route our fishermen ancestors took from Brixham to Hull via Ramsgate, originally uploaded by Fi in Eden (still awaiting summer).

I have been researching the family tree for a short while and found out a bit more about my Fathers side. They were fishermen who had originated in Brixham, Devon and settled a while in Ramsgate and eventually moved around the coast to Hull to fish in the North Sea.
Jane (sis) and I took a weekend off and headed over to Hull (staying with Chrissie in N. Lincs) to find out more……

A wonderful evening on arrival with Chrissie et al and an early start to drive over the fabulous Humber Bridge and a first treat of a visit the The Deep. Love it.

We spent a bit of time on the foreshore there too, knowing now that family had been there in centuries past when they set sail into the perilous North Sea. A short walk into the city to the Market Square and Holy Trinity Church, the parish church of our ancestors before a bit of window shopping and then the main reason for our Hull visit, the Maritime Museum. Fascinating. What a surprise to find a display that actually charted the start of the Hull fishing industry and guess what – it started with West Country fishermen from Brixham (our family) and Plymouth, via Ramsgate and a fishing fleet being blown off course found the rich fishing fields which became known as the Silver Pits, so bountiful were they.

A poignant display was the beautifully presented record of the family member who was lost overboard on the Horn Reef (Danish coastal waters) in 1885 aged just 18.

By now our feet were sore and we were worn out so we jumped in a black cab back to the Deep and to pick up the car before heading north to Beverley to visit close family there.

Another late evening with Chrissie and more laughter, good company and dinner.

Sunday morning we woke early – no choice really… the carbon monoxide alarm went off and as Chrissie wandered downstairs with it to try to turn it off the phone started ringing too. So, we got up, packed up, and headed homewards. It took 6 hours to get back and, unsurprisingly, I fell asleep in the sun in the garden late afternoon.

Sweet peas and champagne glass in the window, originally uploaded by Fi (sleepycat-gallery.com).

My favourite flower and the scent is heavenly.
I grew them from seed and for the first time had some success. I put it down to growing them in an old plastic dustbin, with holes drilled in and good compost. They like a long root system and it holds good moisture. Only problem is I have had to put a little set of steps next to them so that I can reach to cut the flowers!

Dahlia and buzzy buddy, originally uploaded by Fi (sleepycat-gallery.com).

At last a sunny day and time to bimble around in the garden – like the bees and butterflies were doing too.

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.