So what that there was decorating to do… so what that He’s office needs to be finished pronto.
So flippin’ what.
We decided to postpone the decorating and take a look at the Windermere Air Show – and especially the Red Arrows.
A sunny summery day (wow) and well worth the trip. They were spectacular.
After meeting up with Arthur we all went to the pub for a drink and some chips before joining the heavy tourist traffic to go home via Ambleside and Thirlmere.

A great evening at Maryport Blues Festival. AND the most pleasant portaloos I’ve used! The real ale was pretty good too He said.
We arrived in time to catch a bit of Blues n Trouble – I’ve seen them before a couple of times. Christine and Tony were there so it was good to meet up with them.
Eric Bibb came on. Nice surprise to see him joined on stage with Danny Thompson – fantastic double bass player. We were close enough to the front in the marquee to get a good view. Eric was brilliant. WHAT a voice and guitar playing that makes your toes tingle. The clarity of a bell. I loved it! Like at Brampton He was mistaken for Eric – at the bar where he was told he shouldn’t have to go to the bar he should be back stage getting drinks brought for him… and really nice people (Mick and Margaret) near us said they assumed that he was related to Eric, so alike were they.
It was a first Festival for Ross. We’re really glad he came along. He liked Eric a lot.
Next up was Gary Moore – more He’s thing than mine. It IS the blues but VERY VERY LOUD blues. You can’t fault his guitar prowess but it was a tad overdone for my taste. He and the rest of the audience loved it (I was in a minority) – it was like being transported back to the early 70’s when I saw Moore on stage with Thin Lizzy. Real nostalgia. Ross and I waited outside during the encore and it when on and on and on and on. Twiddly notes and drawn out guitar screeching. Like Ross said – all the drunks who asked for it had left ages ago and it was just polite people left in the marquee – not entirely true, but very funny! 40 minutes it lasted. Got home at 2a.m tired and with ears ringing. Brill! It looks to be a superb festival and maybe next year we’ll do the whole weekend.
Some photos – Father and Son at the blues fest, Blues ‘n’ Trouble, Eric Bibb (+ Danny Thompson)

You gotta hear this! Perfect spoof phone call by a wonderful little Irish girl.

Our second Brampton together – a special one.

We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. All the rain and the mud and the music. Heather, Alex and Sophie camped next door. A first evening was in the company of Tony Benn & Roy Bailey. Socialist fire from two fascinating gentlemen. Then standard festival fodder the Levellers. Highlights for us both were Keith Donnelly with Les Barker (we laughed ourselves dizzy) and Trans Global Underground (He actually danced with me!). For He also it was headline performance from Steve Earle (which I liked but it didn’t really grab me) and also Achanak (who I sadly missed). The disappointment was Soothsayers who were promising in the write-up but didn’t make a connection with the audience, no personality. Weird.
I had to review Benn/Bailey, Levellers, LoJo, Kerr/Fagan and State of the Union.
We ate lots of junk and drank some really nice wine. Our double sleeping bag was heaven and the clever remote control lamps a boon.
Here are some photos of Brampton Live 2007…including one of a crowd under the fantastic influence of Keith Donnelly and behaving like kids, a few of tony Benn, an example of festival sartorial elegance, and some of the mud.

A Rainbow
A sunset to the west and to the North and East big black thunder clouds. Arcing over our house were a pair of vivid rainbows. Only one was visible on the photos, but they lit the sky and changed the colour of the air. Gorgeous! It was worth standing in the rain to take the pics.

Hypothesis:
A chemical toilet IS a good idea for camping and especially for festivals.

Discuss…. (comments please)

We can’t spend all our time making preparations for the exciting move to us all living together in my house in a few weeks time, especially when I make a pigs-ear of filling gaps in plaster! Everyone’s gotta have some R&R. So, my brainwave was – IF it’s sunny on Sunday we’re going to Chester Zoo (a FINE idea over a fourth glass of wine after dinner on the Saturday night).
Hey presto – it WAS sunny. Miracle. So off we went. The weather got worse and worse each mile we drove south – storms and rain so bad that the M6 ground to a halt. Guilt set in, for what I assumed was going to be a fiasco day out, all my fault, making me want to disappear from the car. I could hardly bear to look up from the map. But – God apparently loves us (?!) and it cleared up as we arrived. A fabulous zoo. Our favourites were the elephants, a tiger (Ross saw him but we missed it during a loo break!), monkeys, free-flying bats (whoosh), and BEST of all – the leggy, graceful, gentle, utterly gorgeous giraffes.
For our film click here

or… the PotFest (Ceramics Festival) in the Pens at the cattle auction mart. I’m looking forward to it a lot (Aug 3 – 5th). Every year I go, every year I promise myself I’ll only buy something ‘useful’, but every year the something useful idea goes out of the window when I buy the one thing I spot that excites me. Pah! Its only money.

Its also well worth going to PotFest in the Park too – less utility and more arty. Stuffed full of wonderful ceramic art. (July 27 – 29th)

Here are some pics of the work of a few of my favourite ceramicists
(L-R, Mark Halliday, Karen James, Fiona Mazza)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DARLING!

Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
If yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

If you can read this, your brain is 50% faster than those who can’t.

So, what does an inch of rainfall really mean…
Well… one inch of rain fall over the entire UK is 1,723,042 million gallons.
One inch of rain on just one acre of land weighs 113.31 tons and is 27,154 gallons…. Imagine how much water that is draining from the land onto flood plains.