John Borman, Alice borman, Vicky Gassner, and snow, and other March stuff

 Amongst other things in March we got a house full of visitors.... It's that time of year when everyone thinks it will be fantastic to visit Yorkshire in the Spring.  Everyone other than the god of spring that is.
2013 has seen the coldest UK month of March on record and I for one have gone right off snow.  But we had Guests. They want to see Yorkshire.

These two shots were a day out when we decided , as Vicky had never seen snow.... Yeah I know , that's bloody Australians for you, ... to go to England's highest pub at Tan Hill, about an hour from Wetherby. 
The snap below shows the challenging road conditions and the shot to the right shows the incoming snow storm.. Call me a chicken, but Gail has just a little company car, no snow tyres and therefore zero traction in this sort of adventure.  I decided there were easier pubs to get to, no, they wouldn't have sheep inside the entry to the bar, or be the highest in England but we had already done some interesting sliding and buffeting and the storm clouds were rolling towards us so we headed off to Kirkby Stephen.  A nice little town with a tourist office and some pubs with chatty locals.

 And would you believe it, we did found a pub.  Excuse John here, he simply takes a stupid photo... John is the son of a couple of mates of ours, Alice and Ivar... known them quite a while, since school days.  John, we first met him when Alice and Ivar visited us in Tokyo back in the 80's, John took stupid photos then too, but he was only one year old.  The good photo subject, looking at the camera and smiling, is Vicky.  She's nice. They both cook and clean house though so both are welcome to stay at our house anytime, especially as they bought us food and drinks.   The following shots are of the area around Kirkby Stephen and our lunch pub.

 On another day we took John and Vicky to a typical carvery lunch with Yorkshire pud and all the bits, then off to Knaresborough for a Victorian view

John managed to look less stupid here, he's improving under our tutelage.

 

 And then as we were so exhausted from meat eating, sight viewing and gleeful banter, we stopped off at the WoodHall grand house, just up the road from our less grand home, for a afternoon sup and recline in soft leather chairs to watch the snow begin it's relentless fall on Wetherby.

 Vicky was delighted with the depth of the fall and next morning, having by now experienced sleet, hail, wet snow, flake snow, dry snow, blown snow, drifting snow and deep snow, she decided a snowman just had to be built. 
It was the first snow man to be built in our front yard.

 And perhaps the most inappropriate one Wetherby has seen.

 Earlier on in our day trips we had taken John and Vicky to England's oldest Inn, as we couldn't get to the highest, The oldest is just a few minutes from Wetherby, and while there John noticed a Beer festival was to be held in the village in a few days.... So we went back.  It was in the Bardsey-cum-Rigton Village Hall and there were 23 ales, 5 perry's , 6 ciders, and 8 largers to taste.  £1.50 a half pint so the turnout was strong despite the deep snow around.  The roads were cleared and the inside location best suited to the day. 

We did other Yorkshire things with John and Vicky and they went to Scotland for a few days, Liverpool for one and stayed with us in between, but we had to kick them out of the house as Alice Borman, Gail's old , and I mean old, early school mate , had booked the guest room.    John and Vicky moved into the Swan Guest rooms down the road for a few days so they could catch up with Alice who is working in East Germany, Weimar I think, for a few months.  Alice is John's mum so Gail and I let them spend some time out and about without us...  They headed off to York for a day together, we all did a fish and chip supper at the Scot's Arms and then John and Vicky left for Germany.   John is doing a six month thing for his International Relations degree in Essen.  Vicky will do some work, travel to see her Euro relatives of which she has many, and continue her Sydney Uni studies via the web.  That's them sorted, we don't expect to see John for another 10 years, not until he has a government or corporate posting in Germany, Russia or somewhere where we can bludge accommodation from him.    That just left us with Alice as a house guest.  No hardship that.
   

 For those of you who have stayed with us you may recall our favourite day out is following the Wharfe River from our front door, right up Wharfedale for a lunch in the Cruck built pub at Apletreewick (pron: Aptwick).  We didn't get to take Alice there in 2009 so remedied the omission this time.  

 Love the sign outside the pub, made to look like a Dales tourist info sign... They do a good line in Ales.

 We had some great food here, superb ale and beef pie for Alice, I had some dissolving in the mouth braised beef and Gail opted for , I think a pork something, all delicious and washed down with local brewed golden ale and red wine beside raging log and coal fires..

Deciding that the weather outside was awful, a stroll along the river and past Bolton Abby was best deferred, so a couple of quick photos, some frozen fingers and running noses later the girls were back in the car for a quick drive back to the Devonshire Arms.  For some cocktails and cake.  

 

This is a part of the Borman adventures in March,  Other stuff will get done in April, a gallery tour, a Jazz night, a visit to a priest hole, a cheap lunch and other stuff so I'll upload that later.  Alice leaves us on the 4th and normality will return. 

Just a couple of things in Feb March

The Royal Andtediluvian Order of Buffaloes Invited Gail and I into their rather nice home in Harrogate for a rather ordinary but quite nice dinner.  We were given a few drinks by the grand master of the lodge and have a guided tour of which these photos show only a small part.  Gail discovered an ad for them and we went one cold winters night for a very warm welcome.  The RAOB have been a charitable bunch for years, originally lawyers and thespians providing orphanage and charity services, now not so much.  Sort of Masonic but different it was a delight to roam the old halls and rooms.

 We also dropped in to see Ann and Peter again in Cheltnham, went for a n ice walk up a very big hill and down again.  Past a stone quarry and looked out over the valley to Malvern

 Another thing, We went back to the Empire Bar in Leeds, gees I love that city, the empire was where we saw Jamie playing with the Otiks in the cellar there.  It is going to drop it's live music licence and become an international beer hall and Gail found an invite to sample what the bar will be offering in it's new guise.  We were two of a small group, before a Saturday night of some 50 couples.  We were encouraged to taste and comment.

The first beer up was an Aussie brew from Freo WA.  I had had this before but it was a great drink and a pleasant memory, served with cooked soy and honey prawns.  Every beer was served with a food accompanying and Music to match, at the end of this blog page I've inserted a audio vid of the Aussie song so you get a feel of the process.

 That was followed by a Mexican drop which was somewhat overpowered by the Aussie and took a while for us to get a proper taste of it.  Telling the organiser we couldn't taste it properly and explaining about how tastings should go from lighter sweeter to heavier stronger he agreed and gave us a bottle to try later.  What a great host huh?

 After the Mexican we crossed the boarder to the USA and here is our Host bringing the Blue moon which was served with a slice of orange and had a strong citrus finish.  a cold dog and sauce was strangely strange.

 The Tiger Beer from Singapore was just a Tiger beer as anyone who has been there will tell you it's not the best available....'nuff sed.

 Chouffe, a fantastic Belgian and one we have had on our travels to that fine country.  Our Host bought his bar fixture over for our photo, Nice man.  You may note there is a Belgian waffle and ice cream, I tell you, some people.   This was a superb beer and regrettably I could say nothing to solicit another free bottle being gifted to us.

 Finally we were given a beer cocktail with white rum and strawberry fiz.  A great finish

This is the vid I was speaking of, hope it works...