Angel, Romans, Scots and heather

August is traditionally a very wet month here. Enough said, I'll not bang on aboot t weather, there is much to report over the last month. I left off promising news on our trip to Scotland. We did enjoy ourselves and Gail was able to relax in the company of family and ancestral lands. Our northern odyssey commenced with a quick drive to Newcastle, or Gateshead more correctly, where we wanted to look closer at the Angel of the North, It is ten years since Anthony Gormley installed his work overlooking the Great North Road (A1) and while Gail has driven past it before many times neither of us have got out and "seen" it. The photo shows the scale and the weather , I wasn't going to mention the weather,,, the mood and the majesty that the sculpture evokes is indescribable, I love grand passion, that and the engineering required are awe inspiring.. If you want to know more about it www.gateshead.gov.uk/angel will do it for you. If you look at a map of the UK you will see that the latitude of Newcastle is also the shortest distance across England east to west. Not only that but it is where Emperor Hadrian declared the limit of Roman occupation of England in 122 A.D. It was then that he started building his wall crossing the country strategically to keep those nasty early Scot tribes out, but probably more likely to enable him to gather tolls and taxes from the boarder trade. There are a number of restored sections of the wall and forts at various identified gateways and it is amazing to walk through the reconstruction and wonder at how civilised the Romans made their time here.. Even more interesting perhaps is how little humanity has changed over 2000 years. The facilities and comforts of a senior Roman were indeed as good as would be comfortable for us now. With their homes having central heating, internal courtyards, fresh water and managed sewer systems, the most senior officers had it very good indeed. Evidence of letters written to and from home, fine jewellery, soft leather shoes and beautiful fabrics on display in the museums all show that life in these relatively peaceful and obviously profitable fort and towns was very pleasant, even for the lower ranks who were granted pensions and benefits on their retirement. Retirement was a common event and many soldiers continued to live as free men around the forts when their service was finished. Anyway enough about the romans....

We headed up to Arbroath via Jedburgh in the Border Towns of Northumberland and on to Edinburgh. We chanced the day of the start of the Edinburgh Festival so the place was buzzing with crowds, parades, pouring rain, I'm not mentioning the weather, blocked roads, traffic and music of all types blasting out.. Gail was disappointed that nobody knew the steps to the Nutbush music but I dragged her down a back alley before she could do a show and tell. We found a below street level garden cafe for a great lunch, got into the mood and did some passive sightseeing. So many people we talk to love Edinburgh and I guess we need to give it more of a visit to enjoy it when there is not so much disruption. While we did not walk up to the castle, we did reach a grand vantage point from where we digited off these photos. Then onwards north to Arbroath, famous for a number of things, First it was here, in the Abbey that on April 6th 1320 Scottish Independence was declared. Look up The Declaration Arbroath on google for why the Scots hold this event and the name of Arbroath in some historic reverence. Then there is the famous Arbroath Smokey, sadly in decline due to over fishing by the EU and competitive pressures but there are still some dedicated entrepreneurs smoking the flat fish that every Scot loves for breakfast. I had one last time we visited some 22 years ago and the memory lingers, in fact I was still belching smoked fish a week later... Finally the good citizens of Arbroath earlier last century needed a water tower to supply their their town and as it was to take a prominent high position they had it designed as a feature. I am sure you will agree they succeeded and while it and its grounds are obscured by tree growth now it is a spectacle. Before meeting up with Gail's family we took ourselves off to Glamis castle (pron. Glams) where the Queen Mum used to visit and where Princess Margaret was born... Still run by the current Earl of Strathmoor family but now very much open for tourists. Great day out, lovely grounds and wonderful walks... we did the tour and the walks and had tea and scones etc. Sorry, no photo's of Gail's cousin Erica and Stephen and their kids but we did have a great night in with them discussing their emigration to Perth Australia in October.... On our way back home to Wetherby we decided to take the coastal route, lunching at a magnificent Restaurant in St Andrews after a wonderful walk through the town, over the beach and around the famous golf course. Staying overnight in Edinburgh but right out on the south bank of the Firth of Forth. The photos show a glimpse of a summer night in Edinburgh, no I am not going to mention the weather. Which stayed with us all the way home and stayed all August. We did some lovely day trips through the Dales and over to Lancaster but after a great start to the month Gail was back off and away at work for days at a time. On her days off we did manage to visit some not so distant pubs known for their fine food. While enjoyable in itself we were making sure we had a selection of places to go when our friends Peter and Ann visited us from London. They were due up at the end of the month on their way to Durham for a friend's birthday party and it was likely that the rain would endure. Our planning was appropriate as it turned out the weather did not encourage walks , no I'm not complaining about the weather. We spent a delightful day in Harrogate, had a beer in the old Swan Hotel where Agatha Christie hid out for a few days of national intrigue early last century... Then on to the Harrogate Ladies College as Peter had memories of dire back seat journeys from Lancashire over the moors in mid winter to drop off his sister at the beginning of school term. It is a grand place and his sister enjoyed her time there so it was an interesting detour. A quick walk through the fading majesty of the Majestic Hotel and then on through the Blubberhouse moors, towards Bolton Abey for a posh luncheon snack at the Devonshire Arms. Slotted the little Astra in between the Range Rovers and Bentleys and had a delightful meal, some fine wine and felt right at home. A drive back through the moors with the heather in full bloom was a delight and we stopped off at our favourite pub in Siklinghall for a pint of ale before waddling home. Next month is life as usual except we are heading back up to Scotland for 4 days as Gail has a couple of days work there and then mid-month we have hired a canal boat for three nights where we are going to have a real relax with David and Carolyn our neighbours, chuffing along the highland moors, fully catered and guided by the owners of the canal boat we expect to really enjoy ourselves. So , more later!

Abba, Abbey, Angram and Belgium

Hi again,
July has come and gone leaving a trail of damp days, some sunshine and heat and a load of great memories. The title gives slight clue to our wanderings but does indicate highlights which we will expand on now.

ABBA. Despite the protestations and glums I meekly followed Gail to our little Wetherby Cinema to watch the latest travesty that was the Mama Mia movie.... You may suspect that Peirce Brosnan cannot sing or dance (no album, no christmas CD) and he proves that admirably not once, not twice but three times .... But this is a minor whinge and quite beside the point. The point is, I never expected the crowds.... yes crowds.... imagine my astonishment at having to queue for our little 170 seat Wetherby theatre, not only did we have to queue but we were turned away from the 7:20pm session due to a full house and asked to return for a previously unplanned late night session.... Thankfully this provided time for some Abba impact reduction therapy at the local pub.

Anyway, on to more picturesque events this month. THE GREAT YORKSHIRE SHOW was held just up the road from our place in our big sister town of Harrogate. It is sort of like a Yorkshire Sydney Easter Show, but with more pomp. All the show stewards (pictured) wore morning suits with tails and bowler hats and gum boots (Wellington boots, to use their local descriptive). Very classy! Lots of horse and hound action, racing fox terriers, pigs, sheep and cows. Cars, tractors, food fashion and games all in 250 acres of stunning Yorkshire countryside. The photos do not give the day its due presence. I will tell you that The Queen of England visited the Show as did lots of other really important people, like us. We spent hours looking at livestock and wandering the rural and trade exhibits, sounds like watching grass grow I know, but you will have to believe us that it was a day full of delights.

Of course we have to fit in all this excitement on Gail's days off. She has been working up to six days in a row away from home and these days off are used equally for resting up and for getting out.
It was Gails XXrd Birthday this month and although she was working on her birthday she had the next one off and we decided to go to Tan Hill pub. It is the highest Inn in the UK , up near ANGRAM in the north Yorkshire dales. Quite a quirky pub, good Yorkshire pub grub and a fair selection of real ales. But it is in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
Stark and lovely though. The trip home through little villages and arty towns like Reeth was a delight too,


The ABBEY in the title is Fountains Abbey, a huge Cistercian ruin not too far from us and where we took Les and Kiyoko, UK friends from our Tokyo days. The place is massive, the site well managed with great grounds and good tours. There was even a working mill on the river and a troupe performing Regency era music and formal dances in full velvet and silk regalia on the water garden lawns. It is so nice to be able to take friends to such special places around here. And as there is such a huge history to England those special places are limitless and we never seem to go anywhere twice.

Gail has two weeks holiday now and right at the end of July we decided to rent a boat and sail to Belgium for the day. Well, for two nights and a day. We boarded our little tug at Hull (about an hour's drive from Wetherby) around 5pm and landed Zeebrugge early the next day, a quick bus for a full day in Bruges and back on the boat that night. So nice to have a mini cruise with all the meals and entertainment and such a stunning place like Bruges as a target.
Again the photos don't do justice to the place, it calls itself the Venice of the north, was untouched by the WWs I & II, the industrial revolution and as a result is a delightful medieval city now with great food, chocolate, lace, chocolate, nice local people, chocolate, magnificent squares and buildings, chocolate, galleries, museums,great beers, chocolate and chocolate. We took a guided walking tour for a few hours that showed us great places and gave a good cultural and historic background, Our guide had done similar tours for the rich and famous but his experience with the Australian Governor General was interesting to us .... Among other snippets apparently a visit to see H.M. Liz was on the GG's agenda when he went to the UK and he asked for a good chocolate shop where he could buy some ginger coated chocolate for Her Maj., her favourite. ... Just in case you ever have to entertain her.


As we are now in the middle of Gail's hols we are off to Scotland to see Erica, Gail's distant cousin and we will be dropping by Newcastle-on-Tyne to see the Hadrian's Wall fort museum, staying in Edinburgh to get a taste of the Festival and a couple of nights in Arbroath where Gail's remnant Scottish family reside.... But as all that will be in August I'll sign off now and close the July update.

Scotland, squirrels, hedgehog and canals

Happy Summer to all from a slightly warmer but breezy Yorkshire!

We have nearly forgotten what warm weather was, but are now pleased to report daytime temperatures of 20+ degrees can apparently happen in this part of the world, not often mind you, or one after the other or anything like that, but a warm day with sun is a delight not to be ignored. Even if the wind can be strong and chilly. The other photos I'll attach will depict a little of the warmer joy of our first spring and summer here.... Well, yes our second spring/summer really, but this is the first warm season where we have been able to get out and enjoy ourselves. Last year we were new to the country and trying to get settled in, much of our spare time then was spent looking for a place to live and just trying to figure out which way was up. Ahh,,memories,,,

So, yes, we have clocked up our first whole year in our Wetherby home this month. Although, to be honest, we feel that we have only really been living in it since the renovations completed. That however would make the first anniversary next May and far too long away for an excuse for a champagne celebration.

As the title of this months update suggests, we have been having a particularly nice time of it since last we wrote. We have been up to Scotland for a week, got Leeds council to inspect our renovations to the house and give us a Completion Certificate, seen the migratory and very cute Puffin birds on Scotland's west coast and also on the East Ridings Yorkshire cliffs, (that's it for our Puffin watching, been there done that now). Gail is ecstatic to have discovered that we have our very own hedgehog at the bottom of our garden. Greg went to the cricket at Headingly and watched from the members stand (and bar) as a guest of our neighbours David and Carolyne, Gail gained even more MRi skills by achieving complicated procedures of BAU scanning for specific examinations and we were blessed with our first, post-renovation house guest, Cath, with whom we went canal boating through the North Yorkshire countryside. So for some background and photos, first up....

SCOTLAND

We were most chuffed and more than a little bit honoured to be invited to spend a week in Monreith with David and Carolyne our neighbours. For those of you with memories long enough may recall the Book/film titled 'Ring of Bright Water' by Gavin Maxwell about his life in west Scotland with his tame otters. Monreith is where his family home is and where he wrote about that part of his life. We are re-reading the book now and his somewhat intense and laboured descriptions of the local and nearby environment paint a detailed and accurate picture of the stark beauty of the region. The area remains however the unfashionable part of southern Scotland without the glens, bens and lochs but it is blessed with it's own rugged beauty. It does have a couple of villages famous as Scotland's 'book town', Wigtown (store after store of book shops old and new, a bibliophile's paradise), and Scotland's up and coming Artiste town, Kirkcudbright.. such a lovely old town right on the river Dee, flowing into the Solway Firth from Loch Ken..Lots of lovely homes and galleries, we were tempted to buy in, found a nice place we dreamed we could make a go of....but have yet to do anything rash.... Probably won't do anything as we fall in love with every nice place we find....can't own a bit of all of them.. Monreith is a beautiful if quiet backwater of Galloway and Dumfries, that's the district you would drive through to take your car from England/Scotland by ferry from Stranraer port to Northern Ireland. Of course we strolled all the beaches we could and visited the coastal spots Dave and Carolyne favoured. We went to the Mull of Galloway to see if we could see the Puffins, saw just one lonely one among a huge swarm of seabirds. Went to Port Logan where we had the most delicious lunch of scallops, pigeon breast, pork, fish and vegetables, all local produce but not all in one dish of course....It was a taste explosion of starters and mains followed by a long walk on the beach and a drive to Portpatrick for an ice cream to satisfy Gail's sweet craving...

Monreith is also the home of a wild life park,or hobby farm really, where we got to play with otter, owls, llamas,donkeys, and a selection of rare little furry things. But most enjoyable was talking to the owners who were a delight of passion and good humour about their enterprise.... Not far from the Monreith cottage we stayed in are woods and forests which have trails and wildlife watching platforms. The wild animals didn't get the the news we were coming so were not at home when we called but the walks were beautiful. That is probably enough about Scotland.

BEMPTON

This is a tiny little village on the very edge of the Yorkshire Wolds (just south of the Yorkshire Moors), clinging to the cliffs to the north of Bridlington and below Scarborough. It is here that the Puffin birds nest for spring and while we do not have any of our photos that show the birds we did see lots of puffin and had a great day out walking the rugged coast with the blast and smells of sea spray and seabird guano punctuating the glorious vistas.

SKIPTON

Skipton nestles towards the top of the Pennines about an hour from Wetherby and sports a collection of canal boat hire companies where you can hire day boats or fully catered floating B&B type barges from which one can putter along the extensive canal systems and marvel at the passing scenery.... no photo will do it justice but these perhaps give you a flavour of the day. We managed to all have a go at steering Rosie along the narrow waterways. Greg did manage to get us grounded and Gail and Cath both discovered a strong disenchantment with opening and closing the road bridges that impede a canal boat's progress. Despite these small tasks and the breakage of a couple of wine glasses you can imagine the day was spectacular.

WETHERBY

As I mentioned earlier, the council has approved all the works done on the house, the garden is nearly complete and we have our very own ark of wildlife in the back yard which provides endless entertainment and challenge. We have a pair of black birds who have just raised their kids, we called the dad and mum Four, and Twenty. A hedgehog originally called Russell because of the noise he made in the brambles over the rear fence, is now called King Russell as we have built him his very own hedgehog castle to hibernate in over winter....And of course the american grey squirrels, which are seen by everyone but Gail as vermin as they have out-competed the English red squirrel for habitat. But they are small and furry so Gail can't resist them. I think I have finally found a way to feed the birds without feeding the squirrels and so harmony reigns again at our little home. Our rear yard is a veritable aviary with visits from wood pigeon, collared doves, chaffinches, and great tits, blue tits, coal tits, dunnocks, chiffchaffs, thrush, robins and magpies, we have a kingfisher in the river across the road etc,etc...you can probably tell Gail bought me a British bird guide.

Anyway, that too is now probably enough about what we did in June '08. We are looking forward to a long warm summer and Gail has a few weeks holiday July-August but we are yet to decide what we will do then. You can rest assured I will update the blog if anything interesting happens or if we remember to take some photos.

Liverpool day out and Gail's work shots

Hi all, Thought it time to download some of the pictures we have remembered to take and show you a bit more about our days here in beautiful (if cold) Yorkshire. We had summer last week, 5 days of over 20 degrees....all in a row! They tell us the 12 degree days we are having now will lead into warmer days but I'm not hopeful, thankfully we are acclimatising and have stopped wearing our thermal underwear.

As for what we have been up to I'll drop in some pictures with some explanations.

These two shots are of Greg and James in the lobby of a grand Liverpool Hotel, called the Adelphi, where we spent some time having coffee and catching up after our Italian trip last August. James was back in the UK from the Caribbean and in his old home town of Liverpool for a few weeks. He graciously showed us around the town and gave us a brief history and keen understanding of what makes the place tick. It is the 2008 City of Culture and of course historically the departure point for all grand world tours in the Victorian and Georgian ages. Of course other people remember Liverpool as the gateway to slavery or the home of the Beatles but both these things are becoming less referred to as time goes on.

Being close to the Irish republic ports and the main gateway into the Uk and beyond it is understandable that for many years Liverpool was divided down Catholic/CoE Lines... There are two cathedrals James took us through, Liverpool cathedral (CoE), the shot here (on the right) is of the crypt entrance and old graves as the cathereral, although finished in the 1970's after 100 years of construction is of gothic style and scale and rather austere, we were not tempted to take a photo,,,,, and the Metropolitan cathedral ("paddy's wigwam"), which is ultra modern and an architectural delight if an aesthetic challenge,,,,, Both are modern indications of the religious tensions of the city which have become less over time. James strolled us through the streets with great enthusiasm and banter showing us current and historic references. We traced the paths down to the Albert Dock , the Three Graces, all around the new regeneration works and he not only showed us a great lunch but finished off the day by taking us to a delightful cocktail bar where we regained our composure over a few Margaritas before leaving us to our own devices. Those well fueled devices included a happy walk back to our hotel when we encountered the Liverpool parking constabulary on horseback ticketing parking offenders..... we saw one bloke arguing the toss but when the authority is astride a stallion and you are not, the power play is obvious. We did spend the night at the Theatre where we saw a local playwright's comment on the past 30 years of Liverpool's re-development, a very poignant, political and well penned comedy which had us guffawing and reflecting.... Alan Bleasdale - On the Ledge --- if you ever pass through Liverpool.....

Closer to home, the fields around Wetherby are awash with gold at this time of year as the oil seed crop, rape, is in full bloom. We have a farm near our home which grows rape, strawberries and asparagus. As well as selling the rape seed to oil producers for food and fuel the farmer also cold-presses the seeds and bottles his own oil. High in omega and with a very high smoke point we use it for cooking oil as it is superior and healthier. These are shots of the rape seed fields, the farm and of course Gail and her car. We have also been to the much recommended Crab and Lobster pub just north of Wetherby where we had a delightful lunch. The place was well recommended especially enhanced by a warm day, full sun and a delightful spanish wine..

Of course Gail has been meaning to get some photos of her working life for a year now, these shots show the mobile van parked up at a hospital, the MRI table and the working desk where two or three staff work to process the patients and control the examinations. All rather cramped but a great learning experience. Despite the frustrations of working remotely and some poor corporate communications the staff are great folk to work with. That's it for now. We are off to Scotland on May 30 so there will be an update after that. .......'ay 'op.!