What On Earth Is Going On With The Weather?

The weather is always a topic of conversation in the UK and no wonder when it’s the middle of May and parts of this country are having snow, gale force winds and floods but precious little sunshine!   I rarely leave the house without making sure that I have an umbrella in my bag!

Despite the weather yesterday morning Caroline and I walked up through Ealees to the lake.

Look at those clouds.  Fortunately for us they only dropped one or two spots of rain on us and really we had a lovely walk.  We even sat outside the visitor centre and enjoyed a coffee.

Following a public footpath up through a field away from the lake this little cottage can be found.  A date stone above the front door proudly states it was built in 1721.

Harley, Caroline’s dog, is a veritable water baby.  He just loves it.  He’s a labrador/ border collie cross and we think it must be the labrador in him.  Those eyes are beseeching Caroline to throw a stone for him.

My sister, her husband and grandson are leaving the sunshine of Arkansas and heading our way for a holiday in a couple of weeks.  I’m really looking forward to their visit and I’m really hoping the weather bucks up before then for them!

I’m linking this post to Outdoor Wednesday.

Until next time,

Donkeys are Adorable.

It has been a gorgeous day today. 

Midmorning I put Muffin on the lead and set off for a walk around the neighbourhood in glorious sunshine.

I didn’t take my camera with me but everywhere looked so green and pretty that I whipped my iPhone out and started snapping pics along the way.

Luscious green fields.  Heavenly to see after all the dull grey days we’ve had this winter.

Muffin, now 14 and a half years old isn’t as energetic as he used to be and by the time we were halfway round he was panting like crazy.  Lucky for him the door was open at the King Bill where I asked the landlord for some water for one thirsty little dog. 

On the way back I passed the field with the donkeys in.  They saw me coming.  I made a couple of clicking noises.  As you do.

Seconds later there they were at the gate, waiting for me to pet them.  I’m sure they were smiling at me.  Aren’t they cute?!

Look at that adorable face!  Lindsay, the lady who owns Attica Yarns, the wool shop I love going to, has a couple of donkeys on her farm.  Both rescue donkeys, one is called Roy and the other, Thomas Church!  Unusual, funny and cute name, Thomas Church, for a donkey don’t you think?  It makes me smile every time I think of it.

I’m linking this post to Outdoor Wednesday over at A Southern Daydreamer blog.

Blues Skies, Nothing But Blue Skies…

…and it’s a Bank Holiday and we all know it usually buckets down on one of those.  So the blue skies and sunshine this Bank Holiday weekend have been a welcome surprise to all the sun-starved people of this little British isle.

William has been busy all weekend tidying up the garden, creosoting the fence, power washing the flags and painting all the woodwork in the house.  All this while suffering with a bad back that rarely eases up on giving him pain.  I don’t know how he does it all but he’ll be like a man possessed until it’s finished.  So yesterday morning while he was doing all that (my offer of help was turned down) I drove over the tops to Hebden Bridge where I met Victoria, Gary and the boys for an al fresco breakfast in The Square.  A little bit of excitement awaited me there.

One of my favourite TV programmes is Great British Railway Journeys presented by the colourful Michael Portillo - a British journalist, broadcaster, and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister.  I have the shows on series link so I can watch them minus adverts and as and when I want to.  Imagine my surprise and delight when I spotted Mr Portillo walking toward me over the old pack horse bridge in the centre of Hebden Bridge.  He was obviously filming for the programme.  I couldn’t believe it when I thought about it afterwards but, I stopped him to say hello and tell him I loved his railway programmes.  I had my camera round my neck so without further ado I asked him if I could please take his picture.  I only took the one shot and I was so glad when I put my glasses on and checked to make sure it was a good one and not blurred.  He certainly stands out in a crowd with his flamboyant style of dress don’t you think?

After the excitement it was onto the park where the  boys spent an energetic hour or so.  Nicholas above mimicking his dad in the basket swing.   George was doing the pushing.

This morning more stream jumping was on the agenda.  George even asked me to bring my camera and catch him in mid-air over a different part of the stream.  I was more than happy to oblige.

Nicholas waiting for me to get sorted before he sprang into action.

And over he goes.  Needless to say before it was all over this little fella was wet through!

With all the sunshine this weekend a Margarita didn’t feel out of place and courtesy of my thoughtful older daughter, Victoria, that is exactly what I had last night.  Very nice it was too!

Bay View and Black Sheep.

Bright and early Saturday morning William and I headed once more up the motorway to Bay View.  Trev and Charlie were waiting for us when we arrived.

The main  business of the day was to get the awning back up.  After I had helped as much as I could with it and wasn’t needed anymore I took Charlie off to the play area and left the men to it.

Our caravan is one of those little white blobs up there on the horizon.

It was way past lunchtime and Charlie was getting hungry so I found him something to snack on while the men put the finishing touches to the awning.

A family of black sheep.  Don’t see that very often.  One or two yes, but I’ve never seen a field with solely black sheep in it before.

A clear day for once and the hills and mountains of Cumbria were clearly visible.

Trev and Charlie didn’t stay the night.  Caroline had been working all day and was at home waiting for their return.  The evening turned cold, very windy and wet.  No surprise there.    We wondered about the wisdom of re-erecting the awning but it was still standing in the morning – thank goodness!

On Sunday Victoria, Gary and the boys came up to visit but unfortunately the weather had gone back to normal – cold, windy and raining.   So their visit was only a short one.  They had a bite to eat with us, a quick walk around the site, and then a hot drink before it was back in the car and home again.  I carried my camera about with me but for some reason didn’t get a single pic of them.  It must’ve been the rain putting me off.  Drizzle all over the lens doesn’t make for a good picture does it?

Until next time.

A Birthday, High Winds and Queenie.

Time seemed to slip away from me last week and before I knew it the week had gone.  So I’m doing a bit of back tracking here.

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Wednesday morning I got a lovely surprise.  Caroline called before work to leave Nicholas’s birthday present with me and presented me with a couple of bunches of beautiful tulips.  How sweet was that?

Wednesday was Nicholas’s sixth birthday.  I collected Charlie from school and then we both went along to Nicholas’s birthday party at his house.  This is the best picture I got of him.  I like it though.  All Three Little Treasures together and looking at the camera!!

Thursday wasn’t so good. We had been having really high winds over the previous few days and I know William had been worrying about the awning we had erected on the caravan only the previous Saturday.  His worries were well founded.  Thursday lunch time I got a phone call from Bay View.  “The high winds have taken the back of your awning down.  Would you like to come up and take the rest of it down to prevent further damage”.

I rang William at work.  He was able to get the afternoon off and we flew up the motorway at a rate of knots.  Fortunately for us the damage was minimal and the awning will be fine to re-erect and use the rest of the season.  It was hard work taking it down though.  The winds were whipping up a storm and the clouds threatened us with rain every inch of the way.  But we managed it and were thankful the damage was so little.

Not everybody had been so lucky.  We took a walk around the site to see how others had fared.  The owners of this awning, above, will find all they have left is a heap of rubbish!

This caravan awning had obviously suffered a similar fate and all that was left was the “skirt”.  We spoke to one of the site workers and he told us that in all 24 awnings had been badly hit.

There in the middle another casualty. 

This picture was taken just about ten minutes after we had finished working on the awning.  You can see the storm didn’t materialise.  The sky had miraculously turned blue and any clouds were now white and fluffy.

One last check over of the caravan itself and we were done. 

In view of the horrendous happenings in the world this week our little problem was not a problem.  My heart goes out to the people who have been affected by the Boston Bombings, the tragedy in the town of West, Texas and the earthquake in China.  Sadly the list could go on and on.

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For us the week got better.  Friday night George stayed overnight with us.  He likes to play cards, as do I, and I had promised to teach him a new game.  The new game being Queenie, or Chase The Lady as it’s sometimes called.  Granddad played too and what’s more we played for money.  I have a purse full of Euro coins left over from past holidays abroad and we used them.  I wasn’t teaching him to gamble with real money here, rather just making the game a little bit more interesting.  I have lots of happy memories of playing this game from when I was George’s age and on through adulthood too.

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Saturday morning as per usual George wanted pancakes for breakfast.  He didn’t want this one though.  I seem to have a talent for burning food.  I do like to eat most food well done but not pancakes.  This one went in the dog!

Fellfoot Park, Windermere.

Saturday afternoon when William came home from work we loaded the car and made our way up the motorway to Bay View to spend the rest of the weekend in the caravan.  Caroline, Trev and Charlie were already up there.  Between us one of the biggest jobs we had to do to be completely settled in our new holiday spot was erect the awning on the caravan.  This is one job none of us relish, it can be a real pain.  But it must be done.   I would’ve taken a picture but the wind whipped up from nowhere making the job more difficult and the rain came with it, so no pic.  Trev and William worked hard but it was worth it as the awning makes our living space twice as big. 

Bay View is only 30 minutes or so from Lake Windermere, which at 11 miles is the largest lake in our glorious Lake District.  On Sunday morning we decided to go and have a look at Fellfoot Park on the southern tip of the lake.

This was our first glimpse of the lake.

Looking down to the Boathouse Cafe, boat moorings etc.

Tables outside the cafe - just waiting for some good weather.

William checking out the Daily Specials on the blackboard.

The cafe is in a smashing old building, but the food on offer was nothing to write home about.  We only had a coffee and that was barely lukewarm.  We complained and were given fresh, piping hot ones the second time.  A beautiful view while we were drinking though.

Rowing boats to hire.  That might be fun if the sun ever pops out to say hello!

William watching the ducks on the water. 

Imagine this scene under a blue sky.  Won’t it be something?

Looking north up the lake to the hills beyond.

Blue skies or not - for some it just doesn’t matter.  This crew wasn’t one bit bothered, they seemed to be having a great time no matter what.

And guess what I found?  A host of golden daffodils.  Another week or so and there will be thousands of them in bloom.

Grey skies, rain, wind.  Whatever Mother Nature throws at it the Lake District is still  a very special place to be and yes, sooner or later summer will arrive.  (I’ve completely given up on spring!).

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday over at A Southern Daydreamer.

A Walk on Wednesday.

Wednesday I had both George and Charlie to keep me company.  The weather was quite mild for a change and both boys wanted to go outside. 

George loves to jump the stream that runs at the back of our house.  So we didn’t have to go far from home.

What child wouldn’t enjoy doing this?

I can remember doing this with my cousin, Sylvia, in the woods across from where she lived when we were about George’s age.  Happy memories.

Following the stream jumping we took a walk through the fields.   Well, I walked and they ran.

Along the way we came across this friendly little pony.

George wanted to know was it a boy or a girl.  He took a look. “It’s a boy, nan”.

Four year old Charlie, with no idea whatsoever he was looking for bent down too, took a look and echoed,  “It’s a boy, nan”.   I had a little chuckle over that.

Further on a helping hand was offered.

After all the excitement Charlie needed to sit down!

Just a little walk in the neighbourhood but a big Simple Pleasure!