Buttermere

Before my sister in law and her husband moved to Wales they lived in the spectacularly beautiful Lake District.  We were fortunate to be able to visit and stay with them lots of times.

This particular weekend, it was October 2007, we drove over to Buttermere via the Honister Pass.  We had to stop and take photos. The scenery was just  breathtaking!

Here we are at Buttermere.  It was a glorious autumn day.  Perfect for a walk round the lake.  Before setting off on this walk there's a little shop/cafe and it sells the best ice cream.  I had a Turkish Delight flavour one and it was the best I've ever tasted. 

St. James Chapel in the hamlet of Buttermere.  More info and pictures of the chapel here.

 

Not surprisingly, small as Buttermere is there are a couple of pubs to quench your thirst in.  We had a good hot meal and a drink in one of them but I can't remember what it was called now. 

Three happy wanderers, my husband, his sister and brother in law having a picnic in the autumn sunshine.

Just looking back over the many photos I have of the Lakes fills me with longing to go back.  Honestly there are days when I yearn for the place!  The Lake District has got to be one of the most beautiful parts of England's green and pleasant lands.

Happy memories.

TTFN,

Kathleen.

 

After months of talking...

...about it they've finally done it.

My lovely sister and her husband are coming home for a three weeks summer holiday in June.  My sister is English but her husband is American and they live in Arkansas so we don't get to see each other very often.  So what a pleasure it was to get an email today telling me that she had booked their flights!

I'll be talking to her later on to get all the details but for now it's just good to know that she has actually booked.

Linking to Dayle and her wonderful weekly Simple Pleasures party.

TTFN,

Kathleen.

 

Pinks

William buys me flowers every so often.  He bought these Pinks for me last weekend and they are now opening up and looking all bright and cheerful in the dining-room.

I love to play about in Photoshop Elements and I've applied a free Kim Klassen texture to this photo.

Ciao for now,

Kathleen.

 

Madeleine McCann

 I don't believe there can be many people who haven't heard of Madeleine McCann.  Madeleine was abducted in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007 while on holiday there with her family.  She was barely four years old at the time.  There was huge worldwide publicity over this little girl's disappearance and yet three and a half years later she is still missing!

The memory of this little girl haunts me as I'm sure it does many others and that's why I've put her details on my sidebar.  My heart goes out to her parents and family.

Just this week Madeleine's name is in the news again.  There is speculation that she could be in the USA.

These are photos of Madeleine copied from the official Find Madeleine website.

Please visit http://www.findmadeleine.com/index.html to find out more about this tragic case.

Kathleen.

Walking in Sunshine

After all the grey weather we've been having lately it was a pleasure today to be able to take a walk in the sunshine.

 

The sky was blue and all was well with my world.

Not so much with Muffin's though.  I was merrily stepping it out enjoying the blue skies, fresh air and scenery until I felt resistance on the end of the lead.  I turned round and there's Muffin.  Standing still.  Not budging an inch.  He'd had enough and we weren't even a third of the way round!  There's just no pleasing some dogs is there?  Needless to say I made him carry on. 

Linking to Dayle's blog, A Collection of This and That, for this week's Simple Pleasures.

Kathleen.

A Crafty Weekend

Well, it's been a bit busy round here since yesterday lunchtime.

This happy couple, my daughter and her husband, treated themselves to a night away in a very nice hotel in Leeds and treated me to looking after their little boys for the night.  They rarely get away on their own, hence Victoria's big smile.  She was really looking forward to it!  The boys were really looking forward to staying here with us so it worked out well.

Luckily for me help was at hand in the name of Caroline.  She came up trumps with the idea of having the boys all make Valentine's cards.  She went to The Range and bought all the bits and pieces, prepared the session and the boys had a whale of a time.

They all love to do this kind of thing, especially Charlie.  For a good while after George and Nicholas had finished their cards and moved onto something else he continued to play with bits of paper and glue. 

After all the craftiness we managed to get to the park with Nicholas and Charlie to let them burn off some energy.  George didn't want to come because it was raining.  Which indeed it was but he missed out because fortunately the rain stopped and blue skies showed through.  We all enjoyed the fresh air I think.

Backing up to Thursday now when my lovely cousin, Sylvia, came over for a visit. 

As always we had a great time together.  We had thought about going over to Rawtenstall to take a look at Mr. Fitzpatrick's last surviving Temperance Bar in Britain.  Deciding to save that for another day when we have more time we instead spent a leisurely afternoon in the local towns of Hebden Bridge where we had lunch and Todmorden where we browsed through a full to the brim antiques shop. 

Finishing the afternoon off with a coffee and scone in the very nice Bear Cafe above this Co-op shop.  Sylvia and I were amused to find a group of ladies in here all doing their knitting.  We chatted to a couple of them and discovered they meet every Thursday afternoon.  We were even invited to join them next week. Such friendly ladies but with Sylvia living quite a distance away in Whaley Bridge I think it unlikely we'll be taking them up on their offer.

So I'm back up to date now.

TTFN,

Kathleen.

Muffin

My simple pleasure this week is a constant everyday pleasure.  Meet Muffin, our little Yorkshire Terrier.

He looks like a puppy and when we're out walking people always think he is a puppy but he's actually quite an old dog at 12 years old.  He's resting here in his favourite spot, on the back of the armchair which looks out over the street.  He has the sweetest nature you could wish for in a little dog and we love him.  There is not one ounce of aggression in this little chap and that's just as well when my three little grandsons are pestering the life out of him.

Just one other thing people always think little dogs like Muffin are yappy.  Well, that's just not true, not in Muffin's case anyhow.  That's all I just wanted to set the record straight. :-)

Linking to Dayle's blog A Collection of This and That.

Kathleen.

A Sunday Afternoon Drive.

William and I decided to go for a drive this afternoon.  A walk would have been nice but the bad weather put us off that idea.

We set off up Blackstone Edge over the tops and dropped down into Ripponden passing Batings Dam and Reservoir and a few more besides in the general direction of Sowerby Bridge and Halifax.  Then through Copley, toward Greetland and coming back to Ripponden.  We passed through some very beautiful scenery.  The wind was blowing a gale and it rained quite hard at times so we didn't exactly get out and admire said scenery.

 

Thus we ended up in The Fleece.  A quaint country pub in a great spot with panoramic views over the Ryburn Valley.

 

Where William studied the menu but wasn't tempted by anything.  We both had a good hot cup of coffee though. 

These are the views from the pub.  Yes, I stood in the middle of the road to take this picture.  The views from the back of the pub are wider and better.  But like I said it was blowing a gale.  I didn't hang about.

Just a little way down the road from The Fleece is the Old Bridge Inn.  Another quaint pub.

 

A 700 year old quaint pub no less!

This bridge has to be crossed to get to the Old Bridge Inn and on the other side of it..

..are these little cottages (now a B & B).  I can't work out why there are three front doors.  To me it looks like there should only be two.

On the other side of that bridge also was William waiting for me.  So I dashed back to the car and we were home in about 15 or 20 minutes. 

Not a bad way to spend a wet February afternoon.

Tarah for now.

Kathleen.

Great Weather For Ducks.

When I say it's dull, damp and dismal around here...

 

...I'm not exaggerating.  Still, we're not struggling under 2 ft of snow nor floundering in flooded streets so I'm not complaining just stating a fact.

I went along with Victoria and the boys to Costco today.  With weather like this there's not a lot else to do.  Problem was everybody and his uncle had the same idea.  Costco was busy!

While Victoria queued up to pay for the stuff we had bought I took the boys back to the car in the basement car park.  They played around, I took some photos and Nicholas got filthy.

Spring isn't far away.  Ever the optimist, that's me!

Kathleen.

 

Tutankhamun Exhibition

Caroline has been wanting to go to the Tutankhamun Exhibition, which is on at the Museum of Museums, The Trafford Centre, Manchester since it began back in October.

Today we finally made it.  The whole Tutankhamun thing has never really interested me but after today I have a newfound interest in it all.

I've heard about all the treasures that were found in the boy king's tomb but until I actually saw this exhibition I had no idea exactly what that meant.  I wouldn't know where to begin to try and describe the vast array of beautiful objects, exact replicas to be precise, that were on display today.  There was naturally a whole lot of information to take in too.

It was impossible to take any good photos because of the dim lighting in the museum.  That dim lighting though enhanced the spectacle of all the treasures that were on display to perfection. 

I really enjoyed this trip today and if anybody is interested it's on until the latter end of March.  It then goes onto Brussels.   Here's a link to the official website. 

Thank you, Caroline, for opening my eyes to the wonders of ancient Egypt.  We had a good day today didn't we?

Kathleen.