Category: Just Visiting

Sunshine for our anniversary – 17 February 2021

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Forty eight years ago we tied the knot and the knot is still tight forty eight years later.

I actually got a message from Parcel Force to give me a one hour time slot for the delivery of my new lens. It wasn’t an anniversary present. Nothing to do with anniversary. Pure coincidence this time. The time slot was for 11.45 – 12.45. Right in the middle of what looked like a good day, but of course they got the time wrong. About 10.15 there was a knock at the door and there was a parcel on the doorstep with a Parcel Force man retreating.

After opening up the big box and extracting quite a heavy piece of metal and glass, taking a few photos, just to make sure it worked, we planned the rest of the day. We had dinner to buy at Tesco and meds to collect at the next door chemist, then we might go for a spin out in a world that had colour, not simply white.

It was when we left Tesco I thought we might go to Motherwell, the Capital city of North Lanarkshire and find Baron’s Haugh which is a nature reserve and parkland where my brother was taken loads of great photos.
So … we were heading for a nature reserve with plenty of opportunities for nature and macro photography and I remembered, just as we were driving down the slip road to the motorway, that I’d left my brand new macro lens at home, because when we left we’d intended to tootle round Cumbersheugh for half an hour and there would be limited photo opportunities there that I hadn’t already made use of. Numpty.

The reason for Baron’s Haugh in particular was because of a FB post from one of the salsa beginners from last year, berating me for being less than complimentary about Motherwell in general. She waxed lyrical about Baron’s Haugh and we though we should give it a try sometime. We got there after only one wrong turn (sat nav hadn’t a clue for once) and had a half hour walk past one of the bird watching areas in the sunshine although the wind was cold. We were standing on a crossroads of paths and I was checking exactly where we were with the OS map on my phone when a deer ran past, then another and another. In total, four deer ran past, less than 50m away. Motherwell is certainly a lot more rural than I remember it. We walked back to the car, but didn’t see any more wild animals and drove home, agreeing to go back again, better prepared for the conditions. Isn’t it strange that it took a Polish girl about the same age as our daughter to tell us about this parkland, almost on our doorstep.  Thank you Mirka!

Dinner tonight was individual fish pies from Tesco. Sounds a bit downmarket for an anniversary dinner, but they were rather posh fish pies in little thin wooden baskets and were baked in the oven. Washed down with a very nice bottle of white and followed by Eve’s Pudding from M&S. The only thing we made (Scamp made) was bruschetta as a starter and it too was intensely tasty.

We listened to Album II by Loudon Wainwright III (Me and my friend the Cat!) and reminisced for the second time recently. A great day.

PoD was a fence post covered in ivy from our Motherwell walk.

I used coloured pencils for today’s prompt of “Violin”. Not quite what I was intending it to look like. A bit clumsy but a change from paints and graphite or ink sketches. It’s OK, that’s all I’ll say.

The other day I almost cut my hair. “… It was getting kind of long. Could have said it was in my way, but I didn’t and I wonder why …” Tomorrow I may do that thing.

As you will have guessed this is another catch up. Hopefully the last for a while.

On the road again – 18 September 2020

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There’s not much you can say about going home after a great week.

We had to be out of the house by 10am and we just made it. Both cars packed, we said our goodbyes and drove off.

Journey north was uneventful, with only one stop at Gretna Village, a retail opportunity, you might call it. That’s now what I called it. I just called it a chance to stretch my legs. Scamp took the (retail) opportunity to buy a cheap(ish) hand towel to test alongside our normal towels to see if it would be worthwhile buying some bath towels from that make. Only time (and Scamp) have the answer.

Back home with some fuel still left in the tank. Not a lot, but on our travels we’d travelled just over 375 miles and still had about 90 miles left in the tank from the petrol we’d filled up with last Friday. That’s a lot better than the Juke would have had.

PoD was a view from the same window I took last Friday’s PoD from. I like to be symmetrical when I can.

Tomorrow I do not intend to do any driving.

Butterflies, Viaducts and Beer – 17 September 2020

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In that order!

The butterflies were feeding on ivy flowers on Frank’s Bridge in Kirkby Stephen. As far as I could tell they were all Red Admirals. They were taking a fair bashing from the honeybees whose territory they seemed to have invaded. The bees made their displeasure felt by apparently deliberately bumping them off the flowers. A strange behaviour I’ve never witnessed before.

Over the bridge, we were discussing which way to go, when a dog walker told us there was a great view from the hill beside the cricket ground. We thanked her and climbed the hill to the viewpoint at the top and she was correct. There was a great view all around from the top. Because the hill was fairly high, it was an uninterrupted view too. We met a couple from Durham who were also admiring the view. I took a few photos which turned into a 360º panorama which in turn would turn into a Tiny Planet. A bit of a cliché, but I haven’t done one in a long time, so that makes it ok. It became PoD, despite the fact that Scamp doesn’t like it.

Said goodbye to the Durham couple and walked down the other side of the hill and basically retraced our steps from Monday’s visit. Aha, but Scamp had other plans. After reaching the part where we would have turned right and walked back into town, we continued on using a wee lane to cut off a long corner on the road and almost reached a quarry entrance before we turned on to the old railway path. I like old railways, especially ones that have been turned into safe walkways that cut across country. It’s usually easy to imagine steam trains running along these arteries before Dr Beeching and his cuts destroyed the British rail network, back in the ‘60s. This one led immediately on to the Merrygill Viaduct over the Hartley Beck. We continued on to the Podgill Viaduct which crosses the Podgill Hole (!) which is another tributary of the River Eden.

There was a viewing gallery at the Podgill Viaduct, down 42 steps from the path. Fairly easy going down, but a killer coming back up. However it did give us a good view of the viaduct from below.

Climbed back up those 42 killer steps and walked back into the town. Got a seat quickly at the wee café Scamp had her eye on since Monday and had lunch there washed down with a half pint of Bitter & Twisted each, before heading back to the house. Well, we also had to stop for some bread and a cake each at the town bakers and some bulbs and another pot of marmalade from the deli.

Dinner tonight was a carry-out. Sim had phoned in an order for Chinese which JIC went to collect while I waited at Coast to Coast for three Fish & Chips. One door and a queue where you wait to place and pay for your order. Another where you queue to collect that order. One woman who shouts at you because you obviously don’t know how this works (she seems to be the only one who does) and one woman who for some reason treats you like a human. Good chips and excellent fish though.

More TV tonight and more pyrotechnics from the battlefield too.

Packing tonight, because it’s the long way home tomorrow.

The Grand Tour – 16 September 2020

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Today the walkers were going ‘up the spout’ again. We were heading for Ullswater to find another waterfall, Aira Force.

We set off on our travels, off the narrow roads and on to the busy A66. Found Ullswater quite easily with the help of the satnav. The scenery looked interesting but the roads are narrow and twisty, so there wasn’t much of a chance to admire the views. Tried to park at Aira Force carpark, but it was a waste of time. Too many cars which meant far too many people, so we drove on to see where we would get to. Decided on Kendal which we hadn’t been to and we’d be driving on narrow roads again which are so much more interesting than the wide ‘A’ roads.

Climbed the Kirkstone Pass which I’m sure we’d driven before, many years ago. Stopped at the top to take the view you see here. I remembered that view looking down the pass to Brothers Water in the distance. Since I’d not had a chance to photograph the big waterfall at Cautley on either of our visits, I did manage a few slow shutter shots of a wee stream at the top of the pass.

Drove on from Kirkstone Pass, down the other side and took the turning to Kendal. Wandered round the town and then found an interesting restaurant called Comida which is Spanish for Food. Scamp had poached eggs on toast, I had poached eggs on toast with spreadable Chorizo and a side of Padron peppers to share, although Scamp wasn’t impressed with the peppers. She did however order some churros which came with a glass of hot chocolate sauce and were delicious. It was an excellent lunch and we’d definitely go there again if we’re in the Lakes.

Followed the satnav after an argument with it, but eventually had to give in and “perform a ‘U’ turn when possible”. Came back through Kirkby Stephen and stopped at the Coop for more provisions. JIC and Sim were cooking tonight. Naked Fish and Carrot Chips! Sounded interesting and was. Very tasty. JIC did a great job of cooking the fish. We really need to try this at home. Carrot chips could be the next big thing.

Another beautiful day weatherwise.  Sat at night in the living room listening to the gunfire and explosions from the army camp a couple of miles away.  Skies lit up with flares over the ‘battlefield’.  I don’t know how the locals put up with the constant noise.

Tomorrow the walkers are off to Wild Boar Fell and we are hoping to do the Viaduct Walk in KS.

Cautley Spout revisited – 15 September 2020

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Hoping for better weather

In the morning Scamp read at the house while I tried another sketch, a rough, from a different angle. As sometimes happens, the rough turned out better than I’d expected, and became a shaded pencil sketch. I may have to give up the 20mm long Palomino Blackwing and release it from its pencil extender. It’s worked hard since mid April!

In the afternoon the two hill walkers decided we should revisit Cautley Spout, but attack it from a different angle. It was a much better day than the last time, so we agreed to have a go. Parking was a lot tighter than at our previous visit, but after waiting in the Cross Keys carpark, we managed to grab a space. The Cross Keys is a Temperance Inn where no alcohol is sold, or allowed on the premises. I didn’t know such places still existed.

Today’s walk started in the same direction as the last one, but then made a change of direction, going left over a narrow bridge and on at an angle up the hill with a dry stane dyke on our left side as we climbed gently round the edge of the hill. Great views of the valley below and lots of rustling from beech trees as their leaves were turning more brown than green in the autumn sun.

No rainy coat today, in fact I’d to tie my jersey round my waist and continue on in my shirt sleeves, the weather was so calm and warm. I began to wish I’d changed to shorts instead of jeans. After an hour or so of tramping along a path that started off almost as a stream bed with water running down it. Then through a field of grazing sheep past deep pools of running water where Vixen demonstrated her love of swimming. Eventually though the path started to lose itself to a bog and we decided that after a tangerine each for sustenance, we should call it a day and walk back down.

Further down the path, Vixen had another swim in the bigger stream which is the run off from the waterfall. She was on a long lead and seemed totally at home in the water.

Scamp was cook tonight and Holy Cow Chicken Curry was hotter than we expected it to be. Nice Stone Oven naan bread to soak up the leftover sauce.

A good day. Glad we did the easier of the two walks, but the weather definitely helped.

Kirkby Stephen on our own – 14 September 2020

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The other two were off climbing mountains, we were being tourists, in the sun.

Parked at the car park JIC had used on Saturday and then headed along the main street, which didn’t take very long. There wasn’t much to see. Walked back and had a look through the Cloisters, went through and had a look at the old church behind them. Took the path round the lawn and then exited on to the path that took us over Frank’s Bridge. Don’t know who Frank was, but he made a good job of the bridge. The air was full of the buzzing of bees in the bushes beside the bridge. A few butterflies too. Lots of ducks swimming in the River Eden underneath, but we didn’t have time for ducks. Instead we were following the path we’d travelled a couple of days before, except …

Except, instead of turning right after crossing a bridge over a stream and climbing up, up, up, we turned left and followed the stream past pretty houses whose gardens ran right down to the stream. How brilliant that would be to have a stream at the end of your garden, until it floods, then it might be a different story. We walked on and took a left turn at what seemed to be the end of the village. That eventually took us round past the cricket ground back to Frank’s Bridge. Took some photos of the ducks in the river under the bridge and watched a dog called Betty charging into the water and scaring the living daylights out of the ducks. I know this is boring, and means nothing to you, but remember whose blog this is!

Back in the town again it looked like there had been a funeral because lots of people dressed in black and the men with black ties had commandeered all the tables in the café Scamp wanted to have lunch in. Instead, we had a lunch in a Costa across the street. After a toastie and a coffee for me and a millionaire’s shortbread and latte for Scamp we crossed the road again. Scamp bought a sieve for fishing out poached eggs (that’s the best description I can muster) from an ironmongers. Then we found a deli where I got some marmalade that didn’t taste as home-made as it was advertised and a couple of russets, plus some veg for tonight’s risotto. Walked to the car, drove to the Coop and got some nice beer Lost Lager, plus other stuff, as usual when in foreign climes.

Drove home, to our home for the week. I’d bought a sim card for my old iPhone and spent a lost half an hour trying to get it to accept my credit card details to top-up Eventually I got exasperated and after checking with my bank that I hadn’t been spoofed out of my worldly goods, I shut the phone down. Thank you ‘Kenneth’ from O2 customer help who did his level best to get me sorted out. Went outside into the sunshine and while Scamp read, I sketched Pinfold Cottage where we are staying.

Dinner tonight was Prawn & Pea Risotto, cooked by Scamp.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go back to the waterfall, but this time we’re taking the more leisurely route.

Walk on through the rain – 13 September 2020

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We climbed halfway up a mountain today to see a waterfall.

Not your typical Sunday morning. Sat upstairs in the lounge willing the weather to improve for our second walk of the week. This one to Caultney Spout which is an impressive waterfall. JIC drove us to the parking place and we decanted into the rain. Crossed a narrow footbridge over a river. JIC and I noted the carcass of a deer, we think, impaled on a tree branch,just upstream from the bridge. Note to self: Don’t drink any of the water in this stream today.

Once across the bridge we turned face on to the wind and the rain and plodded onward along the path, passing other walkers going the other way. Probably they had already climbed the mountain and were on their way to the next. They all looked happy, cheerful hikers in their cagoules and shorts. Shorts? In weather like this? You have to be hardy to play that game. We trudged on. Then I found that the Teazer had mysteriously managed to extend its lens. Even worse, it wouldn’t shut down. Finally got it to behave, but the battery level was showing nearly empty. What it had been doing in my pocket all the time, I have no idea. Never mind, I still had the Oly 1.

Further on and the wind and rain were lessening. At first I thought (hoped) the weather was improving, but we were just entering the lee of another hill and that was sheltering us. It was round about then the Oly 1’s screen went black. Switched off and on again, but still nothing. Removed the battery and pushed it back into place and got the message to set the date and time, not a good sign. Set them and all seemed well, full three bars on the power icon.

The path became steeper and wetter after that. We also had to cross a few streams. As the slope increased even more, Scamp suggested that the other two (plus Vixen) go on as we were just holding them back. They pointed out where they were going and we just nodded. Were those orange and red dots really people? Apparently they were. We let them go on, leaving us the opportunity to take our time. The Oly turned off again. This time I plugged in a replacement battery, reset date and time and it was operational again. Thankfully it remained working for the rest of the walk.

We could see that Sim and JIC were on their way back down again led by the four wheel drive of Vixen. The rest of the walk was uneventful and we were soon on our way back home after turning at the Cross Keys which is a Temperance Inn. A real one. No alcohol served, not that we were bothered, we were heading home for lunch. Got stuck behind a tractor travelling at a sedate 20mph for mile after mile on twisty turny roads with lots of traffic coming the other way. No chance to overtake, but the patient JIC took it in his stride, but we all breathed a sigh of relief when it turned off into a housing estate.

Tonight’s dinner was cooked by JIC and Sim and was Bacon and Borlotti Beans. After dinner we watched the New Monkey Magic. Not a patch on the original.

Tomorrow the hill climbers are heading for the Nine Standards and we’re heading for Kirkby Stephen.

Ready for the off – 11 September 2020

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Waiting, waiting, waiting for the party to begin.

Not exactly a party, but the start of a week in Engeland! We were leaving around 2pm to coordinate with JIC and Sim who would be leaving earlier, except, as usually happens, they were delayed, but we left around 2pm anyway, because we were excited and ready for a fun-filled week in the North Yorkshire Moors. Even the very name reminds me of The Slaughtered Lamb pub. Nah, it will be fine. Anyway, it was a chance to test out the new Micro, ‘Blue’ to put it through its paces and hopefully achieve a better mpg than the Red Juke was capable of.

We drove through the rain and little bits of sunshine all the way down until we nearly reached Penrith, that’s when the traffic started backing up on the slow lane of the M6, hundreds of yards before the first countdown marker for the exit. We didn’t mind all that much, we had plenty of time. The problem was two different diversions, both of them funnelling traffic into the exit we were taking. Coupled to that, it was Friday, early finishing day for work and school so once you’d factored that in, it was really surprising that only half an hour after we met the holdup, we were back on our way again after forcing our way through two roundabouts of merging traffic. Not an easy thing to do in a nearly new car with folk thinking they could cram you out of the way because you don’t want to scratch a new car, do you? I didn’t, but I hate queue jumpers too. So I did what I usually do in these cases and drove even slower to make them wait.

Got to the house and were just investigating the rooms when JIC and Sim arrived. That holdup had balanced our times so they weren’t that late after all. I’d grabbed the garage as our parking place to leave room for their Volvo. Only fair, I thought. To the winner, the spoils.

The PoD was the view from the upstairs lounge. As you might just be able to see, it was still raining.

Weather fairies say the weather will improve tomorrow. Let’s hope so.

Up and out! – 29 August 2020

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Today Scamp was off early to her pal’s caravan in St Andy’s. Posh city. I was nominated driver

There are thing you can believe and trust in, and there’s satnavs. Ours took us through every small village in Fife and missed out none but added in a few small town to even up the score. How in the name of the wee man could this conceivably be the ‘Quickest Route’. An hour and a half to travel 60 miles? Surely that can’t be right. That would mean travelling at approximately 40mph. Any slower and we’d have needed a man (or woman) in front of us waving a red flag. All to go to the posh end of Fife. However, when we got there, the caravan park we were heading for wasn’t quite what I’d expected. This was indeed Posh City. Beautiful views across sandy beaches which, admittedly, did have temperatures just into double digits today. From the panoramic windows of the caravan they look beautiful though.

Stayed a while to see Scamp settled and took the obligatory group photos and then I headed north to Leuchers to see if there were any ‘airies’ to be seen. Leuchers is no longer an official RAF base, but as Lossiemouth is having its runway relaid, Leuchers is now a temporary base to RAF fighters and reconnaissance aircraft. Just as I neared the airfield the call had seemingly gone up and the crew or scanner holding photogs were racing along the side of a farmer’s field to find a space to photograph an aircraft landing. It was definitely military and it was big, which meant it wasn’t a fighter aircraft and therefore I wasn’t interested. Let them run about like ‘maddies’. I’d done my time at that sort of thing and now I’d grown up. At least that’s what I consoled myself with as I headed further north and over the Tay Road Bridge.

I skirted the city itself and stopped to grab a shot of the “Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay!” as McGonagall described it. It was indeed ’silvery’ today. Back on the road I stopped at Perth for coffee beans of the Cuban variety and also some of the Sumatran persuasion before pointing the Red Juke in the direction the satnav suggested which was back north. As it had actually found the caravan site, I trusted it knew where it was going and gave it its head. It did take me on to the south-bound motorway after a few circuitous routes. I can only hope that the Micra’s Tomtom satnav is more sensible in its choice of routes.

Back home I had a slice of pizza to stave off the hunger pangs before I walked down to the shops to buy tonight’s dinner (M&S Chicken Tikka Masala) and the makings of tomorrow’s dinner.  Walked back.  The brilliant blue skies of the morning had gone and were replaced by dirty white clouds.  However it was dry if not all that warm.

PoD was a shot I’d taken this morning before leaving of a Cranefly (Jenny Long Legs in Scotland), beating the Silvery Tay to second place.

Tomorrow I may go looking for brambles while Scamp heads home.

The postman knocks – 17 June 2020

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Well, not actually the postman, it was the Amazon man and he brought a parcel!

This was the first part of this week’s order. It turned out to be a bottle of Smidge, insect repellant and very good stuff I may add. Thank you Sim for recommending it – a year ago almost to the day! Also in the parcel was a pack of ten refillable fountain pen reservoirs. I only ordered one, but that gives me nine spares!

Drove down to the village after lunch to visit Isobel. We had a wander round her garden then we sat in the sun on her drying green, or drying asphalt as it actually was. She got us up to date on all that was happening in the village, in the garden and in the family. Then she kept us amused with tales of her life when she was a wee girl during the second world war. A very entertaining afternoon. Unfortunately there wasn’t much shade from the sun, and Scamp hadn’t put on sun block this morning, so we had to give our apologies and make tracks for home.

We’d watched a gang of four guys stripping the roof of one of the nearby houses in the morning. By the time we got home the entire roof had been cleared, including the sarking, back to bare rafters. New sarking had been nailed on and that was covered with roofing felt with strips laid for the new roof tiles which were neatly stacked on their slightly dodgy scaffolding. Maybe cowboys, but hard working ones

We’d stopped at M&S on the way home to get provisions for tonight’s dinner which was a fancy version of spaghetti with prawns. About half an hour after we got back, the Tesco order got delivered. Dumped it in the kitchen and Scamp told me to leave the rest to her and sent me out to get photos. The best one I got was of the butterfly. Still to ID it, but I remember taking photos of its aunt or uncle last year, so it will be in Flickr somewhere.

Today’s topic was Draw a Power Plug. Not riveting, but worth doing just to check your observation skills. It’s things we see every day that are the hardest to draw because we tend to draw what we think we see, not what we are observing.

Big day tomorrow, because we’ll find out what Lockdown Release part 2 brings us. Other than being glued to the TV for that, we have no plans.