A month in the UK

A sunny late winters walk along our local canal

We've been back a month now and haven't done a blog. We've been doing lots of other things instead though.

Brian spent a long time planning a trip to Japan, which we have now put on ice. It feels a little foolhardy to be planning a trip in that direction just at the moment, so instead he's now looking at Canada which may not be much better cost wise with increased fuel prices!

Followed by lunch in our garden with Luna, next doors cat

We've been out walking with Brian and Keith. The first week Brian planned a walk along the length of the, nearly 2 mile, Netherton Tunnel which we have walked through in the past. This was different in that we followed the length of it from above to find all the pepper pots that mark the ventilation shafts. 

At one of the ventilation shafts of the Netherton canal tunnel. There were, I think, 7 in all and we had to visit all seven, even though they were all very similar. The advantages of a Tuesday walk!

We couldn't do this in a straight line however, with roads, houses and private fields in the way, but it certainly made an interesting outing. John, sensibly had a dental appointment, so met us at the Vine, a great Bathams pub attached to the brewery. 

Some of them were somewhat difficult to get to, but Brian and Keith are not one's to be put off! 

And when we got there it looked very similar to the others. I won't bore you with the other 5 (one of which was in the middle of a roundabout in a housing estate and another in someone's front garden!)

But it was a splendid walk through countryside

Finished with a few pints at the excellent Vine pub attached to Bathams brewery in Brierley Hill

The following week he was working and Brian was away so Keith drove Brian and I to the Cotswolds to walk around Belas Knap a Neolithic long house which we had been to before, Brian while walking the Cotswold Way, and both of us with Denise and Paul on a walk I think when we were house-sitting near Cheltenham. Another good walk with more restrained pub visiting. This was 'undone' on Friday when we were struggling with the crossword only to get a WhatsApp, of what turned out to be the back of our heads. John and Keith were hiding behind the car, giggling, like small children. We joined them at the Weighbridge for a few very enjoyable drinks! 

Out walking the following week with Keith to visit Belas Knap

With a couple of pints of Butcombe Rare Breed after in the Lion Inn in Winchcombe

This was  tainted by a message from John when he got home saying that little Emma cat wasn't well. After a trip to the 24 hour vets it was decided that she had FIP which her sister died of when he'd not had them long, so sadly the decision was made to put her to sleep.

Little Emma cat when we were looking after her while John was away

We had only just returned home after a couple of nights away in Buxton. Having seen good weather forecast we impulsively booked a short trip. Keith recommended the Monsal Trail, an 8.5 mile cycle path to Bakewell on an old disused railway. It was a good cycle, lots of other cyclists and walkers all taking advantage of the good weather. 

Cycling the Monsal trail near Bakewell, Derbyshire

We left the bikes for a while to climb this hill for a classic view of Monsal Dale and the Victorian Monsalhead viaduct

Before cycling through the long Headstone tunnel to get to Bakewell

We enjoyed a Bakewell pudding (not tart, that's the modern version apparently) and cycled back. I'd been looking forward to a Thai meal in a restaurant close to our Airbnb and was quite surprised to see it looking busy when we walked past for a pre dinner pint. We booked a table, though actually it probably wasn't necessary, the tables emptied not long after we arrived as the occupants headed off to the Buxton Opera House to see Spitfire Girls. Not an opera, but a straight play that sounded quite interesting, so we decided to see if we could go too. We finished our meal and had 20 minutes to get down the hill, buy some tickets and make our way to our seats. Talk about spur of the moment.

Bakewell pudding with custard which followed our first course of Derbyshire Rarebit, both firsts for us. We ate them in the restaurant of the 17th century 'Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop' in Bakewell. We're told the pudding was invented by accident in the town and the recipe was, in 1860, secured by a Mrs. Wilson who started to produce them here. We thus ate Bakewell pudding to the original recipe in the building in which they were originally first produced. Others in the town, however, claim that's all rubbish and were originally produced in their shop! Believe what you will, it was a nice experience

The very splendid Buxton Opera House, where we attended a performance, in the centre of fabulous Buxton with its array of grand Victorian buildings built because of its supposed health giving Spa waters that bubble up nearby

The following morning before coming home we headed back to the Monsal Trail to do the Cheedale stepping stones walk. 3 miles by the river, very pretty, if not a bit muddy. Lots of dippers flying about, though I'm not sure he managed to get a good picture.

A lovely, spontaneous, few days.

Back to the Monsal trail next day to walk a bit we'd cycled the previous day to get to the Cheedale walking trail. At the bridge over the river crowds of people were gathered to abseil off the bridge to the path by the river below

Setting up their ropes for their abseiling day. Abseiling to us is just part of rock climbing and is a convenient way of getting back down. Here its an event on its own

Walking through the scenic Cheedale and, as usual, we were looking up at the crags either side to check out climbing routes

My best photo of a dipper. Its not very good as I didn't have my proper camera with me only the phone camera

Jackie heading over one of the two groups of stepping stones we had to negotiate

We've also walked from Church Stretton on a mountaineering club walk, though it turned out to be just us, with Alex and Rob and Taaibah, the walks secretary. A very atmospheric walk and a late pub lunch. Ideal. 

Our Solihull Mountaineering Club outing on the Long Mynd, led by Taaibah (in the white coat) with Rob and Alex

At Pole Bank in the mist, the highest point on the Long Mynd. Not the best day for a view!

A walk with Denise and Paul around Birmingham topped off our walks. They had a little puzzle booklet they'd bought to entertain the grandchildren in the summer, that they'd managed just less than half of. I think we enjoyed it more than the kids did and we saw some interesting bits of Birmingham we've never seen before despite walking past many times! Again, a pub lunch to finish the walk in the Old Joint Stock, there's a definite theme here!

Out with Denise & Paul on our puzzle walk through Birmingham City Centre

Solving one of the clues in a part of Birmingham we'd never been to before

We've seen Sunday club, Monday club and Terry and Sue. Been climbing and done lots of life maintenance - hygienist for me and hospital for Brian after his drugs trial. Financial advisor and much time spent trying to fit my awkward feet into some new walking shoes. He's even built a set of bookshelves in the bedroom, in a completely wasted space. I have filled it immediately, but it brings us a step closer to being able to change the unit in the living room. While he's been planning I've done lots of gardening and cooking, some really good meals though I do say so myself. I finally roasted the leg of lamb I'd bought at Christmas so a proper Sunday with John, before a Moroccan flatbread dish, lamb biryani and shepherd's pie, all of which stretched to feeding us for 5 days. I love leftovers!

Talking of which, it's getting around to that time again....

I sent him that, but he didn't get round to it, so a little more. Yesterday we went to RAF Cosford with John and Brian, not our usual walk, and it wasn't even Tuesday, but interesting nonetheless. I haven't been since mum and I took Charles and Caroline maybe 15 years ago and Brian has never been. There is no pub there, but when you are with people that know, we broke our journey in Wolverhampton and went to the Great Western for a hot pork sandwich and a few pints, so somethings stayed the same.

Yesterday's Tuesday walk on a Monday to Cosford RAF museum with Brian and John. It's a really interesting, large museum that has free entry (places to make a voluntary donation are available in many places). It was made even more interesting with John's amazing knowledge of aircraft and defense equipment

Jackie and Brian check out the oldest surviving Spitfire while John checks his phone

Two weeks in Spain

Greetings from Spain. Richard, Elizabeth and Jackie

We've been in and out of the UK recently and, already this year have ticked off a 14 day trip to Norway to see the Aurora Borealis, followed by a ski trip in the French Alps and, since the last blog have had 15 days in sunny Spain to see Jackie's dad, Richard and Elizabeth and it's not even the end of February yet. Now back in the UK we're catching up with friends and family and catching our breath whilst planning our next trip. More on that in the future.

Their lovely house on the Costa Del Sol with the Bernia Ridge behind

How enjoyable it is, as always, to spend sometime at R&E's lovely villa on the hills above Altea-La-Vella beneath the amazing Bernia Ridge on the Costa Blanca. It is one of the sunniest places on mainland Spain, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea being and being protected from Atlantic weather by the high Spanish plateau. The result is a relatively dry, sunny climate but, at this time of year can have a cold air temperature not benefitting from the warming Gulf Stream. This means that, once the sun sets, evenings can get quite cool, around 11 or 12 C, so packing warmer clothes for the evening is a must. Daytimes however are warmed by the sun giving air temperatures of 18 C which, in the strong sun feels like 25 C - pleasantly warm, to hot in the sun. Our first weeks weather was less than perfect due to the storm that engulfed the UK and western Europe and, although we didn't have rain we did have very strong winds that prevented us enjoying the views on their balcony, but by week two things settled down and we enjoyed the calm pleasantly warm, sunny days that we have been accustomed to.

The views on my running route from the village

We flew from our local Birmingham airport after getting a taxi there from home and got another taxi from Alicante airport to their house at the other end, making the whole journey easy, apart from the huge queue's at the airport for passport stamping, fingerprints and photos in preparation for Europe's rolling out of a new electronic entry/exit system. In the interim we have to suffer the delay but hope that once its fully rolled out it'll be much easier (he said hopefully!). The machines wouldn't accept our fingerprints on entry so, after waiting in a long queue for that and being rejected we had to wait in another long queue to be manually processed by a man in a booth with the old fashioned stamp. Joy!

One of our evening quizzes

Anyway, we arrived and were greeted in their usual hospitable way and settled down to catch up with everything that's happening over there. Richard is not so well these days, moving quite slowly, so they don't get out so much, but Elizabeth is still is doing a sterling job looking after him whilst ably managing shopping, cooking and all home finances, so full credit to her. Our trip coincided with the Winter Olympics, something Jackie and I are fans of, so were keen to keep up to date with it and watch some events on the TV. Elizabeth also had an interest and, between us we got quite into it, cheering on GB when we could but also enjoying the spectacle of the various events, cheering and shouting at the TV (good job they're well away from neighbours!). The new ski mountaineering event was great as we could relate to it having done it ourselves. To see how quickly they could ascend uphill with skins on their skis, then whip the skins off at the top without even removing the skis before skiing down at top speed left us amazed, their fitness is astounding!

Altea La Vella old town

The very high wind during our first week put a stop to watching the Olympics when the swaying trees brought the fibre optic cable down freezing the picture of a curling match I was watching on TV and cutting the internet to the computer. Luckily we had mobile phones we could still use to contact the provider. It took a couple of days for them to repair it, the first visit just to confirm that the internet wasn't working and, oh yes, there's the cable on the floor, then a second visit with two people to rerun the cable. At the same time they upgraded the router, which is now super fast, but that meant that everything had to be reprogrammed with the new password. It took me a while to work out how to reprogramme Alexa, my first attempt left her thinking she lived in Alvechurch not Altea. The second attempt was successful but only after I told her she was in Spain so she started taking in Spanish so, more time to make her speak English    

Sunday lunch at Restaurant Mallol

We've been out quite a lot, eaten at the local Indian restaurant in their village, Buddha Castle, had Sunday lunch at the excellent and very popular Restaurant Mallol and an Italian meal at La Gondola Art Restaurant all in their local village. Together with a number of cafe's and shops they are very lucky to have all this close by and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time and made maximum use of it all. We even had a takeaway paella from Restaurant Mallol which Jackie and I collected in their car and ate on their sunny balcony with a few glasses of wine.

On my walk back from Albir. That's the Bernia Ridge and we've been on the top of it all over the years

We made ourselves useful too, I did a number of jobs in the house, repaired a kitchen shelf, refixed some roof tiles loosened by the storm and used their long reach chain saw to chop some branches from trees that had processionary caterpillar nests in. If you don't know about these, they can cause significant damage to trees and pose a health risk to humans and pets due to their irritating hairs. To do the job I first had to repair and rewire the long reach chain saw, cover the patio with plastic to catch the falling branches containing the nests and get Jackie to hold the ladder so I could reach them. As I didn't want the falling nests to touch me I protected my head with one of Elizabeths shower caps. Although Jackie took a photo, there won't be one on here! Whilst I did that, Jackie helped Elizabeth with other aspects of their life, something that took a lot of time and I think she's helped a lot. They certainly spent a lot of time poring over the computer in their study.

The internet people running the new cable after the wind brought down the old one

Early evenings before dinner were spent outside in the sun on the balcony with drinks and quizzes, which I had on my phone. It was a great group thing we did and thoroughly enjoyed by all. As soon as the sun went down, if we weren't going out, we came in for dinner and more drinks. What a pleasant life! I also spent some time with Richard on puzzles from an app I have on my phone, so we did Wordle, the cryptic crossword and various word games which keeps his mind active and gave us both lots of pleasure.

Jackie and her dad working on a crossword 

I did a few runs by getting up early, driving to the village and running a couple of circuits of a route I've found that takes me through some very pleasant lanes with orange and lemon trees and always amazing views of the mountains. I was back before breakfast just as everyone else was getting up, showered and ready for the day in no time. I also did a couple of walks, one about 7 miles back from Albir after Jackie and Elizabeth dropped me off in order for them to do some shopping. I followed tracks and footpaths on my off line maps on my phone and managed to meet them on their way back in their village for coffee and lunch, very pleasant!

Our paella on the terrace day

All in all, a nice break in the sunshine before returning on Monday last to, at least relatively dry and reasonable temperatures in the UK. We were straight out to shop, followed by a beer and curry with Ian and Helen to celebrate Helen's 60th birthday and then, yesterday, out for a Tuesday walk with John and Brian W around Worcester. A seven mile walk with a few beers afterwards made another good day, although Jackie was below par so struggled with the beer afterwards. It's really nice to chill out today and catch up with things, but I'm out tonight at a lecture in Birmingham about parallel universes and their possible existence which should be good. Couldn't talk Jackie into it so I'm going with Bill and Martina.

Jackie munching away on the paella in the sunshine with their view beyond. And, yes, we've been on the tops of all those mountains in the distance too in the past

That's it for now, until the next blog...

Elizabeth and Jackie on the seafront at Altea with Calpe rock in the distance and Sierra de Toix mountain above E. We've rock climbed all over those in the past

Back home again in the UK and out with Ian and Helen celebrating Helen's 60th birthday at Akram Kashmiri Indian restaurant in Stirchley

Out yesterday on our walk with Brian W and John around Worcester. Here Brian is pointing out  the flooded Worcester racecourse. No racing on there for a while!

Looks like we've brought the sunny weather back from Spain with us

It was followed by a few of these in various drinking establishments. The evening disappeared into a blur after half a dozen of those. Apparently I was grumpy to Jackie in the evening, something I apologise for!