Another month (August) in the UK

A walk with Denise and Paul on a very hot day in early August

Another month has passed and we've settled into a good routine, which doesn't seem to include blogging!

A weekly walk with a rotating crew of John, Brian and Keith. The last one certainly made a change. On Brian's birthday, John, who has sworn off alcohol for a few weeks, bundled us, and Keith, into his car to take us to Princes Risborough to do a circular walk over some of the Ridgeway. Despite the Ridgeway being Brian's first multi day walk, and the one he did on his own, he remembered none of it. The reason for this deviation from the norm was the weather had finally broken and the heavy band of rain was sitting across the Midlands. We were just out of this band and remained dry for the day. Hurrah.

Walking over the Stratford-Upon-Avon canal aqueduct near Wooton Wawen 

John, as ever has featured quite highly. He's bought himself a second, little old car, to join Joyce, the Herald. He now has an MGB too. Any excuse to take it out, we got a call asking if we wanted a trip to the Coach and Horses, despite the fact he had to do a double shuffle. Yes please. Then when Brian posted to the walking group that he was doing a long training walk, no, John didn't want to go too, but "How are you getting back?" A lift was much quicker and easier than the three trains it would otherwise have taken.....

As we walked further along the canal towpath this grass snake swam past us. It was moving quite fast through the water and disappeared into some reeds

John's trip to Epsom was multi purpose, firstly to check the car and pay the balance, and secondly to bring home another kitten. Gambit. He is the half brother of Tara who he already has. They haven't immediately bonded but they don't hate each other! He is so cute, he's like a little shadow. It'll be very difficult for me (not) being on cat duty over the weekend while John is working and Brian is in Scotland.

Tuesday walk with John through the lovely village of Offenham with it's Maypole

We went to see Aunty Margaret, in Bury St Edmunds coinciding our arrival with Jonathan, Lucy and Caroline who were finishing up their week away on the east coast. Lovely to catch up with them too. As they headed home, well into the afternoon, we took advantage of the newly decorated spare room and stayed over. We went to Lavenham the following day, a very well preserved medieval town with lots of beautiful buildings. We persuaded Margaret to join us and had a lovely walk round and lunch before heading back home.

Followed by refreshment at the fabulous old pub The Fleece at Bretforton

Monday was a slightly unusual day, we got the 08.36 train to New Street where we caught the Liverpool train for a day trip. Our friends Victor and Gregg from Palm Springs were visiting for the day on a cruise and wondered if we might be able to meet up, for a cup of tea. I think they were slightly taken by surprise when we said it had taken us 3 hours from leaving home to getting to them, but we had a lovely day and are really pleased we made the effort. I did say if we'd had to drive or if the advanced train fare had been much more than the £38 we paid we might not have, but I think they were quite touched. We popped into the Cavern Club just for a bit of atmosphere, before heading up to the Philharmonic Dining room which is a beautiful pub. The highlight, apparently, is the gents toilet, which obviously I couldn't go in and see. The ladies were nothing special, but the rest of the building was definitely worth seeing. We had lunch there, which was good, though we knew it would cause us problems, as this wasn't our only outing for the day.

Our very Heath Robinson set up for watching the partial eclipse. As it was happening late in the day we could see it through the back bedroom window as that's where the sun would be. We've got a pair of binoculars on a tripod with one lens covered with cardboard

We closed the curtains to block out as much light as possible and focused the image onto a white card held in a clamp. We're ready! 

We took lots of photos and this was the best we got, taken by Jackie with her phone camera. I know it looks like the moon but it is the sun reflected on the card through the binoculars and this was at the maximum eclipse of 90% that we got in the UK. It went quite dull outside and our garden lights came on briefly, but it didn't get properly dark

On our return to New Street we walked to the Old Moseley Arms, just round the corner from Diwan's, our best curry house. The second event of the day was a Comms balti. The last of my colleagues retired at the beginning of the year, I went in 2012, with some of the others going about 20 years ago. It was great to meet up though, we haven't done so for ages. 14 of us, including Brian and John, who never actually worked for the BBC in Birmingham, but knew everyone through Sarah. Despite walking very fast, we hadn't managed to build up an appetite, so Brian and I shared an onion bhaji before having two mouthfuls of our curries and taking the rest home for dinner tomorrow! Saves cooking anyway! Luckily for us, John had driven in, in Joyce, the Herald, so we finally got a ride in her as he took us home.

Next doors cat Luna treating our house as her own. If the doors open it's hers to explore!

Eating does seem to feature highly, we've had a couple of good walks with Denise and Paul, both finishing with pub lunches. This week it was an interesting trip round Alvechurch. Some bits you don't normally see, while not being too far away in case of thunderstorms. A couple of days before that we had the 'annual paella' with Fiona and James. It's always a great meal (though I do say so myself). It does take a long time to prep, but I enjoy pottering in the kitchen, and we all get to reap the rewards. As usual, it was a late night, we were just going to bed as Jenny was getting up to get to the airport for her early Ryanair shift. I'm far too old for that sort of thing!

We had a day out with lunch at Tim and Jill's near Derby and a tour round their scaffolding! They have a big old house on which they are having outside work done, so we took the opportunity to go up there for a different view before it was removed

Looking down at part of his back garden and his huge field beyond. All that is Tim and Jill's land

Our thunder storm worries were based on the mammoth storm we had on Sunday evening. A simultaneous flash and bang, a smell of hotness and the TV going off complaining of 'No Signal'. Our neighbours TV also went off, but came back. Ours didn't. Better ours than theirs though, they have just had a baby, who amazingly slept through it. Up in the loft Brian took the signal booster out of circuit and we got pictures back, though with disturbances in the sound. At least replacing that is quicker and easier than replacing the TV!

Another week and another walk, this one with John and Keith and the start is Honeybourne after a breakfast stop between trains to get here

We are having some work done in the garden. The hawthorn tree has been taken out. It did look beautiful in the spring, but it is such a messy tree, blossom, leaves, buds and berries. These all fall onto the slate, where if they are left turn to soil which eventually things will grow in. This means I always have something to do  and the low maintenance garden isn't really! We left the lilac branches which give some height and hopefully the removal of the hawthorn means that the black elder we planted a couple of years ago might begin to thrive as opposed to looking on its last leaves! It would like a bit of sun, and a lot of water neither of which it was getting. We may however have killed it with kindness and over watered it, but we shall see. As well as taking out the hawthorn the tree surgeon also removed the tops of next-doors leylandii and branches into our garden so we can replace the fence that looked old when mum moved in! That hasn't been done yet, but I'm still cleaning up the sawdust. My life hasn't got any easier yet, but hopefully it will!

We walked past Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre where new trains or modifications are run through extended trials on a rail proving track before being released for use

There obviously has also been lots of life maintenance and other bits and pieces. Lunch at Tim and Jill's was lovely. The nearly total eclipse we watched, in the dark, in the back bedroom, reflected through half a binocular. He spent a long time setting that up! Plus lots of cooking 

Ice cream break on a disused railway track, now a multi use path with old railway carriages for cafes along the way

Walking over an old bridge on the line 

Refreshments in the Coach House at Stratford-On-Avon at the end of our walk. It's a Davenports pub, a brewery that I remember from my youth that disappeared for years. Its been resurrected and, they tell me, its brewed to the same recipe as the old Davenports, so they consider it a continuation from those days. The beer was very good!

Our day out in Lavenham with Margaret, Jackie's Auntie. It's a beautiful village and seems to have escaped modern developments, the newest we saw being Victorian. This is outside the Crooked House with a blue MGB GT classic car parked outside

There were quite a few classic cars parked about the town, including this beautiful old Bentley

We followed it with lunch in an old world cafe in the square. We had a thoroughly enjoyable day out and Margaret enjoyed it too 

With Victor and Gregg in The Philharmonic Dining Rooms, Liverpool. It's a beautiful old pub that seems to have escaped any 'improvements' over the years

We were told not to miss the gents toilets and so, here they are!

Waiting for our train home on Liverpool Lime Street railway station, itself a classic building

John buys his second classic car, a 1973 MGB - and what a beauty it is! It's been completely refurbished but all parts are original (except the cylinder head has been changed to allow it to run on unleaded petrol)

Out on my long training walk in preparation for my multi day Great Glen Way walk starting this Friday, 4th September. I did just over 13 miles (21.15km) with 480m of ascent in 4 and a half hours, walking from home in Alvechurch over the Lickey Hills, Waseley Hills and Clent Hills, finishing at the King Arthur Bathams pub at Hagley. This photos at the Beacon Hill toposcope on Lickey Hill. On the horizon to the left of the little castle are the tall buildings of Birmingham City Centre

Arriving at the King Arthur in Hagley and there's John meeting me with a pint of Bathams after driving over to pick me up in his MGB

Its another week and another walk (except this was my birthday, so I could do nothing wrong!). On this one John, who has stopped drinking alcohol for a while, drove to Princes Risborough rather than have us take the train as we normally do

However he still parked at the train station and both he and Keith took the opportunity of taking a photo of a passing freight train. I wonder if it will appear on next years train calendar that he makes and hands out to us all each year

Within the station is a platform for a heritage railway that runs trains along the old track to Oakley. This set was just leaving, its pulled at the front by a steam engine and this old Deltic diesel will pull it back. The carriages were full of enthusiasts with some of them decked out for fine dining with people in their best clothes. Its a bit like that posh day out we had on a heritage train last year, except ours was a full day out and all the way to North Wales, this one's much shorter

Up on The Ridgeway with Keith and John. I've been here before when I did my solo multi day walk from Avebury to Ivinghoe Beacon a few years back, but I can't say I recognised it

Big Roman snails! Didn't see any of those on my last visit

Our finishing point (we got an Uber taxi back to his car!), the Three Crowns near Monks Risborough

Followed by several of these! We deserved it!

Tree surgeons at work! Look carefully, there's one up the tree in the centre of the photo and one collecting at the bottom. They'd already cut the hawthorn down by this time

This was a 'Before' photo with Hawthorn tree...

And this was after. The trees at the back are down to branches, but we're having a fence put up to cover most of it. We think it has opened the garden up a bit and let more light in

John's new kitten, Gambit, is very cute. He names his cats after the old Avengers series from the 1960's and 70's. He's currently got Tara and this one's Gambit

Here's another photo of him, he's so cute!

Last weekend was at Fiona (my daughter) and James' for our now traditional annual Spanish day with fabulous paella cooked by Jackie

As usual, it was a fabulous weekend. Not much of the paella left is there!

It was a very late night. This was after 2:00am and you can see by the red eyes that much alcohol had been consumed!

Monday walk with Denise and Paul. We decided on a local walk round our village of Alvechurch and the fields surrounding it

Followed by lunch in the Red Lion in our village afterwards. We'd eaten it all by the time I took this photo