English Travels - Part 4 - The Midlands

Drinks and dinner at The Hopwood with Pauline (mum)

As ever, we barely seem to have stopped, though a lot of it has been sociable. Thursday we were at Rob and Alex’s, we had a gazebo to erect and a house to clean. There was going to be an event the following day.... they were getting married! Hurrah. The house is a work in progress, the kitchen has no plaster or ceiling, the spare room was plaster boarded, but no more....Got as far as we could, and then had to do a runner, mum had a haircut booked. Now that’s important! We got back and the sun was out, so we headed to the pub for an early supper. It wasn’t the warmest, but it was fab to be out, and we really enjoyed it.

Waiting at The Mailbox in Birmingham just as they all arrived: LtoR: John, Bonny, Alex, Rob, Mark & Andrea 

Jackie outside her old place of work at the BBC, Birmingham

Back to R&A at 09.30 on Friday morning, chairs and and table, nibbles for later, sandwiches for the other four guests who were arriving from North and South Wales, decorations... There were flowers everywhere, for the table, for bouquet and button hole and as gifts. We left at 11.30 to change, eat and meet them back at the Mailbox (where I used to work) to walk to the registry office. We were honoured to be there as the ‘standby’ witnesses. Fortunately we weren’t needed for that, but were still invited! We met old friend Ed, a

All lined up in a wedding group, here we are for a photograph..

photographer from the mountaineering club (Edward Shaw Photography), who Rob had lodged with when he first came to Birmingham, but where were the other members of the party? As ever, time keeping is not the best, but they arrived, looking fabulous. We walked together Ed taking pictures, arriving bang on time. Despite being a completely minimalist ceremony (no music or singing allowed at the moment) I think everyone had a tear. We are all so thrilled that they have finally got married!

Ed lining up Rob and Alex for a photo with the others standing around watching on a lovely warm afternoon

The bride and groom at the reception

A quick jaunt to the Winterbourne Botanical Gardens, part of the University where Alex works, for photographs. We haven’t, as yet, got Ed’s pictures so it’s pictures of pictures being taken instead. We vacated as the bell ringing for closing time became more frantic and headed back to the house.

The champagne was chilled, and the nibbles plated up (I’d carefully labelled them “not lunch” to avoid any confusion) and the party began. Catering was coming in, Bistro@B31 had been all set to open a restaurant as Covid hit, so have been delivering instead. I’d found them in the web, Alex had tried calling, to no avail, but Rob had got through. The food was delicious and they were stars, they plated up, served and washed up with absolute efficiency. We were waited on and ate and drank and celebrated with efficiency! Possibly too much efficiency on the drinking! An Uber home just after midnight and the end of a wonderful day.

Here's one of Ed's professional photographs of Rob and Alex. A fabulous photo!

This is Andrea and Mark (Rob's best mate from his rugby days)

Saturday we should have had the mad panic of readying Ted for our trip to the Yorkshire Dales, but due to mum getting an appointment today (Monday) at the ophthalmologist, fortunately we could take it easy. To the pub instead then, the Attic Brewery in Stirchley to meet Bev and Iain and Helen and Ian. It was lovely to see them all and catch up, though more catching up is required!

Sunday as a spare day, without a hangover, was food shopping, we’d only planned until Saturday, and then going to visit in the garden with John and Helen and Richard. It was lovely to actually be able to sit and talk with them for the first time since the funeral.

And this is Bonny and John (Alex's good friends)

We’ve had two days of bird watching in the garden, the bird feeding station mum was given for Christmas has been starling central, half a dozen newly fledged chicks and about eight more mature starlings are eating anything they can get their beaks on, or in the case of the babies, anything mummy puts in their beaks, though they are beginning to work out what to do on their own. It’s been a joy watching them!

So today has been prepping Ted, and blogging before the hospital at 17.00. Tomorrow we head back north which will be either lovely or OK, depending on the weather!

And here's us making up the numbers. A nice compact gathering of eight. A fabulous day and great people - it just went too fast (and we drank far too much)!

At the Attic brewery for Saturday afternoon drinks, with Bev (not seen here, she's taking the photo), Iain, Helen and Ian. Those pints Jackie and I have lasted the full two hour booked slot, the quantity of alcohol we consumed the previous evening at Rob and Alex's prevented us drinking more without being ill! Mind you, Bev and Iain were at Helen and Ian's the previous evening and Bev was suffering the same as us. She only managed a half - lightweight!  

Haircuts wouldn't normally get a mention, but these times have not been normal. Hairdressers opened for the first time on April 12th and getting an appointment has not been easy due to the demand. Jackie got her's on 4th May. Here she is before she went...

And here she is after. I think she feels a bit better!

English travels - Part 3

Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire

Our first rain, but that’s ok, we’d been down Spurn Point, so just the drive to Martin. An hour or so, our sort of journey! Easy to find, and plenty of space to park Ted. It was just a bit strange when the first phone call I’ve made to him probably in 18 years was “we are just passing the Italian restaurant, open the gate”! It was lovely to see him, meet Alison his partner, 8 year old Joe, their son, and James, Alison’s son. We’d had a good gossip before being taken to the beach, all of 10 minutes walk away, and left to our own devices while Martin did the school run. We picked Bridlington rather than just the beach. Pleasant seaside town, with a working harbour, too cold for ice cream, but perfect for fresh donuts (here's a short Relive video of the walk, with more photos. Click Here and press the arrow to play). We arrived back at the house, not long after Joe who was very excited to see real people. He gave us the full tour of the property, 2 horses, 2 ponies, 2 rabbits, 1 ferret, 3 turkeys and chickens and ducks. We ran about, played, chatted, ate fish and chips and had a lovely time.

Alison, Joe and Martin at their spacious house near Bridlington

Jackie with her old university friend, Martin

We had to make sure we were up and out of Ted before Joe went off to school to say our farewells. I got the gammon into the thermal cooker for dinner while Martin did the school run. On his return we followed him to Flamborough Head (location: 54°07'43.3"N 0°06'21.2"W) for a lovely little walk, before heading north to Goathland (or Adensfield for those that used to watch Heartbeat.) (location: 54°24'00.6"N 0°43'10.5"W)for our next social meeting with Simon and Diane driving down from Edinburgh.

Martin and Alison's son Joe with one of their two little ponies

Set up with Si & Di's campervan in Goathland

We arrived at the campsite and both went very quiet, I tried to find someone while Brian used the toilet. “You won’t be going in there” he said. We walked up and down the site (it was all on a slope, as well as undulating) and struggled to find a space for us, let alone a space for us and Si & Di, who had booked a neighbouring pitch, in theory! The people and children running about were fairly off putting, we couldn’t find anyone to speak to and Searchforsites showed another site closer in to Goathland. We rang them, they had space, though we would have to move for the Friday, the beginning of the Bank Holiday weekend, and she nearly choked

A great (but cold!) evening with Dawn, Dan, Di & Si

when I said “we are at Brow Top Farm (location: 54°23'28.1"N 0°43'17.2"W), you are not like that are you?” She had warned us it was down a bit of a potholed drive. She wasn’t wrong. We turned off that and it got worse, twisty, up and downy, and potholed and then we got to the bottom, and the railway bridge! A man in a car had reversed out of our way (kindly) and knew there were going to be two of us, but no, the other van wasn’t behind. However on being asked how high the bridge was got a little confrontational, “you should know the legal maximum height of a vehicle “ we do know Ted’s height, he is fine, there was no height on the bridge. With heart in mouth, and head out of the skylight I encouraged him forward, reversing up the track would have been horrendous. We probably had 3” to spare, it was all a bit stressful! (Abbots House Farm, location: 54°23'39.7"N 0°42'16.6"W)

On our Goathland & waterfall walk. This is Thomason Foss waterfall

Mallyan Spout waterfall

We found ourselves in a nice field with a pretty stream, we got ourselves level and put the water on to heat for showers. The electric was a bit pathetic, fortunately after tripping it once, we could turn our heater demand down. Sadly Si&Di seemed to spend half their life resetting a tripped switch. We were clean and tidy by the time Si&Di arrived, the gammon was cooked, potatoes peeled and parsley sauce made. Tea and cake then.

So started three days of sitting outside wearing as many clothes as humanly possible.

Brian had found a great walk for our first day, it went through the campsite. Two waterfalls, some rolling fields and finished up at the one open pub/coffee shop in the village. (here's a short Relive video of our walk, which includes more photos. Click Here and press the arrow to start) The deluxe hot chocolate and cake was great, though mine was bigger than me. I could only manage half, the other half coming on our walk the following day and then being shared with Brian. Dan and Dawn from Tadcaster were coming over for dinner, we had heard about each other so it was lovely to meet, and very good of them to drive an hour and a quarter each way on a school night. Di cooked that night, some yummy moussaka. She was very calm as she carried the baking tray with flaming containers out of the van and put it on the floor. They went out, and as they weren’t plastic containers they could go back to finish cooking and all was well.

Seen on a house in Goathland. Apparently this is fairly typical in Yorkshire according to Simon (a born and bred Yorkshireman) 

Brian’s knee was giving him some gyp the following day, so we thought we were having a shorter day, till he decided he wanted to tick off another trig point. We are not doing all 6500! (here's a short Relive video of our walk, which includes more photos. Click Here and press the arrow to start) 

Cafe stop at the Mallyan Spout Hotel

Finished back at the coffee shop, I’d already had my cake so I decided to have a milkshake, it had two fingers of twix cut up on it! I think the sugar rush was probably just as big as the previous day! We had hoped, in vain, that we would be able to get dinner out, but there was nothing so we had a very interesting meal. The remainder of the dips, olives and pita bread from the previous evening, we had an ‘emergency quiche’ and some salad. They had two portions of Thai green curry, and we had cheese and crackers, a four course mix and match dinner, and far too much wine, again!

Jackie's cake was on the large side. She only ate half of it! 

It was lovely to see them but our little trip was soon over, they headed back to Edinburgh and we headed south towards Mansfield. A peaceful campsite, just what we ordered after walking and drinking (Norwood Farm campsite, location: 53°14'34.2"N 1°12'35.9"W).

Our walk the next day took us to the summit of Simon Howe hill (260m) and another trig point!

Dinner was the end of the gammon, two duck eggs straight from the duck as we’d left Martin, and chips from the hot counter at Tesco that had reheated beautifully. We did head out for a little walk on the Sunday, he promised me a pub, but it was shut, a little further on though we came to the Gate. Probably not a pub we would ordinarily have gone in, but everyone sitting outside was so welcoming, we had a pint and some onion rings, along with sun, rain and hail. Bit like the previous few days had been then!

This is a zoomed in picture of an early warning station high on a hill in the distance. 'Don't take a photo of that' said Simon, 'we'll all get arrested'. Probably in some countries we would have been

We arrived back at mum on Bank Holiday Monday, our 18th wedding anniversary, after stopping for lunch with Tim and Jill in Derby and a very excitable Ruby dog. What a sociable, socially distanced time we had in the last week, it’s been fab, seeing real people. Back to Earth with a bang then, Tuesday I had a haircut, hurrah, Brian his second Covid jab and then an appointment with the skin clinic. Today mum and I have been to Sainsbury’s on the bus, home by taxi as a practice for her shopping without using the car. We were planning on lunch out, but April hail showers have spread in to May. It’s possible we may get out early evening instead, we shall see...!

The Famous Grouse - and looking very superior on the moorland as we ascended Simon Howe hill

Walking round Goathland. The town was known as Adensfield in the old 1990's TV series Heartbeat. The shop here has the Adensfield sign still 

Adensfield Garage (actually a gift shop in Goathland)

Here's that low arched bridge at the end of a mile long narrow potholed track leading to the Abbots House campsite. Not much headroom here! Had we not got through we would have been faced with a long reverse along that narrow track

Relaxing on our campsite in Langwith, Nottinghamshire after the previous hectic few days

Drinks at The Gate hotel in Langwith. Here its sunshine, but it also hailed while we were there. Good job we were undercover

The Gate hotel. We would probably have walked on past in a normal world, but when we walked past it was open, tables were outside  and people were drinking beer! The five tables occupied were locals who arrived at different times but all seemed to know one another. By the time we left we had spoken to most of them and the all said goodbye as we left. What a friendly place!