Cody and Mum
Ken and Geraldine
Geoff and Danielle
Mum and Audrey
Tilly and big brother Cody
Gilean
Matt and Kelly
Jen and Ed
BIL and SIL
Ian and Claire
A good day was had by all!
Location:Morecambe
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Mum's Birthday Celebration - lunch at the Clarendon
A family celebration with Mum's brother Ken joining us with his wife, Geraldine and Ian's eldest son, Cody.
Cody and Mum
Ken and Geraldine
Geoff and Danielle
Mum and Audrey
Tilly and big brother Cody
Gilean
Matt and Kelly
Jen and Ed
BIL and SIL
Ian and Claire
A good day was had by all!
Cody and Mum
Ken and Geraldine
Geoff and Danielle
Mum and Audrey
Tilly and big brother Cody
Gilean
Matt and Kelly
Jen and Ed
BIL and SIL
Ian and Claire
A good day was had by all!
Mum's 80th Birthday
The Saturday celebration was to be at the communal lounge at Mum's flat in Clarence Court.
Here's some pictures of my family:
George, Kelly with friend Matt, Edward, Danielle and friend Geoff and George's friend Jen. Twins George and Edward had been with me in South Africa during August. They and their elder sisters Kelly and Danielle are the 4 children of my sister Jennifer and her husband Jeremy.
Jeremy and Jennifer.
Kelly
My brother Ian's children Gilean and Tilly.
Jennifer, Ian and Janice. I'm the eldest.
Matt and Kelly
Danielle and Geoff
George and Jen
Mum's friend since childhood - Audrey
Mum's neighbor Helen
Whoops, lit the candles on the cake and the smoke detector went off!
Mum
Ian and Gilean - Ian and Claire's house will be featured on Grand Designs tomorrow night.
Ed
Tilly and Claire.
The lounge at Clarence Court.
Here's some pictures of my family:
George, Kelly with friend Matt, Edward, Danielle and friend Geoff and George's friend Jen. Twins George and Edward had been with me in South Africa during August. They and their elder sisters Kelly and Danielle are the 4 children of my sister Jennifer and her husband Jeremy.
Jeremy and Jennifer.
Kelly
My brother Ian's children Gilean and Tilly.
Jennifer, Ian and Janice. I'm the eldest.
Matt and Kelly
Danielle and Geoff
George and Jen
Mum's friend since childhood - Audrey
Mum's neighbor Helen
Whoops, lit the candles on the cake and the smoke detector went off!
Mum
Ian and Gilean - Ian and Claire's house will be featured on Grand Designs tomorrow night.
Ed
Tilly and Claire.
The lounge at Clarence Court.
Location:Morecambe
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Using the Stagecoach North West Goldrider
Mum wanted a day out in Kendal which meant a bus ride of about 12 miles. She gets a free bus pass so I decided to buy myself a pass for a week's free travel anywhere in the north west costing £24.
Kendal lies very close to the Lake District and Mum enjoys browsing through the shops.
Spot the old cobbled streets and if you look closely - Hogarth's Jeweller's.
Here's Mum outside a shop that specializes in chocolate of any description.
A view of the main street.
For my second bus trip I caught a bus to Lancaster bus station with the intention of choosing another bus to an exotic destination. The first bus that I saw was going to Keswick which is in the Lake District, about 2 hours away by bus. I grabbed a few timetables from the office and hopped on just in time as the doors were closing.
Well as I read through the timetables I realized that It was too late in the day to get to Keswick and back again and so jumped off the bus in Bolton le Sands to walk back to Morecambe.
The next day I caught a bus outside Mum's flats that took me close to Heysham Harbour about 4 miles to the south. I planned to walk back from Heysham to Bare. The weather was clear but very blustery. As I walked along the path the wind was blowing me off to one side.
Just before the village of Heysham I reached the remains of an ancient 8th century chapel.
Next to it is the present day church and a small village with twisting streets and stone cottages.
A very picturesque church with Morecambe Bay in the background.
The remainder of the walk was along the promenade back to Morecambe, luckily the wind was blowing from the south and pushing me along. There's a row of terraced houses as you reach Morecambe that are about 4 storeys high with great views across the bay to the Lake District Mountains. Some of them have not been split into flats or renovated and would make interesting projects.
On Wednesday I caught the 555 to Keswick (early in the day this time) and planned to go for a walk around Derwentwater. Once again I didn't make it! The bus was almost half an hour late arriving in Kendal, which is the half way point. The driver got out, changed the sign on the bus from Keswick to "Not in Service" and asked us all to get off. "There'll be an open top bus along just now for Ambleside" he said.
The open top bus arrived and the sign said Grasmere so we alighted, after all Grasmere was another few miles towards Keswick.
The bus arrived at Windermere railway station, it was very cold on top in the wind so we soon moved under cover. The bus then did a 20 minute detour down to the Lake front at Bowness and back to the railway station!
See the swans.
We then set off again to Grasmere via Ambleside.
By the time we arrived it was once again too late to try and get to Keswick and back.
I walked around Grasmere Village eating a Melton Mowbray pork pie and a Mars Bar for lunch (as you do) and then set off to walk the four or so miles back to Ambleside alongside Grasmere Lake and Rydal Water.
Beautiful!
Lost the path at one time and had to scramble down through some woods and climb over a fence. Had visions of slipping in my trainers (my hiking boots were at home in South Africa) coming to grief, and not being found for days as nobody knew where I was.
Isn't life exciting sometimes?
Kendal lies very close to the Lake District and Mum enjoys browsing through the shops.
Spot the old cobbled streets and if you look closely - Hogarth's Jeweller's.
Here's Mum outside a shop that specializes in chocolate of any description.
A view of the main street.
For my second bus trip I caught a bus to Lancaster bus station with the intention of choosing another bus to an exotic destination. The first bus that I saw was going to Keswick which is in the Lake District, about 2 hours away by bus. I grabbed a few timetables from the office and hopped on just in time as the doors were closing.
Well as I read through the timetables I realized that It was too late in the day to get to Keswick and back again and so jumped off the bus in Bolton le Sands to walk back to Morecambe.
The next day I caught a bus outside Mum's flats that took me close to Heysham Harbour about 4 miles to the south. I planned to walk back from Heysham to Bare. The weather was clear but very blustery. As I walked along the path the wind was blowing me off to one side.
Just before the village of Heysham I reached the remains of an ancient 8th century chapel.
Next to it is the present day church and a small village with twisting streets and stone cottages.
A very picturesque church with Morecambe Bay in the background.
The remainder of the walk was along the promenade back to Morecambe, luckily the wind was blowing from the south and pushing me along. There's a row of terraced houses as you reach Morecambe that are about 4 storeys high with great views across the bay to the Lake District Mountains. Some of them have not been split into flats or renovated and would make interesting projects.
On Wednesday I caught the 555 to Keswick (early in the day this time) and planned to go for a walk around Derwentwater. Once again I didn't make it! The bus was almost half an hour late arriving in Kendal, which is the half way point. The driver got out, changed the sign on the bus from Keswick to "Not in Service" and asked us all to get off. "There'll be an open top bus along just now for Ambleside" he said.
The open top bus arrived and the sign said Grasmere so we alighted, after all Grasmere was another few miles towards Keswick.
The bus arrived at Windermere railway station, it was very cold on top in the wind so we soon moved under cover. The bus then did a 20 minute detour down to the Lake front at Bowness and back to the railway station!
See the swans.
We then set off again to Grasmere via Ambleside.
By the time we arrived it was once again too late to try and get to Keswick and back.
I walked around Grasmere Village eating a Melton Mowbray pork pie and a Mars Bar for lunch (as you do) and then set off to walk the four or so miles back to Ambleside alongside Grasmere Lake and Rydal Water.
Beautiful!
Lost the path at one time and had to scramble down through some woods and climb over a fence. Had visions of slipping in my trainers (my hiking boots were at home in South Africa) coming to grief, and not being found for days as nobody knew where I was.
Isn't life exciting sometimes?
Location:North West England
Saturday, 15 October 2011
A Pleasant Stroll in Lancashire
Set off alone on a very sunny afternoon (the forecast is for snow next week!), with the 7 day bus pass in my pocket and no plan of where to go.
Opposite Mum's flats is a bus stop so I though of catching a bus to Lancaster and then seeing where I could get to from there.
Next to the bus stop was a footpath sign luring me to Hest Bank. That's the great thing about England - lots of footpaths, cycle tracks and signposts. The path was no great shakes and even a bit scary, narrow, between hawthorn edges and no views. Littered with crab apples and quite muddy in places. It went along the back of Happy Mount Park and Morecambe Golf Club.
The blue pin is Mum's house in Bare. Mum used to be a member at the golf club until her breathing difficulties.
At one point the path crossed the railway line and a large sign said, "stop, look and listen". I thought it was the track for the Lancaster to Morecambe train which pootles along quite slowly. Just after I had crossed there was a "Whoosh" and the express from Carlisle to Euston hurtled through. Whoops.
I came out near St Lukes church in the parish of Hest Bank with Slyne and checked a couple of bus timetables to see if I could get anywhere interesting in the remainder of the afternoon. I noticed that there were buses to Keswick via Carnforth and made a plan to do that later in the week before my bus pass runs out. The pass covers the whole of the north west. That's another great thing about England, almost every bus stop has a timetable posted in it, giving the bus times from that stop, the name of the stop and where the buses go to. It was quite lucky that by reading the bus timetable I realised that I was heading south back to Lancaster, instead of north to Carnforth!
I headed down the main A6 into Bolton le Sands until I reached the junction where the Morecambe and Lancaster roads meet. Traffic was hectic so I climbed down the steps to the banks of the Lancaster canal.
Another sign said that there would be a canal ferry coming along shortly, however it didn't appear. I decided to walk back towards Lancaster along the canal. There were several boats moored alongside the banks but I only saw one boat travelling. The houses on the opposite bank had gardens stretching down to the canal and some had their own jetties. I passed several other people walking and several cyclists passed me, ringing their bells.
I eventually came out into Hest Bank and made my way down to the shore. The tide was starting to go out and the view of the Lake District mountains was hazy.
I walked back along Morecambe promenade, past the other side of the golf course and back to Mum's.
Opposite Mum's flats is a bus stop so I though of catching a bus to Lancaster and then seeing where I could get to from there.
Next to the bus stop was a footpath sign luring me to Hest Bank. That's the great thing about England - lots of footpaths, cycle tracks and signposts. The path was no great shakes and even a bit scary, narrow, between hawthorn edges and no views. Littered with crab apples and quite muddy in places. It went along the back of Happy Mount Park and Morecambe Golf Club.
The blue pin is Mum's house in Bare. Mum used to be a member at the golf club until her breathing difficulties.
At one point the path crossed the railway line and a large sign said, "stop, look and listen". I thought it was the track for the Lancaster to Morecambe train which pootles along quite slowly. Just after I had crossed there was a "Whoosh" and the express from Carlisle to Euston hurtled through. Whoops.
I came out near St Lukes church in the parish of Hest Bank with Slyne and checked a couple of bus timetables to see if I could get anywhere interesting in the remainder of the afternoon. I noticed that there were buses to Keswick via Carnforth and made a plan to do that later in the week before my bus pass runs out. The pass covers the whole of the north west. That's another great thing about England, almost every bus stop has a timetable posted in it, giving the bus times from that stop, the name of the stop and where the buses go to. It was quite lucky that by reading the bus timetable I realised that I was heading south back to Lancaster, instead of north to Carnforth!
I headed down the main A6 into Bolton le Sands until I reached the junction where the Morecambe and Lancaster roads meet. Traffic was hectic so I climbed down the steps to the banks of the Lancaster canal.
Another sign said that there would be a canal ferry coming along shortly, however it didn't appear. I decided to walk back towards Lancaster along the canal. There were several boats moored alongside the banks but I only saw one boat travelling. The houses on the opposite bank had gardens stretching down to the canal and some had their own jetties. I passed several other people walking and several cyclists passed me, ringing their bells.
I eventually came out into Hest Bank and made my way down to the shore. The tide was starting to go out and the view of the Lake District mountains was hazy.
I walked back along Morecambe promenade, past the other side of the golf course and back to Mum's.
Location:Bare to Bolton le Sands and back
Friday, 14 October 2011
Around and About in England
Supper with Katy and Hannah, Carol and Howard on a brief stopover in Heath and Reach. Carol is Peter's sister. Katy and Hannah are His nieces and the daughters of Robin and Wendy whom I stayed with in Spain.
Commuter Trains - hectic
Cycling from Lancaster to Glasson Dock along the old railway track with Hilary and Jim. Hilary and I were at Aireborough Grammar School together in the late sixties, early seventies. We hadn't seen each other for decades!
We were remembering another cycle trip that we did together all those years ago when we cycled from West Yorkshire to the Lake District and back with our bicycles and tents.
Walking Jennifer and Jeremy's Springer Spaniel, Jake on the sea front at Morecambe.
My sister, Jen.
Caught the bus with Mum from Morecambe to Kendal for a trip out. I paid 24 pounds for a week's unlimited bus travel in the North West. I may go to the Lake District or Blackpool next week.
In Kendal there is a jeweller's shop called "Hogarth's" - had to take a photo.
There's Mum on the cobbled street with the shop down the left hand side before the pub.
And looking in the other direction:
And a shop that specializes in chocolate, yummy!
Location:Bucks and Lancs
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