And so our 2022 blog comes to a close....
To all of our readers.... Have a very Happy, Healthy and less stressful New Year!
Richard and Jill
Xmas
2022
A group of us set off to Rydal Church for a carol service by candlelight.
Jill said to go early as it would be packed!
As you can see - that was somewhat optomistic on Jill's part!
We each had a candle for the part where the lights were turned off!
Andrew, Megan, Poppy and Alison waiting for the crowds to arrive!
As we returned to the car after the meal, we spotted a large inflatable Santa in the distance. Curiosity took us to find it and this was the result.
Two inflatables, each taller than the house. There was a man behind Santa and he only came up to the top of Santa's boot!
As we approached Ambleside, we saw that the snow had arrived and we slithered our way up the hill to the cottages - just about making it in the Volvo.
The weather forecast for our return trip was not good but we stopped again at Salt near Stafford for lunch.
The pub was really quiet (unlike the time we had been with the twins when it was packed!). Sitting by the log burner fire, we enjoyed steak and ale pie.
Ray unwraps his present as Peter watches. It was a special back pack for tennis equipment.
Today we travelled to Longlands, near Carnforth to meet up with friends for coffee and lunch. It was time to celebrate Ray Hubbard's 70th birthday!
Here, Liz, Jacqui and Jill pose in the dining room.
A visit to Biddulph to see Richard's brother, Robert, this weekend. On the way we called in at Nantwich where there was a Christmas Market. A visit to Welch's famous shop (about 8 feet wide but 200 feet long!) enabled us to buy goodies and stocking fillers for Christmas.
Nantwich has many very old black and white buildings.
In preparation for Richard stepping down as Lights Coordinator, we decided to sort out and label the various items in the storeroom underneath the Regent Hotel at Waterhead.
Richard (and Jill) has been involved inthe Ambleside Lights since 2007 - so it's tie to hand over to younger volunteers!
As usual, the day ends with a spectacular foreworks display in Rothay Park.
This view was taken by a photographer from the top of Loughrigg hill, and it shows the size of the fireworks when you look at the town buildings beyond!
The lantern procession sets off from The Gables Hotel with Mountain Rescue bring up the rear of the procession.
As the procession wends its way around the town, Father Christmas, in his sleigh (at the front of the parade) throws up his magic dust and a section of the lights is switched on!
The Christmas Lights are going up once more. The work is done over three Sunday mornings - starting at 7am and ending around lunchtime, by which time the traffic has built up.
Here we are putting a string of lights across Compston Road from the previously Smallwood Hotel (now flats) to the corner of the Ambleside Toy Shop.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the coffin lay in state in the Great Hall at The Palace of Westminster.
Caroline was on duty as a counter and on Sunday 18th, we captured her on TV as the guards were descending the steps to take up their position.
Today, Richard had his long awaited new shoulder joint! The operation was 3.5 hours in length and was called a reverse geometry joint. (The ball of the joint now sticks out of his torso - with the aid of screws and pegs- instead of being on the end of his arm! The socket is now on the end of the arm! The surgeon at Kendal even inserted a wedge to correct the 15 degree incorrect angle of the arm!
Rich relaxes in the ward. Ben decided that Rich's left nipple needed covering up - hence the monkey logo!
In between drinks and sunbathing, we played boules on Chris' lawn.
Megan does a nice flip shot down the lawn in a match against Caroline!
| Jessica (left) and Megan (right) enjoying the afternoon sun at Edenbank. |  |
Richard managed to knock the stall holder down from £75 to £57!
This is the tea set - well part of it as it also includes sugar bowls and milk and hot water jugs! A BARGAIN!!
Chris told us that there was a collectors' fair at nearby Springwood Park that day, so Richard hatched a plan. Megan and Jess were handed a £10 note each and their task was to buy whatever took their fancy at the fair - but in true "Bargain Hunt" tradition, they were not allowed to buy any item at the ticket price!
They rehearsed the usual line.... "and what's your best price for that today?"
At first they were hesitant but soon got into the role!
Meanwhile, Richard believed in "practice what you preach" so he went to strike a bargain for an iconic Picquot tea set priced £75.
Here, the girls do a deal!
Caroline had joined us the previous week but had to "work from home" - in the garden chalet!
This week however, we travelled to Kelso in the Scottish Borders to visit Rich's ex-colleague Christina Moffatt, who now owns a beautiful country house. The last time the twins were there, they were toddlers! Now they are taller than Chris and Jill - as Megan shows here.
The dog is Belle - a Patterdale /Border Terrier cross and Richard and Jill had once puppy-sat for Chris when she was away. Belle was one of the 6 puppies that "assaulted" Richard as he lay on the lawn!
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After Caroline and Co had returned from their holiday in St.Ives, we were due to take Megan and Jessica up to The Lakes for the first of a three week stay, with Caroline due to join us a week later.
On the way North we stopped at a very old pub in Salt near Stafford and had a lovely meal, and a welcome break from driving!
The Old Mitre public house was where we headed for lunch. The only food they serve are pies and scotch eggs! There were only Scotch eggs available that day!
You can just imagine characters from the past sitting in the little rooms with clay pipes as they put the world to rights.
Away from the glamour of the high rise buildings just 3-400 metres away, we walked along streets like this and were amazed at all the stalls being set up to sell food.
As we returned the same way after visiting the Cripplegate area (see above) the area was packed with young office workers from the City who were buying their lunch. Imagine any type of foreign food and you would almost certainly find it here - Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese, Africa, Caribbean, Italian, American, Mexican etc.
The smells of the food were amazing.
After emptying the Rotary wishing well at Hawkshead, we headed for one of our favourite spots - The Esthwaite Trout Fishery cafe!
In idyllic conditions, we enjoyed our breakfast paninis.
With his waistcoat on, Mortimer looks like a mini-waiter! The couple have a travel cage in their car which sits on the central console between the front seats and means that Mortimer can watch what's happening!
He is about ten years old!
Richard did a double take today as he walked past No 2 cottage where there appeared to be a toy parrot sitting on a plastic covered loop attached to to front window!
Then the parrot turned its head to watch him go past!
A chat with the owners revealed that it is called Mortimer and is a Caique parrot and goes everywhere with its owners! When going outside it wears a little waistcoat to which a lead is attached!
Later that day, we went off to find The Orient Express which is now at Bassenthwaite Station! The loco is actually a replica and is the actual one used in the filming of the latest version of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express"!
Behind the loco are four real Wagon Lits dining cars, where (if you book in advance) you can enjoy afternoon tea as you pretend to cruise through the countryside at 0 mph!! We had not booked early enough, so we had to be content with a picnic bench on the platform.
Today was a sad day as we attended the funeral of our dear friend, Roy Parfrey. On the way south to Newton-le-Willows, we saw a bad accident on the other side of the M6 which closed the motorway for most of the day. So we decided for the return journey to go on a round about route towards Preston and then near to Fleetwood as we took to the side roads. At Conder Green near Lancaster, we stopped for a meal at the Stork Inn.
A few days earlier it had been the Trooping the Colour and as we went into the pub, which was not crowded, Rich was amazed to hear his favourite march from Trooping the Colour playing (Les Hugenots). Having ordered our meals at the bar, Richard returned to the table where the music was just as loud.
It then dawned on him that the music was coming out of his phone in his shirt pocket at full blast! Heaven knows what the bar person thought!
The picture shows Jill at a point of her unsuppressed giggling fit at the revalation of the music's actual source!
Jun 8
Today we were at Rydal Hall as a joint Rotary / WI tree planting group. Both groups had donated 2 new trees to help replace ones lost in Storm Arwen. They were to be dedicated to the Queen's and Rydal WI's platinum jubilees!
The tree planting turned out to be "making a cage where the tree will be planted later!". Here the first one metre square plot is prepared ready to have wooden stakes driven in at each corner on which the boards and netting of the cage would be fastened. The ground was 90% lumps of rock which did not make for an easy task!
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... and then we both joined her for a photo opportunity! |
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At Euston we were amazed to see Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. When she realised that Lord and Lady Attenborough were on the station, she graciously agreed to grant us and audience. Jill stepped up first.. |
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After a leisurely breakfast, we joined Caroline, Megan and Jessica for the walk into Staines town centre for some shopping. On return, we took photos of the girls - who are still growing! Jessica on the left and Megan on the right. However, today it was to be back home after our short visit. On arrival at Euston, we found that three trains toward Glasgow were cancelled, and since could not risk our train (the last of the day) being cancelled, we joined a massive crowd to get on the 1628. There were no seats left so we had to stand until after Milton Keynes when a Liverpool supporter on his way back from Paris offered Jill his seat. She sat next to Colin (another fan) who was the life and soul of the carriage and Jill joined in the fun. When he found out that we had become "Lord and Lady Attenborough of Hougun" there was no stopping him. The half of the carriage who could hear him were in peals of laughter at his comments. Finally, Richard got a seat at Warrington and from Wigan we were able to sit together!! On arrival at Oxenholme we got into our car, shattered but just glad to have made it home! Quite an eventful weekend! |
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Poppy was in the chorus and is seen here on the front row, extreme left. |
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The thetare was in a private school and no expense has been spared in its facilities. The programme was also very professional, as was the actual performance. Poppy knew every word and every action and was leading the way for theose around her. There must have been 60+ in the cast. |
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Here, the drone is over the "donkey field". In the bottom left corner are some of the horse and donkey buildings. Behind the cars is our "secret garden" where we have a shed to store wood till it's cut. Next round the cottages is Keith's No 1 garden with its round table. No 2 garden is the next along followed by our Cobbleholes (No 3) garden with a swing seat under that green cover. Beyond that is our Fellside (No 4) garden where you can see Richard in blue and Jill in a white top. Keith is sitting just in front of the chalet - controlling the drone. Above the chalet you can just see the the old toilet block built against the wall alongside the farm track. Finally, notice the three tracks in the field in the bottom right corner. They are the horses' and donkey's favourite tracks to where Janet feeds them! |
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This view is even more dramatic, taken from around 160 feet above! The bright new green hedges show the new leaves for this year. |
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Keith has arrived from Scotland and has brought his new drone with him. During the afternoon he flew a series of missions from Fellside garden with the drone filming in high resolution. This is a view we would not be able to see otherwise! |
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Sunny Bank Mill sign gives a web address. Jill checked it out and found that it is just £3000 per week! |
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What appears to be the original mill alongside the road bridge. Our plot was up that river about a quarter of a mile away. |
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This is Sunny Bank Mill, which turns out to now be an Air B&B for up to 14 people. The river was obviously the source of power in the old days. |
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On returning to the road we explored Sunny Bank. This ewe, with its twin lambs called H - according to the mark on their side - gave us a long hard stare! |
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Looking the other way we can see Coniston Old Man and Dow Crags to its left. |
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However, the views are stunning with this view looking back down towards Sunny Bank and Coniston Water. |
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Lord and Lady Attenborough of Hougun pose on our land and a near neighbour's plot! |
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Before you get too excited, it should be pointed out that the land we own is one square foot, so if Jill sits on it - I am on someone else's land! The title deed gives us permission to call ourselves Lord and Lady Attenborough of Hougun. We are contemplating having a coat of arms and flag made for our car !!! |
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As a change from gardening, today we paid a visit to our piece of land given to us by Ben for our Golden Wedding in 2020. It lies on a track which leads up from the hamlet of Sunny Bank (ironically) on the western side of Coniston Water. After parking, we walked bck to the gate which gives access and found this sign The Latin sign translates as "Respected Lord and Guardian of the Manor of Hougun" |
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It was so pleasant today that we had our first BBQ of the year and really enjoyed it. Just after 9pm, a very large and bright (almost full) moon appeared over the top of Wansfell. |
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We have had a busy couple of days in the garden! The troughs which hang on the fence outside the front door have been cleaned out (saving the ivy plants), new liners bought and fitted and filled with new compost. Today we planted out the new plants (which Richard bought in Kendal and Hayes Garden Centre) with a red white and blue theme to fit in with The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. As we sat in the garden later, we saw the first swallows of the summer which have flown from Africa to take up residence again in the donkey stable!! |
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A few yards further on was the scene of the accident which had brought down the walls on either side of the road. Our CSI thoughts are that either..... 1. The car came down in the night, spun and brought down the walls and damaged its oil sump and windscreens in the process or 2 The wall had already fallen down and the car hit it at speed causing it to go out of control and the sump was split open by the rocks resulting in the oil spill.
The remains of its windscreens are still on the roadside. By 0930, the road is still closed at the cottages! |
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Jill later walked up to see what was happening. The road was described as "closed for investigations" after a badly damaged white car was brought back down the road on the recovery truck. Just above the gate to our water supply, there was "oil spill grit" spread across the road. Our water tank is above the road so NOT affected by the accident. |
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Our day started early at 0423 as we were woken by blue flashing lights in the road outside. A police van was blocking the road off as a recovery truck reversed back up the road above the cottages. |
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Today we delivered the parish magazines around the houses in our valley. Down below the cottages lies "High Barn", a house which we rarely saw in the past. However, in the last few years the new owners have felled a load of trees so that now we can see the house clearly from our cottages.
This is a view which would not have been possible a few years ago. It looks from "High Barn" driveway up the steep fields to Sunny Bank, with one of Janet's miniature British horses grazing happily. |
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The following morning the family members who had stayed the night went for a walk around Robert's farm/equestrian centre. |
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Today we travelled to Biddulph to join in the 40th birthday celebrations for James (Richard's nephew) and Charlotte's 30th (James' sister). During the evening, one of Robert's friends decided to drape herself all over Richard, spilling a glass on gin on him in the process. The bemused look on Richard's face tells it all! |
On Thursday 21st, we drove the girls to Lichfield where we met up with Ben and Alison who had driven up from Reading. When we returned home later, the house was eerily quiet! |
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For our last evening meal together, we took the girls to The Watermill pub at Ings where we played cards as we waited for the meal. At the end of the meal, Richard asked the girls how many times they might have to get out of the car on the way home. Both looked puzzled! Richard's secret plan was to drive along the gated road from near the pub towards Bowness - and of course, the girls had to open each gate as we reached it - with peals of laughter and shrieks as Grandad pretended to drive off and leave them several times! The correct answer was EIGHT times! After we arrived home the girls admitted that they thought that we were going down that road to buy them a puppy! Dream on girls!!!! |
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Today we all opted for a relaxing day at home. Poppy and Richard used a shoebox, bits of scrap wood, paint, glue and realistic water gel as well as some spare buildings from Richard's model railway to create a harbour scene inside the shoebox. Poppy helped paint the card which formed the sea bed with a mixture of green and blue mottled patches and also the road with grey paint. She created a small island (hidden behind the edge of the box in the photo). Later we added a lady sitting on the island with a suitcase. She must have fallen off the edge of the dock whilst waiting for the next bus! Since she could not climb up the harbour wall, she had paddled out to the island to await rescue! Poppy was delighted with the finished look. We added a few model people and this was the result. |
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Lunch at Lakeside was an outdoor affair. At the aquarium gift shop, various gemstones were bought and Poppy bought a model fishing boat.
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In cool but sunny weather, Poppy and Daisy enjoyed the trip with our seats on the upper deck near the front giving them a good view! They enjoyed spotting different dogs on shore and also those that boarded the boat. |
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Ben, Alison and the girls had joined us for Easter, but as Alison had a medical appointment later that week, Daisy and Poppy stayed on with us for three days. We decided upon a boat ride from Ambleside to Lakeside and then visit the Lakes Aquarium. Our boat down the lake was Swan |
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Our ex-visitors and friends Yves and Caroline from Belgium, along with Simon their son, were staying in Ambleside so we arranged to meet them today for an open-air breakfast at the trout fishery at Esthwaite Water. |
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As we were due to head north tomorrow, we paid one last visit to see Caroline and family. The twins have shot up in height and here they are, both dwarfing Nana Jill! |
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The final birthday of "birthday fest" was Daisy's, when she reached 10 years of age. Being mad on Harry Potter, one of her presents was a poster showing all the characters. |
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Today was Ben's birthday. A friend of Ben has recently bought a lake and a woodland area in Winnersh and Ben was invited up there for a birthday BBQ breakfast! This picture was taken previously when Ben and Daisy showed us around. |
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At the end of our break, it was time to head back to Winnersh for two more birthdays. We decided to stop off in Southwold as we had heard so much about its beach huts. After a bracing walk on the beach we found a coffee shop and bought two cups to take to a nearby spot where we parked and had our picnic lunch. Then it was back to the busy roads as we travelled along the A12, M25 and M4 to reach Ben and Alison's home. |
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After visiting a model railway exhibition in Wroxham, we headed for Ranworth Broad where we had this mega sharing ploughman's platter at The Maltings pub!
Just across the road was a marina where a number of cabin cruisers were moored. We watched as a very large cruiser owned by Crispin's (our name for the young man - who was awfully far back!!) daddy but the crew were more concerned about getting off the boat and over to the pub. The result that no-one listened when Crispin said "tell me when i need to stop reversing toward the stone jetty! Crispin's dad may well have sizeable repair bill after they clouted the jetty at some speed!!! |
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Today we planned to visit the Norfolk Broads, but first we found the house where Keith was born in Arnold Miller Road in Norwich. |
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Now it was off to find 3 Hanbury Close, which turned out to only be a stone's throw from the University. It was a post war pre-fab and it still exists today - although "done up" to meet modern standards. |
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Next stop was Earlham Hall where Jill was born in 1949. Now it is the Law School as part of the University of East Anglia, but back then it was a temporary maternity hospital as the usual maternity hospital had been bombed in the war. |
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A few minutes later, we found the very house where she had stayed all those years ago. Her room had been the one over the archway. The archway would originally have led to the stables behind the house. |
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Jill has memories of returning to Norwich aged 11 when she stayed in a very old house in Elm Hill (the oldest part of Norwich) so as we explored the city - we just had to find the street and the house. Here, Jill sits in the sunshine in a small square at one end of the street. |
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Today was the birthday of Megan and Jessica who are now officially teenagers (13 in case you hadn't guessed from the photo!) |
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The 19th started with Poppy opening her presents with the large balloon as evidence of her age! Later, we headed to Staines to see Caroline and family. |
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After our second night in a hotel (called Sturdy's Castle which was NOT actually a castle) we continued towards Ben's house - calling at Waddeston Manor. It was a grand house, now owned by the National Trust.
If we explain that it was owned by the Rothschild family, you can understand the reason for the over-indulgent architecture! |
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On the way back to the car, Richard took a photo of Jill peeking out in the V of two tree branches. |
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.....Kinver Edge in Staffordshire, where we visited the troglodyte homes in the sandstone cliffs. They were occupied by people until 1939 but are now owned by the National Trust. Two of the homes have been restored and are open to the public, whilst a third one is now a tea room. In the first two, there were log burners alight to keep the place warm - with guides on hand to tell us what conditions were like in the old days. In those days, if you needed to extend - you simply got out your hammer and chisel and got stuck into the job! |
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A few days later we set off for our annual "birthday fest" with our children and their families. Family birthdays in March fall on March 6, 7, 8 ,17 ,19 ,19 ,19 ,19, 26, 27 (note the 4 all on March 19th!!! We decided on a leisurely drive south - so the first night was spent in Bridgnorth (Shropshire) and the hotel JUST HAPPENED to be opposite the steam railway station HONESTLY! The next morning was Richards' 74th birthday, so we made use of two balloons already in the restaurant to create the atmosphere. From there we drove on to another hotel near Kidlington outside Oxford. But before we did so we visited.... see above |
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March 6th was Jill's birthday and here, as her brother Keith looks on, Jill admires her camellia bush delivered as a gift from Caroline. Keith has spent several months up in Scotland keeping safe from Covid. |
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Later the same day, we all went to the newly opened Boat Museum at Windermere (actually called the Jetty Museum!).
Richard was amazed to see the old fire station at which his great grandfather was the fire chief in the days of horse drawn fire engines! It was been relocated here as the old location was to be redeveloped. |
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Richard's great great grandfather (with the bike) on the right outside the old fire station in Brook Road, Windermere in circa 1860. Notice that the barge boards on the edge of the roof are still the same today. |
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On February 14th Storm Eunice hit the Lakes. Thousands of trees were uprooted (some already weakened by Storm Arwen in Nov 2021). We were OK but Richard's railway recreates some of the devastation!! |
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The girls - Jessica on the left with the plain glass spectacles (she doesn't need glasses but like the look!) and Megan on the right pose in one of the arches at the viewing station. |
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Whilst Caroline "worked from home" in the chalet, the rest of us went on a visit to the Viewing Station at Claife Heights, looking down on Windermere. This Victorian tourist attraction, allowed tourists to see the view through different coloured glass panels - each showing how the view might look in different seasons and weather |
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Caroline, Andrew and the twins (Megan and Jessica) joined us for half term. On this day we treated the girls to a one hour taster session on the Ambleside climbing wall. |
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After a lot of sanding, treating, painting and varnishing, the old ticket rack now takes pride of place in Richard's train room and houses several hundred old train tickets collected over the years. The new doors were made and fitted by Stephen Faulkner a friend and superb joiner! Richard added a drawer to take larger tickets which would not fit into the Edmonson ticket rack. |
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A trip down to Newton-le-Willows today to join in the celebration of Peter Rooke's (check shirt on right) 80th birthday. The group is made up of people Richard did his B.Ed degree with between 1979 and 1982 along with their partners. |
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Today we had a walk from Elterwater to Skelwith Bridge where we had a warming drink from the take away section of Chester's Cafe. Sitting in the warm sunshine, we were visited by this chap - in search of any crumbs! |
Dec 28/9
2021
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The train finally departed, and so did we.
The route home was via Bala and the Wirral before heading north on the M6.
We were really impressed with the roads in Wales - not a pothole to be seen! |
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We collected the rather bashed ticket rack (it cost £25) and watched the narrow gauge train arrive and later depart.
The ticket rack was to be a work in progress as it was planned to restore it to something like its former glory. |
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We then moved on to Aberdovey where we were to stay overnight in The Dovey Inn, right on the seafront. |
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Our journey home on Dec 28/29 was a circuitous one! Richard had bought and old railway ticket rack on Ebay from the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. We spent one night in a hotel in Telford before going on to Wales, Richard had taught at Forest Hill School in London in the 1970's and the school owned an old school in Aberllefenni near Aberdovey. So we called to see the old place on a nostalgia trip! |
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Daisy, Jessica, Megan and Poppy on the settee at Ben and Alison's home near Reading when then came over for the day. |
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Richard's brother, Robert, had given us knitted characters to act as place name holders for the dinner table. |
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Making a gingerbread house, tree and sleigh with Poppy (L) and Daisy (R). |
After a long break, our blog is starting to re-appear! With the pandemic, our concerns have been elsewhere but we are pleased to say that we are now quadruple jabbed and so far have stayed clear of the virus.
The blog will begin with a short re-cap of Christmas 2021 and our journey home from Reading.