River walk

Strange structures and peaceful pastures were encountered on our river walk around Dartington Hall Estate - 8.2 miles. Rewarded with lemon cake and tea at the Rare Breeds Farm!

Wedding Anniversary

What better way to celebrate 37 years of marriage than to have a night in a Travel Lodge in Glastonbury and visit a Craft for Craftets fair at the Royal Bath and West show ground. The fair was rubbish, but we had a lovely walk around Glastonbury Abbey. 

Fun in the park!

Grandma & Grandad had to child mind while mummy had a tooth filled - what fun!

Back door to garage

When a garage is used to house a freezer etc, then when the only way in is by the up-and-over door, it can be tiresome!  So, when Dan son gave me an old external door, I felt some diy was in order.  Result = new back door into garage.

Visitors!

Look at who visited us today!

Tony & Katy brought Cloe and Ruby to see us at Threlkeld. They brought mum and Betsy also, and we all watched the river rise almost to its banks as we had torrential rain - unusual for the Lake District!

Then tonight, Lydia arrived from the big city, all a-ready to hand in her Masters dissertation. 

Back towards the clouds!

After a long drive north yesterday we just had to get up on the mountains today. From Buttermere Lynn & I climbed up Whiteless Ike, then on up to Wandope before taking the final climb up to Grasmoor at 852m.  We chose a very steep descent down the ridge running to Lad Hows, then up he quite valley behind Rannadale Knotts (a battle site apparantly) and back to the van.  

Creation Fest 21016

We are braving the Cornish Summer weather once again to make our annual pilgrimage to Wadebridge and Creation Fest. Today, 230 young people responded the message that Jesus loves them!

The TRUTH will set you free! 

Decoy Country Park - a great day out!

As expected, some summer sunshine brought out it seems just about everyone who has small children. But for small children, and mums and dads, any grandmas and grandpas, where better to enjoy the sun than Decoy Countey Part in Newton Abbot. Hannah met us there with Sophia, Isaac and Elijah, and what a lovely day we had!

Christians Against Poverty

Thursday was my interview day with a view to becoming a Debt Councellor. The signpost in Bradford shows the way to the overseas branches. 

Reflections, scrambles and a birthday!

Our time in Cumbria in June & July has been eventful.  First,an unscheduled return to Devon, then to Portsmouth, London, back to Portsmouth and returning to Threlkeld - was a necessary exercise to see Lydia snugged down into her new London home.  Brothers Water supplied stunning reflections on a day when a mega walk was curtailed by bracken!  Summer bracken made for such heavy going on our chosen ascent of Hartsop Dodd, that we had a change of plan - prudent I think given the sudden heat wave.  Julia came up for a visit, and on the very hottest of days we walked with her up the exciting Hart Fell to have lunch in 20 plus degrees on the summit of Blencathra.  The final excitement was celebrating my mum's 86th birthday in Durham with the complete clan of siblings! It was lovely to see Hazel, John and Caroline and especially a treat to have Andy & Rachel all the way from Australia.

Julia up Blencathra

Circumstances decreed that our one day on the fells with Julia coincided with Britain's one-day heat wave. So up Blencathra we set our glowing brows and ascended the 700+ metres in lus 20 degrees of summer sunshine. The bonus was lunch at the summit, something we have never done due to cold windy conditions. Up Halls Felland down Scales Fell provided a good day out. We hunted down an ice cream in Keswick as reward.