Merci mon brave......... A big birthday bash in a remote cottage in Swaledale = no signal!! Just.... wild walks great food family friends music a big pub meal a cream tea games etc etc Now officially very old......
Morning all. Bright and dry, so a day to be outside again. Thinking that the grass down the lane really will have to be cut today, I was pleased to find that the council grass cutter beat me to it. Although he doesn't get into all the corners, it looks a lot better,so I can turn my attention to other things. Have a good day everyone.
I got a copy of Watford Histories from Mlle for my birthday....and one from Hackney! Oh well ..... one a room???
Morning all. Another good day to be outside. I have so much catching up to do if I want to eat home-grown produce later, it is quite daunting. A very wet start to the year has kept me behind, as I tend to be a fair weather gardener. Still no football this afternoon as an excuse for not getting on. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Dry and the sun is doing its best to appear from behind some high cloud. The supermarkets are still piled high with chocolate rabbits, chicks and bells with wings. Children are told that the church bells do not ring during Lent because they have gone to Rome, but fly back for Easter Sunday. How much of this chocolate will actually be sold remains to be seen, but they have only just removed the Christmas boxes that they were trying to tempt people to buy with a 50% discount. Out for the day with daughter's family, so an easy time of it. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Overcast, and some showers are forecast, which will be a pain as I had a days gardening planned. Maybe I will finish up following football this afternoon, which was going to be missed in favour of getting some beetroot in. The smell of them cooking takes me back to primary school, where they were used hot as a vegetable, whereas at home they were served cold with a salad. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Overcast, so it does feel cooler without the sun on your back. Blossom on the trees, cowslips covering the roadside verges, and now the wild orchids are appearing to add purple to the white and yellows scene. It really is the time of year when the countryside is at its best. Have a good day everyone. <pk>
You could be describing rural Aberdeenshire there - although we have a week or two to wait for all that. The early flowering daffodils/jonquils are starting to fade and will soon be replaced by purple willowherb, yellow rue, multi-coloured crocuses, purple & orange broom and yellow gorse. A wonderful time of year for a stroll in the countryside with the dog. And/or the wife...
Morning all. Wet and windy, so pleased that something different has been on the calendar for some time. A visit to a former Roman settlement, about 25 miles away, that has a museum containing artefacts found on the site. There are a lot of sites around here, mostly with information boards to assist you in making sense of stone walls. This is a group of 12 - 15 French and English having a day out, so of course the first thing to do is meet at a restaurant for a decent lunch. The menu looks good, so fingers crossed it tastes fine as well. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Intermittent sunshine, but what feels like a chilly wind. Yesterday on our way home there was a hail storm, a sure indication that the weather is likely to be quite changeable at this time of year. The meal at the restaurant was quite good, if not very imaginative, but the house wine that came with it was rough. The bottles were uncorked, then left for you to help yourself. I noticed that other tables hardly touched it, so I guess it will disappear in a Bourguignon that will be on the menu tomorrow. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Grey and damp, with the temperature a miserable 9°C. Been talking to my friend from Dorset who has been in and out of hospital since his chemo started. Latest stay was for an infection he has picked up somewhere, that left him unable to walk. There were fears that his cancer had spread to his spine, so it was a huge relief for him to find out that intravenous antibiotics would hit that infection on the head. Home again now and very cheerful once more. Have a good day everyone.
Had a 9 day tour with a long lost mate, was amazing. CDMX and Cities around. Now time to rest. Hope all's well.
Monthly lunch and moaning session with fellow 'graduates' of our old French evening class....... discussing amongst other things that there is now not a face to face French class available in the city of Leeds... both Universities have stopped their French degrees and most secondary schools now offer very little in foreign language study.....
There's a wide range of foreign languages offered in schools up here - French, Italian, German, Spanish, Urdu, Cantonese and Mandarin - all dependant on the availability of teachers though. In many secondary schools English is offered as a foreign language.
Morning all. Drying up with the strong breeze, which still has a nip to it. My daughter is off to England for a few days next week, and is doing a bit of shopping for us. Mainly tea bags, but a few other things that we don't see here. Most supermarkets have an English section, and some things in it are cheaper than the UK, but the range is limited. The small business that used to do a weekly run to pick up items that people wanted had to cease when the restrictions at the border came in. The owner used to run a small restaurant that did the best fish and chips meals with fish that he bought fresh every week. That sadly is no more, and the restaurant is closed. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Much better today, sunshine and no wind, so the temperature is starting to rise again. The first strawberries from the Dordogne have arrived in the supermarkets. Smaller than the ones from Spain, but full of flavour. They are a bit more expensive, but worth it. I will be enjoying some with cream at dinner time this evening. Before then I must try and get some more bean seeds in. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Grey and dry for now, but showers expected this afternoon. Our daughter phoned yesterday afternoon to say the car that she was going to the UK in today wouldn't start. Somehow she had flattened her battery, so out with the jump leads, and away it went. She was putting it on charge overnight, so hopefully she got away this morning. Another daughter, who lives near Aylesbury, has just sent pictures of her car after it was hit in the lay-by outside her house by a drunk driver. It has made a right mess of it. Further details are awaited. Have a good day everyone.
