Middlestone

We got home from our holiday up north on Friday and had a splendid time, in fact I suspect this trip is going to keep me blog-busy for a few days. However, here's the report on where we stayed, just to start us off.

The village of Middlestone is a few miles from Durham and consists of 20-something houses and a pub. There used to be a methodist chapel, but that has been converted to a house and that's where we were staying. So the picture above shows the chapel, on the side of the main road through the village, with my car sitting out front.

The views out the back and across the valley were astonishingly lovely and I could have happily spent some hours just sitting and looking. The picture below was taken from the picnic table in the back garden (yard) of the Chapel.
On the other side of the main road is The Ship Inn and when we first arrived last Monday we did pop over to say hello to the locals. So here are Annie and Ed outside the pub, on a rather blustery afternoon.

Millie really loved the Chapel and the garden. Next door there were some dogs who lived outside (in a kennel) during the day and on the other side the field had horses in. Now there's nothing a terrier likes more than other creatures to keep organised, so she was content running and barking as much as we humans could tolerate. On the last day we gave her a rawhide shoe toy (in a feeble attempt to cut noise levels) and she went straight off to bury it in the garden, so we knew it was a good gift. Here's the excavation in progress when I went out later to "rescue" it.

Then she took it from me and went off to find a more secure place to bury it ...

On the way there last Monday we took a side trip to visit the village of Norton, near Stockton, where part of my family comes from. Alongside the little row of houses where my mother's father was born in 1902 I spotted this lovely poppy, and you know I'm a sucker for a flower picture, so here it is. Now I'm off to upload the family history pictures from Norton to Flickr, for the rest of the family to see. More anon ...

Off to Durham

This is from the Manchester Museum, which I went to with my friends last weekend. See, nothing much has happened here this weeekend except for packing to go away and lazing about in between, watching the tennis on tv. I had intended to post the lovely Buddha last weekend and then I forgot. So now I'm borrowing it!

Tomorrow we (i.e. Annie, Millie and I) are off to Durham for a short break. My nephew (who has just finished exams and is therefore footloose and fancy free) is coming to join us and we are staying in a converted chapel, in a tiny village a few miles from Durham (north-east England).

So no more posts for a few days ... but then that's not unusual for me!

Liverpool

The Liver Building, a great Liverpool landmark, down by the docks, the scene of Liverpool's original wealth.

Today we took itchy pup for her tests and they have tried just about whatever and declared her a "very allergic dog". So now we wait for vaccine to be developed (in Holland, would you beleive) and meanwhile she's back on her steroids to calm things down and fast asleep right now, after her big adventure.

Meanwhile we went over to Liverpool for a walk in the sunshine, to visit a Klimt exhibition and see the Albert Dock (once a real dock, now a tourist attraction, but nevertheless very lovely in the sunshine). Naturally a cuppa tea was needed fairly quickly after we got there.

This was followed by a walk around, taking in the boats and off into the gallery to see the beautiful art. Klimt was quite an interesting chap who thought that seuxality is liberation, and that got him in some trouble with Austrians of a less outgoing nature! Anyway, here's the information on the exhibit http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/gustavklimt/

Finally some more wandering around the dock and then it was time for a health-giving half pint of beer, before we headed off to get the pup back and pay her bill!

Visitors

We've had a visit from some friends from London this weekend, which has been really lovely. So we did a couple of trips out and about, but notably on Friday we all went round the formal garden at Tatton. The light was really pretty for pictures and there were some lovely things in flower, I was really taken by this peony and the pink rose above.

The garden includes some small water features and one has some bank gunnera growing alongside. Again the leaves looked really splendid on Friday, in the sunlight. Gunnera is sometimes known as "giant rhubarb" and I think it's a native of warmer climates than this, but it likes damp - so does well in England!

And if you aren't familiar with them, those leaves are kinda big!

Purple Anenome

Yesterday my Mum came round and asked me what the lovely big purple flower in the garden was. It's almost unheard of for me to know a plant she doesn't spot, so I was proud and content to report that it's an anenome. The flower had struck me as particularly gorgeous too, so I was not so happy to get home from work today and see the stem all bent. What happened there, I wondered?

Of course, there was no reply to this silent question and the flower is now safely cut and in a vase on my kitchen window ledge. But the by-product of all of this is that I also photographed it. So here's today's photo offering!

The flower got bent, but we got a nice shot from that. Today also two older women are able to get married after spending 55 years together in a relationship that they have never tried to hide. Founders of the Daughters of Bilitis, these are activists as well as lovely old-folk getting a dream-come-true-at-last. Straight marriage got bent, but the women got something they deeply deserve from that.

Not a bad day then ;-)

Middlewich Boat and Folk

http://midfest.org.uk/mfab/

Yesterday we headed deeper into Cheshire to a folk festival. I was a little disappointed, to be honest, as I had hoped that Annie could encounter some true folkies (deliniated in my narrow mind simply by their habit of wearing a beer tankard at the belt), and I'm not sure this happened. However, we still had a wonderful trip.

First of all we took in the boats part of the affair. The boats in question sit on a the Trent and Mersey canal and are largely there as pleasure boats now, but this was once an important thoroughfare for trade. Anyway, the self-same trade barges were bedecked in flowers and even in cheshire cats for the festival.

Then we took a turn around the main festival site and heard a band do sound-check (you'll have to take it on faith that this is interesting to some of us) and then it was time for fish'n'chips, back by the canal.

So so so .... good!

Now the highlight of this evening was to see and, I suppose, truly to hear my lovely folk singer heroine, June Tabor. WHAT a voice! But sadly, June doesn't like photos to be taken. So here we end this entry, with my assurance to you that if you ever get the chance to hear June you should. And with this final pic of the church of St Micheal and all Angels, Middlewich, just before June came on. (!!)

http://www.brightfieldproductions.co.uk/tabor.htm

Wythenshawe

Now then, if my lil lass Millie has a favourite place on this earth, then it is Wythenshawe Park. This is a sizable plot of land, owned by the local council and with an historic manor house (or "Hall") dating back to the 16th Century. None of this, however, features in Millie's trundlings around "Wyth".

On the edges of the park is a wooded area and "Rhodie Walk", which features plenty of undergrowth for rooting around in. At this time of the year, such grass as there is is left to grow and is taller than lil Millie herself. So much the better for jumping your way through!

So, this morning (yes, vickie, before the Krispy Kremes) we all went out for a walk in the park. And darnit, I forgot to photograph the donuts!

So, I've had a fiddle with the picture size and the text colours - better folks? QW aka K xxx.