YI at The Factory (via Oldham)

David's band (Your Illuminations) were playing The Factory in Manchester and not wanting to drive to Princess Street on a Saturday just before Christmas, I hit upon the cunning wheeze of taking the van to a site and getting a tram in from there. I found a place called The Hawthorne's Nightstop and after a couple of emails I was all booked in.

All in all it was successful, but the pitch was a slot on a very scruffy car park, in a very scruffy area. You definitely don't want to go there for any other reason than to stop over on the way to somewhere else!

But it was walking distance to Oldham Mumps MetroLink station, and that took me straight in to Manchester Victoria for £3.80 return.

I went to see the Alan Turing memorial, just outside the area on the map labelled Gay Village. Then had a fabulous Chinese at Middle Kingdom before saying hello to the chaps backstage in The Factory. (Then I nipped off for a relaxing drink in the Lass O'Gowrie until show time).

The support band Petra Flowers were pretty good and then there was a sudden increase in people and a surge for the front before YI came on in spectacular style. A great set, including a short Christmas singalong, some crowd participation, a nice sit down for a sad song (and pledge to donate to Cancer Research) and some leaping around to Dead of the Night. All topped off with Hey Scarlet. 

Tram and taxi back to the van, which was all in one piece and untouched, thankfully. A peaceful night except for the music ringing in my ears!

Attack of the ladybirds

Up to Grassington in the snow,  weather was pretty poor and I spent the night killing ladybirds,  wasps and flies. They had been hibernating in the roof canvas and my heat and light woke them up.

On Saturday I had a quick walk from the site to the Linton Falls hydroelectric station but mainly I kept in out of the sleet.

On the way I passed a house with a model railway layout in the garden.













On Sunday I drove over Greehow, deep in snow, to meet Jacquie in Pately Bridge. We went up to Wath and Ramsgill, where I picked up a print at Ramsgill Studio.

Then in to a community coffee morning for two soups (oh! Victoria) and bought a slab of ginger cake. In the afternoon, we attended the Pately Playhouse to see a great little comedy called 'Who'd Have Thought It'.

Grounded for October

At the end of Sept I had another operation, so no driving for several weeks, and no vanning for a few more.

However today I couldn't stand the wait any longer and have booked in to Grassington for a weekend in November. I can always cancel if I need to.

Also the farm where I store the van has sold the land for houses, so I need to find another place to keep it. Not proving very easy.

European Trip

My first trip abroad in the van - all went well and I had a great time.

See separate blog: Belgium to Germany

Brilliant Shrewsbury Folk Fest

Shrewsbury is one of the bigger folk festivals, and despite being warned to get their early, by the time I turned up at about 2 the camping fields were packed. Weather was great for most of the weekend, and everyone so friendly.

Caught the free bus in to town and went to the museum. It is a lovely town, needs another visit.

Levellers were great, and also Rosanne Cash, Lady Maisery, Boondock Hippy, Barnstar! and Blackie and the Rodeo Stars. However the Treacherous Orchestra were RIDICULOUSLY loud and to be avoided.

The dance session called They Shall Not Pass was excellent - Indian, African and flamenco with Grace Petrie's song and a bit of poetry. See You Tube:

They Shall Not Pass

Richmond

Quick trip to Richmond as the forecast was really good. Really good and WRONG.

Shocking traffic on the A1,  must avoid in future until the end of the road works.

The CC site was fine except for the road noise. I got a grass pitch at last! Very windy and so a bit chilly. Checked the fire alarm again with some pork fillet.

In to Richmond for the day: the Station arts centre,  museum visit (great Roman finds) and a bit of shopping. The Georgian Theatre was closed so I will have to go back another time.

I didn't go for the planned walk as my knee is playing up again.

Home early and planned a bit of my Trier trip.

Cloudspotting

A bijou festival near Clitheroe. Lots of nice bands - Good Foxy, Throws, Christobal and the Sea, Serious Sam Barrett. Not many people there at all, but the Fri and Sat were good. Joined the RSPB.

Couldn't wait till 10:20pm on Sunday to see King Creosote so came home - what a daft time for the headliner to come on.

Selling fruit at Deershed

First visit to Deershed, which is just up the road near Thirsk. A very family friendly festival, loads of activities along with the music, including mass hula hoops, a science tent and early morning jogging groups.

Saw Meilyr Jones who was interesting, and Richard Hawley was excellent, but in general the music wasn't quite my scene, although I didn't see very much of it as I was working on the Fruit Basket stall selling fruit and veg to the masses with Hugh, Sharon, Susan and Chris and another Chris.

The stall next door were nice and friendly, but worked incredibly hard. We started at 7.30am and they were already serving.

Bought 2 great shirts for £10.
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Whitby in July

Met up with Angela to check out a potential rally site on the North York Moors. A fantastic location, just a short walk to the NYR station of Goathland, and the trains ran right through the farm. However, the access road and facilities were 'rustic' to put it politely so no good for the club. I had swallows nesting over my van though, lovely to watch.

We had a great time anyway, got the train in to Whitby on a baking hot Saturday, had a good lunch, took a bus trip round the town and did a bit of shopping. (I bought some jet earrings).

Holiday - it could be so nice

I took a week off work to go to another rally then on to see Louise for a couple days before wending my way home via Gower,  Elan Valley,  Corwen and finally Wrexham for Father's Day.

See blog: Touring Wales

A kingfisher and some sun, at last

I had arranged a rally at Jervaulx and on the way spotted a sign that took me to the Himalayan garden near Grewelthorpe. Wonderful place with bluebells,  rhododendrons and a Spinal Tap tribute,  amongst other sculpture.

Tom had arrived before me and was putting everyone in their spot and issuing a flag,  cake and name post for each.  In the evening we had a cheese and wine until the rain set in.

Next day I walked through the Abbey grounds to a river,  and saw a heron,  oyster-catcher and kingfisher.

After a tour of the Abbey we went in to the cafe for a meal. Home the next day where I found I had sun burn

Bank Holiday in the Lakes

A grim-looking forecast didn't put me off and I headed once more over the A66, this time to Lamplugh, just south of Cockermouth. I'd never been to the Western Lakes are before, and wasn't expecting great things - we'd had snow and hail a few days before and the forecast was unremitting rain.

Dockray Meadows CC site wasn't full, and remained deathly quiet for the whole weekend, (apart from the compulsory yapping bloody DOGS!) and the main plus for this site is there are walks and cycleways on the doorstep.

 On Saturday, blue sky and cloud, quite cold. I did about 4 miles walking to Congra Moss (a small reservoir with lots of fishermen) and round to Lamplugh Church, to break in my new (very pink!) boots.

The boots were fine but 1 mile from home, disaster struck!

I slipped in a stream, and got good and wet. Worse, shooting pains in my right arm were agony, and I feared I may have broken my wrist. As I knelt in the water, I thought "Don't faint! You'll drown and your body will never be found! Drama queen to the end.

Thankfully I had painkillers with me and I had a rest outside the church and ate my emergency rations (pistachio nuts, mmm) and got back safely. After about 24 hours, the pain subsided and nothing had turned blue or dropped off so I presume it was just a bad sprain. But it made life difficult all weekend, as I could barely dress or put the beds up and down. I must find out if I can insure myself against being unable to drive the van home.

The evening was spent eating soup and listening to the rain drumming on the roof.

As predicted, Sunday was rainy and cold, so it was provisioning and museum day. First stop Maryport, which was pretty grim. There was a huge beach and promenade, with about 6 people in evidence, I felt quite sorry for the place. I visited Senhouse museum, housed in an old Naval battery building on the cliff top, right next to a Roman fort. We are of course near the Western end of Hadrian's Wall. Pity the Spanish troops stationed here! The museum was full of Roman altars, and quite a few willy sculptures, carved by an optimist.

I moved on to Cockermouth, which looked like it would be a great place - if it was open. I was hoping for a nice goat's cheese panino or something with houmous and olives. Nah. So I went to the Co-op and got a sandwich. The town hasn't recovered from the massive floods, and I hope it pulls itself together in time for the summer season, it felt like it needed a bit more of the spirit Hebden Bridge has. I didn't even feel up to visiting the museum, somehow the town's indifference was catching.

Next stop was St Bees! And the fog came down. "On a clear day you can see the Isle of Man from here" it said - I had trouble seeing St Bees. But it did have a cafe on the front - goat's cheese panino??? Nope. But I could have had slab pie with gravy, or a sandwich called 'cheese savoury', which was a bit of a misnomer. So I had several tiny cups of tea and delicious home-made fruit cake with lots of spice.

St Bees is a great place to see many types of birds, and has a path to the lighthouse. Lighthouse? I think it must have been having a day off.

Back to the van for another home cooked effort, and while frying my steak I found out that the smoke alarm does work - I had been wondering if it did, but need to wonder no more. I probably upset the neighbours cooking with the door open to the tunes of Bon Jovi (all together now) "Hey! Man! I'm alive, takin' each day a night at a time..."

It was a TERRIBLE night, still awake at 4am, rain lashing down and being shaken to bits by the wind, but not a drop of water got in, it really is a smashing little van.

Monday, much better than forecast so I set off to see the ospreys on Bassenthwaite (three chicks have recently hatched). I followed the AA signs, which dumped me at a T-junction in the middle of nowhere, and gave no further hints. Grrrr....

So I trundled home, and got the washing on.

Kingsbury Water Park - SCMF

Last minute decision to join the SCMF group in Sutton Coldfield. The water park is a complex of 16 'lakes' (ponds if you are a Cumbrian) with a well-run camp site next door - Camping and Caravanning Club.

I arrived late on Friday, and awoke on Saturday to see this unnerving skyline. Once the sun came up properly it was revealed as a climbing wall in an adventure playground.

The dawn chorus was deafening, and later I went for a quick walk around some of the nearby lakes to see the birds. I intended to go for a longer walk later but a) I fell asleep! and b) it started chucking it down.

I skipped the pub meal and had some of Simon's curry for tea. A cold night.

Sunday was beautiful but cold. I drove back and couldn't find the car keys when I reached the farm - sigh. Let's hope they are at work.

Hebden Bridge again

This visit was timed to see Keston Cobblers Club playing the Trades Centre on the Friday night. They were very good as expected, as were their support the Wildflowers. Interesting little venue. I ate at a Turkish restaurant beforehand, and had some great seafood kebabs.












Hebden Bridge is still recovering from the Boxing Day floods, which reached 5ft in places, and about 30% of traders are still closed. This is the list from the campsite.

On Saturday Jacquie came down to watch the rugby, but first we did the town trail - well, we went shopping while occasionally looking at the town trail booklet. Fantastic shoe shop (RubyShoesday) and a glass art shop, lovely purses/scarves and oooh I could have spent a fortune. We totally failed to find a sensible place for the rugby so abandoned the attempt and separated to head home. THEN I got a text saying David was on his way! So back in to town for another 2 hours, drinking tea and catching up.

I put my glass panel up and the light brought out lots more colour and detail. It made me a bit nervous having it there though, so not sure I will hang it very often.







Sunday - a beautiful walk above the campsite, on the moors around 3 reservoirs. Part of the trail was the Pennine Way, and God help them if the weather is bad, it was very exposed. On the way there was one of Simon Armitage's stanza stones - ironically it was the poem called RAIN.


Monday, packed up and on the way home I went to IKEA to buy some storage pots for the van. Cost of pots = 2 x 75p = £1.50. Amount spent in IKEA = £25.