Local delights of Boroughbridge

My friend Mel had bought her first van, so we went for a practise up the road at Boroughbridge. All went without incident, if you don't count me backing in to the fence as I parked up! (Awks)

The next day we did the Aldborough loop walk, and stopped in at the Ship for a beer. A real find was the church across the road - how had I never been there before? Packed with interest - see St Andrew's.

That evening it was down to the Tat on the Tutt (used to be the 3 horseshoes) by the bridge in the village. Slightly stodgy menu and no veggie option as far as I could see. But a nice couple of beers and good company!

Gate to Southwell annual visit

Amazed to find it is 6 years since I first attended this festival. This was my 3rd year as a steward and my shifts were such I only really missed seeing Manran, but they were so flipping loud that may have been a blessing. 'I SAID IT MAY HAVE BEEN A BLESSING, DEAR...'

Stand-outs for me were Lizzie No (fantastic!), Rye Sisters, Slack Bird (Finnish weirdness), Rebecca Hearn, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, The Fugitives, Cider with Molly (should have seen The Haar really). Next comes Blue Rose Code, Campbell/Jensen and Daoiri Farrell trio. Kathryn Tickell and Rhiannon Giddens were fantastic musicians but somehow didn't get me very excited.

At some point on one day I wore: sandals, shorts, trainers, trousers, t-shirt, vest, fleece, sun hat, rain poncho, factor 50 sun cream, woolly hat, gloves, sunglasses. A typical English summer then. Another total rain-lashing but no thunder/lightning, and I still ended up with a pink nose.

Great to meet up with Wendy and Steve, who I'd met for the first time at Beardy last month.

Red sky at night was a shepherd's big fat fib in our case.