Ticket To Ride

Saturday was lovely so we set off to the North York Moors to take part in the "Spring Steam Gala".

The engines have names like Nigel Gresley and Eric Treacey and so must be male, and men talk knowledgeably about what number they are and how many times they have ridden them and where!!! I wonder if the carriages are female. There were women around but they seemed to be carrying the sandwiches.
Here's an engine but I've no idea which one. We drove to Grosmont in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park and bought a rover-return ticket to Pickering. This allowed us to get on and off at the three stations in between.

A small train came in, heading for Goathland, the village used for the TV series "Heartbeat" and also the station used in a Harry Potter movie. I managed to grab this armchair at the front of the saloon in the teak-built carriage. We had a wander round the pretty village of Goathland where most of the buildings are still labelled as if they were in Aidensfield and blue and white Ford Anglias all claim to be the original police car used in the series. Then we caught another train to Pickering. We wandered round the town and had a very delicious, haddock and chips in a comfortable pub.

Then we sauntered back to the station for the return train to Grosmont.

There were none!

There was a brushwood fire on the line (probably started by a spark from the steam engine which drew our carriages into Pickering) and the fire brigade had closed the line. That meant that an awful lot of people were at the wrong ends of the railway line as their day out came to a worrying end, including us. They gathered on the platform at Pickering where immensely good humoured, polite and informative staff, got taxis for families with young ones, and tried to rally bus drivers out of their armchairs where they were happily watching the football Grand Final between Chelsea and Portsmouth, in order to come and transport the rest of us. They didn't have much luck with that and with a couple of hours or more looming between then and the likelihood of fit people with no kids getting on a coach, we decided to take action.

We walked across town to catch the Coastliner. This is a grand double-decker which travels hourly across the moors from Leeds to Whitby. We had our bus passes and enjoyed a friendly and stunningly beautiful ride as far as Goathland with some other ex-train-riders. The bus didn't go to Grosmont, so we walked the three and a half miles down the old wagonway to Grosmont from Goathland.

It was a beautiful walk and we got back to the car in the early evening and drove home over the Moors to a sausage sandwich supper. Quite an adventure via car, train, bus, foot and car again for the eleven hours we were out.

We were up early yesterday for a walk in the Bellburn woods up the road, to see the bluebells and then picnic in the Bishop's Palace Deer Shelter. Today was less eventful. My car broke down and we went to Wickes to see about a new kitchen. It's kitchen sale time and the one we want comes with a "free" dishwasher. Makes up for the cost of the new parts for the car.

Cheers Gillian

North Of The Tyne

North of the Tyne River estuary is a small town called Tynemouth. It is a lovely place with classy old Georgian and Victorian buildings and a grand sweeping crescent of terraced houses overlooking the North Sea from atop a cliff.
The next small town to the north is Cullercoats. Yesterday on the news (North Eastern England News !) was a report about the awarding of a "Blue Flag" for Cullercoats Beach and DJ wanted to go and see it. So today we did. Then we headed north along the coast, through Whitley Bay to St Mary's Lighthouse.We walked along the cliff path from Seaton Sluice to the lighthouse. It was a mild, sunny day and this large black woolly dog was bounding in and out of the crystal clear water.

As we approached the lighthouse it got cloudier and cooler and we ate our picnic sitting on some cold rocks in a bit of a chill wind.

We had to get back across the causeway before the tide came in just after 2pm that day, and did so, as the rock pools were beginning to fill up and herald the incoming tide. There are warnings about NOT trying to run across at the last minute!

Tomorrow we have decided to go to the North York Moors Railway's spring steam fest and take another picnic, hope for better weather and ride the steam trains. Watch this space.

Cheers Gillian

Lamb Chops and Pork Crackling!

We each have an annual ticket to the Beamish Museum, which will run out at the end of June, so after the frost had cleared we took off for a visit and a three mile walk around the circuit. The day was sunny when we left but it deteriorated into cloudy patches and some showers as we did the walk.

It was advertised as "Spring lambs and Ducklings". We found the orphan lambs first. They were at the Home Farm in a barn and ran towards us, bleating, as if were the bearers of milk-feeding-bottles.

Sorry! Not us!

Then we went through the stables and sties , followed by these chooks and found...An incubator/warm lamp section with some growing chicks and a duckling.The real pigsties down the back of the Home Farm, house this old girl (on the right!) who seems to be having a Chat with DJ. But she was really waiting for her mistress to offer her a sweetie!!!

Cheers Gillian

Spinning A Yarn and Then Dyeing

This is the colourful result of dyeing some mixed merino and Tunisian hill-sheep yarns which I plied together.The merino was Australian-super-fine and the Tunisian wool was almost like mohair. So I plied a strand of each together to produce a yarn which would knit at close to 8Pply/double. Then I went into the Dye Box. I mixed blue and purple.

It starts as a hank of wool like this. This particular one is from Tunisia. Their sheep roam the steeper slopes and look a bit like a cross between sheep and goats, and, indeed this wool looks like a cross between wool and mohair. I bought a few hanks last year at the souk while I was there.

I wound some superfine merino together with the tunisian wool using my winder and niddy-noddy.

They were then dyed and dried in skeins in the soft wind and occasional sun.

It was planned that today would be a trip to the seaside in the morning and a guided walk around Barnard Castle in the afternoon. BUT the weather was ghastly for being out for a long time and both were decided against. So, DJ did some painting and I did the dyeing.

We had a wonderful meal of "Chicken Fajitas" which I have never had before and was orchestrated by DJ, because he had had them before.

It was too late to take photos. They were eaten too soon.

Cheers Gillian

The Tornado Close Up And In All Its Glory

This gorgeous machine was built by volunteers, using public subscriptions, over the last few years, at a railway workshop in Darlington. It returned to Shildon (Locomotion Museum) this week and is in pride of place in the large shed.

We walked up the Shildon hill and then took a short cut along the footpath which follows the first railway line, past the old engine and wagon sheds and into the museum area. The place was buzzing with train enthusiasts, primary schools and us. It is a magnificent and enormous reproduction of a Peppercorn Class engine. Beautifully finished and ready to drag the Mallard up from York next month.We walked back along the old railway line path towards Brusselton Incline and then down the hill to home. The early foals are all long legged and lying around in the sun, with the lovely weather we are having. The older horses seem to be able to sniff out the apples in DJ's bag and he often has them pushing at the gates for a fruit feed. The moving in is settling down. The furniture all fits well and those dozens of boxes of bits, that one has at the end, are being sorted into some fine order. The bookshelves are being rationalised, textile boxes are being stacked and vast quantities of wires with various fittings like skarts, usbs, co-axials, and such-like, previously stored in big, black bin-bags, are being disposed of. It is finally realised that they are not valuable enough to fill up the available space anymore.
Tomorrow is "Orange, 241" at the cinema and a 241 pizza to follow and Thursday is a trip to the Gala Theatre in Durham to see "The 39 Steps" and my sister will join us.
Cheers Gillian

A Lovely Spring So Far

Wonderful weather! We went on a walk today, lead by Leader Neville; around the Lumley area near Chester-le-Street. We walked from Great Lumley, down to the River Wear and along past the Riverside Cricket Ground, on and up to the rear of Lumley Castle (now a top notch hotel) and then on through the woods. They smell of garlic from the ransoms, and the bluebells are just coming out as the wild daffodils die off. We carried on across the landscape, now returned to greenery after the closure of the coalmines and railways many decades ago.
The sun shone, the larks ascended, the red admirals flew and there were signs of new birth everywhere. At home the courtyard garden continues to develop. The wisteria in this tub is destined to climb and spread and festoon the front of the house with fragrant fronds every spring. It should take off well because the front of the house faces south-east and gets all the morning sun.

This is the walled south-eastern corner of the garden and is sheltered all day and sunny in the afternoon, so it has the herb garden around the crab apple tree. This was a tumbled patch of dumped earth a few weeks ago but DJ has transformed it into a herb garden. The herbs are already being used on a regular basis in the kitchen. I love, particularly, the oregano, rosemary, thyme and marjoram. Mint, sage and parsley are there too, but I use them less often. Tigger has a passion for the chives.

The external clothes drier needed a secure hole in the ground to hold the hoist and lines. This grand old railway wheel has sufficient weight to control a whole drying load. The socket fits well into the ground and the line spins round. This is the first time I have dried clothes outdoors for a year and a half!!!

The first foals have been born, just around the corner. Usually it is the first of May before foals are dropped. After the long cold winter, this long spell of warm spring weather has helped them to arrive safely.

But even so, some of the plants in our sheltered courtyard garden suffered from the frost two nights ago.
The verdict on their survival is still out.

Cheer for now Gillian

Slowly Does It

I'm only doing my socks at half the rate that Sue
is doing hers and hers look lovely, as does all her knitting and sewing. My socks are gorgeous because the yarn is. There is no real pattern to them. There is enough wool to wind a small ball away at the end of the first sock and then knit the second sock to match the stripes.
Mind you I bought a couple of pairs of golfing socks at ALDI, with argyle leg bits, in a pack....for £2.99. Why do I knit them?
I shall probably do one pair every couple of months. Sue does a pair a month, plus a small item of clothing for someone's baby plus a present for a cousin or such plus some really lovely sewing.
Good on you Sue!
The days are warming up a bit here. The yard is turning into a gorgeous courtyard and being less of a carpark. Wisteria has been potted to grow up the house and all the herbs required by the normal kitchen have been planted in the sunny corner.
I'm off socks and have printed off the free Rowan pattern for Toasty Slipover in their selection of free patterns. It's a straight forward double knitting vest. Just the sort of thing I like.

Next week heralds a major change in my life.
DJ moves in. He plans to sell his house and co-own this one with me. This will be our home.
Major events for both of us, great excitement, lots of hard work and a future we are both really looking forward to. We've had such a wonderful time so far and there's lots more to come.

DJ has introduced Tigger to Whiskas Temptations since he witnessed the adoration that my brother's fat moggy gave him, when the little box of goodies was rattled within earshot. Tigger has picked up on it quickly and she nearly begs for the little morsels.
She doesn't even know that I can distribute the same stuff. I picked up the box and rattled it today and she just ignored me. DJ rules in this area.
Lovely sunshine here, hope it is with you,
Cheers Gillian