26th May, 2014...Mr. Leigh's Bank hoilday Birthday Blog!

A bit of alliteration there for our Literacy expert as it is his birthday today...see vintage photo later!!
Although the morning weather hasn't been too good over the past few days, scorching sunshine (more alliteration) has always arrived (!) by noon, and today was no exception!

 

Lunch time rush on at Abbey Mill Café....people have good taste, and vote with their feet round here!

 

 

 

Some lovely flowers and meadowland down here at the moment.....

 

......crab apple blossom.....

 

 

 

 

 

....and what we though at first was a wasps nest, turned out to be this little drone plane surveying the fields down here!

 

 

But worryingly, the 'yobs' have been down here, and there is some litter and vandalism too...how annoying!

 

 

 

Come on Barrow Borough Council, deploy some man power on patrol down here, even if it is only PCSOs you can spare!

 

 

Some lovely views down here today though.....It was such a nice day that we headed off down to the Dock Museum later on, to find it CLOSED on a Bank Holiday! What???

 

 

Didn't stop this sheepdog having a dip though!!

 

 

Or this oyster catcher having a paddle!

 

 

It was rather lovely, and tranquil with a warm sea breeze blowing....but we couldn't have a cup of tea in the café...drat! Mr Hillman and I are having this conversation at the moment, and it runs on and on, that we want to open a tea room when we retire.....I say we should call it 'Billy Bunter's' and he gets annoyed and says 'that makes you Mrs. Bunter', and so it goes on!!

 

 

 

 

 

Anyhow, Happy Birthday to my old pal and sparring partner Mr. Leigh, and here we are in the VERY olden days!!

 

 

We just look like old biddy teachers now !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18th May, 2014...temperatures highest yet this year!!

Phew...what a scorching weekend! Abbey House wedding yesterday...lucky bride to have such glorious weather...so , a day off today finally! Furness Abbey looking gorgeous in the sunshine, with all the May blossom out!

 

 

 

Steve Hillman doing his 'thing' again....does he ever stop?? I laughed so much at a story he told me about one wedding he did...in the evening (many drinks later) a guy staggered over to him and offered to fax him through some of the photos he had snapped of the wedding on his disposable camera "in case yours don't work out mate" he said!!!! For the typical wedding, 900 shots are taken so that perfection can be achieved, so NO, SteveHillmanPhotography does not need snaps from the guests!!

 

 

Unfortunately, Frank's hay fever is back with a vengeance!

 

 

No wonder really, spring flowers are having a fantastic year...no sign of any roses in my garden yet though!

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect weather for midges too....

 

 

......yes midges, look closely...this is how the river appeared today!! They were flying in 'figure-of-eight' circuits! Why??

 

 

It was still idyllic though....perfect English countryside, with all its sights, sounds and smells and pleasant warmth! Roll on half-term (it will probably rain!!). SATs are over for another year....what a farce... after all the work I'd done on metric measurement, one question required the kids to circle the best estimate for the weight of an apple......2g or  2mg or 200g or 20kg or 200kg...what utter nonsense!!! Still, we all had a laugh about it afterwards! Kids can relax now and look forward to some real end of year adventures...they deserve it!

 

 

How weird... a cotton bud plant...what is it doing growing down here??

 

 

We spotted our buzzard friend with the damaged wing, whom we haven't seen for ages. He was circling for some dinner. We have a sparrow hawk which swoops down into our back garden from time to time, on the unsuspecting doves and smaller birds, but this week the seagulls and jackdaws were obviously staging a 'fight back' and ganged together to attack it in the skies over Hawcoat....just when you haven't got your camera!

 

 

How true....no one can keep up with my walking (except for Mrs Mac!)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11th May, 2014...Maythorn and SATs!

Where is the heat wave we were promised? A few days more to wait, they say, but I'm not sure. It is SATs week from Monday for year six children, and usually by then the roses are out in my garden, and teachers and kids have donned 'summer uniform'. Not this year!!

 

Look at the sky!!

 

 

We are still wearing winter coats!!

 

 

Frankie's been let loose with a camera today! If he'd have been born a week later, he would be in year six now, taking these ridiculous tests along with all the others. We have a hilarious, quirky, bold and 'crash and burn' set of kids in our year six this year, and SATs would never be able to give an accurate measure of how they are...oh, they can recognise the 'definite article', complete a 6000 word reading test in an hour and tell you the ratio of apples to pears in a fruit salad, just like most other year sixes!!! But they are SO MUCH MORE!! Look out year seven staff in this town, and make sure you give them everything they need, and use their talents! Rant over!!

 

 

Here they all are!! See what I mean!!

 

 

Lovely smell of Maythorn and wild garlic when we got down here today. SteveHillmanPhotography was in Grange yesterday shooting a fun wedding....and still working today!

 

 

I'm so old and decrepit that my legs sometimes don't work on a Sunday....I act youthful all week, but Sunday is a 'no makeup and creaky joints' day!!

 

 

People who completed the Keswick/Coniston to Barrow yesterday have my upmost admiration, especially Mrs L and Miss R... they have to come into work tomorrow and teach enthusiastically after walking/running all day Saturday! I've done the K2B once, when I was 16, and that was enough!!

 

 

Frank's turning into his dad!! We had a walk around the old Salt House Village area of Barrow today...just a small hamlet when the Abbey was in power, but there are still some remnants of that time left behind down there....

 

 

 

....and the depressing 'Sandgate' pub of course!

 

 

I've lived in the East End of London, and found that depressing....I find places have an effect on my physical mood...is that normal???? Furness Abbey is uplifting, Tower Hamlets turns my mood black instantly...anyone else??

 

 

Those cute little bullocks in the fields down here have suddenly 'beefed up' so we didn't dare cross the bridge today! When you see the size of some of the spring flowers down here, you realise how good the meadow pasture must be for them at the moment...market will come round quicker than normal for them (not that I eat them)!!!

 

 

 

The thistles are massive!!

 

 

Good luck to all year six children out there...you are awesome with or without SATs results!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5th May, 2014...Monks and Linthwaite for the Bank Holiday!

Not as warm a weekend as last May Bank Holiday and SteveHillmanPhotography had to shoot a wedding slap bang in the middle of it, so photos from two visits today (and some beautiful ones of Linthwaite House, yesterday's wedding venue...congrats to Steve and Laura!)

 

 

We found these photos of Frankie at the Abbey in our archives...it was 2005!!

 

 

 

He's must have cost us a fortune in Jack Wolfskin coats over the years!!

 

 

Lovely bluebell and harebell displays down here just now....

 

 

....much earlier than last year, as is the wild garlic,if you look back at the blog. Frankie is a bit paranoid about the massive increase in sheep ticks this year too...we haven't really had any hard frosts to hold things back have we??

 

 

Spotted these on the river today down here....

 

 

...and him up the tree on Saturday!!!

 

 

YES... it is a man and his shopping up the tree!! Don't know how that ended, as we didn't stick around!

 

 

In our 'secret cuckoo pint' place there are now lots of them, again it has been perfect weather for them this season! There were some actual MONKS inside the Abbey ruins today! Okay...just men dressed up, but it was really interesting, and lovely to stand by their  cooking fire, chatting!

 

 

 

 

We did get cautioned by one of the brothers though, for holding hands....they were 'bled' four times a year to help them resist the 'sins of the flesh' he said sadly!!

 

 

What a beautiful place Linthwaite House was, says Mr H....perfect for a Lake District wedding, even in the rain!

 

 

 

 

Finally, if only people would just get it.......

 

 

...and my heroes of the weekend.....

 

 

.....congratulations Greengate Girls...you make our day, every day!!