26th April, 2015....Traditions, old and new!

So...the wedding season has begun.....and what better place to celebrate your first glass of champagne as a married couple, than Abbey Mill Café!!

                                            The bride and groom are regulars down here.....

 

.....as are the photographs of the SteveHillman camera, adorning the side of Abbey House's new van!!

 

 

Having some of your wedding photographs taken at Furness Abbey is something of a tradition around here, but it has now become almost too expensive to gain admission to the Abbey grounds as a bride and groom, and couples often settle for photos in the Lady Chapel at the foot of the hill, or under the archway...should be free for Barrow residents at least, I think!

 

 

It was a lovely, sunny Sunday, with a bit of a bite to the wind, but lots of blue sky, and many trees have started to blossom, even from last week...

 

 

 

 

...still not warm enough to remove my parker just yet! We did help celebrate another tradition this week....the centenary of a church that has a lot of links with our school...it's not as old as Rollo, but not far off!!

 

 

The SteveHillman camera has also been photographing the demise of another local tradition.....

 

 

...yes...that is all that's left of The Coot....I guess most local people have attended an event there at some time in their lives, but that era is sadly over...

 

 

...such a shame...it was a lovely wedding venue! Then there's the canal at Ulverston....

 

 

 

....time to support the 'traditionalists' in their quest for regeneration! I'm all for modernising and upgrading (the bathroom tale proves this!) but we still need to preserve the better bits of our heritage!

 

 

 

 

 

 The meadow by the Beck is now filled with cheeky young bullocks...we got pretty close to this one whilst it tried to out-face us....pity they are no use as 'milkers' and will head to market before they are much older (there's a reason to join the throngs of us veggies if ever there was one...I've been a vegetarian since I was eighteen and it hasn't harmed me or the economy in any way...I was thought to be a bit 'far-out' back then...now I have been joined by lots of friends and acquaintances....and watching the piece about black pudding on Countrywise this morning was enough to put anyone off meat for life!!)

 

 

Poor things!!!! Looking lovely and green down here at the moment though!

 

 

Bit of a 'ranting' blog this week, but luckily we live in a democracy and I am allowed to have my say!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19th April, 2015..."Poor and content is rich, and rich enough."

Hmmmm.... a week of Shakespeare (it is #shakespearesunday after all!!) and taking stock! It did end on a rather lovely, sunny note though.....

 

 

....that's a Shakespeare quote at the beginning.....the SteveHillman camera photographed a wedding this week and the speech given by the bride really hit home with him....the value of an upbringing by grounded parents who taught good principals, morality, honesty and integrity...nothing to do with money. We both had that sort of up bringing, and are grateful for it.....value your parents whilst you still have them!

 

 

 It was a bit like The Waltons in our house!

 

 

Ha ha...we found these in the loft this week whilst having a clear out as we are having work done!

 

 

That's me and my dad just over thirty years ago! Anyhow...a quiet week of reflection and feeling grateful I think...and we headed down to Abbey Mill as the sun came out....and so did the rest of Barrow!

 

 

 

 

Actual 'azure' skies!

 

 

Frank has decided to become a 'sharp' dresser so we spent Saturday morning shopping for clothes for him....and he's still only TWELVE!

 

 

Whereas, if you look at our daughter...she was more traditional...

 

 

Gosh....was my waist really that small!! Steve Hillman hasn't changed much has he!

 

 

We were going to my brother's wedding that day...at the Glen Garth Hotel, which is no longer functioning as a hotel....

 

 

...if you are reading this Lou, you have an even smaller waist than me!! More photos from the loft! it's definitely been a week for thinking about family! My mum looks so young in that photo...she still does!

 

 

We were only twenty in this photo, and not even married...attending another family member's wedding... I made that dress myself...hard to believe I know!!

 

 

If only I'd had this book all those years ago.....read it in one sitting and was stunned on so many levels.... "Be ye not swift to judge..." as Shakespeare would say!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12th April, 2015...Quiet Fortitude...!

I'm sitting at my desk, typing this and looking at the rain lashing down into the garden, and listening to the wind howling....what happened to all the lovely weather from earlier in the week....it certainly has been a week of extremes!

 

 

 

 

 

( I need one of those Fortitude parkas......now that has been a strange TV programme...FORTITUDE....and we thought WE were mad!!). Frankie looks as though he's out for a walk with his grandparents......

 

 

.....which he was, earlier in the week, when we met up with another branch of the Hillman family, for morning tea at Abbey Mill Café...where else!

 

 

We did manage to make it over to the Dock Museum, just as that weekend fog was lifting...was it Wednesday......and Walney was just beginning to re appear after being fog bound for most of the holiday weekend!

 

 

 

 

We did spot a cormorant, flying right in front of us!

 

 

Talking of fortitude, we popped in to the Hawcoat Sports and Social Club's Spring Craft Fair today....so good to read that the club's future has been secured by a group of quiet but hard working volunteers...it wouldn't be Hawcoat without that club...make sure you keep using it and supporting events!

 

 

 

 

We used it for our silver wedding anniversary party a few years ago, and it was a really good venue! We couldn't resist an evening trip to How Tun Woods earlier in the week, again on the day that the fog finally lifted.....some stunning photography ensued (but not from me...I just hold the lens caps!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superb...if it's a clear evening, it's well worth a walk up there...what an atmospheric place!

 

 

The beck is really high down at Furness Abbey at the moment....great for ducks, but making the fields rather sloppy for sheep just about to drop their lambs....

 

 

 

 

...but a few nice precursors of early summer!! Back to school and work tomorrow...I'm looking forward to it as always.......Frankie is not!!!!