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!