10th August, 2014...Wuthering Heights weather!!

Well, we didn't get the remnants of Bertha, but it's been very soggy today! Up on the hills around the Abbey, it was deserted and quite atmospheric!!

 

 

 

It was rather like the North York Moors!!

 

 

That bit of the A65, after Ingleton.....Heathcliffe.....Kathy...!! The 'black-and-white' photography helps!!

 

 

It was very wet!!!! Jack Wolfskin saved the day, as always!! Who took the photo, I wonder??

 

 

Here's another of the 'helicopter flight' photos that the SteveHillman camera has been keeping to himself!! We live in a great place, don't we?!!

 

 

Abbey Mill today and earlier in the week, with a little bit of sun!! The trouble is, if you only come down here in the good weather, you miss all the ghostly and atmospheric vibe of a rainy or stormy day....try it the next time we get a storm coming in, and see if you agree!!

 

 

 

So....earlier in the week, we thought we'd travel a bit further afield for our dose of history, and we visited the Museum of Lakeland Life, at Abbot Hall in Kendal!

 

 

It does have some rather fascinating exhibits about how farmers and gentlefolk lived, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries (and Frank loved the Postman Pat exhibition!).

 

 

 

 

 

Barbara Hepworth also has a sculpture exhibition in the gallery attached to the hall. I wanted to check this out for a visit by our year six children, but I'm now not sure they'd be comfortable with the reverence clearly accorded to this artist!

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting....but I think we will stick to taking year six to Morecambe for the 'Bird sculpture trail'...it's much more hands on (and we love to have an ice cream in Brucciani's!).

 

 

We did drop in to Kendal Parish Church whilst we were there. It is over 800 years old, and has a lot of interesting history attached to it, including the Parr Chapel, which was the family chapel of  Lady Katherine Parr's and her family. My mother liked sitting here and thinking.....Henry V111 is one of her favourite characters!

 

 

So, try a trip out to Kendal if you are history/countryside enthusiasts like us!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd August, 2014....Barrow commemorates World War 1.

 

A drab Sunday morning, pouring with rain, but this didn't stop the people of Barrow turning out to remember those that had gone before, defending their country.

 

 

 

 

 

Our MP turned out too!

 

 

Nice touch, with the Motorcyclists supporting the Royal British Legion!

 

 

Jack Wolfskin saved us from the worst of the weather, as always!

 

 

 

The Great War began for Britain at 11pm on August 4, 1914, when Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith declared war on Germany – after it refused to halt its invasion of Belgium.
The conflict lasted for four years, despite confident initial predictions it would be resolved within a few months, and led to the deaths of more than 37 million people. August 4th....an auspicious day indeed!

 

Alan Jones, a lay chaplain for the Submariners Association conducted the service, and it was very poignant...old and young coming together at Barrow's Cenotaph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The service included a heart-felt reading of the Kohima Epitaph:

When you go home, tell them of us, and say, for your tomorrow- we gave our today.

 

 

 

 

I kind of saw today, the final point of us holding the commemorative event in school last month...it WAS fun and was teamwork at it's best, but it also fixed in the mind of 300 children that their freedom to choose was secured by men and women that no longer inhabited the world before they were even born. And thanks once again to the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment for adding this memento to our long term memories!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st August, 2014....back to the usual English summer weather!!

Oh dear....the first day of August dawns to torrential rain!! That didn't stop us having a quick trip down to the Abbey this lunch time, with Frank in his best YMCA outfit...!

 

 

Time for a visit to the hairdressers I think....I'm not usually this blonde! Check these out though....the camera of SteveHillman took a special trip up in the air yesterday!!

 

 

He didn't tell me until AFTER he'd done it though, or mention that they took the flight with the DOORS OFF until just now!!

 

A bit drippy and wet down here today, in total contrast to last Friday...look at the weather here...!

 

 

 

 

Frankie has a phobia about crabs!!

 

 

Looking rather lovely though, isn't it...!

 

 

Spied the first blackberries of the season down here, which is a bit early, and there is some other 'autumny' evidence.....how weird, it's only August 1st!! Don't get my mother on the subject, she will be doing her portentious 'beware...it means we are in for a terrible winter' routine!

 

 

 

 

 

Who says teachers have six weeks off... I have updated the website ( http://greengatejuniorschool.co.uk ), got all the prospectus stuff ready to go to Gonzo Designs ( http://www.gonzodesign.co.uk/ )and have started to write the Christmas Show....Mine and Mrs S's version of 'A Christmas Carol' this year!! We are all now awaiting the birth of the second Baby D.....won't be long now!!!

 

 

 

 

Had a 'Neil Young' fest yesterday....what a guy.....takes us straight back to our early years together, and my favourite song of all time remains' Like a Hurricane'. I can remember being at a concert in.....now let me think......1981....in Birmingham, miles from the stage and shouting down at him 'sing Like a Hurricane' and eventually he did....it was amazing!! He's 69 now and still going strong! There's some people out there in the world that are stunning, then there are some people who just.....worry about matching their shoes with their handbags!!!!

 

 

 

 This is my new terms resolution!!!! Thanks WC!