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!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6th April, 2015...A misty Easter Bank Holiday!

So...whilst the rest of the country basks in 21 degrees Celsius...we get freezing sea mist for the second day running...we couldn't resist coming down to Furness Abbey at 8am today to have a look!

 

 

 

 

Atmospheric yes, but we could all do with a bit of warmth at the moment! Mist or no mist, the intrepid Barrow public have had great fun down at Abbey Mill and the amphitheatre this weekend, rolling eggs and supporting Furness Abbey Fellowship in their fund raising efforts... 

 

 

 

 

 

And we did meet our long-time pal and his clan down here, which was nice...he's family really, even in those dazzling trainers!!

 

 

 

And many thanks to Abbey Mill's Jackie for our little Easter treat!

 

 

 

Some cute calves in the meadow by Bow Bridge...haven't seen any lambs down here yet...

 

 

 

 

.......but lots of blossom and daffodils, so Spring is getting here SLOWLY!

 

 

 

 

Frank's been having a paddle, so it must be warming up!

 

 

Unfortunately, all the egg-rolling has resulted in a bit of a (biodegradable) mess on the sides of the amphitheatre, which the sea gulls are helping to clean up!! There has been some 'offense taking' about it, but I seem to remember that last year, after about a week, there was very little 'egg mess' remaining. Litter from the groups who use Furness Abbey at night time for illicit drinking, under age perhaps, causes much more of an eye-sore than a few smashed up hardboiled eggs...let's not forget that!

 

 

I'm reading a superb book at the moment, which features various Lake District and Cumbrian haunts as incidental backdrops to a conservation story about my favourite creatures! That over simplifies the plot but I don't want to give too much away!!

 

 

Wolves don't take offense so easily, it seems!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd April, 2015...Tudor Time Travel in my favourite month!

We arrived back in Barrow on Wednesday evening to everyone shouting about the horizontal hailstones that stopped the crossing of Jubilee Bridge.....it's been lovely weather in Stratford, don't know what all the fuss was about...and look at the weather at Furness Abbey today!

 

 

Ok....I'll allow that it is still a bit 'arctic' on top of the Lakes hills, but that's it!

 

 

So, this was sunny Upper Heyford, in North Hants...then we did a quick right hand turn and got to Stratford-on-Avon!

 

 

 

 

 

Look at that sky! We'd picked a lovely hotel too...I can recommend it if you are staying down here! And it's within walking distance of all the Shakespeare properties too!

 

 

If you know us, you'll know we have a love of historic buildings and these were perfect.....

 

 

 

 

...Shakespeare's birthplace had some 'live' street theatre, which was superb.....

 

 

...we requested it, they performed it..... this was 'All the world's a stage'...from As you like it!...

 

 

...and Juliet is hanging out of the window here, with 'Romeo, Romeo...wherefore art thou Romeo'!

 

 

A superb Romeo too! I would love to bring a group of kids here...pity it's so far from Barrow!

 

 

 

 

Ancient trees in the graveyard of Holy Trinity church where Shakespeare is buried...it seems he paid the local land owners extra money so that he and his family could be buried inside the church walls. 

 

 

 

 

Frank has to light his customary candle!

 

 

Interesting visit to Dr Nash's house...the husband of Susannah Shakespeare, William's daughter, who nursed him in old age. Shakespeare's own house, New Place is being excavated at the moment, and is not open to the public...I'd love to be involved in that excavation!

 

 

This was his apothecary and consulting room!

 

 

 

Poor old SteveHillmanPhotography... a bit redundant whilst we were shopping! Back to it this Saturday though, with his first Spring wedding!

 

 

 

 

Shakespeare quotes on your own penny....my daughter knows what's what!