The evening light

edited to add - whoop whoop (hopefully not to pre-emptively - but it seems blogger just might be sort of working again!

I know my reach has dropped tremendously since blogger has been playing silly bloggers but I'll keep typing away like I know all of you are too. Keep in touch - don't disappear! 

Having had a glorious walk earlier in the afternoon, we set off back towards Lancaster. There are so few places where you can park wild in the lakes, understandably, as it would be soon over run by all sorts (I am including us too) so we use a tried and tested and accepted park up with one of the best views ever looking over Sunderland Point.

We parked up at that point when the light of the day begins to morph into smooth golden and purple shades. And despite our nearly 7 miles earlier, we just had to get out and fill our eyes and stretch our legs on a favourite 'dog loop'.

The reflections on the inky black waters of the canal were sublime and due to the time, there were so few other walkers about - again we felt to have the place to ourselves. We stopped at the marina to take a few photos as the sun slid behind the horizon. It was rather magical watching lights flicker on in the canal boats or yachts as their occupants prepared for the evening.

The reflections on the water turned to beaten copper and bronze while black silhouetted ducks paddled past searching for last minute morsels before heading to roost.

Back at the van we too set up for our evening, cooking and then eating whilst watching the sky soften into pinks and greys followed by the richest of blue black filled with stars.

The sounds of the day -  cheerful bird trilling and chirps, the occasional farm vehicle or car heading down to the marina changed to wistful whistles of evening song and the distant cronk of a skein of geese heading to their evening rest.

We knew that Saturday would be wet so we made the most of every moment of Friday, sitting up late, listening to the gentle sighs of a retreating tide and snores of a tired dog.

And yes Saturday was very wet - however there is something quite lovely about being tucked up in a very cosy nest, cuddling a mug of tea as you peer through a rain misted window..... time to go home.

I am now going to physically tap on everyone's blog I follow and see what you are up to! Sod blogger!

edited to add: I have managed to find a contact/forum page on the blogger site and left a query as to why and what can be done - see what happens ....

......and if you feel fed up enough to comment here is the LINK to that page

Friday afternoon

As with everyone else it seems - blogger is being dreadful - according to their page there is nothing untoward, but there is definitely a problem - hopefully it will get sorted and if not, I might start looking for another platform. Something I don't really want to do.

We managed a magical 24 hour escape in the van - with both of us having to deal more and more with aging parents who seem to be struggling with the speed of the real world - these microadventures help clear our heads and make us more able to cope.

We packed Zeb (van) with just the necessities and with an overexcited Wills, we drove up to the South Lakes, parked in a favourite lane, strapped on our boots and set off. Wills was horrendous on the lead for about the first 20 minutes then I out of desperation, discovered a slight change in her lead and harness made all the difference. She pulls and pulls and is completely unresponsive when I try to rein her in - but (fingers crossed) with this new lead/harness arrangement - I might just still have a left hand after a walk..... sigh.

But on to more enjoyable things - our walk was utterly delicious and just what we needed. I find being nearer the sea restorative. Our route took us through meadows and woodlands, gently dipping in and out of villages then back through fields and trees.

We chose to stop at the 'Pepper Pot', a Victorian folly on the crest of Eaves Woods looking over Silverdale and Morecombe Bay. The folly's official name is the Queen Victoria Golden Jubilee Monument which is quite a grandiose mouthful for a six metre tall rough stone tower with a wonky conical roof. But the view is utterly sublime.

We sat on the edge of the limestone slab for our lunch - and for the most part of our stop, it was just us, the folly and the view. As we started to pack away, other visitors started to appear from all sides and we smiled quietly at how lucky we'd been to have had the place to ourselves.

We dropped down to the cove and followed the coastal path all around the headland to Jenny Brown's Point. Like all these places given a name, its history is ambiguous. However, Jenny Brown just might have been a local living in one of the 17th - 18th century cottages along the coast near the remains of the old quay.

We love meandering through the National Trust's open access land called Jack Scout. There are a number of lovely nooks where you can just plonk yourself down and crack open the flask and watch the world go by. Or if you are a dog - have a nap....

The trees have been hammered by the onshore winds sculpting them to sinuous coastal hugging topiary.

We turned inland at the smelting chimney but not without replicating a photo we had taken with Moss some years before. Willow obliged quite happily as we snapped away.

We then walked inland through the woodland back to the van where we sat, sans boots and listened to the birds trilling while we drank freshly made mugs of tea. Willow scoffed her biscuits in record time then threw herself into bed. A good sign, a very good sign indeed.

Trying to banish the autumnal blues

*if I don't leave a comment on your lovely blogs, it seems that blogger is not playing nicely - fingers crossed it won't be for long 🤞 

Today, in and effort to prevent my head imploding from a murky mix of autumnal blues, post holiday drearies and driech weather - I threw myself and the dog into the glasshouse to see if I could sort it out .... 

Almost a reset for both the greenhouse and for me I suppose, especially as the weather kept drizzling and that in itself is rather a downer for me, so armed with a large travel mug of tea, the radio and an easily excitable dog we trouped off to the garden much to her disappointment!

Most of the morning was wading through all the things which have been temporarily homed here from my parents move, I am hoping that this weekend we can takes lots over to their new place once Himself and I have built their shed - weather permitting of course......

By lunchtime both the dog and myself were fed up so we trudged back to the house and we had a bit of time out. In the afternoon with the shredder and the dustbin in full use, I finally discovered that I do actually have a floor in the glasshouse again.

Woo hoo I was finally able to reach my glasshouse grown vegetables and harvest what was ready - a glimmer just at the right time.

On a different note - I am launching myself into 'hand made chrimbly' I am going to attempt to make at least one gift per person. I have quite a stash of 'useful crafting stuff' and I think it is time to start using it up. I am thinking along the lines of crochet (can't knit any more as one of my thumbs just cries in pain), painting  (carefully - again hand issues), air dried clay, sewing and baking.

And talking of baking, I have just made some cracking ginger biscuits. It comes from an American site so everything is in cups. I shall do the 'Himself taste test' and if he thinks they are worth making again, I will do but I will convert the amounts into grams.

*later* 

I swapped some of those ginger biscuits for a bowlful of windfall apples - hmmm what shall I make with these? And the 'Himself verdict?' They are definitely have again.

I spent most of last Tuesday painting my folks shed which had the bad grace to fall on both the dog and myself courtesy of a huge gust of wind. Willow decided she'd rather sit inside the van for safety and I had to wash paint off my arm, out of my hair and chuck my shirt into the washing machine!

Any hoo - end of grumble, tomorrow is another day (shed building) and to round up Friday - Himself has lit the fire - autumnal vibes anyone? 

I may have cried

 

A while ago - when the boys were young - we accidently stumbled upon what has now become an annual event - Kirkcudbright Summer Floodlit Festivities Tattoo. It was just a chance comment by a campsite owner that led us firstly to the town then to the tattoo. The only time we have missed it was 2020 (thanks covid) and despite the almost predictability of the tattoo schedule we absolutely love it.

The boys are bigger now, big enough to have mortgages, partners, cats and serious jobs yet we all still come to Kirkcudbright and make a weekend of it all.  This year was no different - well, it was in a way - I shall explain as I go along.

In the town is a lovely house and garden (Broughton House) run by the National Trust for Scotland and again this place is firmly on our agenda - particularly the gardens. Over the years we have been inspired by the planting, taken photos and, certainly Eldest and myself, probably stroked nearly every plant and wished we lived there.

This year we (almost) didn't go as the pricing had gone up and it is usually me who pays, I'll be honest - I hesitated at paying for six adults since taking early retirement - I now count the pennies rather closely. Fortunately that was sorted and on Saturday morning all six of us and a silly dilly dog meandered through the gardens - a haven of peace and tranquillity. 

Except Eldest seemed ill at ease, he was not as engrossed in the plants or the place like he is normally until we all wandered into the central lawn (which we call Tizzie's lawn after the cat we met there) when it became apparent why he was on edge.

He dropped to one knee and proposed to his lovely partner - there was not a dry eye in the garden. Unintentionally (for he is not one for showy IG/FB type things) he had an audience as well as us quietly and emotionally witnessing his proposal. Other garden visitors stood with hands over mouths, smiles and tears in their eyes too.

As a pack we bounded over and hugged and cried together then afterwards there was spontaneous applause and more amusingly - 'victory laps' around the lawn by son and girlfriend - oops - fiancé and they were quickly joined by other son and his girlfriend - with the sounds of laughter in the garden - it was wonderful. 

Certainly for the rest of the day, Himself and I caught ourselves grinning, and as we left the gardens the National Trust staff gently queried if we were the family who were celebrating in the garden as so many other folk commented about the special moment. 

Now - Youngest is under pressure .... the staff told him that he would be next (and his lovely girlfriend agrees - talk about a sweating younger son!)

So - yes, another annual tradition our family keep - but with added love (and tears!)

I'll chat later about other lovely parts of our jolly away - I just had to share this moment💚💍🧡

glimmers

 Three gentle moments during a rather unexpectedly cool and damp day.

That one moment my back is turned and a small finger sized yellow courgette suddenly becomes a huge baseball bat of a thing!  Fortunately the yellow variety stay tender and sweet even when rudely oversized and almost marrow like!

The ballcock from zinc water tank - discovered by a dog who insisted on carrying it around with a silly look on her face - precious.

And a sigh of relief as I hear the water barrels filling up.

What little things have made you smile today - go on share, let's spread the gentle joy of glimmers.