FREDDY FROM YORKSHIRE

New Post

2011-04-23T23:28:00.000+01:00

Just updated my profile after 3 years of not posting on the old blog. I was quite amazed that this weblog is still on blogger but there you go. You never know, I may start blogging again, but don't build your hopes up whoever reads this.

New computer/ New resolve

2008-01-06T22:28:00.000Z

New computer/ New resolve.

Can't promise anything, but the resolve to post is slowly coming back.

My old computer was so slow I couldn't be bothered switching it on. I would rather watch re-runs of "Have I got news for you" or the "South Bank Show" on TV than wait the 20 minutes or so before my 64mb RAM computer decided to wake up. That has all changed with my new 1GB RAM computer. I can actually watch videos on U-Tube, without the characters looking as if they are doing that robotic dance thing.

That's the computer part of the strapline, the hard part is the resolve. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since I last posted. Hell, I even had to Google Blogger in order to get a password reset. What I will promise is.....

slowly resolve to start posting again!

On my travels again

2007-02-14T21:40:00.000Z

Well I'm on my travels again. Tomorrow I'm up at the crack of dawn and driving down to HO in Nottingham for a 2 day course.

On my way I always call in at Tibtree services because they have a nice Costa's coffee shop there. I'm hooked on their Cappucino. £2.85p for a large one to go. Last time I was down there I got a Costa lotta coffee and placed it in my cup holder in the car. Trouble is, the cups are so large, the top sort of just wedges in and leaves it at an angle. Of course I forgot and went around a bend to get back onto the motorway and it toppled over. Capo all over the car floor. I ended up with a coffee smelling car for the next week until I managed to clean it.

Might get a medium one tomorrow.

Pet Names

2007-02-09T21:59:00.000Z

As I've stated in previous posts, my little lass makes me laugh at the things she says.
We were talking about names she calls members of the family. This is what she said-

" I call Mummy, 'Chef' because she cooks nice meals for me. I call Daddy 'Cushion' because he's nice and soft when I sit on his knee and I call my grown up sister 'Teddybear' because she's like a big teddybear when she's in her bed."

"You've missed out your brother, what do you call him?" I asked.

"A pain in the neck" she replied.

The Scowl

2007-02-07T22:21:00.000Z

I have to drive to Bradford everyday for my work, a total of about 12 miles, which doesn't sound much but 7 of those miles are on the busiest stretch of motorway in the North, junctions 24 to 27 of the M62. The other 5 miles are inner city driving. You very rarely get up to 40mph on the motorway, and although the speed limit on the city roads is 30mph, you'll only ever get that fast on Christmas Day at 3 am. Usual speed is between 0 and a terrifying 10mph.

So I laughed at a story I heard on the Terry Wogan show this morning, when I was crawling along the A6177 in Bradford at a dizzy 5 mph, trailing a skip-wagon. A guy in similar circumstances to me, travelling into work, same speed, different city, been doing the same route for years, noticed a white van at the side of the road in the distance. When he got closer, he saw that it was a Traffic Policeman pointing a radar gun at the oncoming vehicles. The speed limit on the road was 40mph, but the traffic was stopping and starting, and couldn't have got up 5mph never mind 40mph. When the guy got alongside the copper, he waved to him and gave him a big smile.

All he got back was a scowl!

Mustn't have had any customers that morning.

A Day in York

2007-02-02T22:26:00.000Z

Part of my job working in the photo-hub is to go and visit the stores that send me the photos to develop and today being such a nice sunny day I decided to go to York.

York is the capitol city of Yorkshire and goes way back to the Viking times and beyond, consequently it is also full of tourists. Mind you, even I like going to York. There are plenty of attractions to see, museums to visit, some of them free, also , if you like touristy type shops, your well catered for.

Today though I didn't have time for all that, I was on business. I parked the car up in the park and ride, paid my £2 and let somebody else negotiate the traffic in the city centre. In places like this you tend to get a lot of buskers, someone playing a guitar or violin or blowing a trumpet, but today, I kid you not, was the first time Iv'e seen a busker playing a grand piano on the pavement. True! He could really play it well, as well. He had quite a crowd around him, so I think he would have got a fair bit in the hat.

Probably needed it at the end of the day to pay for the removal van!

Swimming Lessons

2007-01-30T22:05:00.000Z

Last September we got a message from the school saying that my lad wasn't very confident in the pool when his class went swimming. They suggested extra lessons on a Saturday morning with me in the pool with him, to give him that confidence.
On the first lesson I soon sussed what the problem was. He could swim fine but he insisted on wearing floats on his arms stating that if he took them off he would drown.It took 3 months of Saturday mornings to wean him off those floats until one Saturday morning he swam a pool length un-aided. The class cheered and clapped him, the instructor congratulated him, I was proud of him, and to prove it wasn't a fluke , he swam another 2 lengths. The instructor thought he was showing off then.
The following Saturday, the instructor came up to me and told me that in his normal school swimming lessons he refused to swim without floats. He must have thought that because I was there, I would save him from drowning. It took him another month before he finally discarded the floats, with or without me.

His extra lessons finished before Christmas, but now the little lass is coming with me on Saturdays. She's so skinny that the armbands keep falling off.

I think she'll learn fast...or drown!

Ruminating

2007-01-28T21:53:00.000Z

After a nice bottle of Californian red and a chicken dinner with all the trimmings, plus chocolate sponge with choc sauce for afters, I began to ruminate on what has happened in my life for the last 7 months.
It was June of last year when I last posted to this blog, and not a lot before then either. I can't even begin to explain why I stopped blogging, especially when I really enjoyed posting and reading other peoples blogs. Was it posters block?-- I don't think so. There was a lot happening at that time to provide enough material. Was it lethargy?-- mmm possibly. I used to think, shall I post tonight. Then almost immediately I'd think--nahhh I'll post tomorrow night. I used to put a lot of energy into my work as a photo lab manager back then, that I would feel drained when I got home. It's only now, 10 months down the line, that I can understand why. After blood tests, my doctor diagnosed me as having an under-active Thyroid Gland. I think the medical term is myxadema or hypothyroidism. Anyway, the symptoms are reduced brain function, feeling tired all the time and weight gain. I ticked all the boxes there. Your thyroid gland produces hormones to kick start your metabolism, unfortunately my kick start had fallen off. I am taking tablets to control this and am now feeling 200% better and sharper than I have done in months. So hopefully it's business as usual. Hooray!

Anyway, going back to my ruminating, the last post was all about the bomb site. Well the builders went away £2000 better off, but the outside of the house looks brilliant. We get the odd few hundred pebbles showering us occasionally, when we have high winds, but you always get that after fresh pebble dash, don't you?

June turned out to be the hottest June on record in the UK and July wasn't to bad either, but by the time my holiday came around in August, the British winter started. I was off for the first 2 weeks in August and it chucked it down everyday, cold with it as well. I don't think the weather has improved much since.

Anyway, it's nice to be posting again. Lots more to come now that I feel "rejuvenated" (sic)

See you tomorrow or Tuesday (oops slipping)

Just One Of Those Things

2007-01-27T23:23:00.000Z

What with travelling to Bradford everyday, the computer being bust for 3 months, an under-active Thyroid Gland, being Dads Taxi, some good DVDs to watch and generally being knackered most evening, (probably because of the thyroid gland) I haven't done any postings for 7 months.

Hopefully that will all change now I'm on medication. (Thyroxine). I'm feeling a lot more energetic nowadays and with a bit of luck I might lose some weight as well.

Keep looking in, I'm planning a different look for the site and will be bringing you up to date with the news.

Bye for now

Bomb Site

2006-06-28T22:28:00.000+01:00

As the sun sets on Fred towers, I look out of the dust encrusted windows and survey the devastation outside. The window is framed by scaffolding, whose poles are jutting out of a two foot pile of rubble.

No, we have'nt had an earthquake or the RAF have not included us on their practise bomb runs.

Wev'e got the builders in!

Wer'e having the pebbledash on the house renewed. They've been at it 3 days now and it looks like Beirut out there. They have to take all the old stuff off the walls first and the noise and dust they create, makes me wish I'd not taken this week off.

I just keep telling myself that it will look nice when it's finished.

The Rugby Match

2006-05-14T22:38:00.000+01:00

I managed to get some free tickets to the Giants match against Salford Reds, which was played at the Galpharm Stadium today.

This came about because of a promotion the local football and Rugby teams were running in the primary schools in the area. If you have a child who is 7 yrs old, all you have to do is pay £10 and the 7 yr old gets 4 free tickets to a Huddersfield Town match and 4 for a Giants match as well as a replica shirt for the football and rugby team. Bargain!

We'd already been to the Town match versus Barnsley, were the little lass got presented with her shirts, and today it was the day of the rugby match.

The weather was overcast with a bit of a chill in the air, so the wife insisted that the lass wore a fleece and a waterproof mac over. She put her new shirt over the fleece and then the mac on. We'd hardly got through the turnstiles before the mac was off and she was strutting about showing her shirt off. I think she was a bit disappointed that nobody took any notice of her in it, but as the vast majority of the crowd were wearing the same I guess she just blended in.

She didn't understand a thing about Rugby but she was clapping and cheering as if she'd been going years. The Giants won 32-18. After the match she said to me, "Did we win Daddy?"

She was singing, "We are the champions", on the way home.

Hiya, It's me at last

2006-04-20T22:08:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it's such a long time since I posted, last Febuary and here it is, Easter gone already.

The junior school panto was staged the other week, Jack and the Beanstalk. My lad was in the choir, not a starring role I'm afraid, but he enjoyed it, as my wife and I did. The only downside was having to sit on those small chairs they have for anything like this. My backside was aching afterwards.

Wev'e got about half the allotment dug now and Iv'e managed to plant maincrop and early potatoes, 200+ onion sets and a row of early peas. I've got cabbage,cauliflower,sprouts, kohl rabi and celeriac germinating in cells in the greenhouse and about 30 tomato plants just about ready to go out. Of course I will have to wait till it warms up a bit yet. I can't believe it snowed here a week before Easter. The daffodils have just flowered this last week in our garden, a month later than last year.

I'll try and post a bit more regular, but for now I'll leave you with a photo from one of my last years walks. A picture of a very old bridge on Marsden Moor.

Surely must be round the corner.

Ta Ra

The Allotment

2006-02-12T22:04:00.000Z

Did I tell you that wev'e aquired an allotment site?

It's not far from where we live so there's not much humping of spades and things to get there. I've already started the potatoes chitting and planted my tomatoe and lettuce seeds indoors. When the weather picks up a bit and the ground drys out, myself and the wife and probably the two youngsters will be down there digging it over and getting some manure in the soil.

Come the summer, with a bit of luck we should be eating fresh home grown organic veggies.

Might be some left over to make into lovely veg juice. Yummy!

The things they say

2006-02-11T22:14:00.000Z

My little lass is getting to be a back seat driver and she's only just turned 7.

On the way home from the supermarket this morning, an emergency ambulance hove into view in my rear view mirror, sirens and blue lights going.

The little lass in the back pipes up, " There's a we waw coming up behind you Daddy so you'll have to pull in to the side and don't forget to put your tick tocks on."

I'll translate for you..

We waws are the sound emergency vehicles sirens make except fire engines which are ne naws and tick tock is the sound of my cars direction indicators.

She fair made me chuckle with her comment especially when she followed it up with, "Must be somebody hurt going to the hospital Dad."

The things they say.

PS.. We picked the girl who used to run a video shop, she starts on Monday.

Tum Te Tum

2006-02-03T22:02:00.000Z

Hey, can't a bloke have an holiday every so often.

Yes I'm alive and still kicking. I must admit that I've become a bit lethargic about posting on the blog. I sit down in front of the screen and can't think of anything to write about even though a lot is happening.

I think that no-one wants to know that it was the little lasses birthday bash last week at The Fun Factory and I spent a lot of time keeping two 7yr old girls from trying to kill each other whilst stopping a 7yr old lad from biting his mate on the bouncy castle. When the food came out the same lad wouldn't eat anything. Guess he'd had his fill of his friend.

Then there was the lad's birthday party down at the local bowling alley. The kids (9yr olds) started arguing over which bowling ball they were going to use, When that settled down I found that they had beaten my score! The shame of it.

The last 2 days have been traumatic at work. I have a vacant post for an operator in the lab and I've been interviewing 12 hopefuls for the job. Iv'e managed to shortlist it down to five.

A 20 yr old woman with some experience in the industry.
A 23 yr old woman with no experience in the industry but she was the manager of a video shop and is very keen.
A 56 yr old man originally from Barbados with a wicked sense of humour.
A 35 yr old asian man who is a bit quiet but has a very good cv and would work very hard.
A 50 yr old mum who wants to get back into a job after bringing up a family.

If you want to pick your favourite leave a comment. I'll tell you who gets the job next week after I've sat down with my assistant manager and decided.

Cheerio.

Update- 2/ The Christmas Files.

2005-12-25T21:40:00.000Z

It all stared last night, you know, Christmas Eve.

The night when I wished that the kids would get to sleep pretty slick. All the warnings that Santa wouldn't bring any presents must have fell on deaf ears.

You see , I had a bike to build from scratch for the lads main present, wich had sat in the garage for 3 weeks, in its cardboard box, no chance of getting in there, unless suspicion was aroused.

So, I was hoping for a an early narcosis for my lad, especially since I had done the 6.30 am run to the supermarket, for my perishables. After a hard week in the Kabin, I was ready for a bit of an early night, before the 5.30 bounce on the bed, Christmas Morning.

Sadly, I have to say now, the early night, did not transpire. The lad, did not get to sleep till 11.55 pm. He went to bed at 8.30pm but did not fall asleep till nearly Christmas Day.

So, his bike, was built, in the early hours of this morning.

Never mind, I thought, he's not going to get up too early in the morn, I can still get a few hours kip.

5.30am.

Awakened by lad.

Merry Christmas from one knackered Fred.

Want an update?

2005-12-18T21:36:00.000Z

I thought Id better update my hardcore, avid readers of Freddy, ( there's only 3 of you, and you know who you are).

Well, leading on from my previous post, the little girl is nit free now, but boy, what a job that was to get rid of the little critters. There was an endemic at the school, and for a while all the girls were going in with their hair up in bands. All over now, but shortly after that, half the school went down with the 48hr sickness bug. I tell you, it's not safe going to school anymore, you pick up more germs than in the hospital. She came home with a cold last week and has kindly passed it on to me and the wife.

I've been in the new job for 3 weeks now and wished I'd done it years ago. I'm in charge of a photo-lab which is situated in one of the companies distribution centres. I have 4 staff and they are a great bunch. I really relish the fact that I am the boss and don't work in a store anymore.

All the Christmas decorations are up in the Fred house, most of the presents are wrapped and hidden from prying eyes. The kids finished school on Friday after the nativity play. I took some photos of the little girl in her costume but when I transferred it to Picasa the system crashed, after I'd wiped my card clean. Well pissed off I was. The wife thought I'd done it on purpose, so I was in the doghouse for a while.

The kids are at fever pitch at the moment, and can't wait for Santa to come down the chimney. I've started eating mince pies, and can't seem to stop, but I 'm still juicing the veggies, so hopefully it will balance itself out.

It's pretty cold around these parts at the moment so I'll leave you with a nice photo to remind you of warmer times. Jody will like this one.

This is a picture of a local landmark which everybody around here calls Castle Hill but it was built to commemorate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee.

The Nit Invasion

2005-11-22T21:18:00.000Z

We received a communication fron the school the other evening saying that it's that time of year again and head lice are having a grand time.

Tell me about it.

The little lass had them the other week and no sooner had we got them cleared up, she's gone and got them again. They certainly are having a grand time.

Well, it's my last day at work tomorrow before I start my new job. I've got to go to a conference Thurs/Fri and then I start on Monday. I must admit that it is going to be strange not working in a store environment but mostly I'll miss the people I've been working with all these years. Wev'e had a lot of laughs over the years.

The one thing I'm looking forward to this year is Christmas. Working in a store, Christmas starts early. Decorations were up early October. All the Christmas merchandise was on the shelves around the same time. Even festive songs are being played over the tannoy. By the time Christmas actually came along, I was all Christmas'ed out. Starting the new job, I can blot it out till nearer the time.

It's forecast snow around these parts for Friday. I can just see me stuck on the M1 in a blizzard trying to get home from the conference.

The tunnel under the Pennines

2005-11-17T23:25:00.000Z

Standedge canal tunnel. I haven't done a picture for a while(or a post) This tunnel links Yorkshire with Lancashire.

Halloween Pumpkin

2005-11-02T22:37:00.000Z

It was the night before Halloween and the kids were excited about making a pumpkin lantern. They had wanted to do it earlier, but we insisted that they do their homework first. Iv'e never seen their work done so fast and it was soon time to get the pumpkin ready.

I sliced the lid off and they were in there like whippets getting all the seeds and gungy bits out. What a mess! I had to finish the difficult bits and then started to cut out the eyes, nose and mouth. The little lass was so close I nearly cut her nose off. I put a tea-light in the middle and lit it. The lantern looked really effective, glowing eerily in the dark.

I heard sobbing in the background and turned around to discover the little lass crying her eyes out.

"What's the matter, sweetheart." I said to her.

"I'm scccared." she replied.

Aaaah. Bless her.

The 18 year escape plan

2005-10-22T22:27:00.000+01:00

When I first started working in my current job 18 years ago, I thought at the time that I would only do it for 2 or 3 years and then go onto something different. I beavered away at it and when I paused for breath, 5 years had gone by. So for the next 6 years I started applying for jobs, none of which I got.
The rejection letters piled up and I resigned myself to the fact that I was getting too old for the job market and I would probably retire from the current job in 13 years time.
Then, last month, I got a phone call out of the blue from one of the photo managers at Head Office. My current company was setting up some photolabs to process film from stores that don't have an on-site processing facility, they needed a manager to run it and would I be interested in applying.
After much deliberation I sent my cv off. I didn't think for one minute I'd get the job after my past experiences but at least it was a day out and a free lunch as well.
My worst fears were confirmed when I saw the calibre of the candidates at the selection day. Oh well, give it my best shot, I thought, and make sure I'm first in line for the buffet.
The selection day was at the end of September and I hadn't heard anything since, which made me feel even more that I hadn't got the job, so imagine my surprise when the same manager phoned me up on Thursday offering me the post. I start the new job on 14th November. It had taken so long because, with 14 labs going in they were still interviewing up until Wednesday.
Apparently I had shone through and beaten off some stiff competition. I must admit that I thought I was destined to stay in my current job for a long time yet so I really am chuffed to get this.
I have sent my plan to the store escape commitee and they have approved it.

All I need now is to dig the tunnel.

"Last of the Summer Wine"- town

2005-10-16T21:31:00.000+01:00

On the 3rd Sunday of the month, a local town- Holmfirth- holds a farmers market. Farmers markets are very popular because the farmers and local producers can sell their produce direct to the public, without using the middle-men. The public like them because they can get cheap, mainly organic produce which tastes ten times better than what you get in the supermarkets.
The Holmfirth market is a well established one with about 40 stalls selling anything from veggies to Venison steaks.
The gang and myself went out there today and came home with loads of veg, free range eggs, homemade bread, some jars of pickles and some parkin, ( a Yorkshire cake made from treacle and ginger.)
Holmfirth itself was made popular because of the long running tv series, "Last of the Summer Wine." The BBC used the town and surrounding area to shoot most of the scenes. Click on the links to learn more about the town and tv series.

And by the way, I got some lovely carrots to juice.

To Stoodley Pike and back

2005-10-06T22:34:00.000+01:00

We parked the car at Withens Clough resevoir and took the old packhorse route from Cragg Vale to Mankinholes en-route to Stoodley Pike.
This is a picture of the Te Deum stone which is at the top of the track before you descend into Mankinholes. Apparently, if anyone died in Cragg Vale, they had to be buried in Mankinholes and the shortest route was over this hill. The undertakers used to rest the coffin on the Te Deum stone, so they could have a breather.
This was our objective for today. Stoodley Pike monument has stood on the top of this hill for over 150 years. The Pennine Way, one of the National Trails, goes past this place before dipping down into Hebden Bridge.
I took this of Withens Clough Reservoir as we were descending down to the car park. The sun gives it an eery effect as it glints of the water.
And a picture of the gang, glad to have found the car again!

Hello Again

2005-10-04T22:02:00.000+01:00

Well, Autumn is upon us in this neck of the woods, the trees are shedding their leaves, the nights are drawing in, there's a definite chill in the air, our squirrel is hiding the peanuts we put out for it and it's also hidden some acorns we brought back from one of our walks. I hope it finds them again because I don't particularly want Oak trees growing in the back garden. The frogs have vanished from the wildlife ponds, probably to hibernate. You can't see a Swallow anymore, all gone south. The remaining tomatoes in the greenhouse aren't ripening fast enough to keep up with demand but had a bumper crop of plums which has been made into jam, and the silly season has started already, a month before bonfire night.

And I've finally posted on the blog!

Jody who lives in Iowa and maintains one of my favourite blog reads, wonders if I've over-juiced (previous post) because I've not posted for a while. Although I'm still juicing and enjoying every last drop of the scummy, yummy liquid gold ( 30lbs lost now and still going down), I've not posted because...erm, I can't actually think of a reason why I shouldn't have done. I could use the excuse that I've been busy doing other things but I haven't, or because I've been too lethargic, but with all the veggy juice flowing through my veins, I really can't use that excuse either. Let's put it down to me not realising how much time had passed since my last post, heh.

My lad has joined the local Cub Scout Pack and the little lass is jealous as anything because she can't join the Brownies until she's 7 in January. To add to her misery, she has had to start wearing spectacles to correct her eyesight. Must be hereditary, because I started wearing them when I was 9. Poor lamb.

This week I'm on a Union Reps course in Leeds a year after I started doing the job.

And for breakfast I drank 2 carrots, quarter of cucumber, 2 celery sticks, 1 apple and a courgette.

Lipsmackin, thirst quenching, green coloured, scum forming.. veggies.

Juicing

2005-09-15T22:04:00.000+01:00

I was listening to Radio 2 whilst in my car about 6 weeks ago and Stuart Maconie was interviewing a guy called Jason Vale, the UK's Juice master. He was talking about juicing fruit and vegetables and the benefits you get from drinking them everyday.

This got me thinking. I was very overweight by at least 4 stone, I felt tired most of the time and I generally felt like a turd warmed up all of the time. I would go to work and get a headache by mid-morning and after lunch I would feel lethargic to the point of nearly falling asleep. On getting home all I'd want to do was flop in front of TV or the computer.

So I looked up his web-site and from that moment on I've changed my whole life-style. I now drink at least 2 vegetable juices a day. I've stopped eating junk food including bread, pasta, biscuits, processed foods of any kind, red meat, dairy products, the list goes on. I've replaced them with whole foods like nuts, friut, oily fish(salmon, sardines, tuna etc). I eat rye bread and wholemeal pitta, brown rice and porridge flavoured with organic honey. I've started parking the car further from work and walking in. I do a bit more exercise on a rebounder and an exercise bike and the last few Sunday's have been going on 7 to 8 mile walks in the country and loving it.

And the benefits...
I feel wonderful and full of energy all of the time. I get out of bed in the morning without groaning and moaning. I don't fall asleep in the afternoons anymore. 2 months ago I would'nt have dreamed of walking 2 miles never mind 7. I'm actually planning a 15 mile hike across the moors. Unheard of before. My skin feels marvellous not like old paper. I don't get headaches anymore. My joints don't creak like they used to. I feel as if I can take on any challenge not hide from it. But the major benefit thats happened since I started juicing 5 weeks ago...

..I've lost 24lbs and 3 inches off my waistline.

If this strikes a chord with you, check out Jason Vales web-site here.

The First One

2005-09-14T21:34:00.000+01:00

The little lass has viewed her older brother with increasing envy over the last two years.

"That's another one," he would say to her. "That makes three now."

"Aw, it's not fair," she would cry. "When is it ever going to happen to me?"

We would explain to her that it most certainly would happen to her, but she had to remember that she was two years younger than her brother, and eventually it would happen. She would just have to be patient and wait awhile.

"But Susan in my class is two months younger than me and she's had her second one." she moaned.

Yet again we had to explain that everybody was different and it would really, really happen to her.

Well the other day it did happen to her. She came rushing in from playing in the garden.

"It's happened," she said jumping up and down with excitement. "My very first one."

Lets hope the tooth fairy comes to visit her.

Ditchmonkey

2005-09-05T23:12:00.000+01:00

I was listening to Radio 2 today and Stuart Maconie did an interview with the Ditchmonkey.

Who's the Ditchmonkey? Click on the link to read his blog and find out.

Then be very glad you sleep in a bed and have a roof over your head.

Howarth Moor and Top Withens

2005-09-01T21:50:00.000+01:00

Just lately, my wife and I have had the urge to do a bit of walking, and we started by doing a 7 mile round walk taking in Howarth, Howarth Moor and Top Withens.
Howarth is famous for the birthplace of the Bronte sisters and on the day we parked up the Japanese tourists were all there with their Nikons. Apparently the Japanese are big fans of the books written Charlotte, Emily and Anne and Howarth is like a magnet to them. As we don't like touristy places we headed out of the carpark in the opposite direction towards the moors, destination Top Withins. (This is the lonely moorland home that Heathcliffe is supposed to have lived in as described in the book, Wuthering Heights.)
Half a mile down the road you are out of the town and straight into scenery like in the picture on the left. We carried on walking past Penistone Country Park, over a cattle grid and were greeted by hundreds of sheep. The little lass was a bit wary of them at first, but as they were only intent on chewing the grass she soon got used to them.
After a couple of miles, we came across Bronte Waterfalls, (Bronte again!). I don't know why they call it a waterfall, because it was more like a trickle on the day we got there. We had our lunch here and then pressed onto Top Withens, another mile and a half further on. We had to negotiate a few stiles on the way which caused much merriment amongst ourselves. The path to Top Withens was uphill all the way, so we were all a bit knackered when we got there but it was worth it for the view.
The purple heather was in full flower and the scent coming off it took your breath away. In the photo, top left, you can see Haworth which will give you an idea of the distance we had walked. Walking around Top Withens, which is just the ruins of an old farmhouse, you can sense the desolation of the place and appreciate the hard life the people who had lived there in the past must have had. We were there on a nice sunny warm day, but I bet it's a different story in mid winter.
We took a different route on the way back, following the Pennine Way for a couple of miles. That branched off and stayed on the tops, whilst we went down and walked through the village of Stanbury. A quick right past the village and we were walking across the head of Lower Laithe reservoir. A couple of more miles and we were back in Howarth, sitting on a wall eating fish and chips out of the wrappers with a smug look on our faces whilst we watched the antics of the Japs. I wonder if they knew where Heathcliffe used to live, and would they walk seven miles to find out?

Long Time Coming

2005-08-29T21:54:00.000+01:00

I know it's been a long time coming, but this is what we got up to on the last day of our holiday to Norfolk.
We decided to take a drive up the coast road to a little seaside village called Mundesley. The beach here is pretty good, so the kids wasted no time in attempting to dig for Australia. Apart from the beach, there is not a lot to Mundesley, 2 gift shops, 1 cafe and a hotel. Nice and quiet, just the way we like it. Back at the caravan, the kids went to the Elle the Elephant club for the last time, whilst we started packing because instead of going home first thing in the morning, we decided to set off that evening so that we missed all the traffic. We got home at 1.30 am and went straight to bed.
It's been 3 weeks since the holiday and I've been back at work for two of them, but we have been on our travels since then and I've got lots of interesting places which wev'e visited in Yorkshire to tell you about. For now though I'll leave you a taster of what's to come.

We took a walk through Hardcastle Crags which is near Hebden Bridge.
On another sunny day it was a 7 mile walk taking in the Bronte Waterfalls, Haworth Moor and Top Withens on the Pennine Walk.
And just today we went for another walk (5 miles)taking in Ogden Water and Ovenden Moor, just a few miles north of Halifax.

I will go into more detail in future posts. See you later.

The Rose Garden

2005-08-19T22:44:00.000+01:00

On the Thursday of our Norfolk holiday, we drove down to Attleborough to visit what my wife calls her "Mecca". The venue was Peter Beales Classic Rose Centre.
Peter Beale consistantly wins gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show and this year was no exception. My wife is a big rose fan and she was really excited about going there.
At the centre, all the roses that they sell in the garden centre are planted in gardens, which you can wander around and see what they look like. There are about five or six gardens, all different to each other. You can get plenty of inspiration, just wandering about. All the roses are labelled in the gardens, so all you have to do is make a note of the name and go and buy it. Unfortunately, my wife went and bought 4 of them and would have bought more until I said that she would have to leave all her luggage behind because there just wasn't room for roses and suitcases.

Mind you, plenty of room in my wallet after that excursion.

Yarmouth Row Houses

2005-08-16T21:26:00.000+01:00

Me telling you what I got up to in Norfolk seems to be dragging on a bit but, hey ho, just call me slack, anyway here's another exciting, gripping installment...
Well, on the Wednesday we decided to go to Great Yarmouth, it being market day an' all. There's one thing we like, and that's walking around a market, and Yarmouth's is one of the better ones. There's a wide variety of stalls but Yarmouth market is famous for it's chip stalls. All they sell is chips and there's nothing better than eating chips smothered in salt 'n vinegar from a paper cone as you're walking round a market. I also made a bee-line for the jellied eel stall. Scrummy!
Another reason for going to Yarmouth was to do the walk that was featured on the BBC programme, Coast. The main intention being checking out a couple of museums.
The first one we went to was the Time and Tide museum. This place tells the story of Yarmouth to present day. It's housed in an old Herring curing factory and they've preserved the smoke houses where they used to hang the Herrings to smoke and cure. It hasn't been used for that reason for twenty years but you can still smell the smoked fish in the wooden beams. All the people who used to work in the herring business at the turn of the 19th century, used to live in what are called row houses. All the houses were built in rows with narrow ally-ways in between and instead of street names they were numbered , Row 1, Row 2 etc all the way up to the hundreds. Unfortunately a lot were damaged by German air-raids during the war and the rest were condemned as slums and pulled down. The massive Herring shoals that used to arrive off Yarmouth every year, dwindled until they are virtually non-existent now. You can still get the famous Yarmouth bloater though.
Well I've rambled on enough for tonight so I'll tell you more at a later date....

Petites

2005-08-11T22:17:00.000+01:00

Continuing on from our holiday in Norfolk, on Tuesday we went to Petites Animal Adventure Park. We've been before on previous holidays and always loved the place.
Petites is a mixture of childrens fairground rides and an animal park. There is a petting area where you can get up close to animals and feed them. We'd just been in the enclosure and the kids were washing their hands when I managed to snap Rudolph going for a walk. Animal enclosures are dotted around the park, but there aren't any big animals, just the nice small ones that kids like.
There are lots of kiddies fairground rides to go on, some of which adults have to accompany their children. This roller-coaster didn't look very big but it was a bit fast even for me. Of course the little girl loved it so much, she made me go on it again. I was glad that you only pay one price at the gate and then everything is free because the amount of rides the kids went on would have dented the wallet a bit.
There is also an open air theatre where a magic show or a clown performs every hour.We watched Billy Bubbles magic show featuring Maxi Mouse.
Also in the park is one of the biggest adventure playgrounds I have ever seen and believe me, when your a Dad, you've seen a lot. This one was a maze of slides, climbing frames, tunnels, there was even a kiddie size death slide. In the monkey house I took a snap of this cheeky chappy. I've been in monkey houses before, where the rascals show their bum and pee on you, but this one behaved itself. There was a fishpond with loads of coi carp in which you could feed. When you threw a handful of food in they didn't half churn the water up.
After the park we took a drive down to Reedham and had a look at the pleasure boats going up and down the River Yare whilst we licked on an ice-cream.
....some more to come another day.

A Trip on the River Bure

2005-08-09T00:03:00.000+01:00

On the Sunday of our holiday in Norfolk, we did the shopping. When you are self-catering, the provisions for the week need to be sorted out. Fortunately, there was a Tesco's a couple of miles down the road from the camp, so we spent the morning there. The weather wasn't brilliant after the storm the night before, so in the afternoon we went and shivered on the beach. The wife and myself shivered, that is, the kids got stuck in building sandcastles and didn't seem affected by the cool seabreeze.
On the Monday, we took a drive up to Wroxham. This place is one of the biggest centres for boating on the Broads. Norfolk is famous for it's Broads. (Not an American lady of dubious quality.)The Broads started life as old peat diggings which ran parallel to the rivers of Norfolk. Over time they were flooded, and now provide miles of navigable waterways for trading and pleasure craft.
We decided to take a pleasure cruise up the River Bure and I took this photo of a Heron contemplating were it's dinner was going to come from. At a sedate 3 mph the trip was going to last 1 1/2 hours calling at a couple of Broads on the way.
When we got to Salhouse Broad(I think it was called Salhouse.) there were row upon row of sailing dinghies. This Broad is home to the Norfolk Sailing club and the guy giving the commentary said that on race days he can't get the boat in because of all the yachts flying around the place. Further around the Broad is a Norfolk Wherry, moored all by itself. Wherry's used to be the main cargo shifting vessels of Norfolk before the combustion engine was invented. This one was built in the latter half of the 1800's. There are only 3 wherry's left today and this is one of them, which is privately owned.
Back at the camp I dropped the kids off at the Elle the Elephant club whilst the wife and I had a couple of hours peace.
....to be continued.

Freddy's back in town

2005-08-06T23:03:00.000+01:00

Well that's the holiday over for another year. We've just spent a week in sunny/rainy Norfolk staying in a caravan and although the weather hasn't been the best we all enjoyed ourselves.
This is a picture of the caravan which was our "home" for the week. Although I wouldn't want to live in one all the time, it was comfortable enough for the week. The kids loved it and thought it was a great adventure. All the bedlinen and cooking utensils are provided, so all you have got to do is buy the food and cook it. Mind you, it's a bit of a trial cooking on a Calor gas stove, but we managed.
We set off at 10.30 am last Saturday and rolled into the "Holiday Village" at 6.30pm. It normally only takes about 4 hrs to get there, but the wife wanted to stop off at the lavender fields at Norfolk Lavender on the way down. She took her time looking around as well, but the kids found the adventure playground, so at least that stopped them moaning. We also took the longer, but more scenic route down the coast road, which is 20mph in places.
After unpacking, we had a quick look around and then settled down for the night. No sooner were we in bed when there was an almighty thunderclap and the heavens opened up and of course it sounded very loud on the tin roof.
Great I thought.

...continues to-morrow.

Holiday

2005-07-28T22:18:00.000+01:00

The excitement is reaching fever-pitch in our household at the moment. Why? Because we are going on holiday to Norfolk.

We are setting off Saturday morning to drive to Scratby nr Great Yarmouth, to begin a weeks holiday by the sea. We'll be staying in a caravan at Summer Fields Holiday Village. Facilities include, heated swimming pool, Sauna,Jacuzzi, childrens adventure playground, amusement arcade and a clubhouse that puts on a turn and bingo every night. Apart from the pool and playground we never use the other facilities. We just use the van as a base from which we can explore Norfolk. This will be our 4th time there now and the kids can't wait to set off. The little lass has packed her bucket and spade a few times now and the lad has been pouring over maps of Norfolk for weeks.

So, if you don't hear from me for a week, you'll know where I am.

Summer time blues

2005-07-22T22:21:00.000+01:00

Well, the day has finally arrived.

The day that some parents of schoolchildren dread. The day that they put to the back of their minds a few weeks ago. The day they thought would never come.

Yes! The summer term has ended and the kids are off school for six weeks. Not that my two are bad or anything, far from it. I'ts more the shock of going from P&Q in the house during the daytime to full out war. Apart from two of the six weeks, I'm at work, it's the poor wife who will bear the brunt of the screaming and yelling and sibling rivalry, wiping snotty noses, putting plasters on grazed knees, being referee to to their games, building dens, keeping cool in the paddling pool, playing football and cricket.....

....actually it sounds like fun.

I wonder if she wants to do my job and I'll stay at home?

Messing About

2005-07-19T23:07:00.000+01:00

Sorry to be a pest but the old posting creative juices have dried up somewhat lately.

So what does one do, when one can't think of anything to write. Well you could stare at the blogger dashboard for a while trying to think of something, or you can shrug your shoulders and say to yourself,--"I'll post to-morrow." Or you could always mess about with your template.

So that's what I've started doing.

I'm still visiting all my fave blogs as normal, so you might get the odd comment or two, whilst my brain wakes up.

My, Oh My.

2005-07-12T22:41:00.000+01:00

I've been so busy, I didn't realize that I had neglected the blog a bit. So much so, that the blogs first birthday slipped by. I started it on June 30th 2004, so by way of a celebration here's the very first post I did....

A new blog is born
As I'm new to blogging, it may take me a while to set everything up, but I thought I'd give it a go mainly because I like to have a good moan about the little things in life that tend to get on the nerves a bit.
Not that I'm going to rant on and on, I don't want to turn people off. I have got a sense of humour somewhere!
Today's moan- Why do people still fly England flags from their cars when it's a week since we lost ?.............

Good wasn't it?

The reference to England flags was because the England football team had just crashed out of the European championships, and all through the competition everybody flew the cross of St George from their cars. It's funny, a year on and I still see the odd one about.

Meanwhile back at the Fred homestead, on Sunday the sun was cracking the pavements so we went to the seaside at Bridlington.
We sat scorching on the beach when I took this photo. You can see Flamborough Head in the distance with the white chalk cliffs. A bit like a Yorkshire version of the White Cliffs of Dover. (There's a song in there somewhere.)
Fish and Chips for lunch and fresh Whelks for tea plus a go on the fairground rides including getting soaked on the water plume. It was a brilliant fun day. The kids were shattered and went straight to sleep when we got home. And I must admit, I wasn't long behind them.

Monday was the little girls sports afternoon. In infants, the games are organized so that there are no winners in order not to upset the teenier and less robust kids. Just as long as they all get a go. Sack race, egg and spoon were a couple of delights of the afternoon, but yet again the sun was relentless and a lot of water was drunk by the little ones. One of them was in a race and carried on running to the toilet!

Tonight as been the lads school concert. He was singing in the choir. He had a bit of a starring role in one of the songs, singing the lead with a couple of girls. Right up his street that, the little womanizer.

How come I can't charm the girls like that?

Not a Happy Post

2005-07-07T21:28:00.000+01:00

I was planning to write an upbeat post tonight, seeing as how London got the Olympic vote for 2012, but after the atrocities, that happened in said city today, I don't think I will.

Instead, I'll just say that no matter how many bombs the terrorists decide to blow up, they will not shake the British resolve to hunt down these cowards wherever they are hiding and in so doing, stamp out terrorism forever.

They've picked on the wrong people this time.

Little House on the Table

2005-06-30T22:28:00.000+01:00

The little girl had to build a house.

"Mr Parkin (her teacher), says we have to build a house for our homework." she said, dropping her bag in the hallway, her coat on the lounge floor and kicking her shoes into the dining room.
So, that evening after tea, she set about making a house out of cereal boxes, glue, sticky tape and acrylic paints. There was cardboard and sticky tape all over the place. The room looked a mess, but out of the rubble arose her house. She did it all by herself, ~~with minimal, not a lot ,~~ maximum help from her mum. I think she did pretty good considering she's only 6.

Who knows? She might become a builder for Mac Alpines when she grows up.

posted this photo using

Saturday Gala and Dancing a Quadrille on Sunday

2005-06-26T22:27:00.000+01:00

What a hectic week-end wev'e had at Freddy's place.

Saturday was over to Brighouse to see the charity gala.
The gala always starts with a procession and at the front of it is the town crier. He wanders a good few yards in front ringing his bell and shouting at the top of his lungs warning everyone that the procession is on it's way and to get ready to put your coins in the charity buckets.
No gala would be complete without a Queen and her entourage. This young lady in the back of the car was clearly up to the task, waving to the crowds as the procession wound it's way slowly to the park, where the gala was being held. also in the procession were some floats that the local children had decorated, a few bands, majorettes and some tumbling gymnasts.
My two kids loved this character. I think he/she must have been very warm in that costume! When the procession ended, it was down into the park where all the side-shows, fairground rides etc were. We watched the gymnasts go through their stuff in the arena, had a go on the coconut shy, saw the dogs being judged in the dog-show, the kids went on the tallest bouncy castle slide I've seen and loved it. The lad won a couple of prizes on one of the many tombola stalls, which upset the little lass because she didn't win anything. When he collected his prizes, one of them was a doll, so the little lass won in the end. We enjoyed the gala and are already looking forward to next years.

On the Sunday it was over to one of our regular haunts, Red House at Gomersal.
There were quite a few things going off,including guided walks around the garden by a guide in period costume, dancing on the lawn, "Pride and Predjudice" style, plant and herb stalls, craft activities for the kids and pot pourri making. These sort of events are provide free of charge by the local council, and they always are interesting.
We watched the Arbeau Dancers going through a couple of Quadrilles and Magot's. It certainly took you back to Jane Austin days. When they had finished their performance, volunteers were asked from the audience to have a go. Guess who got roped in! I enjoyed it though, and it's not as easy as it looks.
We took a guided tour of the gardens next with a guide in period costume who showed us around as if it really was 1820. He told us that Charlotte Bronte was a good friend of his daughter Mary Taylor, and often stayed at Red House. Charlotte had written about Red House in her novel "Shirley".

The wife descended on the plant and herb stalls with a vengeance and made the wallet suffer so much I had to retire for refreshments. Whilst we were resting, the kids got on with the craft activities, which consisted of colouring in a victorian fan and a flower decoup'age.

We called in at the PYO strawberry field on the way home so by the time I pulled up outside the house the kids had very red faces!

Glastonbury and the Summer Solstice

2005-06-25T23:39:00.000+01:00

A couple of pictures courtesy of the BBC News web-site. The first one is of the camp-site at Glastonbury Festival.

...and this one is of dawn over Stonehenge on mid-summers day.

Which event would you have liked to have been at?

Wet,Wet,Wet

2005-06-24T23:20:00.000+01:00

It's raining, It's pouring,
Glastonbury is boring,
They went to bed,
To get some zzzz,
And floated away in the morning!

What a thunderstorm the festival goers had down at Glastonbury. The images on the tv news bulletins of a field of tents in 2 ft of water were quite shocking. The start of the live acts were delayed by a couple of hours because of the extreme weather, but the sun was out by lunchtime and they all started rocking.

In their wellies.

The Helicopter

2005-06-22T23:11:00.000+01:00

There was great excitement at the school today, an helicopter was flying in.

This helicopter flies around Yorkshire taking ariel photos of your house and then tries to flog the pics to you. On this occasion the school requested it to fly over and take some shots of the building and then land in the playing field adjacent to the school and have the kids photos taken in front of the chopper.

I went to pick my kids up at home- time and got there a bit early, just as the last group of kids were getting snapped. Shortly after, the photographer and pilot hopped into the aircraft and started up the engine. The rotors started turning faster and faster, and then he was up in the air. All the kids started jumping up and down and cheering and waving. If theres not a few wet knickers amongst the kids I'll be surprised. They were that excited.

"The pilot man is called John," said my little girl, after she'd collected her schoolbag.

"How do you know?" I asked her.

"Cos' I asked him." she replied.

At least she's chatting up someone with an interesting job.

The Dentist

2005-06-21T23:08:00.000+01:00

It was check-up time at the dentist today. I took the little girl and the lad for one at the same time.

All I needed was a scale and polish. (In other words, there's nothing wrong with your teeth but wev'e got to get some money out of you somehow.)

The little girl was next in the chair. She'd managed to get a small chip on one of her front teeth.

"I don't think I'll do anything with that chipped tooth," said the dentist. "It's a bit wobbly so it looks like it will fall out soon."

"Oh good," replied the little girl. "I can't wait."

"Why's that?" asked the dentist.

"Because the tooth fairy will come." came the answer.

The lad wasn't in the chair 30 seconds before his teeth were declared fit and healthy.

I wonder if the garlic pasta he had for school lunch had anything to do with it?

Carrot and Ben

2005-06-16T22:40:00.000+01:00

It is with great regret that I have to inform you that I only have 1 goldfish left now.

Carrot, the fish that we brought in from the outside pond, developed a fungal disease and went about two weeks ago, and Ben must have caught the same thing, was lying on his side yesterday. Wev'e refreshed the water and put anti-fungal chemicals in so hopefully Goldie will be alright. He certainly looks none the worse for wear.

On a lighter note, Bramble, the hamster, wich has been going stir crazy for quite a while now managed to break out the other night, whilst we were all in bed. The wife noticed the cage door open when she got up in the morning and there was no sign of the critter. After a fruitless search, she was making a cup of tea in the kitchen, when she heard a rustling noise coming from the cupboard were the veggies are stored. Of course the hamster was there chewing on an onion. I've managed to fix the door on the cage, so there's no more midnight feasts for hammie.

It's just left us with a stir crazy hamster with onion breath.
I know it's a mouse but I like this gif.

A Sunday at Home

2005-06-12T21:16:00.000+01:00

I know wev'e been gallivanting off on a Sunday for the last few weeks but this week the weather forecast wasn't too cracky so we decided to stay at home. This gave me the opportunity to take some photos of the garden, some of which I'm going to share with you.
If youv'e been dying to know how the decking looks like with the seats on, here it is. We couldn't put the seats out until the birds had fledged. You can see in this picture the nesting boxes on the wall. This space is quite peaceful and catches the early morning sun. It's enclosed by honeysuckle and a Francis rambling rose and some clematis all climbing up the trellis. In the gravel in front of the deck are clumps of different grasses. A bit different from the rubbish tip that the previous house-owner used it for.
At the front of the house we have a drive which is big enough for two cars side by side so there's not much room for a garden. We managed to put some heathers in and this standard Cotoneaster which is in flower at the moment. The wife says it's like a firework going off. The area is gravelled to cut down on maintenance, wev'e got enough work to do in the back!
The country cottage feel is attained in this border. There's all sorts of things going on in this place. Roses,Papavers,Foxgloves, even a young Hawthorn bush which was planted in April. There's a wildlife pond in amongst this lot with some frogs in residence. My wife got a couple of packets of wildflower seeds last year and just broadcast the lot. She's waiting to find out what comes up. Probably a Triffid!
Whilst I was out there taking the pictures, this Blackbird came to see what I was up to. This bird has been hanging around our garden for a while now, but the remarkable thing about this bird is the fact that it only has one leg.We make sure we put plenty of bird food out and this character never misses out, even with his handicap. He rewards us in the early evening with his beautiful singing voice.

The garden will look even better in a months time when all the flowers are out.

Thirsty Work

2005-06-09T23:26:00.000+01:00

Wev'e had a bit of decent weather recently, quite warm and sunny, so the plants in the baskets and tubs were looking a bit parched and guess who's job it is to do the watering.

My wife is mad keen on gardening, and nothing makes her more happy than a nice looking hanging basket or a flower tub. Trouble is, she likes them so much she got carried away with it this year.

45 different baskets and tubs, and Iv'e got to do the watering, every day.

Took me nearly an hour, and I was using a hose that leaks.

Soaked through I was.

Public Enemy No 1

2005-06-07T22:23:00.000+01:00

The little slimey creatures are at it again.

I wouldn't mind if they had a little nibble now and then, but no, they've got to have the whole thing. 2 pumpkin plants, 3 lettuce seedlings and damage to my marrow plant. It seems that I go to the bother of raising these vegatables in order for them to come along and have a free supper. They are crafty and all, because they only come out at night. Big ones, little ones, brown ones, black ones, as soon as it's dark, they are there, chomping away on my potential dinner.

But I'm fighting back!

I've got some new batteries for my torch and as soon as it's dark enough, I'll be out in the garden....

Slug hunting!

Half Term

2005-06-05T22:55:00.000+01:00

For the past week, my kids have been off school on half-term holiday.

Some of the days the weather has been kind to them, and they have managed to play outside and other days when it has rained, they have kept themselves occupied indoors. I have had one or two of the days off work, and wev'e managed to go to the odd place, so they could have a bit of fun. Today for instance. We only went to the garden centre, but there was a free bouncy castle and my two were never off it. They were a bit upset when it was time to go home.

My two are not the most unruly kids on the block but they are a bit boisterous.

They are back at school tomorrow.

Peace at last! Yippee!

Polly want a cracker?

2005-06-03T22:02:00.000+01:00

I came across this animated gif whilst I was surfing the other night and thought it quite amusing.

(No parrots were hurt in the making of this gif.)

Little Girl Lost

2005-06-01T21:35:00.000+01:00

"This is a customer announcement. Would the parents of a lost little girl, please go to the reception desk."

We were in Matalan, looking for a nightie and some gym shirts for the little girl. We'd found the gym shirts and were looking at the nighties. The little lass was bored as usual but brightened up when she saw some Barbie lunch bags.

"Do you think she'll like this one?" said the wife, holding up a Barbie nightie.

"I don't know," I replied. "I'll go and find her and ask her."

I went over to where I saw her last, looking at the lunch bags, but she wasn't there. No panic, I thought, she'll be around somewhere.

But she wasn't. We started looking for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. By this time all sorts of nasty things were going through my mind. You hear about people abducting kids all the time.

Then the tannoy crackled into life.

We hurried around to reception and there she was, all tearfull and looking frightened. Poor little lamb.

Stuck to me like glue for the rest of the day.

Football at Shibden

2005-05-29T22:13:00.000+01:00

It seems that every Sunday we go out for a little trip in the surrounding area and I end up posting and piccing about it. Well today was no different.
The little girl wanted to try her new football out, so we went to Shibden Hall nr Halifax. Besides the hall and garden, there is a park with a boating lake and miniature train, plus plenty of space for kicking a ball about. The hall itself was built around 1425, and has had different families live in it over the years. It's set in some nice gardens and also has an ornamental pond, which at the moment is teeming with tadpoles. The kids caught some in a bottle and took them home with them to put in their wildlife ponds in the back garden. Click on the link if you want to know more about Shibdens history.
The walk up to the hall takes you through some woods and you know I like my woods. I took a picture of a sea of wild onion on the woodland floor. There was an oniony haze to the atmosphere as we walked past this patch. At the top of the hill you come across the ornamental pond, which was put there in the early 1800's. The water in the pond was crystal clear with only the aforementioned tadpoles swimming in the water.
There is a lot of colour in the planting of the marginals around the pond and the fragrance from them was divine. The wife was all for digging some up to take home with her. I think carrying an 8ft plant would have been a bit conspicuous and it would have been too big for our small wildlife pond.
It's some steep steps up to the hall, but it's worth it. I think Shibden is one of the most olde worldy looking places around here and has a certain quaintness all of it's own.
After a walk around the hall, you can see all around the park, and like I say, there is plenty of room to kick a ball about. We went down the hill to the kids playground were my two swung, slid and see-sawed to their hearts content. We weren't about to go on the boats on the boating lake with our two daft beggars, we'd have probably ended up fishing them out of the drink. Instead we took them on the miniature railway. It was Ivor the steam engine pulling the train today. With a loud toot of it's whistle and a lung busting cloud of smoke we pulled away from the station. Isn't it nice how everybody waves to you, when your on one of these sort of trains?

It was time to go home but not without the usual "99" before we parted. For those of you who don't know what a "99" is click here.

The Birds have flown the nest

2005-05-26T22:05:00.000+01:00

The Great Tits that were nesting at the back of the garage have gone. The wife noticed a lot of activity yesterday in the back garden and thought she saw some young tits flapping their wings but couldn't be sure they were ours. But, all was silence in the box today. When they were in the nest, the chicks would make such a racket if you got anywhere near it, but today, all is quiet.

I'm going to miss those Great Tits, flying in and out of the nest with their worms in their gobs. The cheeping of the chicks as they realise lunch has arrived. The black cat from across the road sitting for hours watching them, keeping guard.

I'll finally be able to use the new decking now.

Great int'it.

Of Course

2005-05-25T23:27:00.000+01:00

Gosh, where does the time go to. Here it is, Wednesday already and I havn't posted since Sunday. I'll be losing my blogging license if I keep this up. Mind you, it's been a nightmare this week. The installation of the new photo-printing machine due to go in tonight was brought forward 2 days and was installed on Monday evening, so wev'e been trying to get our heads around new technology whilst still keeping the photo service going.

Evenings, I've been cracking on with my internet IT course. Iv'e passed 4 out of 6 units and I'm currently on "Creating web-pages." The last assessment that went in, was a week overdue but I'm back on course again now.

And tonight, Iv'e been watching Liverpool win the champions League for the 5th time and thereby keeping the European Cup for good. ( I'm talking soccer here for the benefit of US readers.) There's going to be some drunken scousers around to-night. (Scousers are people who are born in Liverpool.)

So, all in all, it's been busy, busy, busy.

Ducks and Geese

2005-05-22T23:39:00.000+01:00

We went to see the Ducks and the Geese at Cannon Hall today.
Cannon Hall at Cawthorne nr Barnsley is set in extensive grounds. They have a farm there were you can feed the goats and pigs but we didn't go in to that part today. We just had a wander around the gardens, looking at all the magnificent flowers and shrubs that are there.
This is a view of part of the garden to give you a flavour of what it was like. The scent coming of these bushes was very nice. The wife said they were Azelias, but, as I'm not up on names of flowers, I took her word for it. I know the photo doesn't do it justice. We had a sit down on the benches in front of the hall for a little while and the view was staggering.There's a bit of a grass slope just there and the kids were having a whale of a time rolling down it.
After we had sunned ourselves, we took a walk down to the pond. There are all sorts of wildfowl in residence down there. I took this pic of a coot nesting in the middle of the pond. All the Canada Geese get very close to you, looking for scraps of bread. As we were all licking ice-creams at the time, they were very interested in us, especially the little girl. Her Ice-cream being a bit lower to the ground than the rest of us.
There's a garden centre next door to the car-park, so the boot of the car was full of plants on the way home.

I don't know were the wife is going to plant them, there isn't a bare patch of soil left in the garden.

How to get rid of a nice juicy Worm

2005-05-19T23:38:00.000+01:00

Daddy Great Tit looking after his chicks.

Dewsbury Market

2005-05-18T21:56:00.000+01:00

It's not often the wife and myself get time together without the kids hanging around, but as they had to go to school this morning, we were left to our own devices. So I decided to take her out for lunch.

Now don't think I'm getting soft or romantic, it was only fish & chips in Dewsbury. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, Dewsbury holds one of the best markets around these parts. You can get practically anything at the market, usually at a bargain price. My wife, of course, made a beeline for the plant stall. She needed some bedding plants for her hanging baskets.
Looking at the amount of plants she bought, I thought maybe that she was doing baskets for the whole street. Nevermind, anything to keep her happy. She loves her garden, the way it's all coming together. The pic on the left is of her small alpine garden which was planted last year. It's really taken off. The garden is split into 4 seperate areas by trellis. The traditional lawn with herbacious border,the patio area with planters,the greenhouse and veggy area and the pebbled, decked area.
She has put loads of Clematis and Honeysuckle in to climb up the trellis. This is one planted last year as well. There's already a mass of flowers on it. The patio is starting to fill up, what with an ornamental pond, arbour seat and picnic bench not to mention the numerous planters and tubs. If she keeps it up, there won't be room for the barbie soon. I got a couple of cucumber plants at the market, which have been potted up and put in the greenhouse. In the pebbled area, home of the great tit family, the tete'a'tete seats have been put on the decking. Once we got home from Dewsbury, the wife did all her hanging baskets and they are up now. So when they are in their full glory I'll post a pic of them.

The wife definately says that she has got all the plants she needs for this year. I do hope so, my wallet can't take the strain much longer.

The Tardis aka my Garage

2005-05-17T21:43:00.000+01:00

I've been saying, " I must clean out the garage sometime," for months now, and promptly forgot about it. Well "sometime" happened today. And not before time too.

I'ts amazing the junk you can store in a garage. I'm a great hoarder of junk you know, only I don't think of it as junk. You might do, but I don't. The six, 5" pieces of wood decking left over from my recent project are bound to come in useful one day. All those plastic plant pots that you get from the garden centre, recycle them. Cardboard packaging- you never know when you might need a bit of cardboard.

Get the picture?

My garage was so full of this kind of stuff, that I hadn't seen the back wall for a couple of years. But not any more. I was ruthless. ( Well the wife was!) After a trip or two to the municipal tip and a quick purchase of some new shelving, we can finally reach the back wall.

It's a wonder we didn't find any new age travellers back there.

My poor old wallet

2005-05-15T23:06:00.000+01:00

After a 2 day course down at Bedford, a 4 hr traffic jam on the M1, trying to get home Friday, then a rather busy day at work yesterday, I was in the mood for relaxing today.

My wife had other ideas.

She needed some John Innes no3 and some growbags to pot up some plants and a crab apple tree she had bought mid-week, so it was back down the garden centre yet again. Half an hour later I was struggling, pushing a trolley with 4 bags of compost, a bag of plum slate chippings, a lavetera, an aquatic plant (marginal), for the pond, a stake for the tree and the biggest planter she could find.

My poor old wallet was whimpering when I put it back in my pocket.

This afternoon was productive. I have bedded my tomato plants in the greenhouse and some more in the veg patch, whilst the wife has potted her crab apple tree in the planter. It was quite warm and pleasant in the garden this afternoon. The great tits that are nesting at the back of the garage, were in and out of the box feeding their young. The squirrel came and gave us the once over from the top of the trellis.

I think it was a more relaxing afternoon than crashing in front of the box.

Of Course

2005-05-11T23:36:00.001+01:00

I'm not going to be around for a couple of days because I'm going on a course down at Fuji HQ in Bedford. I will be learning all about a new photo printer that will be installed in my lab shortly.

So to keep you going, heres a joke...

The Lone Ranger and Tonto ride into town and stop outside the saloon.

"You stay out here with the horses, Tonto," says the Lone Ranger. "I'm going in for a drink."

"But it's freezing out here, Kimosabe," replies Tonto. "How will I keep warm?"

"Try running on the spot." was the answer.

The Lone Ranger had only been in the saloon 5 minutes when a drifter walked in.

"Is that your white horse out there?" he says.

"Yes," replies the Lone Ranger. "Why, is there anything wrong?"

"Nope, not really," answers the drifter. "It's just that you left your injun running."

See you at the weekend.

Some more pictures

2005-05-10T23:04:00.000+01:00

Tulips

Feeding the ducks

VE Day at Red House

2005-05-08T21:49:00.000+01:00

All over Britain people are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of the war against Hitlers Germany.
A local museum, The Red House, were holding a VE day special so that's where we headed off to. Red House, so called, because it's made out of red bricks, is on the list of our regular haunts because there is usually some event going off there. The volunteers and staff were dressed in wartime costume and had done the place out in bunting and Union Jacks, and were trying to convey a feeling of street party to the place.
There was singing around the piano. All the old singalong favourites like, "We'll meet again," and "The White cliffs of Dover." was being belted out in gusto, until the heavens opened up. The piano player never missed a note as he was wheeled indoors, whereupon the singing continued. There were kids activities in the "barn." They had to make paper bunting and Union Jack flags. Kept them quiet until the rain stopped.
When we got back outside, we found that the Vicar never got wet from the rain. He stayed in his wartime Ford Prefect. Inside Red House, which is dressed out as 19th century, they had put an exhibition entitled "War on the home front," in a couple of the rooms, including a mock-up of an Anderson shelter, with full sound effects of an air raid. The kids loved this.
In the town hall, adjoining Red House, they had laid on wartime food. Carrot and turnip cake, spam sandwiches and various dishes made from potatoes, washed down with weak tea.

We gave it a miss!

My lads first poem

2005-05-07T22:35:00.000+01:00

Lisa's Garden.

In Lisa's garden
Were mum says parden
She plants a lot of trees
So many she can't pay her fees

She has lots of flowers that are old
When it comes to winter they are bold
In summer butterflies flap their wings
And water is collected in springs

My lad(age 8)

Oh Dear

2005-05-05T22:20:00.000+01:00

I was down at the local church hall tonight casting my vote for the general election.

As I was walking down from the carpark, a little old lady pranged her silver Peugot into the wall at the exit. She caved her driver side headlight in. I went to see if she was alright, but before I got there she drove off.

I mentioned this to the woman doing the exit poll at the door to the church hall.

"Oh dear," she said. " She was just telling me that she had an accident last week, and this was her first trip out after getting the car back from the garage."

Oh dear!

May flowers

2005-05-04T22:35:00.000+01:00

I thought you might want to see some bluebells.

A trip to Wilton Park in the sunshine resulted in some nice flowers to look at.

The floor of the wood we walked through, were carpeted with bluebells and the scent coming from them was heavenly. The birds were in full song in the trees, busily making nests or feeding young. This is what I like about Britain at this time of year.
I wish you could have been there.

A Picnic in the Fog on Ilkley Moor

2005-05-01T21:45:00.000+01:00

We went for a drive out to Ilkley today, thinking that the weather would be fine. The plan was to climb up onto the moor and have a picnic but when we got there, it was a bit foggy.
As we started up the hill, the spa bath-house was shrouded in mist. In the Victorian age, people used to come to this spa to 'take the water.' They probably needed a drink after climbing up to it and it wouldn't have been the spa water either.
We certainly needed a sit down when we got there. Normally, on a clear day, you get a good view of the town and surrounding countryside, but today, we could just about make out the car-park! The little lass at this stage wanted an ice-cream, as if an ice-cream van was halfway up a mountain.
As we were preparing to set off further up the hill, a great big bank of mist started rolling up towards us. It was moving pretty fast and we were in two minds wether to carry on, but we were brave and set off. We were glad we did, because after 20 minutes it started to lift and the sun was shining quite hot through the mist.
We started to see some stunning scenery as the fog lifted. This picture is a rock outcrop millions of years old. The actual Ilkley Moors start just over the top of it. Just a bit further on is were we sat down on some rocks, next to a stream, to eat our egg & cress sandwiches. It was nice and peaceful up there listening to the birds twittering and the sound of the stream.
After lunch was over, we made our way down and into the small town of Ilkley. There's not a lot to Ilkley but it is a nice friendly place and the shops are interesting. There are plenty of tea-rooms and upmarket cafe's, (not my cup of tea I'm afraid.)There also, for some strange reason, seems to be a lot of charity shops.
The most famous of all the tea-rooms and the most expensive, happens to be Betty's. They have the main one in York, but there is one in Ilkley. I took a picture of the nice display of bread and buns in the window. The wife wanted to go in but the wallet said no, so we carried on. The sun was shining by this time and it was quite warm. The kids were tired, so we set off home a happy band.

The Party Animals

2005-04-29T22:04:00.000+01:00

If your'e reading this blog from outside the UK, you perhaps don't know that Britain goes to the polls next week to elect a new government. Now before you click away, I'm not going to go on about politics. This blog is a politics free zone. There are plenty of other sites that go on about that stuff without me adding my two'pennerth. No, this post is about the little game I've started playing these last couple of weeks.

Let me clarify.

I'm out on my Provvi round 3 nights a week so I come across lots of canvassers knocking on peoples doors, trying to get the residents to vote for their party. Sometimes when I'm walking up the garden path to see one of my customers, one of these people will see me and ask if I live in that particular house. I off course, reply in the affirmative, whereupon the poor soul launches into his/her spiel. After a while I tell them that I definately will vote for them and they go away happy, ticking their little boxes on their clipboards. My customers happy as well because he can get out of his hiding place. So far, 7 canvassers from 4 parties think I'm voting for them. I'm going to see if I can get into double figures by the time the election comes around next Thursday.

Bugger aren't I?

Things that creep about in the night

2005-04-27T22:09:00.000+01:00

1.15am.

It was warm and stuffy in my bedroom as I was trying to get to sleep, so I pushed the covers off me, to cool down a bit. I was just dropping off, when I felt this crawling sensation on my leg.
A fly, I thought, so I brushed it off. 10 seconds later it was back, so I brushed it off again. Hang on, I thought, it can't be a fly, it's only April. As the crawling sensation had returned, I sat bolt upright and switched on the light and saw a.....

Spider.

"What's up?" said the wife.

"Spider crawling over me." I replied.

Well, I've never seen my wife get out of bed so fast." Eeek, get rid of it." she screamed.

I've not got a problem with spiders, but the wife has, so I picked the little thing up and placed it on the windowsill outside and shut the window.

"It was only a titchy one," I said. "Probably was cold and wanted to get into bed with me."

Either that or it had heard of this blog and wanted to know how to get on the World Wide Web.

I know, pitiful aren't I?

Down the Garden Centre

2005-04-24T21:34:00.000+01:00

We were going to have a look around a little town near where we live called Brighouse today, but the wife had better ideas.

When she said, "B&Q are giving 20% off all plants," I knew my wallet was doomed. My wife is dead keen on gardening and I have noticed for the last few weeks that she has been itching to get her bedding plants. So off we went, kids and all.

We soon understood why B&Q were offering a discount on the plants. The specimens we saw were poor and under-watered. They looked on their last legs. We picked up some pansies and bizzie lizzies that looked half decent but hit paydirt when we wandered into the covered area. All the decent stuff was there, waiting in the wings, as it were. The trolley was soon filled. My wife picked up a hydrangia that she fancied, but put it back when she saw the price tag. As it's her birthday on 8th May, I said she could have it as one of her presents. (See, I'm not as tight as people might think!) She thought it would look nice in a pot next to the arbour seat, and it does.
The bedding plants were put in the greenhouse till all frosts are out of the way, then the wife wanted to pot up her birthday present but we needed some compost, so it was down to the garden centre to get some. ( I don't half suffer.) Of course, as well as the compost we ended up buying some more plants including a rose.

When I got home, I hid my wallet.

Just in case.

Fire, Fire.

2005-04-21T22:41:00.000+01:00

The fire klaxon sounds.

"That's the fire alarm," I say. (Well I have got 3 'O' Levels.)

We all make to the exits, collecting customers on the way. Wev'e nearly got everybody out when the tannoy crackles to life.

"This is a customer and staff announcement, the fire alarm sounding now is just a test and should be ignored."

We all try and grab a customer, and persuade them to come back in.

Apparently, there was a man working on the sprinkler system in the store and he needed to test the fire alarm but before the announcement could be made, he pressed the button.

After all the excitement had died down and we were getting on with what we were doing beforehand, the fire klaxon sounded again.

"That's the man testing the fire alarm," I say, stating the obvious. So we stay put and ignore it, hands over ears. (It's very loud is the klaxon.)

All of a sudden, a supervisor comes past and informs us that it's not a test, but the real thing. We get the customers out for a second time. One of the girls guarding the doors, stops a guy trying to enter and explains there is a fire. "But I only wanted to cut through to go to BHS." he said. Nutter!

It was a bit cold outside, but after a while, the all clear is given and we shuffle back into the store. "I'm off to get my coat," I say. " If wer'e going to be in and out all morning I might as well be warm."

Routine

2005-04-20T22:21:00.000+01:00

7.15am-Bedside alarm goes off. I groan, get out off bed and shuffle to the bathroom peeping out off the window as I pass it. Raining again.
Have wash and shave nicking my chin with razor. I'll have to get those new razor blades I've been meaning to get for the last two weeks, I think. After all, I do work in a chemists, it should'nt be too difficult to remember.

7.20am- Get dressed. (Now where did the wife put that clean shirt?) Straighten last few remaining hairs on head with comb. Go downstairs.

7.25am-Make breakfast, (toast) whilst getting lunchtime sandwiches ready. Ham today. Oh, no ham left. Cheese today. Make coffee for me, tea for wife. Sit and watch CBeebies for 5 minutes,(Kids are up already) whilst drinking coffee.

7.50am- Get coat on, kiss wife, kiss kids, go out of door. Get in car and start engine. Switch off engine. Go back in house to pick up sandwiches I'd forgotten. Get back in car and drive to work.

Is'nt routine wonderful! Just my cup of tea.

30 years and still going strong

2005-04-19T21:55:00.000+01:00

One of my colleagues at work, reached a milestone today. She has actually been working at the same store for 30 years.

She started work there when she was 16 yrs old straight from school and her mother used to pop in a few times a week to make sure she was alright. Bit embarrassing for a 16 year old. She kept on at her job and is now a well respected, senior member of the management team.

A surprise party was held in the canteen for her, and a few ex-members of staff were invited along to join in the celebration. She seemed delighted to meet some old friends from the past.

I've been there 18 years now, so only another 12 to go, which should just bring me up to retirement.

All the best AR!

Football in the Park

2005-04-17T22:23:00.000+01:00

We never seem to get away from Oakwell Hall these days. Another fine day and as Oakwell was having a workshop on how to create a wildlife garden and none of our other regular haunts had anything going on, we decided to go there for a couple of hours.

Here's a picture of the front of Oakwell Hall. The wildlife garden is around the back. When we got there, the workshop turned out to be a few signs dotted around, informing you on how to create a habitat for the birds and insects. Never mind, we went for a nice walk anyway. Although we only went to Oakwell a couple of weeks ago, it was amazing how much things have grown in that time.

The walk went in a big circle around the grounds and ended up back in front of the hall. There was an ice-cream van selling his wares so we each got a "99" and sat in the formal gardens to lick them. The kids had brought there football along so I went back to the car to fetch it.

There's a nice bit of lawn in front of the hall , just right for kicking a ball about. My two soon got stuck in. The lad won 10-4 and the little girl accused him of cheating and cried all the way back to the car. The funny thing is, she's a lot better football player than the lad. Very competetive my two.

It started to rain on the way home so we timed it just right.

The Great Escape

2005-04-14T22:08:00.000+01:00

"She's got to be down here somewhere. Brambles, Brambles, where the hell are you?"

I'd just walked through the door, into the midst of a major panic. "Oh your'e back are you? The bloody hamster's disappeared and we can't find her anywhere," said the wife.

I joined in the hunt. "Have you looked behind the settee?" I asked, as I noticed the little girl crawling out from behind it. She looked just like she did on Saturday night after watching Dr Who. We'd told the kids that when we were little, we used to hide behind the sofa when Dr Who was on because it was scary. They thought that was a good idea, so any opportunity to get behind it and they are there.

"She's not behind there Dad." she said. "Do you think I ought to look behind the armchair?

"No petal, it's bedtime for you two," I replied. "Let your mum take you upstairs for your bath, and I'll carry on looking for Bramble."

"Ohhhh, not bed, we want to find Bramble." they chorused in unison.

"Come on, bed." said the wife, a bit sternly.

Off they tramp, whilst I look behind the armchair. Next minute I hear a shriek. "Dad, dad, wev'e found Bramble under my bed." the lad shouts down. The little thing had managed to climb the stairs without anyone noticing.

Obviously the lure of old crayons and broken pencils under the lads bed, proved too much of a temptation for her.

"There you are girl, solitary confinement for 24 hours." I said to her, as I locked her back into the slammer.

At least she's got some nice dried Hammy-mix to eat and a treadmill for exercise.

It's the way they tell 'em

2005-04-12T21:47:00.000+01:00

I was chatting to one of the girls who works on the perfume counter today, and she was telling me about an oldish bloke who has been coming in everyday and spraying himself with a perfume called "Valentino"

"Excuse me sir," she said. "You do realise that's a womans perfume your'e spraying yourself with."

"But it's called Valentino," he replied. "and he was a bloke."

"I know sir, but it's still a ladies fragrance."

"Bugger," he exclaimed. " no wonder I have'nt been able to pick any women up."

True!

I took the kids to the local library this evening, so they could change their library books. The lad chose 3 books on how to care for an hamster. when he was checking the books out, the librarian asked him if he had a hamster and did he clean the cage out.

"Oh yes, I do look after it," he told her. "but my mum cleans the poo and the pee out."

Too much detail lad, too much detail.

Birds Nest

2005-04-09T21:59:00.000+01:00

" I think wev'e got some Great Tits nesting in the bird box at the back of the garage," my wife said the other day.
" Oh, aye," said I.
" Aye," said her. "I keep seeing a pair flying towards that direction."

When I investigated, I could'nt see any sign of occupancy, but I did'nt get too near just in case. As I was looking, a Great Tit landed on the trellis and started chattering at me. Ah,ah, I thought, there could be something in this. I went back into the house to give the birds time to settle down and also to get my camera ready.

I was watching from the kitchen window with the camera at my side when one of them landed in the tree at the back. So I rushed out and took this. He or she was keeping a beady(or beaky) eye on me, whilst I was taking the picture. I do hope that they really are nesting, because the box has been up there quite a while now.

Who knows, there might be some babies in the family again!

Sunshine and Snow

2005-04-08T22:05:00.000+01:00

You'd have expected that by mid April the weather would have made up it's mind what to do but this evening I was walking out of a house into bright sunshine whilst it was snowing.

Strange.

One of my colleagues at work has recently bought a West Highland Terrier puppy. As I was out that way tonight, calling on a Provvi customer, I thought I'd have a quick look at her. You know, like you do. And what a gorgeous little creature she is. She was licking my hand with her little tongue. Brill! I wish I could have one but the price-tag puts me off. Although my colleague won't say what she paid, they are being advertised in excess of £350.

I'll stick to the goldfish & hamster.

The Pond

2005-04-07T21:45:00.000+01:00

This is a picture of the pond that Goldie disappeared from.I made this last year and the inside of it is a childrens plastic sand pit with a butyl liner over it inside a timber frame. Add some plants and pebbles and voila, a cheap pond.

There are reports in the local newspaper that nesting Herons are taking fish from out of garden ponds. Now Goldie always was a dare-devil fish, swimming too close to the surface. Not like Carrot, any sign of danger and he's down the bottom in the blink of an eye. Wick he is.

( yes, I know they're geese,but I did'nt have a gif of an heron.)

Bye, Bye, Goldie

2005-04-04T23:32:00.000+01:00

It is with a tear in my eye that I have to report the demise of Goldie(Jnr), one of the goldfish in the outside pond.

We have'nt seen him for a few days now, so I got Carrot (the other fish) out and drained the pond. No sign of him. We can only presume a cat got him, although we did see an Heron land next to the pond last year.

He was'nt even a year old.

Carrots staying indoors with his mates, Goldie(Snr) and Ben for the time being.

Just in case.

And yes, I am barking!

The First Picnic

2005-04-03T22:19:00.000+01:00

The weather forecast was favourable until late afternoon so we decided to have our first picnic of the year. We elected to go to Oakwell Hall, were we've been many times before. It also gave me an opportunity to take my new camera along. After the picnic we went for a stroll around the country park. We spotted these flowers in the woodland near the stream..

This is the stream...

After we'd cleared the wood you come into the more formal part of the park. Here's a pic of a bench with a willow weave canopy over it...

The volunteers and wardens have created a formal garden at the back of the hall which is supposed to be how it looked in the 1700's...

And this is the back of the hall.....

We rounded the walk of with a nice pot of tea in the tearooms, but the kids had ice-cream. It's been a warm spring week-end here but the forecast is'nt too good for the coming week. Have a nice week!

A lark in the park

2005-03-31T23:27:00.000+01:00

As I had a day off today, the wife decided we should go to Dewsbury for a few things then go for a walk in Crows Nest park.

We wandered around the park admiring the splendid spring floral displays in the flower beds, when we came across the kids adventure playground. The kinder were dispatched onto the swings with the wife in attendance, whilst I availed myself of a park bench. It was a bit muddy because some kids had been climbing all over it before I got there. I found a clean bit and plonked myself down and started to admire the view.

After about 5 mins, a woman with two children and two miniature poodles arrived at the gate to the playground. She shooed her kids into the play area and came over to sit down on the bench. When she saw the mud on the seat, she started going on about hooligans and how it should'nt be allowed etc. She made such a fuss, I was thinking of giving her my clean bit, when she produced an hanky from her pocket and cleaned a backside size bit of the bench and then promptly sat down.

Now after all that fuss, I don't think she should have picked up her two toy poodles to sit on her lap. Of course they left their muddy pawmarks all over the front of her nice beige coat.

I've told you before, they're out there!

Chocoholic

2005-03-30T22:05:00.000+01:00

I'm getting sick of chocolate.

What with chocolate Easter eggs at the weekend, the store selling the excess off at half price, the last couple of days, a colleague bringing choco in for us to nibble on in the lab whilst we're working and the canteen laying on a bit of free chocolate at breaktimes.

I'm sick of it!

You see, I have this problem, I'm an incurable chocoholic. I'm usually the first in the queue when they're handing out free Mars bars. I have to take a different route to the library just so I don't go past Thorntons chocolate shop. I take a nice packed lunch to work every day including fruit but just lately I've snuck a chocolate bar in.

Well it's got to stop! I can't go on like this. I'm really going to stop eating chocolate....

...tomorrow.

It's finished

2005-03-28T21:32:00.000+01:00

I finally finished the decking today...I started to put the deck boards on yesterday whilst it was drizzling with rain and found out that I'd miscalculated the amount of boards I needed. It being Easter Sunday, the DIY store was shut, so I had to make a trip down this morning.
At least it was'nt raining.

An Hour Less

2005-03-26T22:34:00.000Z

Well, it's that time of year when an old British custom occurs, the annual, putting the clocks forward one hour.

At 1am Sunday morning, the whole of Britain changes from GMT(Greenwich Mean Time) to BST(British Summer Time). This does'nt mean that summer has arrived, far from it judging by the weather, (it's cold and wet at the moment, mind you, it's cold and wet in the summer sometimes). No, from what I can gather, it's something to do with farmers and their herds. Don't quote me on that, I could be wrong. Come to think about it, I have'nt really got a clue why we do it, we just do thats all. If anyone knows, let me know.

One thing I do know, we all end up getting an hour less in bed in the morning.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Back to the Decking

2005-03-25T21:17:00.000Z

After an unexpected but welcome day off, I decided to carry on with the decking. I got as far as this before I ran out of time and had to go and do my Provvi round. With all that sawing and screwing and bending and cementing, I know I'm going to be as stiff as a board tomorrow.

Back to it on Sunday

Customer Service

2005-03-24T23:05:00.000Z

Whilst trying to post on the blog last night, my remote control keyboard gave up the ghost.

I would'nt mind too much, but it was only 3 months old. It came with the new computer I got just before Christmas. I sent an e-mail to the computer firm just before midnight last night using the on screen keyboard asking them what they are going to do about it, knowing full well that it would take them eons to reply, if at all. I then tried to connect my old keyboard, but the new computer does'nt have a port for the lead.

Hecky-thump I thought, that means I've got to buy a USB adapter, which I did in my lunchtime today. It cost me £13 an all.

I'd just got back into the store and was about to switch my phone off when they rang me. The nice lady apologised for the problem I had with my keyboard and they will send a replacement out to me.

My gaster was flabbered. I was preparing myself for a long and protracted battle with this firm but it did'nt happen. Their customer service is second to none.

10 out of 10, Elonex.

New Project

2005-03-22T23:05:00.000Z

Here we go again!

No sooner had the dust settled on the the trellis erecting project, the wife decided she wanted some decking laying down in the pebbled area at the back of the garage. This area is partially enclosed by more trellis with honeysuckle and climbing roses growing up it. It measures approx 12ft by 9ft and is pebbled, with a few clumps of thyme growing. We put a double garden chair in there during the warmer months, but it wobbles a bit on the pebbles, hence the decking. It's only going to be 6ftx 4ft.

I made a start yesterday by cementing the first supporting post in but I'll have to wait till the weekend till I can get back to it. I'll post a photo when it's done.

The kids break up from school on Thursday for 2 weeks Easter holidays. My lad said this morning, "Hoorah, only three more days to go."

The wife, rolling her eyes and groaning, said, "Yehhh." in a, I've got to put up with two kids for two weeks kind of voice.

I'll be at work.

2005-03-21T23:46:00.000Z

Outside the front door.

Border 1.

And this is border No 2.

2005-03-21T23:39:00.000Z

The Pussy Willow.

Spring Is In The Air

2005-03-21T00:09:00.000Z

The Wildlife Pond
Originally uploaded by freddyfox.

After all the snow we had a couple of weeks ago the weather has picked up a bit.

The daffs must know that spring is on the way.

All we want now is for the frogs to return and lay some spawn in the wildlife pond.

Handsome Guy

2005-03-17T22:11:00.000Z

I've managed to put a new photo of myself in the profile section of the blog. Just look at the luxurious brown hair I've got and the clear blue eyes.

Yep, definately a handsome guy!

What's that you say.. you'll help me polish what, and what does slaphead mean?

Ok, Ok. I'm an overweight middle-aged, four eyed slaphead.

At least I'm honest about it. I used to weigh 9 stone at one time. ( I was 12 yrs old.) Ever since I've piled the weight on. I've worn specs since I was 9 and my hair started falling out when I was 24.

On the other hand, I've got a lovely wife, 2 nice kids and live in the better part of town.

I can't complain really.

2005-03-15T23:56:00.000Z

I sat at work today, sifting through all the baby photos, pondering how to get my blog to show correctly on IE6 when I had one of those inspired moments.

I know, I thought, copy all the links into notepad and change my template to Minima.

And that's just what I did. It took ages getting all the links back in, but I think they are all there.

As it's getting late and I want to go to bed, I promise I'll do a normal post tomorrow. No messing with my template.

Well, not much anyway.

2005-03-14T22:55:00.000Z

All this messing about with my template has caused a few problems.

You see I've been viewing my blog in Firefox all the time and it looks fine. I just happened to use IE6 for something else and had a quick peek at the blog and goodness me, what a mess!

So if your viewing this in IE6, sorree, I'll try to make it IE friendly. On the other hand you could always get Firefox, a better browser in my opinion.

2005-03-14T00:19:00.000Z

Iv'e moved on from the water background and had another tweak.

I think it's more or less there.

Uuumm maybe.

I apologize in advance

2005-03-13T22:26:00.000Z

At the moment I'm messing about with my template, so I do apologize to anyonefor the upset this may be causing.

It all came about because I finally managed to get connected to my free webspace provided by my ISP. I've been trying to access it for ages and finally had a breakthrough last week. It cost me a call to the helpline, to find out the problem was at their end.

So I'm taking a poll on the water background thats here at the moment.....

Does it make you throw up?
Does it hypnotize you?
Does it annoy you?
Do you like it?
Other.

Answers on a postcard please, (or comments box). No spelling misteaks.

2005-03-11T23:46:00.000Z

My little girl with her red nose.

2005-03-11T23:27:00.000Z

A picture of my lad dressed up as Peter Pan. All the kids from his school had to dress up as a book character in aid of Red Nose Day, a UK charity from Comic Relief. u

I'll let you off

2005-03-10T23:59:00.000Z

I'll let you off the photo posts today. To be honest, I've been so busy I have'nt even picked up my new toy, but tomorrow's another day.

I've been out in the garden sinking more posts in concrete, this time to accomodate 3 climbing roses that are about to start budding and climbing. When I've finished it I'll post a picture. The wife finished planting all her clematis plants(about 14 of them) up against the trellis at the back. They have names like Spider and Freckles and Dorothy. True! Look it up.

This is the place we got them all from, a couple of weeks ago.

You've probably noticed I've been messing with backgrounds and colours. Let me know if you like/dislike it. I've got a new logo to go in the title, but I'm stumped on how to do it. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Don't be cheeky!

The School Run

2005-03-09T22:12:00.000Z

This is a picture I took whilst waiting for the kids to come out of school. They've got a good view of the Holme valley. Note the Pennine hills in the distance, still with a bit of lingering snow.