Friday 31st July: Llamemuir hills

Since today the forecast is pretty good, but rain is on the cards for tomorrow we decided to have an inland tour and see some scenery, off we went into the Lamemuir hills.
The scenery was good, but hard to get a good photo as the scale of the landscape is huge and on camera it just looks like a series of distant humps, however I got this one.


A Little further along the road there was a view of the coast, so i took half a dozen images to string into a panorama.

We doubled back to Berwick and shopped at Morrisons then had our lunch at the Oxford FArm Shop, after which we were so full a rest seemed to be a good Idea, so back to the caravan for a snooze!

later I went down to the estuary and took this shot looking over at Berwick across the river.

Thursday 30th July: Cragside

It rained during the night and was much cooler first thing, after a bit of necessary maintenance (new seal in the loo!) we booked in for a further week on this site.
Cragside was our destination for the day, via Wooler and the inland roads.We stopped on the way for a cuppa and the last of the Grasmere gingerbread

before arriving at Cragside just as it opened.
Pat wanted to see the Formal Gardens so we headed there first and really enjoyed the riot of colourful flowers, and unusually this year there were even a few colourful butterflies to photograph.
This was taken with the 55-205 Nikon zoom, hand held and suffers a little from movement caused by a quite strong wind in the garden.


We took the free shuttle bus round to the restuarant in what wa in the past the stables and garage, and after the usual delicious (expensive) meal walked to the house.
I walked down through the rock garden and took some photos looking up the cascade towards the house, this is a composite of three images in Autostitch..


Pat sat this out as it is far too steep and rocky for her arthritic joints to cope with.
When I got back it started to rain heavily, fortunately the shuttle bus turned up in the nick of time and we were quickly back at the car and on our way

Wednesday 29th July Day out over the border

A nice bright morning, so of to Morrisons for some money from the cash machine, shopping and to fill up with diesel, then just mile or so north and up the hill on the Conundrum signed road, and into the car park at the viewpoint where we had a cuppa and I took a series of photos, to make a panorama of the view down onto Berwick on Tweed.


This done north again turning off from the A1 down towards St Abbs and along the rather more scenic coast road, rejoining the A1 near the Torness Nuclear Power Staition before heading down into Dunbar.
The harbour here is delightful and very photogenic, it was once a centre of the herring fishing industry, now something of a backwater, though at least a couple of fishing boats still operate from here going out for mainly crabs and lobsters.


We had our lunch at a country park just on the northern outskirts of Dunbar where they served a surprisingly good baked potato filled with Coronation chicken and a side salad for £4:50.
We then headed up to North Berwick and after a quick look round (always difficult to park here!) I stopped by the side of the south bound road to photograph the Bass rock and it's million Bird population.


By now it was mid afternoon so back to the van, where Pat had a rest and I went down into Spittal for a walk along the long deserted promenade.
There is a great miles long beach and promenade here, (Though no shops to speak of!) apparently the place was a herring port, and when this went into decline it became a tourist destination . and was thronged with visitors during Victorian times, as it had a Spa, and the railway came here, but once the railway disappeared in 1968 the place dwindled away into obscurity...
Now just a handful of people walk the beach , though it seems to have become a popular place to retire to.
We have been very good today, cutting down on our usual holiday gluttony, but then the Fortes Ice cream van came on site playing his familiar jingle, and the temptation of a Nougat Wafer ice cream overcame my ability to resist...(Pat's too, I might add in self defence)



I can resist anything except temptation!

28th July Pat's 66th Birthday

We started by driving down to Seahouses and having a good look around the Farne Gift shop filled asusual with everything imaginable under the sun.
Among our baragains were lens wipes, fruit and nut mix, air fresheners, and terminal strips, wine gums, and I forget what else!
As usual we popped into the RNLI shop and noticed that the rescue boat was missing, when we bought a couple of second hand paperbacks (as we usually do) we asked where it was and were told on the ramp from the beach, as they have dug up the harbour roadway, and sure enough, there it was sticked hitched the the tractor that can actually submerge when launching and recoving the "Grace Darling" lifeboat


We then walked round the harbour and chuckled at the crowds waiting for the boats out to the Farne Islands, I was astonished as there were far more people there than I have seen in over thirty years.


Sad to say Northumberland is at last enjoying the popularity it deserves (though we preferred it when very few people had heard of the place, never mind visited it!)
Among the people waiting for boats were a group of would be "Pro Photographers", armed with immense tripods and thousands of pounds worth of cameras housed in fancy back packs.
One wonders why a young man needs a Tripod on a sunny day?
With modern cameras I suspect it's more about showing off than getting better photos, and if they have ever been to the Farne Islands before and tried to shoot the Puffins etc., how many weeks are they prepared to wait till one obligingly passes in front of camera on a tripod? (The boats trips only leave them on the islands for two hours maximum!)
Once again the blurb in a glossy magazine suggesting that a tripod will give that "Razor sharp" image has led the gullible astray, and caused them un-necessary expense.
Surprisingly there was one of the boats up on the harbour, not usual at this time of year, when there's more money to be made.


If you pass through here as I used to in the winter, they would all be out of the water like this being careened and painted
We then headed for the Oxford Farm shop and dinner, discovering on the way that it was later than expected as my watch had given up the ghost at ten past eleven.Fortunately I had a spare watch in the glove compartment of the car.
Dinner was great, we had the two courses for £6 special, our choice was Savoury mince with dumplings, carrots, runner beans, peas and boiled potatoes,
Here is Pat enjoying her lunch


And the disgraceful meringues and ce cream!


followed by the Oxford Farm shop famed Meringues and ice cream with Strawbery coulis..
You get two scoops of ice cream and two large meringues, don't order this if you ain't hungry!
The afternoon was definitely not one for rushing about after that, we had a brief walk along the shore and I spotted an old favouriter moth, the 9 spot Burnett, which i thought had all but disappeared hereabouts


so after this nrief walk and visiting Marshalls Caravan acessories for a spare seat for the toilet , and Pat bought some new trainers, we came back to camp for a snooze.
The weather today has been pretty good, more sunshine than cloud, and just the odd brief shower during the day.

Monday july 27 2009 Site Full!

We made good time across country to find to our surprise and dismay that for the first time in thirty years, the Beadnell Temporary Holiday site was FULL...
We managed to get booked in on the Caravan Club site at Spittal.
The good news is that the site has great views over Tweedmouth, the bad news is that the main East coast rail line runs just behind us, the trains travel at up to 125mph, and there's one every ten minutes!
We are booked in for seven nights, so we shall see how we get on!
Anyway we were set up by half past one, and when the rain ceased at 2:30 we went up to St Abbs, and had a walk around the harbour, very nice,

(click on the image to view it full size)

And here's a panoramic version looking down from the car park

(click on the image to view it full size)

before driving back to shop and have tea in the Morrisons Superstore on the Berwick ring road.

Spittal itself is one of those quiet backwaters where many commercial propertiers are closed down, and yet the place has a certain charm with wide streets and well kept gardens.
I had a pleasant evening walk down to the sandy shore of the estuary, deserted except for the odd couple walking along the sand dunes, and a crowd of seagulls out in the rivermouth on a sandbar that was visibly shrinking as the tide came in.

Sunday July 26th Last day in the Lakes

After yesterdays sunshine the rain was far from welcome!
We had a shower then drove to Workington to shop , but couldn't find a supermarket, so continued to Whitehaven and shopped at the Tesco on the seafront, enjoying an all day breakfast for lunch, and filling up with diesel before returning to camp.
It was still raining, but after an hour or so this stopped, so I walked down into Grange to take some photo's, but I couldn't get quite the view I wanted as some saplings have grown up in front of the stone bridge obstructing what was a fine view, added to that there is now a fence on the slope opposite that prevents you getting higher up the slope to look down over the offending tree!

Fortunately digital photography makes it easy to create an image that re-captures how the place used to look especially as this is a double span bridge, so I was able to use an image of the second span, reversed and added over the existing one, plus a HDR treatment and a new sky to capture that "picture postcard" look.


I hadn't been back long before Keith Chambers turned up for a chat and brought some delicious chocolate coated gingerbread biscuits with him....
Like us he is leaving the area tomorrow, in his case going home rather than moving on.
He is hoping to get another walk in this evening if it stays dry.

Sunday July 26th Last day in the Lakes

After yesterdays sunshine the rain was far from welcome!
We had a shower then drove to Workington to shop , but couldn't find a supermarket, so continued to Whitehaven and shopped at the Tesco on the seafront, enjoying an all day breakfast for lunch, and filling up with diesel before returning to camp.
It was still raining, but after an hour or so this stopped, so I walked down into Grange to take some photo's, but I couldn't get quite the view I wanted as some saplings have grown up in front of the stone bridge obstructing what was a fine view, added to that there is now a fence on the slope opposite that prevents you getting higher up the slope to look down over the offending tree!

I hadn't been back long before Keith Chambers turned up for a chat and brought some delicious chocolate coated gingerbread biscuits with him....
Like us he is leaving the area tomorrow, in his case going home rather than moving on.
He is hoping to get another walk in this evening if it stays dry.

Saturday 25th July, Nice weather and a very good run

What a pleasant change to wake to bright sunshine! We were off early and called first at Castlerig stone circle wher a camera class was being held by a "professional" who was telling eager ears that as it is impossible to get all the circle in it was necessary to either park your tripod well away and crop the iamge to a strip, or try to get the beat possible angle with the field of view your lens would provide.
I took my usual five shots and smiled, one again Autostitch will come to the rescue!

Interestingly the "pro" wasn't using a Digital camera, he had a 5 by 4 technical camera on his tripod, obviously a film buff!
Our next port of call was "Granny Nelson's Gingerbread shop" in Grasmere village for a final pack of our favourite gingerbread, before driving into langdale, stopping by the side of the road for a cuppa, before going on to Blea Tarn and another opportunity to do a panoramic photo.

After that of course no visit to the Lake District is complete without
driving over Wrynose and Hardknot pass before stopping at the next village to pick up a sanwich and some flapjack for lunch, which we ate partway acroos the moorland road to duddon bridge.
We then doubled back to camp via coniston and Ambleside arriveing back mid afternoon for a welcome rest.

Friday 24th July Better weather and Ennerdale

It rained hard during the night and this continued for most of the morning, so we got ready and went into Keswick to shop and have lunch at Booths.Pat had Chicken in white wine and I had a prawn marie rose baguette and salad, both were very nice.
Looking at the clouds we decided to head in the direction of the coast, then turned inland to Ennerdale where the weather was acceptable if not exactly sunny and we had a pleasant walk down the hill along the waters edge.

Click on the images to see a larger version!


When we returned to camp we came back via Buttermere and Honister Pass and Pat had a rest, while I walked down to the lake and took some photots with the camera phone eight of which which I turned into this panorama of lake Derwentwater.

Thursday 23rd July Tarn howes (third time lucky)

After overnight rain it was brighter this morning so we shopped in Keswick then set off south to see Tarn Howes, and took a lot of photos to be converted into panoramas in Autostitch,
(Please click on the image to view full size)
This image by the way was produced by my Sony ericsson Phone camer and is made up of five separate images, even the larger version uploaded here is only about a sixth of the full size image.
We then dropped down into Coniston to buy some sandwiches and a couple of Maple and Pecan plaits before going down to the shore of Ullswater to set out the table and chairs on the shingle shore and share our lunch with the multitude of ducks that suddenly appeared..
We had a tour round the lake before wandering back to camp mid afternoon for our by now customary afternoon rest

Wednesday 22nd July a day on the coast

It was raining heavily on camp so we gambled that the weather would be better on the coast, and this turned out to be correct. We visited Maryport first, but the wind on the harbour was so strong that we didnt stay very long, driving along the coast road to Silloth


where it was a little less blustry and we found a very good (though not much to look at) cafe called "The Blue Dolphin" it's on the main street, and for £4:25 each we had a excellent meal of scampi, chips, baked beans and salad, really tasty!
While on the coast we were if fitful bursts of sunshine, though we could see that the clouds were still covering the mountains, and as expected we ran into heavy rain on the way back to camp.
We met Keith Chambers, prked by the side of the road sketching the shore of Derwetwater and invited him back to the caravan for a couple of hours chat and a cuppa.

Tuesday July 21, 2009 Wet,wet,wet!

The day started off dull, so we set off with the intention of driving down to Tarn Howes, but by the time we had negotiated Keswick the rain came down, and it remained with us all day, even now at 6 pm it is drumming on the roof of the caravan.

We got as far as Kendal, then doubled back to Windermere to have lunch in the Booths supermarket there, chicken in white wine, as usual it was very nice, then back to camp for an afternoon reading and snoozing and on the net.

The weather was so bad that for once I didn't take a single picture, so an Autostitch composite from my evening walk yesterday is all you're getting today!
This is the path from the lakeside past our campsite, it connects to the road to Grange.

Monday July 20: Wastwater

The weather has remained cool but pleasant enough, so we drove up the western side of Derwentwater, then headed west across the beautiful Newlands pass.

Picking up the coast road we headed south past sellafield, then inland to Wast water.
I took a great number of shots despite the mountains being shrouded by cloud and here is one.

From here we headed to the coast and had our lunch in the sea front tea room at St Bees
Sunny there but so Windy! before heading back to camp.
A very pleasant day

Sunday 19th July 2009

Possibly because of the recent rain it hasn't been quite so crowded here in the lakes and we have been enjoying ourselves touring around.
This morning we drove down to Ambleside then over Kirkstone Pass to Pooley Bridge. e had lunch there and then via the back roads made our way to Hawes Water, where we found to our surprise that the water level was very much lower than it was when we came last year
We

Day three (Saturday) and better weather

cWe set off south and once again I marvelled at this old tree on the shore of Buttermere, some years ago it was torn apart by a storm, yet every year puts out a new crop of leaves, hope springs eternal, eh?


From here we went on to Whitehaven, as we sould see that the clouds that enveloped the mountains had cleared on the coast, we had a rather nice fish and chips lunch, and on my return during the aftrnoon I walked up to the memorial seat half way up Cat Bells to photograph the view
Altogether a lovely day, especially as the weather forecast had been bad!

At last he's blogging again!

After a rather hairy early few months to the year where I had a
PSA (prostate cancer blood test) test that was high ,leading to a biopsy later in March, that caused a massive infection (next day) whch meant a fifteen day stay in hospital .

At the time I went for the biopsy i was told that ony one in 15,000 people suffer any serious infection, so I assume I was lucky to get it!

It was serious, happily I was fortunate to survive, and had just recovered when I was advised that I have Prostate Cancer, and they wanted to remove the offending bit of plumbing.
I then went for a bone scan and an MRI scan and the the story changed.

I was then told not to worry we can't see the tumour on the MRI scan, just take these hormone tablets, they will shrink it, give you a CT scan followed by a course of Radiation treatment.
By the way the bad news is that the Hormone treatment will make you Impotent.

(I thought the Doctor meant important so bought a top hat so I could look the part.)


The hormone treatment isto be followed in October by a course of Radio therapy. This will be for 37 days every week day (but I will get weekends off)


The doctor had a sense of humour and said that on the way out they would give me a Chiffon dress (my choice of colour) and high heels .

I remembered the character in "it 'aint half hot mum" and decided that if the tablets and injections were as powerful as they said I would change my name to Gloria!

The plan is that in September I have a CT scan then go for radiation treatment, which hopefully will get rid of the problem...

In the meantime i just have to go for a monthly injection of female hormones.

Anyway these small irritations apart it means that we can get away, between appointments, and here we are in the lake district, taking in the scenery and enjoying the weather.

It has made a big effort (in the usual way) and for the last twenty hours the rain hasn't stopped!

We got here yeaterday and at least had a fine first evening though today was not so hot, the streams are really swollen with the rains!