Appletreewick

The name of the village is as enchanting as the surrounding countryside. It's no wonder this is Sally's favorite hike. She will be moving back to the States soon, so we hiked here again at her request. We had a picture perfect day for the hike and finished up at one of the nicest pub gardens I've ever been to.

The Great Yorkshire Show

The Great Yorkshire Show is the hottest ticket in town in Harrogate. It's the agricultural show to end all agricultural shows. The show runs for three days every year in mid-July. I attended last year with some friends and we nearly got blown away by a chilly wind. This year we though we might melt away from sweltering heat and humidity. I spent an inordinate amount of time looking at the sheep.

Ginger Comes Home

I picked Ginger up from the vet this morning. He is looking remarkably well considering what he's been through. He is getting around without a problem, though he moves a bit gingerly (pun intended). The vet said she took a look at his innards and everything was in its place and accounted for. Thank goodness!! A chest x-ray also showed no lumps or abnormalities. She said his intestines felt a bit "thick". She took biopsies from three different areas of his intestines. More disturbing, she said a lymph node near his intestine was enlarged. She took a biopsy of that also. We are still waiting for the results. I've some new food for Ginger and he has a good appetite. I have to give him very small portions throughout the day so we don't overwork his tender digestive system. It's so good to have our purrboy back home with us.

Not Your Ordinary Day

LINTON CHURCHYARD


THE FOOTPATH FROM LINTON TO GRASSINGTON

Thursday is the day I usually hike with a group of ramblers. We were to meet in Hebden at 10 a.m. I drove, with Sally and Jean as passengers. I guess I encountered too many slow-moving vehicles along the way and arrived about five minutes late. As I approached Hebden village we saw a glimpse of some people beginning a hike. Thinking it was our group, I began honking my horn at them. When I got close enough I realized I had been honking at a handful of strangers. I rolled down the window and apologized for the disturbance. It was apparent that the Thursday Ramblers had already departed. We made an attempt to catch them up, but it was soon apparent the trail was cold. So, we went into the post office/general store and purchased a walking map of the area. We would go on our own hike from Hebden to Grassington and back. Basically we followed a route, with some deviations, we had taken several months before with the group. The map was beautifully drawn but not so easy to follow, so we had to dig into our memory banks to recall that previous hike. We ambled along, taking time for photo opportunities, passed Hebden suspension bridge, walked over some stepping stones in a river and made our way over to Linton church. We spent a bit of time admiring the views from the churchyard, examining the gravestones and taking a self-guided tour of the church. Linton Church is one of those little treasures hidden in the Yorkshire Dales. The current structure dates to the 12th century yet there has been a place of worship on that spot since 800 AD. From Linton we headed into Grassington and had lunch at The Dales Kitchen, a lovely little teashop. While at the teashop I attempted to call the vet to check up on Ginger but I could not get a signal on my cell phone. It was through converstion with the proprietress that we discovered the dreadful news out of London. Hearing about the bomb blasts was disturbing and cast a pall over an otherwise stellar day in the Dales. With heavy hearts we continued our way from Grassington back to Hebden village and on home again.

Once I got back home I called the vet. Not much new. Ginger still recuperating fine. He is eating and should be able to go home tomorrow. No test results yet. I found out that the reason I probably couldn't get a signal on my cell phone earlier had to do with events in London. The cell phone network had been shut down after being overloaded with calls.

Missing Ginger

I dropped Ginger off at the vet's this morning. He had to have a "gut biopsy" as the vet put it. He has been having ongoing problems with his digestive system. Throwing up alot. Frequent diarrhea. Often no appetite for food. Or begging for food and then walking away from a bowl of his favorite food. The only thing that has not been worrisome is his demeanor. He still is perky, alert and often playful. Anyhow the vet took x-rays and some biopsies. I called this afternoon and they told me he is resting well after the surgery. That's all they could tell me. I'm to call back tomorrow for test results. I do hope we can find out what's going wrong and fix him back up again. The house feels so empty without our purrboy.

Catching Up

Cross Stitch at Pockerley Manor


Vintage Advertising at Beamish Museum

Yikes!! It's been a month since I made any entries in my blog. It seems that when I do have time to futz around on the computer, flickr gets my attention first and I've let my blog fall by the wayside. Ironic, as I signed on to flickr so that I could upload images to my blog. But flickr has proved to be so much fun while it appears an effort to keep up with my blog. Well, I'm gonna try to keep them both going for a while longer and I may add some post dated entries to fill in this long gap.

We had a leisurely long weekend. On Saturday, we took a stroll through town. We had lunch at the Ginnel Cafe -- it's been a while since we've seen Charles, the amiable proprietor. Later, we stopped off at an antique store near the Old Bell Tavern. We have often admired the items in their display window (vintage door knobs, mail slots, lamps, candlesticks. Lots of brass and cast iron goods) and enjoyed browsing through the shop, though it was a bit cramped. We went to the Gascoigne gallery to view the Turner lithographs and etchings on display. Fabulous work featuring Yorkshire landscapes and landmarks. From there we went to the Mercer Art Gallery to see what they might have on view. This month (I believe they change the displays monthly) they had a show on portraiture and a small exhibit of a local artist, Nerys Johnson.

We decided we'd cook sausages, peppers and onions on the grill to celebrate July 4th. Trouble is, you can't find a good Italian sausage anywhere in Harrogate. You can't even find a bad Italian sausage, for that matter! So we settled for Masham sausages from Farrah's, one of the few British sausages that we like. Brad left to take the sausages home, while I headed over to Waitrose to pick up the other ingredients. I stopped off at an art exhibit at West Park United Reformed Church, but the work was a bit dull.

On Sunday we went to Beamish Museum, an open air museum north of Durham. The weather was sunny but windy and cool. The museum features recreations that demonstrate what life was like in the north of England during the 1800s and early 1900s. There is a street from a town in 1913, made up of buildings from other locations that have been reconstructed and furnished to authentic detail. There is an 1825 manor house, a 1913 colliery village complete with an actual mining tunnel. You can walk from one location to another, or you can hop on one of the vintage trams or omnibus. I really enjoyed looking at the original vintage advertsiments that adorned the trams, buses and buildings in the 1913 town. Touring Beamish took most of the day. It was too late to start grilling when we got back home so we stopped in at Drakes for some fish and chips.

Monday got off to a dreary start -- gray and rainy. We decided to check out the Shogun exhibit at the Leeds Armouries Museum. It was billed as a "major" exhibition with items never before displayed outside Japan. Though the show was very tastefully displayed the collection was rather paltry. Only a few suits of armor, one kimono, one Noh mask, two swords and then lots of uninspiring scrolls and folding screens with battle scenes painted on them. We did see an interesting demonstration on Samurai armor. Two westerners, dressed in traditional Japanese clothing, demonstrated how a warrior would put his armor on. We noticed that the Japanese armor did not give as much protection as European armor of the same time period. The Japanese armor was made up of pieces of lacquered iron that were sewn onto padded cloth. There were many gaps between pieces of iron and the iron itself was not that strong or heavy. After our museum visit we headed home in plenty of time to begin our little barbecue. Everything was very tasty and we had enough leftover for dinner tonight.

Assignment in Leeds

I had a freelance assignment in Leeds today. (I arrived in town a bit early and snapped this photo of one of the Victorian shopping arcades.) I worked for a company that produces alot of government publications. It was an easy Quark production job. Actually, I felt a bit rusty in Quark as I haven't used it since I got my G5. But it's like riding a bicycle -- once you learn, you never forget. Even though the work was not that challenging, I hope they call me back in again.