Devon Part 1

 I've already mentioned that we broke our journey to Devon in Gloucestershire spending an afternoon and evening with my sister and borrowing jigsaw puzzles, and we spent the night in Cirencester which was a bit further south and therefore slightly nearer to our eventual destination. We got an early start which allowed the OH to indulge in a bit of a trip down memory lane. We had already passed the church where we got married on the way to see my sister, and next day we passed the place where he was born, then he visited the family plot in Cirencester graveyard and made a detour to a small village to look at the house where his grandparents used to live. There he feel into conversation with the Aged One who lives there now and really he was at the gate for so long I had visions of us getting no further than Bristol that day. 

Because it was the beginning of the holidays we expected the motorway to be busy so rather than take that I navigated with the help of a Real Road Atlas all the way from Cirencester to Okehampton. Because of a closed bridge on the outskirts of Bath we wended up having to crawl our way through the city centre, which wasn't optimal(!), and to avoid the same  sort of thing happening in Taunton we used the motorway for two junctions, which also allowed us to queue up for a long time for some not very nice fish and chips. Overall though we made good time and arrived at our destination not long after 5.00.

It looked lovely 

For some reason I never got around to taking a photo of the downstairs but the bedroom upstairs was huge!

It lacked that feel that holiday cottages often have which is that it is furnished and filled with things the owners can;t quite bring themselves to be rid of but which they don;t want to see everyday themselves. In fact I could quite see a single person living there quite happily. So that was good. It did put me off ground source heat pumps though as that was how it was cooled and heated and honestly it resulted in such a stuffy atmosphere that most evenings we sat with the door open to get some movement in the air. Which was fine while we were there as it was a very warm week, but I wouldn't like it much in the winter. 

The real downer though was the absence of the promised rowing boat. It was not available because of 'Covid'. Since this was the only reason for picking this particular cottage over several rivals I was not at all happy to hear that it wasn't actually available. In fact I have written to the booking company expressing my disappointment, suggesting that they let everyone else who has booked any of the four cottages on the property for the rest of the season know that this advertised amenity is not actually to be had, and also asking for a small refund. I have so far only had an automated response, promising my comments will be addressed 'in the next 28 days'. They have about 14 left. Honestly, while not wanting to minimise Covid related disruption in any way, I do think a lot of companies have seized upon it as an excuse to cut down on their customer service. 

The lack of the boat, to which we had so much been looking forward, did cast a shadow over the first few days of the holiday. But it was a fun time nevertheless ....

That's More Like It

 

We spent some time with my sister on our way to Devon and she took me through her jigsaw collection. I ended up borrowing three of the ones she had, two of which I have contemplated buying for myself in the past and now I don't need to. 

As an antidote to the horrors of The Fantasy Bookshop I knocked off this little 500 piece-r showing vintage travel guides on Tuesday. Very quick, very enjoyable. The other two will take me rather  longer. 

Done At Last, Done At Last

 Gordon Bennett I was pleased to get this one finished.

I started it before I went away, wasn't enjoying it and therefore ignored it for a long time after I got back. Then a few days ago I got a bit churned up about something, so went back to the puzzle to calm me down and get it finished. 

On paper it is exactly the sort of picture that I like on my puzzles so I am at a loss to explain why I disliked doing it so much. Probably too many books in too many places and finding it difficult to match up the bits to the picture - too much fine detail that my eyes do struggle with. 

Anyway I finished it in the early hours of this morning and very shortly I am packing it up in its box and taking it off to the library. 

A Week in Leeds (part 2)

So we're going backwards because that's the way the computer decided to put the pictures up and I'm not well today so I can't face deleting them all and then working out how to get them on here the right way round. 

These were Thursday when the Dorthy Dunnett group met up in a member's house in Harrogate. We hardly talked about the books. We've been friends (most of us) for 35+ years; anything we wanted to say about Lymond or Niccolo we said a long time ago. It was a good day though with a lovely lunch provided by A. and lots of post Covid catching up.

Wednesday - the two people up above have been a real inspiration to me. I met them on my first tentative steps back into academia when I did my M A in Victorian Studies. That's waaaaay back; we started in 1999. In a creepy foreshadowing, I graduated a year later than they did as I had had to take a year off because of problems with my eyes. We've been good friends ever since. We had lunch in a lovely Italian Restaurant in Ilkley on their roof terrace; great views of the surrounding countryside. The weather closed in half way through but they had moveable windows and roof. Amazing to watch them automatically come into play. 

I went to Ilkley on the bus and came back on one too. Sadly I did not come back on the 4.15 which had been my plan because the 4.15 simply vanished. One minute it was on the 'next bus at this stop is...' sign, and the next minute, well at about 4.12 it wasn't. And it never arrived. Fortunately I had armed myself with my charity shop book purchases, so I had something to do other than shiver in the rain and luckily the 4.45 did pitch up more or less on time. 

Tuesday I was collected by a former work colleague and we went to a local Garden Centre for a substantial 'afternoon tea' aka my main meal that day. I should point out that that photo was taken very close to the tea tray which makes everything on it look way larger than it really was. 

So that was my lovely week in Leeds and there were still several people I didn't manage to see. I know from experience that I cannot cope with seeing more than one person/set of people in a day which is restricting, but trying to do more than that is not a good idea so I no longer try. Next time ...

The OH joined me on Thursday evening and on Friday morning we set off on the next stage of my adventure. 

Baking Subscription August

 

This was Blackberry Coconut Crumble Squares. 

You had to make your own blackberry jam which created its own drama here as fresh blackberries were not to be had for love nor ready money locally and even frozen ones took two trips to the supermarket to get hold of. And when they'd been found and bought the jam proved, as so often with things I boil up in pans, resistant to thickening. 

In the event it did thicken up after several hours cooling, which I suppose is a step better than the lemon curd I made for the Viennese whirl biscuits which took several days and was too late to be of much use. 

After the jam you made and baked the base, then you made crumble with oats and coconut and stuff, and spread the jam and then the crumble on the top, and then sprinkled it with flaked almonds and then baked it all again, and when it came out of the oven you topped it with icing sugar. 

Can you tell it was all a bit of a faff? 

But apart from that Mrs Lincoln...? well, yes it tasted good. we had it warm with custard for pudding yesterday and we all agreed it was delicious. Delicious enough to justify the time and effort spent making it? Imagine a hand held flat and wibble-wobbling. 

A Week in Leeds (Part 1)

I'm going to do my Leeds week in just two posts because it was mostly  one long round of eating and drinking with friends. 

This was my one really uncomfortable moment all the time I was away; Preston station where I had to change trains. Very few masks and precious little social distancing. However I did have the delight of seeing someone chucked off the train I caught from Preston to Leeds for having the wrong ticket, refusing to pay to put it right and mouthing off at the conductor. He and his mate were escorted off the train at the next station. 

I tried to get some pictures of the Penine countryside from the train, but wasn't notably successful! It is hard to take photos from a moving train though. 

Return to The Weetwood, where I always stay when I'm in Leeds, if I can get a room. It's important to book early most of the time or you fall foul of weddings. Not this time though. 

On Sunday I had lunch  in Saltaire with an optometrist  friend and his wife. I had time to wander round Saltaire for a brief while before they arrived, and took some photos. Sadly when Titus Salt built his model village for his workers to live in he didn't foresee the advent of the motor car, so the streets tend to get clogged up these days with cars, which rather ruins the perspective for photographs. I did my best though. 

On Monday I should have been going to York, but the person I was supposed to meet sadly couldn't make it so I went into Leeds City Centre, partly to see how much it had changed and partly to do some shopping in some 'proper' shops. I got a Le Creuset oven dish for my brother-in-law in John Lewis, who apparently no longer do 10p carrier bags so I had to fork out 50p for a sort of jute one. It's still about somewhere, and I shall attempt to use it to death. Annoyingly their restaurant, where I had planned to have lunch was closed, but that was the end of the annoyances for the day. I went off to choose  a new perfume in L'Occitane de Provence, and really the girl I spoke to couldn't have been more patient, pleasant or helpful. I have said harsh things here before about being pestered in the Meadowhall branch so I feel I should praise where praise is due. I needed a new perfume because of course the one I had before they no longer do; I find this constantly happens with perfume - and lipstick colours, as well. Obviously I don't wear either often enough. My next and last stop was Waterstones where I bought a book, of which more later. I  did have time and cause to wonder when the centre of Leeds became  50% jewellery shops, there were always a few, but I was gobsmacked by how they had multiplied. 

Inconsiderately West Yorkshire buses or whoever they are have changed all the bus numbers since we lived there (come on guys, what are you thinking? It's only been sixteen years!) which explains why I got on a wrong bus on my way back to the hotel. It said it went to West Park, and I wanted to be just past there, but it turned out the bus went to a different part of West Park. So when I got off I had a bit of a walk, which you know was fine because exercise. On the other hand I had walked quite a long way in town and it was very hot, so I could have lived without the extra steps. But despite that and the other minor inconveniences it was a Good Day. 

The New Knitting Bag

If you've been following my mail order tales of woe recently you will know about the knitting bag bungle. I have to report that the right bag, now that it has arrived, is a total success and I love it. 

Here's a picture

It's a lovely size, sturdy, with inside pockets for  the pattern, and other necessary bits and pieces like stitch markers, sewing  needles. scissors etc. It was a really good buy.

I did say in an earlier post that the firm concerned were polite,. apologetic and immediately sent out the right bag before they had the wrong one returned to them. This makes a refreshing change from some of the really rubbish customer service we have received elsewhere recently (Seasalt, Country Cottages, IKEA) and so a big shout out  to Laili at Emily Foulds. 

If you're in the market for a new project bag, you could do worse....