Yorkshire Girl's Midlife Diary

I’m a little behind with my posts with Christmas in a primary school beginning to kick into full swing……….so much happening and so busy in the run up to the arrival of Father Christmas…….so exciting! Thought I’d do a little update on my adventures at half term a few weeks ago though, two Spanish cities – Granada and Malaga.

I like an October half term break. We only get one week off at October half term so it’s not really long enough to pack a huge suitcase and jet off for a relaxing holiday because no sooner have you got there and you are coming back. I do like a bit of sunshine though as it’s just starting to get cold at home. I was also really missing Spain after my summer there so figured if I could go far south enough I could have a bit of sunshine and a little bit more of Spain. In past Octobers, before the pandemic, I’d been to Rome, Barcelona, Seville, Krakow and Sicily. I’ll basically go anywhere where there’s something to learn and look at, a bit of sunshine, a reasonably priced flight and some nice food and drink. So flight to Malaga it was! First stop Granada.

I’ve wanted to go to Granada for a long time. I was close to it around four years ago when I went to Seville and Cordoba. I loved it there so I was excited to see what Granada had to offer.

It was an early flight from Newcastle to Malaga, then the bus from the airport to Granada, so by the time I arrived it was late afternoon. I’d just booked a studio apartment on the internet as I like to come and go as I please and don’t normally spend much time in the accommodation. It had a sitting room, bedroom and kitchenette, all in one open plan room with a small separate bathroom off the sitting room. It was perfect!

I’d chosen to stay outside the main city in the Albayzin area which is the old Muslim quarter. I’d chosen to stay here for two reasons. Firstly, when I visit somewhere I like to blend in and immerse myself in the culture of a place. I’d rather be somewhere a little bit more authentic than surrounded by tourists. Sadly, as soon as I open my mouth and the Yorkshire comes out and they spot my almost translucent skin colour, it gives me away completely as being British! Secondly, the apartment promised a wonderful view of the Alhambra Palace, my main reason for wanting to visit. The choice of accommodation could not have been better. It had absolutely everything I needed, a lovely rooftop terrace to sit out in a morning and evening and the most fantastic view of the Alhambra Palace.

It was almost dark by the time I’d unpacked my bags so just time for a quick wander around the Albayzin and up to the Mirador San Nicolas viewpoint for an even better view of the Alhambra. It was buzzing up at the view point, there were people drinking, singing, dancing flamenco and playing guitar. It was such a lovely atmosphere. Quick trip to the supermarket for supplies, a drink in a bar and then off to bed as I was exhausted.

Day two was all about the Alhambra Palace. The palace is a fortress on top of the hill, on the opposite side of the river from the city. It is Islamic in architectural style and is one of the world’s best preserved monuments of moorish architecture. I’ve visited the Mesquita in Cordoba, another fantastic example of moorish architecture, but the Alhambra is just on a completely different scale. You cannot appreciate how vast it is until you are actually there walking around it. It is beautiful but there are so many parts to it, I was in there for six hours and it took up my entire day, I just could not get enough of it.

First stop the Nasrid Palaces section of the complex, the centrepiece ………… stunning! There were tiled mosaics, courtyards with reflective pools, the most fantastic views of the city, vaulted ceilings, arches and the most ornately detailed carved stucco everywhere you looked. It was spectacular. I spent hours just in there alone, so long that I needed reviving slightly, I had to have a Gin Fizz inside the Parador, which sits inside the complex (any excuse for a lunchtime cocktail somewhere nice)!

Then it was on to the Generalife gardens which were magical. Various ponds and flower beds full of the most gorgeous perennial planting. Bearing in mind this was October, I would have loved to see them in full bloom a couple of months earlier. Such beautiful plants and planting combinations, just an explosion of colour. After all this I needed ice cream. There is a theme running through any trip I take……see something ……. drink something…..see something…….eat something……etc. it’s a continuous cycle!

By the end of the Alhambra visit I was so hungry. A quick change of clothes and off for tapas at La Riviera in the Albayzin area. This was lovely, I love tapas and I do have a bit of a squid and chorizo addiction so tapas is just perfect for me washed down with some wine.

Day three was an equally busy day. I had spent so long in the Alhambra I was a little bit behind on my list of must sees. First stop the Plaza Nueva because you have to see the main square in every city you visit.

Next stop the Cathedral and the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel). The Capilla Real is the resting place of Spain’s catholic monarchs Isabel I of Castilla and Fernando II of Aragon. It was beautiful in here, no expense spared. There were some gorgeous pieces of art, a beautiful chapel, tombs, a crypt and it was a lovely place to look around. The cathedral next to it I would not visit again. It’s quite bland. Lots of white marble and feels quite vast, cold and austere. It’s nowhere near as nice as the cathedrals in the cities of Northern Spain like Burgos or Leon.

Then it was a stroll through the city and past the statue of the ‘Aquador and Donkey’. Now that was a learning for me, I’d never heard of an Aquador. Apparently they were folk from the countryside who came into the city to sell their fresh clean water to the city dwellers who could not get clean water.

Time for a coffee now and I’m a bit choosy when it comes to coffee ……… but 10 out of 10 goes to La Finca coffee house. Perfectly poured fair trade speciality beans direct from the growers and the most delicious carrot cake.

Suitably revived I pressed on and walked to the Sacromonte area which is Granada’s historical Roma area well known for its flamenco and cave houses. It’s a bit bohemian here, lots of musicians, dancers, arty types and a mix of cultures. A really interesting place to walk around, see a bit of flamenco and just get a general feel for this simple yet vibrant way of life, it really comes alive at night.

By this time my little legs were tired and I needed a little pamper. I’d seen all I wanted to see and thought it was time for some relaxation so guess what……..Granada is home to a really fantastic hammam (Turkish bath), the Hammam al Andalus! Now when it comes to spas I’m not really a girly girl, I don’t go often as I can get a bit bored just doing nothing. However I do like a hammam and a massage. A hammam is basically a public steam bath associated with the Islamic world. The closest one to home is in Harrogate, Yorkshire and it’s lovely, I have been known to go AWOL here for the afternoon if the urge to escape becomes too much. It’s all about the skin, exfoliation and getting rid of toxins. You come out feeling so good, relaxed and clean. They normally have a number of rooms and pools which you travel round in a particular order: first you get warm in the tepidarium (warm pool/room), then into the caldarium (hot steam room) then straight into the a frigidarium (cold pool/room). This cycle is then repeated. The hammam in Granada was lovely, one cold pool, two medium, one quite hot and then a steam room. Lovely selection of oils and salt to rub on your skin and a little relaxing area with an assortment of Turkish tea. I managed to squeeze a massage in too which was really good. I’m not really into beauty treatments either but I love a massage. Sitting at a computer all day I get knots in my shoulders and back muscles so I do like a massage and I mean a proper one, I like it to hurt and I like to feel all those knots being undone. This one was perfect. Not many people know this but one of my other evening classes and certificates is in Swedish body massage! But you can’t really massage your own back, neck and shoulders. I need to do separate post on my lifelong learning at some point as some of the courses even make me smile looking back on them, not remotely related to each other, I’ll have a go at anything!

By the time I came out of the hammam I was so relaxed I just wanted to sleep, so dinner was a picnic on the roof terrace to watch the day turn to night. I was so sleepy and when you have a view like this who needs to go anywhere? I managed to keep my eyes open until dark, which was a lovely sight with the Alhambra all lit up, and then it was off to bed, ready for city number two the day after……Malaga.

I’d definitely recommend a trip to Granada, it met all of my expectations and more.

When you work in Primary School you have to be in touch with your inner child…..and I don’t think anyone would argue when I say I am! I especially like to dress up……….I can’t wait to be a Grandma because I’ve got the biggest dressing up box in the loft roof space that I’m waiting to get back out again. It’s skewed a bit towards superheroes…..we’ve got Superman, Spiderman, Mr Incredible, Batman, Darth Vader, Bob the Builder and many more. I do believe there’s even a full size crocodile suit up there.

Well today was another opportunity to get dressed up for work……yaaaaay. Today is BBC Children in Need Day, that one day a year when the nation comes together to raise money for exactly that, children in need. The Children in Need mascot is a huge yellow bear called Pudsey and to raise money we all make a donation at school, adults and children, and go to work in our pyjamas. It’s not always the most productive day as there’s something psychological about going to work in your pyjamas and dressing gown, I yawn a lot and feel really tired like my mind thinks I should be in bed.

Well today it was a win win situation. You might have read in an earlier post that I don’t like this time if year and I’d prefer to be a bear and hibernate. Well………I managed to find an all in one set of bright yellow Pudsey Bear pyjamas. So not only was I able to get dressed up….I was a bear for the day too, fantastic!

The only slight issue was the need for petrol on the way to work. The Pudsey driving the Mini did get a few smiles down at the local garage when I bounced across the forecourt to pay, but hey ho, it’s all for a good cause and wasn’t anywhere near as embarrassing as my trip to Asda supermarket dressed as Red Ranger from Power Rangers last year. If you can put a smile on someone’s face it’s got to be worth embarrassing yourself!

Today is one of those gloomy Sundays. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s misty and it’s not really gotten daylight all day. So it’s one of those days that I really don’t like. I read something on Facebook that a friend sent me the other day and it went like this:

‘You know you are a runner ………..when your immediate response to any conflict or problem life throws at you is: “I need to go for a run!”‘

Well that’s me all over and it is exactly why I was sent it. Needless to say, when you are having a midlife crisis you run a lot! I’m probably the fittest I’ve ever been. So this Sunday morning started with a very early run through the gloom and mist because basically if I feel miserable, which I did, I go for a run and I feel so much better after.

Today is also a bit of a sad day in the UK because it’s Remembrance Sunday. I’m not a particularly religious person but I always do make an effort to gather at the village war memorial with everyone else at 11:00am on Remembrance Sunday to do just that, to remember. So this morning’s run was not too long as I had to be back for that.

It’s important to remember. Not just to pay respects to those young men who gave up their lives so we might have the lives and freedom that we have today, but to remind ourselves what happened and to ensure that it never ever happens again, amongst ourselves in Europe at least. I understand absolutely the need to defend ourselves but it still makes me so so sad that still after all these years somewhere in this world people continue to fight, because in a war there are no winners. It’s so important that we make sure our children understand this, from as early an age as possible too, as we are reliant on them to make sure it doesn’t re-occur.

I’m quite interested in history as I do believe that you can look to history to give you the answers as to what not to do in the future. I’ve been to Auschwitz, not just because I have some some strange morbid fascination but just because I wanted to see it for myself and just to try and understand why. It is truly as horrific as you expect it to be and it is impossible to describe the impact it will have on you, you really do have to see it first hand . When my two were 13 and 15 I took them on a trip to Belgium which coincided with them both learning about the two European World Wars. We did the visit to Ypres and the Menin gate, we visited some preserved battlefields and went in some of the bunkers and trenches. I also took them to Tyne Cot Cemetery. For anyone not familiar with Tyne Cot it is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. There are 11,961 white headstones for the 11,961 soldiers buried there. What makes it even sadder is that 8,373 have no name, they were unidentifiable. It’s one of those places that once visited you never ever forget, a very beautiful, calm and peaceful place but at the time very eerie and utterly heart-breaking. Just the vastness of it, the little white headstones stretching out as far as the eye can see. Both boys were silent, I think everything that they had been learning about came together and they understood why it should never happen again.

In my reading, and visiting places to try and understand better, a couple of years ago I came across the speech delivered by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich on 19th September 1946 after World War II in which he said: “We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living. The process is simple. All that is needed is the resolve of hundreds of millions of men and women to do right instead of wrong and to gain as their reward blessing instead of cursing.“

Quite a poignant quote for today really. I wonder what he would think to the battles we continue to fight today. I discovered the above speech just before Brexit ironically and I wondered at the time what he would have thought to that as the UK led that disassembly of a United States of Europe that so many thousands fought and lost their lives for.

Anyway, enough of my rambling on ……… onto today. The weather sort of fitted the mood. The church, which sits opposite the memorial was shrouded in mist and you could see your breath in front of you. There was a huge turn out of people as usual. We processed through the village slowly, led by the wonderful Old Silkstone Brass Band. The brownies and scouts were all out in force to lead the lowering and raising of the flags and did a wonderful job as always. It always makes me emotional to see them as it takes me back to when my two were little and used to participate, marching along in their scout uniforms, complete with starched necker for the parade, shoes polished to within an inch of their life.

I think there will be very few people in the UK who don’t have a family member that served in the war. Today, in addition to remembering everyone, I say a special little thank you to my relatives who served in World War II, Great Uncle Vincent Sharpe, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and Robert F Poston Junior, T Sergeant in the United States Army who was stationed over here in the war and met and married by beautiful Great Auntie Betty shortly after the war and gave me my lovely American family.

So today and every day, those famous words from one verse of Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’, which is worth a read in its entirety if you’ve not read it before:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

A few weekends ago, after Saturday in Bristol, Sunday was spent in beautiful Bath, in lots of ways the opposite of Bristol but equally as beautiful. It is a stunning city. Designated a World Heritage site it is famous for its imposing architecture and its Roman remains, which are built around its natural hot spring which still rises today at 46 °C. It also has one of the UK’s top ranked universities – The University of Bath. In days gone by people travelled from far and wide to experience the natural spa at Bath.

The Georgian architecture there is so beautiful, you feel like you have stepped back in time into a Jane Austin novel. The Royal Crescent, built by John Wood the Younger is a designated World Heritage Building and The Circus, built by his father is equally as stunning. Then there is the imposing Bath Abbey, situated next to the river and the Pulteney Bridge, modelled on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. It also has an unrivalled selection of shops and the UK’s best Christmas market so always gets a weekend visit from me in December for me to do my Christmas shopping.

The real reason for the whole Bristol / Bath weekend this time was a belated 22nd birthday celebration for my eldest. I still can’t get used to them not being at home on their birthday, I really don’t like it. So I always organise to see them for the weekend around their birthdays.

The plan for the day was a good wander around the streets, sites and parks of Bath followed by a birthday meal and drinks.

It’s quite rare these days that all I get both of my boys together as they live in different cities and both have busy lives so I love it when I get to spend time with them both together. What makes it even better is the fact that they actually more than just tolerate each other now, they actually seem to get on.

When they were younger they absolutely hated each other….. and I mean hate! There are only two and a half years between them. When they were small I read every book on sibling rivalry that I could find, convinced I was doing something wrong. It all started on the day the eldest came to collect the new baby and myself from the hospital, the day after his birth.  He was two years old and I had read somewhere that it was a good idea for the new baby to come with a gift for the older sibling to help with the bonding process, call it a bribe if you like. So there I was, waiting for collection, baby in car seat, and a perfectly wrapped Scoop the Digger (from Bob the Builder) addressed to the ‘Best Big Brother in the World’. It all seemed to be going well and Scoop was very well received. Big brother had a quick nonchalant look in the car seat and carried on playing with Scoop. It all went downhill when the time came to leave the hospital …….he was absolutely adamant that Scoop was coming with us but we were leaving the baby at the hospital, he did not want it!

This continued until the baby was around 15 years old. He took every toy off the baby, wound the small toddler up at every available opportunity, fought through pre-adolescence and getting the teenage little brother into trouble with Mum was his number one pastime. Home was like a boxing ring, there were different zones and my priority was to keep them entertained and separate, it was just easier! We went out lots, the park, playgrounds, feeding the ducks etc. They were just easier to manage out of the house but they drove me absolutely insane.

Everyone told me it would pass. I never believed them but it has. There was a sudden realisation from both parties when the eldest left for University three years ago that they actually missed each other.

However, that aside, getting a picture of us together is a completely different matter. It was years since I had one of the three of us together, skiing in Austria around five years ago I think. They know I always want one so they wind me up by making sure I don’t get my shot. I had attempted to get a selfie the previous evening but it just ended with me falling out with them as they each took it in turns to pull a face and ruin the photo. I was determined that day in Bath was going to be my day!

So off we set, first stop Victoria Park and the Royal Crescent. Victoria Park is beautiful, especially on a sunny autumnal morning like it was that Sunday. It was opened by 11 year old Princess Victoria in 1830, seven years before she ascended to the throne and has an obelisk dedicated to her. The nice thing about visiting the park in the autumn is that it used to be an arboretum. It has so many trees of all different varieties and from all around the world and the autumn colours just take your breath away. The park is 57 acres in total so it was lovely to have a good walk around it and a catch up with them both together.

Next stop the Royal Crescent, probably Bath’s most iconic landmark. This is a Grade I listed crescent building of 30 Georgian terraced houses and in my opinion is one of the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the UK. Most of the crescent is still inhabited as housing today, with just a couple of units in use as a museum. The outlook over Victoria Park makes this one of the most desirable locations in Bath. It also marked the perfect spot for the Mum and sons photograph. I have now discovered that the key is to ask someone else to take the photograph rather than take a selfie. They suddenly become all sensible and do as they are told……..result!

Then onto The Circus. Similar to the Royal Crescent, but a little older, this is another Grade I example of Georgian architecture. It forms a complete circle of terraced houses, with three entrances to the circle. Time for some more photographs.

By this time we were ready for the real reason for the visit………Birthday celebrations! I can’t quite believe he is now 22 years old…….it has gone so fast. We all absolutely love food. Ever since they have been small I have always fed them all sorts of different food. I have travelled a lot with them too so they have been exposed to various different cultures and cuisines so their palette is quite varied. They have both loved things like olives and spicy food since being really small. So when we go out for something to eat we like to try something new and different and in Bath you are spoilt for choice.

We decided to go somewhere we’d not been before and opted for ‘The Coconut Tree’, a laid back casual place in the centre of Bath focusing on Sri Lankan street food. It was a little bit like tapas or mezze where you order a number of dishes and share. It also had the advantage of having an extensive cocktail menu, never a bad thing when you are there to celebrate, but not good for the wallet when you are there with two students and you are paying! The food was absolutely delicious. Favourites were the goat and coconut curry and the cuttlefish. As per usual they ordered enough to sink a battleship but managed to clear it all, washed down with a few ‘Hit Me Up Mezcals’ and ‘Raspbangin Martinis’. All in all an excellent Birthday celebration and I’d definitely recommend the cuisine of Sri Lanka.

Final stop, coffee overlooking the beautiful Bath Abbey and Pulteney Bridge as it started to rain and the light started to fade. There’s something magical about the Abbey though as the light starts to fade and the street lights illuminate the buildings of Bath. It’s quite Dickensian and I can see now why the town has been the choice of many directors filming classics such as Oliver Twist, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. It’s like a ready made film set with hardly any adaptation required. The end to a lovely weekend.

I love Bonfire Night…….and we like to do it properly up here in Yorkshire.

Purely a UK festival celebrated on 5th November every year! So what is it? And what are we remembering? A lot of people might not even know……it’s a little bit like Christmas and Easter when people sometimes overlook the real reason for the festivities.

In the UK on the 5th November we are remembering the anniversary of a failed attempt on that date in 1605, by a gentleman called Guy Fawkes, to blow up the Houses of Parliament and everyone inside. This included the Protestant King James I. The intention of the plot was to replace him with a Catholic head of state. The plot failed and Guy Fawkes was quite literally hung, drawn and quartered.

So on the run up to 5th November it’s customary to make a ‘Guy’…….. (a scarecrow of Guy Fawkes). He is then burnt atop a huge bonfire which lasts for hours and culminates in fireworks to symbolise the explosives used in the plot. We get our old clothes on, because whatever you wear on bonfire night usually ends up smelling of smoke for ever and gets covered in ash burns.

We light sparklers and it’s also a good excuse to indulge in those bonfire night specialities……..toffee apples, pie and peas with mint sauce, molasses bonfire toffee, parkin (ginger cake) and just generally have a good old party!

In Yorkshire we like a party and we like to do it properly. This year did not disappoint. We might be a tiny village in the middle of nowhere but everyone turned out from miles around. We had a huge fire. I had my favourite steak pie and mushy peas with gravy and mint sauce in a plastic tray…….it would not be bonfire night without this! There was Bradfield brewery Belgian Blue in a plastic cup, banging tunes and we might be small in population……but certainly not in firework displays!

Until next year!

This week has been a strange week, the one I least look forward to all year, the week the clocks go back. I’m an outdoors sort of person, I love to be outside immersed in nature or in my garden. Turning the clocks back one hour makes this just that bit more difficult with my working hours. I’m up for work at 6:30 am, it’s dark. I leave work at 4pm, sunset time this week at home is 4:26pm. Assuming I leave work on time I get exactly 26 minutes of dusk per day, Monday to Friday. Needless to say my headtorch has had some use this week as I still need to get outside, it’s what keeps me sane. Tuesday evening was a very wet and rainy run in the dark with my fluorescent jacket on. Then Friday night was a headtorch lit 5 mile walk across the countryside and fields for a drink at the little microbrewery in the next village from home.

I don’t like dark and I don’t like being cold, so other than those lovely sunny crisp weekend mornings or those that are covered in snow, I’m not that keen on this time of year.

I’m also one of those people who daydreams a lot, about the most random things, and my mind wanders. I often stop myself and think, “What on earth am I thinking about that for?” In one of my moments this week I was thinking about what I would be if I came back in another life, I’ve no idea what got me onto thinking about that! This week I decided it would be a bear. Lots of fur to keep me warm and I could fall to sleep when all the autumn leaves have fallen and wake up at the end of February when the days start to extend again, perfect. Except that I love Christmas, so someone would need to wake me up for that!

So this weekend I was desperate to get outside having only seen the light through my office window all week. It was a nice weekend at home too, so I decided to spend all day on Saturday outside in my garden. I don’t seem to have been at home much recently. I was away all summer and then the weekends since summer I have been here, there and everywhere, catching up with all the friends and family who I did not see over summer. I think this has been my first full weekend at home.

I absolutely love my garden, and flowers. It got a little neglected over summer with me being away so it was ready for a good old tidy up and preparation for winter. Over the years I’ve done various evening classes after work as I love learning new things. The classes I’ve done have been varied. One of my favourites though, I did when I worked in Leeds city centre around 20 years ago. I wasn’t too far away from the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Harlow Carr, Harrogate so I embarked on a Certificate in Garden Design after work. I absolutely loved it. I think it has to be one of my most enjoyable qualifications. We were each given the dimensions and topography of a piece of land and it all culminated in the submission of a portfolio and a final garden design. The inspiration for my design was Gaudi’s Parc Guell in Barcelona. All the lines were flowing, not angular. There were lots of mosaic features in Mediterranean colours, flowing water and the planting was bright and fitted the Mediterranean theme. I loved it.

I owe my love of gardening and plants to my parents. They are both avid gardeners, even now in their eighties. I was lucky enough to be brought up in a house, where they still live, which has a huge garden. It is still one of my favourite places to be. Mum has a keen eye for planting combinations and it is full of colour all year. Dad’s lawn is his pride and joy. It’s always very green, has perfectly mown stripes in it. At the bottom of the garden sits a dovecote, which when I was small was filled with his collection of pure white fantail pigeons. The pigeons are long gone but the dovecote still has pride of place in the garden. I spent most of my time playing in the garden when I was small and I’m sure this is why I love my garden so much.

So this Saturday was a day of clearing all the summer perennials which have died back and planting up some winter colour as I absolutely have to have flowers and colour all year round. My garden was my absolute life saver during the pandemic, I don’t know what I would have done without it. I felt so lucky and can’t imagine what it must have been like to spend a lockdown without a garden as I was in mine all the time: reading, knitting, working on my laptop, on what is affectionately known as ‘Mum’s bench’, called this because everyone else has to move if I want to sit down on it. It is perfectly positioned just outside my back door, overlooking my bird feeders, under my pride and joy, which is my Japanese wisteria which is absolutely huge now and spans the full width of the side of the house and is full of purple flowers in May/June.

My bird feeders deserve a post of their own but basically, I have a number of them. Birds are as important to me as flowers in the garden. Each bird type has its own feeder. So there’s one full of niger seed for the goldfinches, greenfinches and bullfinches, suet for the robins, mealworms for the blackbird, no mess mixed seed for the chaffinches, sparrows and blue tits and peanuts for the nuthatches and woodpeckers. I can sit and watch them for hours and they all have their own little personalities. Despite his small size the male nuthatch is definitely the boss! If anyone else goes near his feeder when he’s there he’s so aggressive he can clear everyone within seconds, even the woodpecker who is four times his size.

So, I thought I’d share some pictures of my garden that I’ve taken through this year and some pictures of today’s planting. These are my favourite plants and an explanation of just why I like them.

Let’s start with spring and summer.

My hornbeam hedge. Now why do I like this? There are no flowers, I know, but this is the hedge which tells me it’s spring and I can stop being a bear. I love green, it’s my favourite colour because to me it just says spring is here and this is the first sign of spring in my garden, new shoots on my hornbeam hedge. The hedge is around 20 years old and I planted it when I first moved into the house. It is around 50 meters long and marks the boundary between the house and the fields behind. When I first moved in it was a new build house with one of those roughly put together builder’s fences marking the boundary. Although twice a year it’s a mammoth task clipping it I love it. It’s full of wildlife from spring to autumn and has been the nursery for so many baby birds and small mammals.

Once the hedge has got underway then the perennials start to appear. Foxglove, just so elegant and pretty in pink, planted under my wisteria.

Then comes the peony – bright pink, blousy, show off of a plant.

Then the lupin – erect and tall and adds height to the back of the border.

Then there’s the nepeta (catmint) – sweet purple thing that the bees absolutely love. This is positioned next to my self built bug-hotel which is usually the site of a bees nest each summer.

Then comes the ‘orange thing’ – called this because I’ve had it years, forgotten its name but I love it all the same.

Then a big pop of colour with the Rudbeckia goldsturm – absolutely love this one because it’s so bright yellow, with a lovely chocolate centre and flowers right through to October.

Then I have my little wall pots which I fill with lovely trailing red pelargoniums.

Last but not least is my number one summer favourite, the Echinacea purpurea – I just love the shape and colour of this one. An orange/brown cone in the centre with bright pink petals that go right back on themselves so it’s a bit like a badminton shuttlecock. The butterflies love this one!

Then onto autumn. The Echinacea and the Rudbeckias are still in flower but in autumn the Japanese maples or Acers come into their own. My favourite two from my own garden are Bloodgood – bright red leaves, and Katsura – starts off bright yellow/green and then turns orange as autumn progresses.

I also love hydrangeas in the autumn. I did not mention them in summer as although they are nice in summer they are one of those plants where I think the dead flower heads actually have more about them that the flowers in full bloom – closely knit petals and flowers forming a big dried fist of pink, purple and green. I always leave these and cut them off at the very end of autumn.

Winter is a bit more difficult but I just have to have colour and flowers and this is what I have being doing this weekend as I have to improvise and do a bit of planting of seasonal bedding. I do have some shrubs and perennials that give a bit of colour in winter. I have lots of cyclamen in the shady woody areas and these just form a lovely pink carpet at this time of year.

I also have my pyracantha bush which is full of the brightest orange berries just now. The blackbird loves these so the berries are normally quite short lived as he overindulges on his seasonal treat.

This weekend has been about planters. The pelargoniums in the wall planters get replaced with pansies – this year I’ve gone for purple and cream. I like pansies as they are so colourful. They last right through to spring, are really hardy and survive a Yorkshire winter and they are the flower with a smiley face. I think they look quite cheerful when they bob their heads around in the wind. The square planter under my front window also gets planted with them and they are the first thing I see when I step out of my car when I come home from work. At my front door I have two lead planters. In the summer these are filled with geraniums, petunias, bacopa, nemesia and a riot of summer colour. This weekend these have been replaced with violas, ivy, cyclamen and silver leaf to cheer me up when I walk in the door.

So that’s it. The garden put to bed until spring and my winter planting done which will hopefully keep me going until I’ve worked out how to become a bear and hibernate. There’s always a winter sun holiday that can be arranged if all else fails and I can’t make it to February, but given that we have Christmas in between I might just make it.

Just back from a little half term trip to Spain I was so excited to have a surprise visit from one of my boys for Halloween. He needed not much encouragement to participate in my annual pumpkin carving competition. I take it very seriously…..the concentration on my face says it all!!

Only two of us taking part this year at home…..I’m waiting for the photo entry to arrive from the other from Bath.

I might be blowing my own trumpet here and a bit premature whilst we are still awaiting the final entry but I think there is no doubt about the winning entry this year! Yes, it’s me……again!! These boys really need to up their game.

Happy Halloween!!!

After the visit to the student accommodation the other weekend, Saturday afternoon and evening was spent with the youngest in Bristol.

I absolutely love Bristol! It’s got a real edgy city feel, a real diverse population and when you are 19 it is such a cool place to be. It is the UK’s only European Green city with some gorgeous parks, has a huge art and creative scene, historic harbourside, great food scene and is regularly voted the best and happiest city to live for under 26 year olds. Needless to say, he absolutely loves it!

It has strong links between art and political activism and is the home of world renowned graffiti artist and activist Banksy.

It is also home to some of the most stunning Georgian architecture and perhaps civil engineer Isambaard Kingdom Brunel’s greatest achievement the Clifton Suspension Bridge spanning the Avon River Gorge, 101 metres above the water, which marked a major achievement in the history of engineering.

The City was also the starting point of many famous voyages in the discovery of America including the 1497 voyage of John Cabot to Newfoundland.

However, try telling all this to a 19 year old who was under the impression he was going to sit in a harbourside bar for the afternoon at my expense! I’m one of those lifelong learners. I like to know the history of a place and love to wander around discovering new things…….at 19 he is not the same. However, we do have a love of discovering new places and food. We have had lovely trips to Amsterdam and Rome together but you have to make it into sort of a treasure trail……see a few sights and coffee, a few more and cake, a few more and a bar etc. but that suits me fine. So that’s basically how Saturday went.

First stop, the Cabot Tower in a leafy suburb park on the edge of the city. A beautifully preserved tower built in memory of John Cabot which you can climb up inside, using the spiral staircase, to be rewarded with some fantastic views of Bristol from the top. It’s quite high for those of us not fond of heights and the spiral staircase is very dark and narrow but with much encouragement from the teenager we made it and it was very worthwhile. Far reaching views over the harbour and over to Clifton Suspension Bridge.

This was followed by a walk down to the docks, still on the Cabot trail to see the statue of the man himself and the replica of his boat, the Matthew.

One thing I love Bristol for is graffiti. That might sound really odd as the majority of people find graffiti quite disrespectful and offensive, and a lot of it is. But some of it is fantastic art, but maybe just in the wrong place. Bristol is famous for its graffiti and you can download many a graffiti walking tour. By this point though the teenagers legs were refusing to go any further without a refuel. So burger and beer it was and Aperol for me before the graffiti tour. Now I just love Banksy……a lot of people don’t! A lot of his messages are a bit too left wing, I get that definitely, but I really do admire both his ability to communicate what a lot of us are thinking, and the ability to express it through art in the way he does. He does it with a simple picture, no words required, often with a double meaning, and some of the locations and placings are just so well thought out, clearly not chosen by accident. My favourite Banksy…..entitled ‘Rage – The Flower Thrower’ is not in Bristol and I’ll probably never get to see it. He travelled all the way to Jerusalem to deliver his message and paint this one. It depicts a masked Palestinian poised to throw a grenade…..but instead of a grenade he is about to launch a bouquet of flowers. The entire piece is in typical monochrome black and white, except the flowers which are in vivid colour to emphasise the need to make peace not war. Such a simple piece yet the message so powerful.

So off we set on our graffiti walk which always includes one Banksy. First stop, his ‘Well Hung Lover’. I’ve seen this so many times and it never ceases to make me smile…….both the double meaning in the title, and his absolute perfect placing on the side wall of the Bristol Sexual Health Clinic. It’s just a pity that some people don’t have the same appreciation for his work and it’s now been vandalised with black paint in addition to the blue paintballs that had been fired at it last time I visited. My other two favourites from this walk were one called ‘Lynx’ by street artist ATM, on the side of a semi-detached house in the Stoke Croft suburb and ‘Natural Adventures’ by Zase and Dekor. This one is so colourful and detailed and its placement at the bottom of the entrance slip road to the mundane M32 motorway is enough to brighten up anyone’s drive.

Grafitti tour done, then it was time for a trip to the suburb of Clifton. For two reasons…….another close up look at the Clifton Suspension Bridge as it never ceases to amaze me and also because outstandingly pretty Clifton has the best selection of small independent shops in Bristol.

Now this was done without the student. By this time his patience had worn thin and a night out with his friends was beckoning. He does not understand why I need to look at the bridge again……..”It will look the same as it did last time!” I explained that it looks different in different weather and different light and I learn something new about it each time I visit. I did point out that the XBox screen looks the same if you play the same game over again but that did not go down well. And he hates shops like those in Clifton…….they don’t sell branded sportswear! They do however, have excellent coffee shops and quite the best independent book shop. I did remind him of all those times I had spent with him in JD Sports looking at Nike trainers debating whether to buy Air Force Ones, 95s or 97s……which usually takes much longer than half an hour. Anyway, I continued on my own. After looking at gorgeous Autumn wreaths and decorations for home in the florists and spending at least half an hour in the book shop choosing and talking to the delightful owner about all things book related I emerged delighted with my purchases. I revived myself with a visit to an excellent little coffee shop and was delighted to see that the coffee shop recycles all its used grounds which I thought was an excellent idea…..I love to see good recycling ideas! I recycle mine at home as anyone with an allotment will know that coffee grounds are really good for the soil for all the reasons stated on the photo below. So out I came with a bag of used grounds.

Well that marked the end of a delightful day in Bristol. So it was on to Bath for a day with the eldest the day after…….and my company can’t have been that bad as the youngest opted for a second day with me too……..or could that be because I happened to mention belated cocktails and food for the eldest’s birthday?

So that’s a very, very brief look at Bristol in a day. It’s a city that’s well worth a weekend in it’s own right. So much to see and do and even better if combined with the very pretty, affluent, decadent, World Heritage city of Bath only 20 minutes away. Anyway, more of beautiful Bath and adventures there in a separate post.

Right, where to start! Last weekend I went to Bath and Bristol for the weekend to see the students…..otherwise known as my boys. Both absolutely fantastic cities a four hour road trip away that will each get their own blog post as we got up to allsorts over the weekend and had a good Mum and sons catch up but the student accommodation really does deserve it’s own post!!

It was the first time I have been down there this academic year as I made a point of making them sort themselves out this year with my new found determination to let go of the apron strings…..they have chosen their accommodation with their friends, sorted their equipment and even moved themselves in. I just pay for it!! So off I went to see what I was getting for my money.

Oh my goodness!! I’m still reeling. I just could not believe some of my discoveries. I thoroughly enjoyed my one hour nosey in each house. They don’t seem to be bothered where you wander and photograph and I am a bit nosey so I took full advantage of my opportunity to explore every nook and cranny.

When they decided to move down South I had mixed feelings. I was pleased that they were brave enough to spread their wings so far as there is so much more opportunity down there in their chosen fields and as a parent you want the best universities, life chances and standard of living for them. Selfishly though I was quite upset that I would not be able to see them that often. It’s worked out quite well though as I need no excuses for a weekend away and we always have such fun together when I visit, usually once a semester.

Now I feel I need to explain that they each live in a house with five of their friends, and they are all male households. So that’s two houses, one in Bath one in Bristol, twenty minutes drive from each other, one containing six 22 year old males and the other with six 19 year old males.

Whenever I leave them I always leave them with the same words of wisdom…….”live your best life, work hard, play hard and make the most of the fantastic opportunity you are both lucky enough to have been given”. I get to see the grades so I know they work hard most of the time but this weekend was evidence of the fact that they are definitely playing hard and living their best lives!

First stop Bath. A lovely 6 bedroom Georgian terrace house a few streets away from the Royal Crescent. I was fully toileted before arrival so there would be no need to use the student bathroom and with appropriate footwear to avoid any sticking to the floor I was greeted with a smile and a hug at the door from my eldest. Looking a bit bleary eyed he felt the need to explain before I entered the house that they had had a party the night before and it didn’t normally look like it did that morning. However, the Sherlock Holmes in me had already spotted the bulging can and bottle recycling bin at the front door!

In I went. It was quite quiet as no-one was up yet……it was 12 noon! First stop the bedroom, lovely big bay windowed room which apart from various things strewn on the floor did not look too bad. Then onwards to the lounge. After a couple of minutes clearing the sofa there was space for me to sit, avoiding the damp patch, and admire the empty bottles and remnants of a card drinking game.

I’d been told there was a garden so thought I’d have a little wander. Sure enough I found it, a bit overgrown but with a little patio some plastic chairs and a rather new looking table. I was informed that the table was indeed new and was a joint household purchase after the old one had ‘accidently’ got broken the week before when the legs had been removed to improvise as bats in a game of drunken baseball.

I then turned around to see the Grade ‘A’ Food Technology student eating for his breakfast the staple diet of the student, a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle.

Off I trotted to the kitchen where I was offered a drink….if I made it myself. Looking at the worktop it looked like a choice of Vodka, Chenin Blanc, High 5 Protein shake, Smirnoff Rasberry Crush or Heineken. I eventually unearthed some coffee. Fortunately I don’t take sugar and it’s a good job I can drink it black as the milk in the fridge had a best before date of 28th September.

I settled back on my dry bit of sofa and what followed was like a scene from Zombie Apocalypse. Various bodies started to emerge from all different directions. Surprise on each others faces……”Oh I didn’t know you stayed last night…..where did you sleep?!?!” was the general question.

Now I love this household of six. Four of them came to stay in Yorkshire with me last summer when the pandemic restrictions were lifted. What I thought was a flying visit of a few nights from Brighton turned out to be a full week where they took over my sitting room, ate me out of house and home and provided much hilarity and entertainment. I obviously looked after them too well but they are a great group of lads.

Then it was on to Bristol to have a good old nosey around student house number two who had also been partying the night before. It did not dissapoint!

These are the 19 year olds and this is their first year in their own house, not in University halls. So just like I did for the oldest one in his first shared house I went with the ‘Welcome to your new Student Home Gift Box’ I like to make for them. Now what does this contain? The essentials:

• A mug with your name on – one each for Henry, Sean, Matt, Will, Nathan and Jack.
• Chocolate – everyone likes chocolate.
• Toilet cleaner – the toilet needs regular attention in a student house.
• Rubber gloves – absolutely essential for the above.
• Toilet rim block – masks various odours in the toilet.
• Lenor laundry scent boosting pearls – because all students smell.
• Smirnoff Raspberry Crush Vodka – I might be 51 years old and a bit out of touch but even I know the mugs are not going to be used for tea and coffee.

So in I went through the front door fighting my way in through an absolute mountain of cardboard! They felt the need to explain that they had only been there 2 months but hadn’t worked out how to get rid of the cardboard recycling. “Oh well”, I thought, at least the intention to recycle is there! It also gave me the opportunity to nosey at the recycling (you can tell a lot about someone’s lifestyle by looking at this). In this case it evidenced lots of pizza and beer. I got slightly worried af the sight of a large ‘Love Space’ box but a quick Google search revealed that this was not a flat pack build your own space for loving but an online space storage solution……thank goodness for that!

On to the living space and kitchen or ‘El Cocina…….home of el Jefe’……a bilingual household nonetheless! A well used cooker top with four dirty frying pans, two saucepans and a seive. They probably weren’t in the sink because they would not fit in it. Despite the presence of six scouring pads (one each) there was little evidence of washing up and the token bottle of multisurface cleaner on the windowsill made me smile.

The living room contained everything you could ever need as a student: keyboard, huge wall mounted gaming TV, karaoke machine, xbox, laptop, lots of wiring, a football in a washing up bowl, table top darts, dirty oven baking tray, token plant, drinking card game, dirty pots, Gorilla Thai takeaway menu, empty beer bottles and the best and most ornately carved and decorated bottle opener I have ever seen……everybody needs one of these!

However, the icing on the cake for me was the display in the corner, or is it a sculpture or perhaps just ornamentation. Most of us have a vase of flowers, pictures, an ornament or two but I bet there is no-one else out there with a beer keg, supporting a full size set of real traffic lights, wearing a top hat, adorned with an inflatable banana!

Asking no questions I moved on to the bedroom. A bit of a tip but still a little bit of floor space, a sort of made up bed and believe it or not some work on the desk.

Quick exit and on to the garden. Lovely little artifical grassed and covered area complete with broken bench, two indoor sofas, well used ashtray, two broken plastic chairs and a pair of Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital crutches…….in case you have any drunken mishaps down the bottom of the garden I guess? And finally…….the BBQ which has seen better days and is clearly just a stand for the disposable BBQs because when you are a student why on earth would you use the real thing which will require an amount of effort and cleaning! 

So all in all a lovely start to my weekend with the boys. So happy to see them living their best lives and having so much fun. Not sure I’m getting £13,000 a year’s worth out if my rent payments but the upside is my own house felt incredibly plush, clean and tidy when I got home……I really need to upgrade my ornaments and up my game on the bottle opener front though!

This weekend I’ve been in my happy place, the Lake District, for two 10km fell and trail races, the Helvellyn and Ullswater Lakeland Trails series. I absolutely love the Lakes at this time of year, it’s so dramatic and there is possibly no other place in the UK I’d rather be. The backdrop of the lakes and mountains and the glorious autumn colours are fantastic and in true style it delivered four seasons in one day on both days. There were sun, rainbows, storms, wind, icy rain……just magnificent. After a tough few weeks at work and lots going on at home it was the perfect escape I needed.

It started off well on Friday when I arrived at the accommodation that had been booked so long ago. I’d completely forgotten the fact that I’d booked myself in a castle!! I can’t imagine how that happened, my finger must have slipped on the booking button! Yes, a mini castle, but still a castle………it was gorgeous…….and had so much history. It was part of Greystoke Castle where Edgar Rice-Burroughs stayed to write the novel Tarzan. Tarzan also went by the name of Lord Greystoke as Rice-Burroughs paid homage to his stay at Greystoke Castle. I had the most relaxing night on Friday which set me up just perfectly for the first race on Saturday morning, the Helvellyn 10k.

This first race I was absolutely dreading due to the weather forecast so I was so relieved to get up to the most gorgeous blue skies and sunshine. I even recorded a little video for family and friends to show them how wrong the forecast was and to showcase the glorious surroundings. I set off quite sprightly in just my t-shirt as it did not feel that cold. However, I spoke too soon. Just as in any mountainous area the weather can change really quickly……..and it did. Just as it said in the forecast the heavens opened and the smile was well and truly on the other side of my face. The rain was torrential and as we got higher up it got colder and colder and felt like ice as it landed on you. We were all absolutely soaked. It was running down my back, my front, my face, my legs and into my shoes, which by this time were absolutely full of mud. I was running as fast as I could just to get to the end. But funnily enough, I still enjoyed it. The camaraderie of all the runners was just fantastic as we all encouraged each other to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I like to come in the middle of the field and anything above that is a bonus now I’m in the Veteran 50 class. There are some really serious runners out there decades younger than me. I was absolutely over the moon with my 86^th of 209 runners.  

Anyone else who had run that race and had another 10km race to run the day after would have just put their feet up and had a nice afternoon in front of a log fire. But not me! I like to live every second of my life as if it’s my last and when I go away, I like to see as much as possible. For me, one of the best views of Lake Ullswater is from a view point called the ‘Memorial Seat’. So, it was bobble hat on and a two mile up and two mile down trek on Gowbarrow Fell to sit on the ‘Memorial Seat’. Now if this isn’t just the best view, I don’t know what is. You could just leave me up there for ever with a book, only it was a bit windy on Saturday afternoon so I did not hang around for too long.

After a long day I headed off back to my castle only to face my next dilemma. By this time, I was aching a little so I decided to take a bath instead of a shower in the lovely castle bathroom and have a good soak with lots of bubbles. The dilemma was this………the castle has the best selection of complementary toiletries and bubble bath than anywhere I have ever stayed. What to choose? I was torn between ‘Feel Relaxed’, ‘Muscle Therapy’, ‘Muscle Soak’ or ‘Stress Relief’. I decided I needed all four so had what can only be described as a bubble bath cocktail with all four, you could not see me for bubbles!

By now my stomach was telling me I needed food badly. So off I wandered, torch in hand for the return walk, to the lovely village pub, The Boot and Shoe. I walked through the door promising myself I would make all the right choices as I had another race to run in the morning……..so no alcohol and something healthy. Two hours later I exited the pub after steak and ale pie and a gin and tonic……..ooops! I’d managed to convince myself that there were plenty of carbs in the pie pastry and a slice of very healthy lemon in the gin and tonic. It was delicious.

It then proceeded to rain all night, and I mean really rain and storm as it does up there. Fortunately, on Sunday morning it had stopped raining constantly and was just raining on and off. The race was still on and the boats were sailing. The Ullswater 10km starts with a transfer the length of the lake from bottom to top on the Ullswater Steamer boat. The race is then all the way down the east edge of the lake, around the bottom and then part way up the west shoreline to the start point at Glenridding. For anyone that does not like hills, this one is a nightmare of a race. You are either going up or down, and the up and downs seem endless. The race started well. It was freezing cold but I felt good. However, no sooner had we got to the edge of the lake that it became apparent how much rain had fallen the night before. The trail was absolutely waterlogged, parts of it would have been better suited to a kayak. The puddles were so wide and deep going around them was not an option, going straight through was the only way. Three miles in I had drunk all my electrolytes, was wet through and had decided that this was just not fun anymore. I absolutely hit a mental and physical wall. It wasn’t runnable………there was lots of slipping, clambering, dare I say it walking and I was really struggling. I didn’t know whether it was tiredness from the day before, pie and gin, cold, or frustration at not being able to run it due to the conditions. I had noticed however that no-one had passed me since the start where I set off reasonably well not too far from the front so I thought maybe everyone else was struggling too. I ran with a lovely gentleman for a while who could not quite believe I was up there having run the day before as he was only doing Sunday’s race. Then I seemed to find my stride and ran unintentionally with another woman from that point until the end. We kept overtaking each other at different points. She seemed to be stronger than me on the flat but I’m a little bit like a mountain goat on the rocky downhills and uphills so together we made quite a good team pacing each other on the bits we each were weaker. We eventually limped over the line and into the finishers tent within seconds of each other, each thanking the other for the unspoken encouragement.

By that time, I was so wet I donned my wetsuit and went for a dip in the lake to cool down my leg muscles which were by now absolutely screaming. The results came in and I was absolutely delighted. I’d actually placed 40^th out of 184 runners and 10^th Veteran 50 female……. now that, I wasn’t expecting and I’m absolutely over the moon to be in the top 25%. It’s a feat I’ll probably never repeat so I’ll make the celebration last for as long as possible.

Then the icing on the cake, or is it the twist of the knife……..I can’t decide which, was when I read the following post on the Lakeland Trails Facebook page whilst looking for the official photos. Congratulations to Richard on his 40^th Lakeland Trails run who to celebrate would generously like to treat the 40^th finisher from each boat to a free entry to the race next year! I’ve ‘Liked’ the post but I’ve not yet owned up to being 40^th on the 9am sailing, I keep looking at the results to see if by a stroke of luck someone’s timing chip wasn’t working and I’ve been bumped down to 41^st when the results are verified. Now I do hope Richard has had an absolutely fantastic 40th Lakeland Trails run without any mishaps and I also hope to goodness he’s moving better than I am this week. I’m still at the stage where if I sit still for longer than 5 minutes I just can’t move. So, it looks like I might be running it next year after all!