Morecambe visitors

This is just a short post, mostly to do with a visit from Cass my nephew and his lovely partner Lynsey, who have just left (its Sunday afternoon on 28/7.)
Since the last offering the building work and bathroom fitting has all but finished, Hip Hip Hooray!
John the main contractor has packed his van for nearly the last time and gone on holiday, having worked like a Trojan for the last week, above and beyond his remit. I found him putting chrome shrouds on the bathroom rads , something we were expecting to look ok if painted, but he is a true craftsman and wanted it all to look 'correct' as he put it.
We had a bit of a run in with the narky sparky again, he was quite rude to us and is definitely off the invite list for the opening bash. I cant understand why some people are so bad at customer relations. I suppose 20+ years in customer service in some capacity or other will make you expect a certain level of politeness, I don't want deference just good service. Rant over, on with the blog.

This is the 'Green room' which has the partitioned off bathroom. We have had the coving done so that when its decorated it will look a bit less like someone has robbed a room for the sake of an en-suite. Which is exactly what we have done. I've cleared out all the rubbish, taken off the old gripper rods (ouch they are sharp) and now its ready for decorating. Sister sally came round last Friday to give us a hand. She and Judith set about polishing the bathroom tiles with baby oil. John asked if he could watch.

This is the existing bathroom , now the en-suite for the 'Yellow room' it is also just about complete , just needs decorating and curtains/window seat cushions. I say 'just', but am I that delusional? I reckon that it will take the two of us a week to do each room properly, to a good standard. We are getting a bloke I met down Settle social club to do a weeks decorating for us (thanks here to Jean and Harry for monetary assistance). Me and Paul have a mutual love of all things Manchester united, so I'm tempted to have a red devil motif in the hallway. Just kidding Judith.

 

We have been busy making 'our' bathroom a bit less like a British rail lavvy by putting up, in my usual jaunty- angled way some home comforts and mirrors , posters etc. There are now two mirrors on opposite walls and if you look at a certain angle you get that infinity effect so beloved of the Doctor Who visual effects department circa 1960. Trippy.

 

Poor cat has had to have her own parasol. Its funny how in hot weather they seem to elongate themselves .

 

 

And finally, Lynsey and Cass my dear nephew came over today with young Siberian Husky Rudi. We went for a short walk down to the river to see if any Salmon were leaping yet. Its quite amazing how a few days rainfall can have such a huge effect on the river, It was in full spate and very brown with peat deposits. There is a green HEP plant just to the right in this picture. Its a reverse Archimedes screw and was rotating like the clappers. It supplies power via cells to the houses by the river and any excess is sold off to the power companies. Very impressive and quite low-tech, down side is it only works when the river is at a certain level.

 

View over the Ribble towards Langcliffe and the school sports fields.

 

Judith is off again to see her parents tomorrow for a few days leaving me to deal with the sparky. Cheers.

See, I told you it was a short edition.

Cornish visitors

Hello everyone. Its Sunday afternoon and our guests Alexander and Meg have just gone back to Cornwall , we hope they have a safe drive back and are not too hot in any traffic jams.

The bathrooms are nearing completion, this one has its bath and is just waiting for the boards to go down . Amtico suggest 18mm hardboard with screws to the floorboards every 20cm. In the new front bathroom that was 530 screws. This room is about twice the size. So leaky plumbing is not an option! We have had to identify where the traps for the bath and shower are in the rooms downstairs just in case we have to take out any ceiling to rectify future errors. Doesn't bear thinking about.


'Yellow room bathroom'

Our personal bathroom is now complete, all the pipes boxed in and white undercoat applied. Its a bit too clinical so we are going for some more muted tones for the top coat. Amazing to think there was a large cupboard where the bath is.

Actually, the bathroom is now a light yellow and looks much nicer.

 

Our bathroom takes shape

Judith's son Alexander came to stay with his girlfriend Meg on their way back down from a short holiday in Edinburgh. We barbecued and got the fire pit out for the first time here. Got ever so slightly squiffy.

 

Also have been eating outside, having to use the parasol as the sun has been too much. The new bit of lawn now looks ok, its as patchy as the rest of it so blends in well.

 

For some reason Alex decided to wear the slow cooker as a hat.

Sally came over and brought her best Victoria sponge. Her and Judith spend a lot of time in this chair plotting.

Raz decided that our favourite festival chairs were far too good for us and requisitioned this one.

 

Judith has to go see her mum next week down south, so im left at the mercy of the builders for a while.  Laurence added to the general stress by doing what was expressly forbidden: hiring a motorbike in Greece.  William's wheel fell off (the bikes are SO well maintained) and Tom and Laurence veered off the road.  Fortunately the injuries to the boys were minor but Laurence's bike was fatally injured.  Judith's wallet was struck a mortal blow.  Laurence is paying back the debt by being our painting slave.

 

See, the bathroom is now yellow.

 The new en-suite is now complete for the 'Green room' and I had a shower in it at Johns request, so I know it doesn't leak.

 

 

 We seem to have a Song thrush set up a nest in the Wisteria. Its been so hot lately that I have left a few windows open at night. One morning I got up early and heard this incessant cheeping coming from the first floor. Seems like one of its young has flown in and couldn't figure out its escape. Whilst fending off the cat with one hand I managed to scoop the little fella up in t'other (see, im nearly Yorkshire now) and release him into the garden, phew.

 

 Looks more like a small frog than a Thrush. Size of them feet!

Judith eventually got back from looking after her Dad, and on Monday we took some time off to go sight seeing. We had heard Kirby Lonsdale was pretty and its on the way virtually to Sedburgh and the Howgill hills, where we had planned to do a big walk, Judith's bad back allowing (too much wheelchair lifting).

 

 

 

 

 

This is us walking. It was far too hot so we had a stroll along the river Rawthey, a tributary of the Lune and ace trout stream. Judith got very annoyed because her untrained fisherman's eye initially couldn't spot them lurking in the shallows. But dogged determination won the day and now she can spot them better than me.

This is the Parish church of St Mary in Kirby Lonsdale. Its

got a fine self-closing gate that is very Heath-Robinson.

Kirby is lovely and has a bridge over the river that you can swim off. It was packed that day and there were loads of bikers cooling off there and in the pubs. Lots of antique shops and nice upholstery and gals clothing places.

 

 

This is the Rothay, Its clear and shallow at the moment, not much rainfall for a while. There is a plethora of beautiful wildflowers, many of which only grow up north so we had to get the book out to ID them when we got back. Giant Bell flowers do exacty what it says on the packet.

 

 Giant Bells

 

 

These are the Howgill hills at Sedburgh. They aren't very high and on a cooler day they make very good walking. There are several of them, all about the same size, so you can do as many as you want, depending on your level of fitness. We didn't do any that day!

 

 On the way back Judith drove and gave me the map to navigate. Foolish woman! I decided we should head back via the little white roads on the map instead of the red or yellow ones. They are quite narrow the white ones. This one took us back via Dent and dentdale and lovely views of the Dent Viaduct. Its not as long as the Ribblehead Viaduct but its in a fairly steeply sided gorge and is probably prettier, given the setting.

 

Raz has been at the kitty crack or Catnip as its known round here. I made this little chicken wire net to go over it so she can only destroy little bits at a time. I do feel a bit like her dealer sometimes though.

 

two quick last pictures taken from roughly the same angle .

This one is the new front bathroom after John had laid the hardboard, making it nice and flat for Chris the Amtico man.

 

Before,

 

 After.

 

 

Draughts anyone?

 

Paloma Faith and Dalby Forest

Well, when I finished up last weekend we were just off to Pickering and Paloma Faith in Dalby Forest. Really looking forward to it. It was a great gig only slightly spoiled by the very tight security on the way in. They searched EVERYBODY'S BAGS. Several thousand people were queuing up to get in, and we started to have a sense of humour failure. It took about an hour of queuing to get in.

 

But once we were in it didn't seem to matter much, especially as we managed to smuggle some vodka and pimms in!

We stayed in a small hotel just outside Pickering and shared a cab with a young couple going there, and had to rely on the hotel owner to pick us up at the end, bless you Liz. The venue is deep into the forest, about 4 miles from Pickering. No public transport, no help from the forestry people. Lovely setting but crap security and bad access. Probably wont be going there again.

 

We went for a short walk up on to the town trail, mostly to try out my new walking boots and came across this sight. Probably the horse with the best view ever, in a meadow of  wild flowers.

 

It was my birthday on the 4th July,I got some lovely presents including this rather natty waistcoat from Judith. She has also booked me in with the local blacksmith to have my own Rams head fire iron made. Sally came up for the day and the 3 of us went off to Carlisle and back on the train. What a journey, you go over numerous viaducts, including ribblehead, the big one, and as the line skirts the dales to your right as you travel north, you get fantastic views of the 3 peaks, Whernside, Pen-Y-Ghent and Ingleborough. Have to admit that Carlisle wasn't really that lovely, we only had about an hour there and somebody tried to sell me their dog whilst sitting on a man-bench in the town centre.

For the journey Judith had made a lovely picnic, complete with gingham tablecloth, Champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries. This is the sort of thing we are planning to offer our guests as a packed lunch.

 

I know, Ozzy Osbourne look a like!

.

Model for the fire Iron

 

Only slightly blurred view from train of Whernside

On the following Friday we went on a sojourn south to see Judith's father who is recovering well in hospital, then on to stay with good friends Dan and Robert in Kent (thanks boys),

 

before going to Laurence's prize giving day at St Edmunds in Canterbury. This is him in the middle with mates Tom on the right and William, left. They were off to the leavers ball and are soon off to Greece island hopping together.

 

Laurence actually agreed to pose for this one , taken at Tom's parents house near Canterbury where we stayed the night after the prize giving. Many thanks to Julia and Peter for their wonderful hospitality and looking after Laurence like second parents.

Then it was a race back up the motorways ahead of the arrival of Judith's other son Alexander and his lovely girlfriend Meg. Alex hasn't been here before and seemed suitably impressed until Monday morning when a full compliment of plasterers, electricians, plumbers and bathroom fitters arrived to shatter the rural idyl. We have had a few set backs with the building, not least the discovery that some of the plumbing in the existing 1st floor bedroom runs uphill aways. This and extra plastering means we are just about double our original estimate for the work. Ho Hum.

 

To escape we took the kids (kids! he's 6ft 9in!) on our fave walk from Austwick to Feizor and back again , a circular walk of about 4 miles with a stop at Elaine's Café in Feizor for thunder and lightning ice cream.

It was the hottest day so far this year, a bit warm for a hike. Alex took this one of us meandering back through the corn fields towards the (closed on Mondays, dam it) Game Cock in Austwick.

 

 

I have spared you so far this blog, but the house moves on apace, the Amtico blokes arrive on the 20th July (its the 10th today) so most of the work has to be completed in the next 10 days. Then there is a small matter of decorating, which we reckon may be 4-6 weeks and me and Judith are going to do the bulk of this.

This is the existing 1st floor bathroom with re-aligned doorway and new plaster.

 

We have had a few problems with hairy arsed men using our bathroom, so John put up a quick sign, which was promptly ignored. The locksmith arrives today, that should sort the problem out.

And the small en-suite is nearly done.

So its been a full and interesting 10 days since the last blog update, and I cant see it getting any quieter any time soon. My role in Calamity Jane has been changed to 'Wizened old prospector/cowboy' and I have speaking (drawling) parts. I have lines to learn!
See you in a bit.....

 

 

 

 

 

Its all happening at once.

What is it with projects like this. One day hardly any of the contractors show up when they say they would, the next day there's so many of them that there is a traffic jam in the lane in back of the house, and one of them is broken down...
But last night was lovely, the 'megamoon' decided to make an appearance as the clouds lifted briefly, so I got my new (second hand) tripod out and stumbled about on the lawn using some settings on the 'ol Nikon I haven't used before. Then a bit of editing and.... voila!

 

I have also been taking some shots for our brochure/website of the garden and how it looks throughout the year.

 

We have had a few sunny days this week, it doesn't take much for the flowers to bust forth.

The treehouse and the garden chair are in use, there I have sown some wild flowers and grasses to compensate for the damage the last owners dogs have done. The ancient apple tree's flowers have all gone, I wonder if we will get any fruit?

 

The boxes containing the new bathroom ware have all but gone and john has asked us to use the new bathroom this weekend so we can see if anything leaks.

At the risk of grossing out her children, Judith very bravely posed for a couple of tasteful shots of her in the new slipper bath in the new front bathroom

 

 

Surrounded by drying plaster and builders rubble!

 

We went to see Martin Stevenson and the Daintees in a free gig at the Victoria hall. They live in Scotland and were on their way down to Glasto, so this was a warm up gig. Remember 'Crocodile crying' It was their one big single. Unfortunately the warm-up slot was his partner, who although played a lovely hoffner semi acoustic very well, would have been more at home in a playgroup singing to under 5's. And whats all that stuff about aligning his Chackras during the encore? Bloody 'el this is Yorkshire, not Islington. I do like the fact that the town pulls together when needed. As they played for free, Anne who books the acts got the Lion to put them up for nowt and Internet Andy to feed them breakfast at his lovely café the next morning. I saw lots of people buying them drinks too, and there was a collection at the end to pay for the sound man and PA hire.

 

Today (sat 29th June) we are off to Pickering and Paloma Faith at Dalby Forest . So its an outdoor gig and theres a 90% chance of rain. Waterproofs and wellies may be in order. Its right the other side of Yorkshire, we have to go through Harrogate and Leeds to get there, its not far from Whitby. We are staying at a small hotel and the receptionist has promised us she will be able to get us too and from the gig as we don't really want to drive.

 

I went back to Bradford Royal on Friday to have a fitting for a bloody hearing aid. seems there's not much they can do for me otherwise. I worry that its going to make me look every day of my (nearly) 57 years. The NHS have been absolutely fantastic, the service terrific and of course the treatment and eventual hearing aid completely free. But it is rather clunky technology . What's a bit galling is the adverts in the Audiology department for the private clinic nearby who do the slim-line aids with better acuity for a mere £3,000. I suppose that's quite hypocritical of me, after all, I was working for many years in healthcare sales, on both sides of the fence, NHS and private. Ho Hum.

 

On a lighter note, what is it about cats and confined spaces? This one has to inspect every floorboard lift and cardboard box. I just hope she doesn't go to sleep somewhere when they are finally nailing the boards down again. 'The tel-tale heart' anyone?

 

Probably wont be in any fit state to add to this on Sunday, so its a goodnight from him. See you next week . A week that promises to be quite fraught as the narky sparky is holding everyone up  (gas engineers, plasterers, etc.) and seems quite happy to do so. But once he's finished, the heating can be tested, the plastering finished, the Amtico floors laid and we can then get on with the month or so of decorating.

 

 

 

 

Such sweet sorrow

Good (Sunday) evening everyone. It was a strange old week just gone. Judith was away from Monday till Saturday when I picked her up from Lancaster. She had been visiting her parents down south, and I'm very glad to say that her dad seems to be getting better. Unfortunately she couldn't get to the funeral of her friend (time constraints) so the new black hat had a return trip. I will be quite happy if it doesn't get any more outings for a very long time to come.

So Its befallen me to look after the plumbers,

Neil,

His dad Barry

 

 

And Howard, who is a bit camera shy.

The outside of the house continues to look great as everything in the gardens is growing at a seemingly exponential rate. The Wisteria is flowering, as are the huge poppies, the lupins and the peony. Its an inverse proportion to the insides though. I thought all the messy stuff had happened, but no, more holes in walls and a serious plumbing failure in the Attic which I will not mention here for fear of offending readers of a delicate constitution. But you can probably guess what it involved.

 

 

 

John who is the main contractor has been doing sterling stuff , this is the new front bathroom with a large walk in shower. I went off to Skipton to Oldfields to buy a chandelier and some special spots for the shower. Its going to look great.

 

 

 

Of course, throughout it all the cat loved nothing more than to find a really dusty spot, preferably with some sun pouring in and act all cute for the builders. Such a tart.

I take pictures every evening documenting everything that has happened that day, so I have hundreds that I could put up, but that would be particularly uninteresting, so here's a few only of what the gas /heating/hot water engineers have been up to this week.

 

Basement room before,

 

                                                                                                                                                                            

 And after. These are the 2 hot water tanks to service the possible 3 baths and 3 showers that may be going at the same time. I think its a given that paying guests have plenty of hot water on demand, one of the reasons this project has cost an arm and a leg. We looked at this installation and thought they looked vaguely human, and we decided to call them  Scylla and Charybdis which are from the greek myths, neriads who were turned into water monsters by jealous lovers. They guarded either sides of the Straits of Messina and gave Odysseus & co a bit of bother. We also thought of tweedle dee and tweedle dum, Dennis and Margaret (bit creepy having them in the basement).Gilbert and George may have worked.  They are monstrous and deserved fitting names.

The business end of these is the 2 large boilers in the futility room and the big box called a low loss header which links the two together. I think we could heat the water for the whole road from the output of these two bad boys. God, I've turned into a plumbing geek.

 

 

So we also now have a personal bathroom, sort of, and I have been trying hard to get it looking ok for Judith's return. Once the last bit of plastering has been done we can decorate and put up some decent lighting and seal the floor slates, phew.

 

 

So that's it for the week, not a lot of sight seeing or humorous anecdotes, its not all gravy you know!

However, we may go to this in a few weeks time. Judith likes Jacobean Ruff (there's a joke there somewhere but I fear for my manhood so I'm staying schtum). Also a boyhood mate of mine is playing in a band called Wire (Colin Newman) We used to get drunk on cheap cider at the monument in Newbury when we were teenagers.

Oh yes, Martin Stevenson and the Daintees are playing a free warm up gig at the Victoria hall this Wednesday , en route to Glastonbury, so may have to miss my SAOS rehearsal. Oops.