Secret Egypt

Today, the three of us went to see “Secret Egypt”, a superb exhibition at Tullie House which featured 200 artefacts on loan from various UK Egyptology collections.  It’s been a real achievement for the museum to secure this popular and high quality exhibition.  The display was well presented, with the mummy and sarcophagus of Sheri-ankh proving to be a beautiful centrepiece.  The story boards were hugely informative in explaining some of the ancient customs, myths and legends of this incredible civilisation.  Nerea and I would love to see Egypt for ourselves so maybe one day, we’ll recreate the Grand Tour

On the catwalk........

The Jubilee Charity Fashion Show at school last week was stunning.  Local fashion stores, along with a couple of Cumbrian designers loaned out their stock to show case it to over 250 people.  Nerea and her friends were modelling and looked incredible, making me feel very proud of them all. Although she was nervous before the show began, as she was one of the first collection out, she didn’t have long to wait before stepping straight into the swing of it.  It was hard to believe that none of them were professionals as they strutted their stuff on the catwalk


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Visitors from across the pond II

At long last we’ve met our American friends, Dick and Barb.  And the 4 days we’ve spent together were super.  We ate and drank too much, including afternoon tea using my mum’s tea set and visited several of our local historical sites including Hadrian’s Wall and Housesteads, Carlisle Castle and Cathedral  and Tullie House.  Barb discovered that her ancestors were from old Border Reiver families and so became the butt of our jokes about outlaws, thieves and vagabonds.
We were all particularly enthused by the quality of the new Reivers exhibition and  thoroughly enjoyed the Roman Gallery at Tullie House

University Challenges

The last few months have seen us trekking to various Universities with Nerea as she wanted to visit a number of places to get a flavour of where she thinks she’d be happy.  Although she has decided to take a “Gap Yah” to work and travel, she’s been lucky because she’s had offers from the 5 Universities she applied to but of course that means she has a harder choice. Currently, Newcastle and Bangor are favourites for although she liked Stirling, the course there is 4 years and when you’re going to incur significant debt.........the cost of tuition matters now!

Handbags and Gladrags

It always seemed unlikely that we’d ever be in the business of commissioning anything, but in honour of Nerea’s birthday, we decided to do just that and ordered a unique, leather handbag. Nerea had few requirements other than it needed to be red and large so we accepted Robin’s offer to both design and make the bag.  The finished product looks amazing.  The bag, made of red leather panels piped with red and black snakeskin more than fulfilled expectations and has received untold compliments.  It’s a classic statement piece and should last Nerea a lifetime, assuming she doesn’t lose it!

Visitors from across the pond........

We’re getting excited about our expected visitors from America.  We met Dick and Barb “virtually” after a geocache we’d visited in Canada was reported missing by them. Facebook came along and who should “pop up” but Dick and Barb in a suggested list of “friends”.  We made contact again and remained in touch so when they planned a world tour, we were delighted to discover we were on their itinerary. As they have never been to our part of the world before, we hope to share some of our beautiful heritage and landscape with them... and a few geocaches too

Sleddle Hall

I’ve never seen the film “ Withnail and I” but a few weeks ago, we visited the location where the filming took place.

It’s a very remote spot up there at Sleddle Hall, even today when the busy M6 is visible in the distance. Life there in the early 1800s when it was built must have been hard.  Maybe people were tougher in those days, although life expectancy and indeed, expectations were considerably less than today.  The sun was shining on the day of our walk but it wasn’t difficult to imagine the spot on a bleak, cold wintery day

Eccentricity rules!

I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that a truly eccentric person has no appreciation that their behaviour is unusual.  On that basis, I have to announce officially that my husband is eccentric.  We recently spent an evening with some friends and although “drink was taken”, quantities were by no means excessive!!  Bearing that in mind, there is no rational explanation for Andy’s response to a bout of hiccups.  I don’t believe that putting the handles of a paper carrier bag over ones ears and growling into said bag in a style reminiscent of Darth Vader, can be anything other than eccentric.

Pear Pudding

Alex unexpectedly came for dinner the other night and as he’s a good eater, I made a pud; something I’d eat a lot more of if it wasn’t so unhealthy.  I didn’t have any tinned pineapple but reposing in the fruit bowl were 2 pears.  I peeled and sliced them before putting them in the bottom of my large cake tin and liberally coating them with golden syrup.  A thick covering of a hastily made 3 egg Victoria sandwich cake mixture  and the end result was an extremely tasty upside down pear pudding. Such a pity Alex doesn’t like pears!

Corserine

We were incredibly fortunate on Sunday to enjoy a wonderful day in the Galloway hills. The walking terrain was varied as we began and ended in a forest plantation with a glorious high ridge walk along the Rhinns of Kells between.  The sun once it came out, was incredibly warn and took the sting out of the wind which blew vigorously upon the ridge.  Once at Corserine’s summit we were rewarded with a 360 panorama with Ireland, Arran and the Lakeland fells looking stunning in the distance, patches of sunlight and cloud shadows creating a dappled effect across
the landscape.

The green, green, grass of home

We have grass!  Our garden, which is small but perfectly formed, is surrounded by high, old brick walls that are home  to some glorious David Austin fragrant roses.  The “ground” had formerly been a combination of flags, flower beds and gravel, which although attractive, created a monochrome landscape, especially during the winter months once the foliage had died away. So, on Maundy Thursday, the ground was dug over by Andy and Alex, the turf duly arrived and a green carpet instantly materialised.  None of us had really appreciated the immediate impact that the change would have.  The garden looks transformed!