My determined daughter.....

I’m so proud of my daughter. She is absolutely flourishing as a trainee electrician, working with Dave from Sprint Electricals in Wigton. She’s been installing floodlights in a railway siding, re-wiring houses, prepping a portacabin for a building site and re-wiring a farm shed. She’s had early starts and late finishes, worked at weekends and been out in all weathers without any complaint; in-fact, only yesterday she was telling us how much she was loving her work.  She takes part in the banter with the guys on the construction sites and clearly holds her own! I’d have expected nothing less!

Monday Morning

Although it’s Monday, this morning’s early dog walk in Rickerby Park didn’t have the usual Monday morning feel. The dawn proved to be particularly lovely, turning the sky into a quilt of red and pink. There was the additional bonus that it was light enough to see where we were walking, the end of BST bringing some short term benefit!  And to make it even more rewarding, we were also treated to the sight of a jumping fish and two otters playing in the River Eden as we walked along. We were sorry to leave and get ready for work!

Time to clean up your act, Birmingham

Birmingham city streets are filthy. Hunting for a few geocaches earlier this week, I was appalled at the litter that had accumulated in every nook and cranny. Urban geocaching can take finders to some less than salubrious places so I’m not overly precious about grime but I can honestly say I’ve never seen so much litter in a city centre, not even in London. The rubbish piles were in marked contrast to the new, shiny Grand Central station but sadly, I couldn’t help thinking that it wouldn’t stay fresh and clean for long. Do the residents have no civic pride?

An early start.....

Visiting Birmingham Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable market proved to be an unexpected sensory experience! At 5am in the morning it felt very surreal to be in such a noisy, bustling environment, surrounded by crates of vivid, red skinned, pomegranates from Spain, sacks of gnarled French walnuts and boxes of fragrant Brazilian mangos.  The sellers and buyers made noisy deals over boxes of bright yellow lemons while fork lift trucks and wooden carts loaded with produce were constantly on the move. Few bacon butties and mugs of tea have ever tasted as good as my restorative breakfast in the market cafe!

Fairfield Horseshoe

Mr Glis and I enjoyed a stunning autumnal walk round the classic Fairfield Horseshoe at the weekend, joining a Wainwright bagging colleague and his pals. It’s a perfect walk from which to see most of the Lake District, in good weather; We were lucky! 

We took the anticlockwise route, crossing Sweden Bridge on our approach to the infamous “wall” that then accompanied us upto Hart Crag. On Fairfield summit itself, we helpfully re-directed some Korean walkers who were unintentionally heading off to Ambleside via Patterdale before making our own uneventful descent via Great Rigg and Heron Pike. A wonderful day!

Who's a good boy, then?

We’ve made some progress with Monty. On Friday, we met several doggy people and their beasts by the river and as Monty was having a wonderful time chasing around with them on his extender lead, we took the unplanned and bold step of letting him off.  We were armed with plenty of treats and although nervous, we were pleasantly surprised and relieved when he came back. Since then, he’s been off his lead several times in Rickerby Park and so far, he hasn’t disgraced himself, thank goodness, although we recognise we still have a long way to go with him

Alnmouth

I was home alone with the dogs on Saturday as Mr K was out with his hockey gels. As I love the beach, I threw caution and a bad back to the wind and drove to Alnmouth on a glorious morning which sadly, became progressively mistier the closer I got to the coast! That’ll teach me to abandon the Cumbrian Coast!  I parked up at a convenient spot and set off with Molly and Monty for a misty, but still lovely, walk along the shore, discovering a mini causeway  and having some sea weed fun fights with Molly and Monty

Poetry please

Friday evening proved that good company, good food and poetry can indeed ease the discomfort of a bad back.  Having suffered for most of the week, I was unsure of whether I’d be able to face the evening but dosed with painkillers and armed with a cheesecake, I set out to the gathering  hosted by Mary in her Hesket Newmarket home. The theme of the evening was about beginnings and endings, Mary having only recently moved into her house and as always, the group found a wide range of relevant and thought-provoking pieces to share. And my back held out.

Sit!!

We attended our second dog training class last week with Monty and other dogs in attendance. There was a lot of barking and a couple of “teeth–bared lunges” from some (surprisingly, a mute Monty behaved well) but all told, there was very little over-exuberance. Monty was an enthusiastic, good-natured participant and responded well to the tasks he had to undertake but we still have some way to go as he clearly has a number of behaviours to un-learn. An upside, however, was his evident enjoyment of treats as a reward mechanism, which is definitely something we can exploit

Afternoon Tea Treat

I enjoyed a wonderful birthday treat with Nerea last weekend when she took me for Afternoon Tea to Armathwaite Hall, a beautiful country house on the shores of Bassenthwaite.  We were seated in the bay window with views giving onto the lake and enjoyed tea from a bottomless pot served with warm quiche, dainty sandwiches and a selection of cakes. Because Nerea had mentioned that it was my birthday, I was also presented with a slice of birthday cake.  I enjoyed my afternoon enormously as tea is such a delightful meal, and in such elegant surroundings it was very special.

 

The Great British Bakeoff

I watched the final of the Great British Bake Off with more than the usual amount of interest as at the beginning of the series, several friends entered into a sweepstake style syndicate to predict the winner.  I settled on Nadiya as there was something about her and her baking style that I really liked so, as she was crowned Queen of the Cakes, I was declared sole winner of the £35 prize (funded by syndicate entry fees!). Although I should really buy cake ingredients with the prize money, it’s going to form a curry night kitty for the syndicate!

Picture from BBC

Non specific back pain!

I am really suffering with a bad back at the moment. The pain, lack of sleep and limited mobility was so bad yesterday that I phoned the doctor and got an appointment.  He thinks it is general “wear and tear arthritis” in my back and pelvic area with related compensatory muscular strain and prescribed painkillers and anti-inflamatories. Or put simply, it’s because I’m getting older. That isn’t any real comfort to me as I struggle to stand up or take the dogs for a walk! Anyway, I think it’s time for new trail shoes and wellingtons and insole shock absorbers

Remember Fenton?

We attended our first dog training class last week and were impressed. As we were only covering basics and domestics, the dogs didn’t attend, which was definitely better than trying to listen to information with a bored animal.  Let’s hope our expectations are fulfilled for although Montilicious has settled in well, he’s completely unreliable at coming when called. Remember Fenton? Monty proved this conclusively on Sunday when he made a bid for freedom after someone left the gate open. He completely ignored all my calls and was only captured when a neighbour offered him biscuits.  We have work to do!

“I feel it in the air, the summer's out of reach” (credit Don Henley, Michael W. Campbell)

Autumn is upon us! It’s not the trees donning their coats of red and amber or the mist cloaking the river in the early morning that signifies the end of summer, but my need to wear gloves as I cycle to work. Until now I’ve resisted the need to dig them out of the bag where they’ve spent the summer, but yesterday, I simply couldn’t face the painful warming-up process that my chilled fingers endure after I arrive at the office. So, it was gloves on and a brain sing of Don Henley’s "Boys of Summer" along the riverside track