I can`t believe we are at the end of June already. I am still waiting for what I would regard as summer weather here in Carlisle. There have been brief appearances made by the bright shiny thing in the sky but they have been few and far between. I am longing now for some warm sunny days, when I can get some of my summer clothes out of the wardrobe …without the additions of cardigans on sweatshirts. I even have had to resort to wearing socks on occasions recently…and I hate socks! I was told by a friend the other day that I would never be a Cumbrian when I complained that I was cold…the temperature was 18c! I still had my cardie on! We have managed to eat in our garden once or twice, but then we headed back inside for coffee. It is all so disappointing…and very annoying when our French friends are messaging me about the heat wave they are enduring! Could we share some of that heat please?? Pretty, pretty please??
Despite the weather, we have done quite a bit of gadding about again this month. Ill start with where I left off last month…my birthday celebrations! We really enjoyed our celebratory trip to Northumberland and I loved visiting some of my favourite places such as Rothbury, Seahouses, Alnwick & Bamburgh. We spent a lovely couple of hours sitting on the wonderful beach at Bamburgh looking at the boats going back & forth to the Farne Islands. Geoff was brave and got as far as ankles in the sea…but it was very cold, so we were not tempted to have a dip! We stayed in a gorgeous little village called Ellingham, which was full of lovely cottages with equally lovely cottage gardens. Our journey back home the next day, took us through the villages of Ford & Etal before driving home via the Border towns of Hawick, Jedburgh and Kelso. It really was a trip down memory lane for me, as my dad loved all those places and we visited them all many times when I was young. On the Friday of that week, we drove to Lowther Castle for a great meet up with all my family ay last. It was a great day seeing my children and grandchildren together again. Ethan and Hadley loved the wonderful adventure playground castle in the grounds and so everyone had a really good day…. especially me as it was yet another birthday celebration. My last celebratory event was a wonderful lunch with our friends Mike and Linda at Lyzzick Hall near Keswick…which was really to celebrate both of us turning 70 this year. It was splendid…the setting, the food and the company were just perfect and we appreciated it very much indeed. I would highly recommend Lyzzick hall to everyone as a place to eat and the hotel looked really nice too. It just so happened that the day we went was Father
s day so Geoff & Mike celebrated that event in style too. We ate again at Hazels in the evening so Geoff could receive his Father
s Day gifts. He had a very good day
**The Jubilee weekend followed that excursion and we went to the small event in our local park, all decked out in red, white and blue of course! We ended that day with a BBQ at Hazels…and yes, we did manage to eat outside for once! The next day there was a celebratory lunch after the service at church which again was very good. I tried to convince everyone that I was allowing the Queen to gate-crash my 70th too…but not all were convinced! My knitted Queen was raffled off though, and raised £70 for church funds which I was very pleased about. In the afternoon we got a surprise invitation to go to a small event in one of the fields on my friend Sandra
s farm. It was lovely…a local old-fashioned fete with games and races for the children accompanied by a very elderly (they were in their 90s) couple who provided the music. This pair still entertain in local old folks’ homes…where no doubt some of the residents are younger than them! It was a lovely event and we thoroughly enjoyed it…even if it was a bit cold out there again!
Our Wednesday “date day” lunches have also continued this month as usual…but not as many as we have been busy with other things too. We ate very well at the lovely Wheatsheaf Inn near Wetheral one week and had a lovely pic nic in Hexham en route to visiting friends, Gill and Charles, in Whitley Bay on one of the other Wednesdays. That trip was another overnight stay, as Charles was performing in the local G&S societys performance of Yeoman of the Guard, in Tynemouth…and we couldn
t miss seeing hm resplendent in his Beefeaters uniform! It was very good and we really enjoyed it…although I don
t think Geoff appreciated my singing all the way home the next day! Yesterday, we went to Bowness on Solway & ate at Hunters Bistro there before going to try & see some dragonflies at Drumsbough Moss nature reserve. Not much luck once again, but we did see a couple of small damselflies …before getting thoroughly soaked in a very heavy shower. Nothing nicer than driving home in cold, wet jeans
Hazel and I had a nice “girly” day out one day too, driving down to Barrow where Hazel had an appointment and a meet up with a friend. Of course, we had to have a stop at Tebay on the way home. I love the farm shop there and always end up buying goodies! Another day out we had this month, was to the Cumberland Show which we enjoyed very much. Fortunately, it was a nice day and we were able to wander round slowly watching all the events in the show rings sampling lots of food and looking at all the craft entries and demonstrations. Geoff especially loved seeing the heavy horse competitions as they brought back memories of his Grandad, who was a shire horse man himself. I entered lots of raffles and big surprise, actually won a prize that I really wanted in one of them…some local ground coffee, tea and a MW Craven book. I love his books as he writes about places we know in Cumbria and he has two fantastic characters in Washington Poe (don’t ask!) and Tilly Bradshaw. If you haven’t read any of his books, I do recommend them.
My visits to the eye clinic have continued this month. I now have a very expensive steroid implant in my right eye and a repeat implant of the other drug in my left eye. I suspect the right eye implant blew the ophthalmology budget as it was implied Id not get another one of those until next year! Hey ho. I am still waiting to get my driving licence back after having to re-apply following my reaching the grand old age of 70. It seems that if it is a straight forward application, (as Geoff
s was) the licence comes through reasonably quickly, but as soon as you declare a medical or sight problem it takes ages and multiple form filling in. I got very fed up with all this as they ask the same questions over and over again. However, I had to go to Specsavers last week, for the test I knew I`d have to do right back at the start of all this and now I am hoping that will be it and the licence will arrive.
We ended the month with a new experience for us when we were invited (along with the rest of our church congregation) to attend the ordination of an Anglican priest, who has been very active in one of the missions our church is involved in. It was very interesting to be there and watch her becoming ordained and anointed by the Bishop of Carlisle. There was also a super lunch provided afterwards too
I am awaiting my second appointment to get the results of my annual medical review, which I suppose will not be good, as always. I didnt have a very good experience with the first appointment where the health care assistant took the blood sample etc. I really wonder just what they teach these nurses and health care assistants these days…certainly not good interpersonal skills. I was so angry by the time I left the clinic my BP must have been off the scale! I was very close to making an official complaint. I know I
m not an easy patient but her manner was awful! Hopefully this second visit will be better…we will see!
So, June has departed…is it me or is this year passing us by very quickly? Our calendar for July is beginning to fill up already and we have a couple of very exciting trips planned for the rest of the summer…that is if summer does eventually arrive! - so we could be very busy again. Also, now I have my next eye clinic appointment date, we will be booking our flights to France ready for September and keeping our fingers crossed that Easyjet keep on flying!
I do have one last thing to say though. The stats on my Wordpress site were very poor last months. The number of views and how many people read it (none!) after the day it was posted, were odd, and I don`t believe them at all. Please, if any of you have a problem accessing the site this month will you let me know. Until the end of July…
…A bientot mes amis