Latrigg Walk, Keswick

Rob, Brock and I had an enjoyable walk around Latrigg, near Keswick today.

The weather was perfect - warm, still, dry and sunny with some dramatic clouds about.

We passed some models and a photographer taking photographs on a photo shoot, no doubt for some outdoor gear company.

We drive up to the car park near the summit and take a circular walk of about 1.5 miles. There is an easy path to follow, with a few hilly parts to climb, and the views are amazing.

Afterwards, we had lunch in the Chalet Tearoom at Portinscale (dog friendly). There was a market on in Keswick town centre, and we always like to have a browse in the Oxfam and pet food store. I bought some beads, embroidery threads and vintage pinking shears in the former. Booths supermarket was our final port of call, for some top-up groceries. I still haven't got used to the new layout!

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 7 - 8

On Thursday, we headed to Wakefield to visit The Yorkshire Sculpture Park. We spent an hour or so wandering around The Park before having lunch in the visitor centre.

Ai Weiwei, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads
Photographs by Jane Paintin

Sophie Ryder [Hare Sculpture]
Photograph by Jane Paintin

Anthony Caro, Promenade

Zal Ové, Black and Blue: The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness

 Trying to blend in!

Thomas J Price, Network

 

To give some idea of scale...

Mikayel Ohanjanyan, Diario
 

Maker/title not known

After lunch we drove on to the Hepworth Museum.

As well as the exhibition of Hepworth's maquettes, tools and prototypes that Rob and I had seen in March: a few images from that visit below...

... there was an exhibition of Howard Hodgkin's "Painting India", which was excellent. I thought so, anyway, but it was less popular with the other members of the party!

These were three of my favourites. I love the abstracted forms and colour palettes evocative of India.


Watch a YouTube video here to get a taste of the exhibition.

https://youtu.be/LmlfJnqsP_Y

Dinner that evening was courtesy of my parents at The Coconut Lagoon: our second visit there. They have an excellent menu and the food was delicious, and there was plenty of it. The only slight downside was that the service is a bit on the slow side.

Friday came around and it was time to head home.

We stopped off in Grassington where my brother, Philip, kindly bought us lunch in The Retreat Bistro - an excellent egg sandwich on gluten free bread followed by GF chocolate brownie for me. Lovely!

If you have time, the walk down to the river is well worth a detour and there are lots of nice, small shops to explore. I enjoyed a browse in Annie and Betty's Vintage Shop, which also has a tearoom.

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 5 - 6

On Tuesday, Mum and Dad went into York, while Rob and I headed out to Robin Hood's Bay. It was a warm and sunny day, so too hot to leave Brock in the car.

We had checked the tide times in advance, so were able to time our walk to take in the whole of the bay and around the picturesque fishing village. Dogs are allowed on the beach at all times of year, and it is popular with fossil hunters as the cliff is continually crumbling - we saw small rock falls occurring as we were walking.

Lunch was taken outside, overlooking the promenade and sea, at the Swell Cafe Bar. We had the ploughman's lunch and mineral water or green tea. It was busy and the service was a little slow, but very friendly and the food was good.

The walk back up to the top car park is extremely steep!

Later that evening we treated my parents to dinner at The Nags Head in Askham Bryan. The food is always superb in there. We all ate far too much, but enjoyed it thoroughly. I had the three egg omelet with cheese and onion, and chunky chips, followed by banana split. Yum!

The next day we went to York and Mum and Dad had a rest day after all of their walking in York the previous day.

We gave Brock a 50 minute walk along by the river, before he had a 'little rest' in the car (we parked in the Piccadilly multi-story car park: a 'bargain' at £7.50 for three hours). We looked around The Shambles, bought some food for dinner in M&S and had lunch in Molly's Tearoom in The Antique Centre. I had a very good egg mayonnaise sandwich on gluten free bread and Rob had a veggie breakfast of eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast and baked beans. Recommended! The antiques were interesting to browse, too: numerous cabinets of well grouped and laid out treasures. I was very tempted by some red and blue faceted, glass jewellery, but managed to resist.

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 3 - 4

Rob and I went to Sutton Bank to walk Brock on Sunday, while Mum and Dad decided to explore the village at Askham Bryan.

The views range over the Vale of Mowbray and the Vale of York. There is a visitor centre, cafe and bike hire available near the car park.

Afterwards we drove to nearby Thirsk, where we had lunch in The Lord Nelson pub, and bought delicious yellow plums from an excellent greengrocers, and some food for dinner. The pub did not have any vegetarian choices on the menu, but the helpful landlady arranged for a plate of 'Sunday Lunch' vegetables with vegetarian gravy for both, and a Yorkshire Pudding for Rob. The bar area is dog-friendly.

On Monday we took my parents to Harrogate, parking in the multi-story car park next to the green - an ideal area to walk Brock. We had a look around the shops, buying postcards and food for dinner from M&S, and had a very good coffee and cake in the independent Starling Coffee Shop. Mum and Dad treated us to lunch in Wagamama's. The restaurant now has a separate gluten free menu, which made ordering much easier for me. We all enjoyed our food, which was brimming with fresh vegetables, spices and flavour - Thai fusion-style - with noodles or rice. Mum and Rob had the fresh juices, which were delicious. It was fairly quiet and we had a window seat, so it was a relaxing atmosphere with a good view of the busy street.

We drove on to Knaresborough next, parking up near the castle. The view is quite breathtaking with the Victorian viaduct, River Nidd and black and white checked building housing Mother Shipton's Cave ("England's oldest visitor attraction" - opened in 1630!).

 

After a look around the town and an ice cream, it was a leisurely drive back to Askham Bryan to eat our MandS curries with rice, and desserts for dinner! 

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 1 - 2

We booked a week at Blacksmith's Cottage in Askham Bryan, which is a convenient base from which to explore Yorkshire.

 

 Blacksmith's Cottage and part of the garden.

Our first stop on the journey was at the Llama Karma Kafe for coffee!

Later in the journey, we stopped at Barnard Castle and had lunch at Penny's Tearoom (good food and dog-friendly). Rob had the veggie breakfast and I had a jacket potato with cheese and beans. There are lots of nice, independent shops to explore, and the castle, of course.

The first afternoon and evening were spent settling in at the cottage. My parents had come along to share the cottage on this occasion (our third or fourth visit). The cottage has three bedrooms, and a new, comfortable sofa, arm chairs, and new dining table and chairs. The beds are comfortable and the quiet village location is nice, yet very close to York. The shower is good, and there is now a huge flat screen tv for evening entertainment. There is a large, fenced garden, so Brock was able to stretch his legs whenever he wanted, not to mention the pleasant walks around Askham Bryan. So, in short, the cottage has all that we need for our accommodation.

On the second day, we took my parents to Burnby Hall Gardens and Museum in Pocklington, where there was an opera singer performing outside in the gardens, as an added bonus. Rob and I walked Brock by the Pocklington Canal. There is a Society working to clear the canal, and it would be lovely to see boats along the length of it again. At the moment, the section we walked, was quite choked with reeds and other plants, but the other end is navigable.

 One of the numerous locks - this one very overgrown.

 Brock enjoying the walk - lots of other dogs to meet and greet along the way.

 Enormous bracket fungus - as large as a serving platter.

Near the start/end of the walk for us, at Canal Head.

A glider passed overhead as we were walking.

Pocklington was rather a nightmare to park in - extremely busy. Of the three cafes we tried to get lunch in - the best one was full on the two attempts we made to enter, and two others that we saw were not tempting due to lack of customer service and/or lack of table clearing. In the end we bought some soup for lunch and 'ploughman's lunch' ingredients for dinner and had a relaxing afternoon at the house instead.

Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate 2017

The Solway Quilters made a trip to the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate on 2 September 2017.

Here are some of the quilts that were exhibited, together with the makers' labels and comments (when I remembered to get photos of them!). Click on any picture to see a larger version.

The exhibition was surprisingly quiet. Nice for those of us looking round, but I expect the organisers and trade stands would have liked more customers.

 

 We were just making a (luckily!) complimentary comment about this large number of beautiful quilts all made by Janet Keenan, when she came up behind us and had a chat about her work. She also teaches in the Merseyside area.

 

 This quilt top (above) was completed in one day!

 Margaret admiring part of the display.

This was one of my very favourite quilts - I love the stylised flowers and the bright Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

This was another favourite: English paper piecing in tiny hexagons set in groups of four. Part of the display by linapatchwork.com, a company that sell templates and/or patterns for the four quilts shown above.

 I liked this almost abstract landscape art quilt. It reminded me of Philip Hughes' sketches and art work. Very subtle use of colour and mark making.

There was a very good café with a lovely view of the surrounding countryside, allowing you to sit and take a break when you'd had enough of wandering round. There were quite a number of trade stands selling all sorts of textiles, tools, threads, yarns, patterns, templates, sewing machines, trims and notions. I bought some perle cotton threads with a view to using them in wool appliqué, and some woven, shot cottons in autumnal shades to add to my fabric store, and - bargain of the day - a small roll of bobbly black trim for 50p! An inspiring day out - my only regret was that Oliver Twists weren't there. I was hoping to buy some more embroidery threads and felt from them.