Our Yorkshire Visit to John and Hannah's

On Saturday 23rd August, I drove with the kids up to Otley in Yorkshire to visit John and Hannah in their newish home. I had been really worried about doing the drive, as I've hardly ever done any motorway driving at all. It turned out fine though, and I was way more confident than I thought I'd be, and even enjoyed it.
John and Hannah's house is in a beautiful location! It overlooks such gorgeous scenery. We took a walk into town, and bought some baguettes for lunch. This is John's walk to work! (Hannah kindly lent me her camera for the visit)Having lunch and feeding ducksJohn and Hannah have done tonnes of big stuctural work on their house - it's looking really great - just a bit of decorating to do now, ha ha!!

In the afternoon, we went to Harrogate, for John to have an eye appointment. I've never been before, and it is wonderful! We walked into the town through the park, and I had a nice time looking in Cath Kidston's, and Lucy was happy in a shop which sold half price Yankee Candles, picking out some for her birthday.At bedtime, Harry and I had the back bedroom for ourselves, and Lucy, Jack and Tom all camped in the front room. We were pretty comfy!

Sunday 22nd August.

We went to John and Hannah's branch for church (I managed to lose Hannah who I was following in the car on the way there - John had to come out and drive around to find us!)

Harry was pretty grotty at church.

After church I was tired out, and I went for a nap with Harry. When I woke up (about 3 hours later), Harry was gone, and there was a map left on the stairs - John had taken the kids to go and play in a little stream near the back of his house. They had made a damn, were totally filthy, Harry was in only his underpants, and they were all having a wonderful time!

On Monday 24th August, the kids and I drove with Hannah to Leeds for an appointment she had, then we went round Ikea. The highlight of this for Harry was buying straws (!)
I got the kids doing 'straw art' in the afternoon. In the evening we all went for a walk up the Chevin. We could see John and Hannah's house from the hillside. It is such lovely scenery.

Me and the kids at the very top of the Chevin.

My brother John, and his wife Hannah.
Back home after for hot chocolate and crumpets!

On Tuesday 25th August, Hannah, the kids and I drove to Ilkley, to have a little hike on the moor. We went up to the Bath House, and that was kind of going to be it, but the kids all headed off along a path, and Hannah and I just kept following them, but we ended up going for ages without catching them up. After yelling my head off and hoping they'd hear, they did stop and we caught up with them. We'd gone so far by then, we thought we'd carry on a bit more to see another view, and then we saw the chimneys of a restaurant that we'd thought beforehand we might drive to after the hike.
(And yes, that is Jack with a Chocolate Wheeto up his nose) I loved the purple heather everywhere.

The restaurant (the Cow and Calf - named after the nearby rock formations) that we eventually made it to for lunch. It looked a lot closer than it really was, when we first spotted it and decided to go there! After lunch we then had to hike the whole way back again... the kids were brilliant though, especially Harry, considering he size of his legs.

When we'd driven back to John and Hannah's after, I misjudged driving into their driveway, and managed to hit and break off their gate post totally, and scratch up the side of the car!!

In the evening when John got in from work, (after showing him his gate post!) he, I and the kids drove to Bolton Abbey, and went over the steeping stones across the river. It is just so gorgeous there!! We had taken swimming stuff, and got changed on the bank, and had a nice play in the river. The water was pretty freezing!

(I'm not sure where Harry thought he was heading in this picture...)

Lucy and I swimming. Aren't the stepping stones brilliant?!

The next morning, the kids and I drove home. We got a bit lost on the way and ended up in Nottingham, so we visited mum for an hour or so (she was in her charity shop, so we called in there to surprise her and walk home with her), then carried on home.

Only 2 pictures today! I am getting more moderate already! I love these black and whites of Harry and Tom. They really remind me of them. Actually I didn't take many pictures because we spent all day at Tesco/the cinema/a picnic & Stake activity in Northampton. It was like a treasure hunt round the town centre - our family came 2nd (inspite of a wasp stinging Scott's ear), though only out of 5!
The Photoshop CD I bought was waiting for me when I got in, though I couldn't figure Photoshop out at all. I'll have to wait till the book comes now, which I just had to buy on it...

I have done other stuff as well as take pictures today, honestly.
The boys helped me cook some playdough, and the kids have had a good old play with it. Lucy's wondrous creations...

Harry explaining about the snail he made

Pictures with my new camera

I know I haven't put anything about my and the kids' visit to Yorkshire yet, but I've been too busy playing with my new camera! I've played around with some of the pictures (though wait till I get my hands on Photoshop!). We have just got back from blackberry picking. We found Berry Heaven... (Blackberry and apple crumble for pudding)

My little workers:

I didn't know if the camera would be any good close up, but you can even see the hairs on the spiders legs The dining room

Overall I am pretty happy with the camera. I still need to learn an awful lot though.

I just told Scott about my new camera. He was in a fish and chip shop in Porthmadog with all the youth, so couldn't do too much reacting. (Not that he would anyway - he's lovely)

I just bought a new DSLR camera! Not that it will arrive till we get back next week. No doubt I will take ridiculously far too many pictures with it! Here it is:

Well I did get a new camera and had it all of 24 hours - but returned it to the shop again today. It just wasn't as good as my old one. Hmmm. So do I go for the digital SLR this time?

I'm on my own tonight. Scott will be driving to Snowdon as we speak - he is climbing it tomorrow with the Youth from church, and going to Preston Temple after, while he is that direction.
Lucy and I peeled and prepared TONNES of apples off our tree today, and the kids spent ages playing with Lego. I am just about unpacked now, all ready to pack again tomorrow - I am taking the kids to stay with John and Hannah in Yorkshire for a bit.

Conversation at bedtime tonight:
Me: Harry, I don't want you to keep blowing raspberries anymore.
Harry (3): The feet keep making me do it.
M: What feet!?
H: These feet (touches his feet). They can talk you know.
M: Can they.
H: They can't do raspberries. They tell me to do raspberries.
M: Right. Can you tell your feet not to tell you to do raspberries any more please.

The path to the bins

Fed up of our holiday photos yet? Don't worry, this is the last one (taken by Dad) and there will be no more photos for a while due to no camera...
This is the path we go down to get to the communal bins (Harry sometimes gets upset when there are bits of manure from Marcel's cows on it!)
We travelled to le Havre on Saturday and stayed in a hotel there, after stopping off in Bayeux to see the tapestry - it's pretty cool and very long. The Cathedral there is gorgeous too. After that we had a picnic tea on the sea front at Arromanches (sp?) The buildings there were fantastic and I nearly cried with not having a camera. Then yesterday, we drove the 3 or so hours to Calais, got the ferry (where Harry made friends with a man sitting near us and told him about every one of his 'Cars' cars) and then drove home. Bye bye France, we miss you...

14th Aug

Dad made the kids these bows and arrows from string and wood from the trees round about. They love them and have bought them home!

Lazy days at home

In the last week of the holiday, we spent a couple of lazy days at home - playing round on bikes, going on little walks, reading, the odd bit of painting and cutting the grass. Scott and I even did (most) of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle (the sky bit got boring). These are Dad's pictures.

Yvon's Wood, Loser Land (or something like that) and DISASTER

Scenes from around Yvon's wood which we have permission to go in whenever we want - it is just down the end of the lane from Bel-Air. Dad got up while there was still mist around in the morning and took the top picture - gorgeous. I forgot to bring my map of all the paths in the wood that I have worked on on previous holidays, but Scott helped me measure the length of some of the paths using his GPS watch thing. I want to get a pretty accurate map eventually. Lucy and I took the rest of the pictures when we had gone out to get blackberries. I have discovered that a big handful of blackberries, a chopped banana and a raspberry yogurt go very well together, and dragged kids to go blackberry picking with me down the lane most days after that.I LOVE all the blue hydrangeas that are everywhere in this region. Yvon has planted lots in the wood too.

On 10th August we went to a place further south that sounds something like Loser Land (Loisier or something) Scott's just read all this lot and said it was called something else altogether. Oh well. It was a fantastic place with tonnes of inflatable stuff, go karts, funny bikes, woodland assault course etc. and the best bit was adults could go on everything too! Scott has been semi-seriously drawing up plans for opening up his own one here in England, ever since... Some little girls hung around Scott because he would do massive dives and make them go flying! Beware flying child:

Then something pretty terrible for me happened... MY CAMERA BROKE. I have no camera. I feel very uncomfortable without it - it is basically my memory. I have warned Scott that I will be getting a new (and possibly horrifically expensive) camera ASAP. I see my life in pictures, but maybe it's a good thing to be without a camera for a bit - a reminder to live my life, not just photograph it.