Latest influence...have been watchin too much of Jimmy Doherty's farming heroes!

Walks in the moors and dales have been characterised by animal spotting since I have been watching the very tasty Jimmy Doherty's farming heroes....

ME in a private London Garden!!...drinking champagne!!... and eating strawberries...unbelievable!

the Happy couple!

the gorgeous garden- surrounded by large cream Georgian townhouses

Dennis, Gill, Sam, Robbie, and little Lorry!

look at those beauties drinking only what they deserve!!..

ahh yes the distinctive underground sign!

Cath and Christian had the perfect day for their central London wedding...perfect blue sky all day....enough for us to enjoy their private London Garden which straddles Marylebone Rd and has its own underpass! Sipping champagne in the afternoon sun and indulging in fresh strawberries thick double cream. A day in heaven!

Take a left at the Rock Inn

That was the instructions of the day as I headed down to Devon for a Morgan Street Reunion. Unfortunately Debs, Allison, Robbie Bobbie Graham couldn't make the distance, (and of course rememberances to Frank-the Ford Falcon who is no longer with us.) Soo...... a small reunion of 2- but who could forget the times in the Hill working out of a hospital shaped like a ship in the middle of a desert!! Sadly that too has been demolished and so all thats left are the memories! Good to see Ed Lou, Sudip and Jane and there multiples.! They've been busy in the 10 years since I have seen them!

Grow ya own why don't ya!

oohhh a little bumper harvest of little bumps!!

First time growing my own pots.. ohh and what a reward!! and they taste good too!!!Couldn't believe how white and clean they came out. These haven't even been washed!! Little nuggets of starch!

Erica would be proud.

Scotland-Isle of Arran and dramatic weather

Scottish weather-Great cloud formations making the whole Scotland experience quite dramatic! Look at this cloud dwarfing this wee naive little house as we approach Iona!

Seagull escort the whole way back to the mainland was nice!

What better way to spend a wet day than with a waterfall- Really good falls with a lot of fast water coming down just west of Brodick. Quite impressive actually- this was an off shoot.
Very atmospheric.

Waiting for the ferry to Iona the clouds continued to entertain.
ahhh. You've gotta have a lighthouse!! Passed by the ferry on the way back to Oban.

Scotland- Isle of Mull

Lovely Tobermory!! have travelled up from Glasgow through the ferry terminal to have my first baked potato with haggis topping- how Scottish!! Onto Arran staying in Brodrick in a hotel that everyone else rejected- however when you leave it so late to get a room you suddenly find yourself feeling very thankful for a small room where the floor boards creak and slope and you feel that whole building is made of paper mache, whilst you catch wafts of smells reminiscent of last summers sweat- !! on a good note they did serve surprisingly good food!! Laps around the island taking in friendly local hitchhikers, waterfalls and Robert the Bruce's cave- catching moments of dry weather where you can. Lochranza hostel for a night before moving onto Oban- for a Friday night out experience in a Scottsih town before depraitng on the Early morning ferry to Mull and up to Lovely Tobermory.
Day trip round to the ferry to Iona- St Columbus's retreat for writing his lifetime work-...only the Book of Kells' which won him an award of sainthood and remembrance immemorial- not bad!- 'Reeally' lucky to catch some sun- given the horrendous blob of rain that is sitting over the Western Isles at the moment. St Columbus must have been pleased with me! So pop yourself into Iona book shop and get yourself a copy of 'the Kells!!- some good bedtime reading!' (how disappointing the sign on the wall says Iona Book Shop!!- but you'll just have to trust me!)
fishing boats bobbing on the emerald seas of Iona
St Martins cross- has been standing still since 8oo AD

Life's a game of Twist

A conversation in a Tobermory pub.

You can choose to stick or twist!!

at some point you have to make a decision

you can keep twisting all your life- but your more likely to go bust!

if you choose to stick- you choose to be happy with what you've got-

sure you might not get pontoon but are you going to spend your life twisting for a pontoon you may never get.

of course the alternative is to stick- only to find the next card gave you a pontoon!!

what a bummer mate!

but at least you can console yourself with the freedom of knowing you no longer have to hedge your bets and there be something left at the end.

Great last night in Tobermory in the Macdonnell Arms- some musiician from Bolton with a Dundee accent happy to volunteer his tunes for us all to enjoy in a real pub spirit. Good night!

Summer 08 in the Yorkshire Moors with Fliss

Fliss and Nat's detour via Europe for Nat to sit her exams proved rather beneficial for me- having a mate to head off over the Moors with. What a lunchtime discovery was this!! as always, plans evolved as the day did. Arrived at Lastingham to start our walk only to discover we were actually quite hungry. Nothing like a small snack of 3 'small' hand made pies each to load us before walking the circuit from Lastingham to Hutton Le Hole and back. Extremely good food, I must say! Extremely large 'small' pies too.
Hutton Le hole
Had to do this one on my own- Fliss returned to Wales for some locum walk.



Swainby in the north moors via plague village, which all went horribly wrong- my walk that is, although I am sure the plague wasn't that nice either!!



One to go back to. good forest walk to begin with and i imagine if you pick up the right route its quite rewarding to hit castle and plague village. Failed in my mission..one to do again.

Resi School!! or rather Australia Week!

Ah there he is!! Richo in action contemplating 'How to Undo Time' in a snake bite scenario
Trent Building and the lake-good for a run The Clock tower- never noticed the tilt whilst i was there!

A tuesday arvo at Wollarton Hall- introductions to damsel flies and 'buff bottomed' bumblebee's, finishing with a study in taxidermy. Even managed to read the step by step manual. How to strip and stuff a badger!!! AAHhh it doesn't get more english than that!! Mmmm canteen food!! Managed to revert quite quickly to a student diet...Coffee for the waking..Alcohol for the talking. All in all a balanced diet fit for the purpose!!

Well who would think you could have such a profound time taking your precious annual leave and going on a summer school!! But as Richo would say 'no worries mate!' The whole week felt a collision of chances- that all converged on the one point in space and time- Florence Boot Hall, Nottingham University.

Things seem to go from bad to worse- starting the week with a 2.am bed time, arising the next day- to consider that 'rather late' only to progressively get later and later each evening till sunrise was even possible. Even in my clubbing days- I didn't manage these hours!!

The weather, eerily played its part with long warm balmy summer evenings helping us to extend night into day and with timely showers just to add to the atmosphere. However as the week was drawing to a close we aptly had a torrential downpour on Thursday which certainly reflected the mood as the realisation that things would be drawing to a close. The closing ceremony was the brilliant clash of thunder and lightning at 4.00am on the last night, rounding off with a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon which seemed to act as a summary for the whole week.

I would have to observe that this has been my longest blob entry yet, possibly due to the inordinate amount of interactions and encounters I have had over the past week. Pre-verbal comunicaitons with Richo in a hot sweaty box room with a distinct smell of electrical circuits burning or courtyard/bar conversatations with both Victoria and Siona.

And as for this phenomena well..... closet aussie Richard managed an incredible transformation from arhetypal english gentleman to the archetypal Aussie bloke!!! and metamorphosed into Richo- your all round great aussie battler and mate!! All of us, on really different journeys in life coming together, surrounded by conversations of the mind ( a cerebral way to say lectures in psychology) seemed to create a surreal situation, and has awoken my mind again.

Thanks guys- you have been suitably added to this blog- the collection of all the things in the world I want to remember and cherish always!.

Room with a View

Us looking out on them looking on us. Lovely view from our hotel room of a private Belgium residence.

Now there's a garden I would want to have breakfast in!! gorgeous!! sitting amongst your hedges in the morning sun- would be temptation enough to get me out of bed every day!! its perfect symmetry catching the sun- What a way to start the day- better than a bowl of Kellogg's!

Robbie finds Hobbitville

Lord of the Rings was never far away though!
Look what Robbie managed to find!!


Robbie hard at work- with our hotel having free wireless internet to enable Robbie to continue pinging and questing!!
Strangely even the paving seemed to remind Robbie of the game- he thinks they copied the medieval paving stones from Bruges.

BRUGES is BEAUTIFUL!

The famous gothic clock tower. Finally a bit of blue sky right at the end of the second day.
The main street in the fading evening sun which managed to peep through momentarily. Looks like almost like a nice day- trust me it wasn't!.Just like Venice!!

Managed to get Robbie out of the house and off to Bruge!! What a lovely city.!!

Out n About in Paris

The recently renovated Petit Palais was beautiful and probably one of my most favourite spaces. Robbie seemd to think it was the inspiration for the Maduccio family in the computer game, The Matrix. Had to be done- some time in the Louvre- what a fantastic collection which almost succeeds at recording the incredilbe history of man. Another lovely space is the glass roofed rooms, framed by beautiful stone buildings housing the sculptures. There is something really beautiful about seeing so many scultpures enclsoed within a the stone walls and glass framed roof of the louvre- kind of like an orangery for stone! Love orangeries, love the scultpure section of the Louvre!
A trip out of Paris to Versaille which was quickly averted as the cues and crowds were more like a day out at a rock concert rather than a Royal country retreat. Decided to carry on to Charters to see the Cathedral Notre Dame- 13th Century church, quite apt for Easter Sunday.

A view from the old town on Charters Cathedral- Notre Dame.
Climbed the tower too.