Model Village

I continue to trawl. This shot is of Rowan at the Beckonscot model village which we visited in 2006 when we were staying with my mother in Kirtlington. Very happy days. The amazing thing for me, is not how much Rowan has changed (a little bit I grant) but that she is wearing my hat that I still use today (literally).

Thicket

Just having a look through my photo library to see which ones jump out at me. Usually this is photos I have overlooked or forgotten about. This is "Thicket" taken in New South Wales, Australia in 2018.

Orbital

Book Group last night discussed Orbital, about living on the international space station. Everyone liked it who had read it. 

Early morning on Hatfield Moors

Mapmaker

One of the strange things about Thorne and Hatfield Moors is that they are barely mapped by the Ordnance Survey. Because they were treated as industrial sites until this century, they were just mapped as empty spaces. There are no public footpaths on the moors (a few on the perimeter) with many paths not marked at all. So I have started to create my own map in the space the OS leaves. This is the first draft of Hatfield Moors with paths that I have used and found, and the large number of scrapes and lakes sketched in. Benches, gates, viewing platforms, tables, bridges are all going on as well.

 

Old Friend Rufus

Took the dog to Bishop Wood this week, in the mud and rain. She met Rufus, a similarly robust and sturdy dog; over a year since they last met, but they got straight into having a great play. Rufus' owner and I had a good chat whilst the dogs hurtled through the forest.
 

Party Time

Rowan came up for the weekend so that we could go down to London for Coral's 60th. Very kind of her. The party was great. As usual at this kind of event now, I can't hear anyone, and Danielle struggles to see in the dark. But get onto the dance floor and we are fine. The venue was in Islington and we stayed just round the corner, so all was good. Then when we got home, Rowan had made us some focaccia (the best in the world as it happens). Blimey.

This bad photo is by me of Danielle and her book group friends.

Book Group

Our old book group carries on. 20 years old this week. Here is what I wrote in this very blog after our first meeting in February 2005. 

We had the first meeting of our new book group this week. The membership consist mainly of people who have never been in a book group before [like me] and people who are already in one, but need one that is slightly less taxing / needy than their existing groups [which they will continue to be members of] [like Danielle]. For these reasons Danielle and I call the group the Refugees and Virgins Book Group. In the first meeting we worked out how we would choose books, what sort of books we liked, what we liked to drink with our discussion etc. First book is The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears which we are looking forward to discussing in March.

Same rocks as yesterday, different angle, wave free, monochrome.