Harvest

The blackcurrant harvest has been a good one [not shared with the birds this year]. Here is a kilo of our crop after we have topped and tailed them; it produced a good six jars of jam.

Marbled White

On a walk in the Wolds we were lucky to see some Marbled White butterflies. This was a first for us. They are common only on the chalk of the Wolds and in the south. Very beautiful and, crucially, quite tame allowing us the chance of identifying them. Also saw a Small Heath, drab but new to me.

Trains at Jim Thorpe

This is the heritage railway we went on at Jim Thorpe. It is certainly a long way from the cute steam train narrow gauge lines of Wales - still good though.

Family

Made a trip down to Stratton Audley to collect mother who had been staying at her sister Alison and Geoff's. It was the first time I had seen Geoff since his stroke earlier in the year. He was in good form and seems really well considering what he has gone through. The photo is of Geoff and Rowan by the pond in Stratton.

Sun Oil

This photo is of Royce and colleagues when he worked in PR at Sun Oil in the 60s. One black man, two women – not the most diverse workforce to find yourself in.

Photos

We found plenty of photos while we were clearing out the house in the States. This one is of Danielle with her proud parents. I imagine Royce is saying “take it quick, she's about to start”.

First Piercing

Rowan decided she wanted her ear's pierced. This was fine by us. Danielle took her to the dreaded Claires Unnecessaries [a terrible chain know only to parents of young girls] and she emerged pain free with two nice gold studs.

Bumper Deal

In the Jim Thorpe town museum we found this collection of alternative bumper stickers for sale. We liked them.

Jim Thorpe

We stayed at the town of Jim Thorpe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe,_Pennsylvania which we chanced upon and was fantastic; listed in the “10 coolest small towns in America”. It has, a disused rail line to walk on, a preserved railway to ride on, a great restaurant to eat in – Moya, and a lot of history [Molly Maguires, Conan Doyle's Valley of Fear]. The whole renaming of the town from Mau Chunk to Jim Thorpe is a bizarre tale of opportunism that is not finished yet. The hotel was a great old fashioned place on main street, complete with grumpy waitresses – perfect.

The AT

Milo is recovered. He is strangely wary of going near the bee hive though.

We took a trip out to the Appalachians for a couple of nights. I had always wanted to see the Appalachian Trail, which we duly did. Talk was of it being a lot of woods, and not many views; the tiny bit I walked lived up to the publicity. Rowan and Danielle, having read Bill Bryson on Bears in the woods, decided to let me go on my own.

Milo fought the bees ...

… and the bees won. We extracted 23kilos of honey yesterday, which was a bumper crop [with more to follow] and good news. The bad news was that Milo decided to try and eat as many bees as he could whilst Danielle and Rowan were bringing in the honey frames. The bees did not think a lot of this and decided to fight back, or more literally, to sting back. The result was a very very sorry Milo with 8 stings and a lot of illness. We thought he might actually be on his way out to the great bee-hive in the sky, but he seems to have pulled through.

We had to hire a car in the States. We got what they call a "mini-van" but what I would call a truck. Here it is, with Danielle distancing herself from it.

Danielle also caught up with a friend from High School who she had not seen for 20 odd years. Debbie came over from New York with her friend Philip who is an artist http://www.philsouthernart.com/gallery11.htm his paintings look really good on-line. We met them off the train at Trenton [motto "Trenton makes, the world takes"] New Jersey.

The photo is another from verdant Bryn Gwelled.

Rev Sheila

Here are Rowan and Danielle with Aunt Sheila. On the Sunday we went to Aunt Sheila's church where she is the Minister. It was really good. The music is provided by a bloke who has played with Stevie Wonder, and you can tell ... Church of England it was not.

Catfish

Whilst in the States we caught up with some friends of Danielle's from high school [Tim and family] who we had last seen in St Andrews Scotland when they were on holiday in the UK. They cooked us a great meal of Catfish and veg on the grill in the garden - so good to have real food. Jameson may be rowing at Henley next year so we could see them again.

Bear alert

You see deer and rabbits and squirrels on a daily basis in BG. Snakes are less welcome, and the Bear that was sighted last year sounds good when you are 5000 miles away, less so when you are walking in the woods. The red Cardinal birds are another highlight of the place. In high summer it really does feel like a jungle...

US 1

To the States to try and start sorting out Danielle's fathers affairs. It is one year since he died. There is a lot to do. Royce's sister Aunt Sheila lives in the house in Brynn Gweled http://www.bryngweled.org/index2.html which is always a pleasure to visit. This photo is of the pond. Last time I saw it was Christmas 2008 when it was frozen solid.

Holiday 1978

The next year Sue and I hitched down to Le Puy in the Massif Central and walked on the pilgrims trail, the Chemin St Jacques from Le Puy to Moissac http://www.gr-infos.com/st-james-of-compostela.htm for three weeks. It was a remote and beautiful place to walk. I recently spoke to some friends who had done the same walk last year, and it sounded like not a lot has changed in the last 32 years. Back then I did not take a camera "I shall record all the images I need in my head..." oh well, I grew out of that eventually.

The path was a French GR long distance footpath, and it sowed the seed for later ideas of long distance walking that came my way.

Holiday 1977

For 1977 girlfriend Sue and I decided to hitch around Europe. We were going to drive but I read an article by Tony Parsons in NME, and had been given a copy of the Hitchikers guide to Europe on my travels the year before ... so hitching it was.

It was a great experience encompassing Spain, Norway, Austria and all points in between. Fantastic kindness from people, a knife wielding psychopath in his flat in Munich, a rock and roll fan in affluent Sweeden, just a great great experience. We never took any public transport, it was all hitching or walking. On the boat back to England our ride was an album cover designer for Island records. "Here, you'll remember this for the rest of your life" he said as he chucked us both a KitKat at a petrol station on our return to English soil; and, you know what, I have.

The Car

Another photo of the car that went around Europe with me in 1976. The paint job and illustrations were all my own work [as you probably tell all too well.] The illustrations include Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and, I think, Fred Bassett. On return from the epic trip it finally expired six months later.

Seebohm

Danielle and I went to a reception at the Treasurer's House http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-treasurershouseyork by the Rowntree Society. They have been instrumental in getting the BBC to do two films on Seebohm Rowntree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Seebohm_Rowntree which go out next month. They showed a clip, which looked really good. It was good to catch up with lots of people we knew. This is the view from the garden where we were.

Boot

Rowan had to make a shoe in Design & Technology at school. I think the idea was to do a dainty little high heeled shoe, so I was pleased when she went for a walking boot made out of Ordnance Survey maps - very impressive.

Holiday 1976

After the Torquay debacle 1976 saw me setting off in my old beat-up VW Beetle with cousin Gill and her friend Jude. I am in the hat, Gill is peeping out from behind Jude. I was due to go with friend Alistair but he cried off so Gill and Jude travelled with me for 3 weeks before starting their own inter-rail journey. We drove down through France, and Franco's Spain [with scary Guarda Civil] to the Algarve in Portugal where we stayed at a villa that belonged to some friends of my parents. Next we drove back up to France where we parted as planned. I drove on alone, hung out at Antibes with some French guys, then met up with Martyn from England. Together we drove through Italy to Florence and Venice before heading up to Austria where we parted. I then made my way up through Switzerland, Germany and Belgium before heading back home. It was a great start to travelling.

An example of how youth thinks: my father suggested before I went that “you just check you know how to change a tyre on the car”. This was an entirely sensible suggestion – which I ignored. Luckily I had no punctures. The brakes failed though, so I had to negotiate a couple of Alpine passes on the handbrake; all part of the fun.

Green

Friend Karen stayed over last week, en route to another course at the University.

Another photo from the bridleway ride.

Idyll

This is from the bridleway ride. It is in the middle of nowhere, where the limestone meets the millstone grit, where the Vale of York gives way to the Pennines, where a lovely stream runs strong.

Off road

When the weather is like this, hot and dry, there is nothing better than taking the mountain bike out onto the bridleways and carving out a route. I took this route which encompassed fields and woodland, Roman roads, old railway lines; just fantastic.