Hot Dog

Thorne and Hatfield moors are off limits to free running dogs until August 1st. This is to protect the very many ground nesting birds on the moors. So for the last week I took the dog for a 6 hour walk on Thorne moors, mapping the paths as we went. This is one of the old canals built by the Dutch engineers in the 19th century to allow for the extraction of peat. That activity ceased at the turn of this century, so the canals are now a useful cooling down facility for hot dogs.

 

Snaith

Saturday Danielle and I walked along the river Aire at Snaith. Interesting walk, passing several trains full of bio-mass going to Drax power station, Layla catching a pheasant, and seeing the lovely Snaith priory across the fields.

Carving at the Carr

Last week I visited Potteric Carr wetlands. No dogs allowed, so Layla stayed with Danielle. I liked this carving that I came across on the reserve.

Dinner Guests

Friday evening we had Ira and Syrgn over for a meal. They came to York in the 90s as refugees from the war in Sarajevo. Really good to meet them, and to share my Bosnian experiences amongst lots of other chat. Great start to the weekend.
 

Korea

Rowan flew from Tokyo to Seoul today for the next leg of her work trip. Here is the route on her plane screen.

Japan

 

Rowan flew out to Tokyo via Hong Kong last weekend for work. She is meeting with various tech companies for the week, then moves on to Seoul and finally Taiwan. Amazing experiences. This shot is of the park where she was having a run.

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.

Music Book Group

 Last week we discussed Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers in our Music Book Group. It is set in York and about Northern Soul, so I was all set for loving it. It was terrible; one of the worst books I've read for a while. So there you go. On the plus side I did get to play a couple of great Northern Soul tracks to people who had no idea what it was.

Back to Madeira for the photo, stacks on the northern coast of the island.

Stealth

 Not sure about this one. Stealth. Taken on Hatfield Moors a few weeks back.

Monday Monday

Friend Emma was 70 on Monday, we went round for a birthday meal with other local friends. A really nice evening, involving a quiz and everything. A great way to start the week.

In the day I introduced friend Gail to Hatfield Moors: she was impressed. This photo is of a mysterious avenue of trees with a Layla posing for me.

Flowers

Birthday flowers from Emilie to Danielle.

 

Band Meal

 We had a band and partners meal at an Indian in York last night. A good time had by all.