Louise in Yorkshire

 When we set off for Northumberland earlier this year I decided that, rather than endure paltry sandwiches at a random services, we’d stop off at the town of Guisborough for coffee and cake en route to compliment the fresh sandwiches I’d packed for the journey. We weren’t there long that day, but we were there long enough to decided it warranted a return visit.  Thelma enjoying the sunshine at Guisborough priory With good weather forecast last Saturday I decided we’d take a drive up there. It’s just over an hour away from here at the top of the Moors near Rosebury Topping (isn’t that the best name for a hill? It always makes me think of dessert). What I hadn’t realised until I ran a quick google search was that Guisborough is also home to a 12th century Franciscan priory ruin. So we decided to pay that a visit too.  Odd socks cafe and laundrette St. Nicholas Church next to the priory We parked up at the little car park near the priory, and given we arrived at lunchtime we...

 Millington is a quaint village in the Yorkshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). A few months back I volunteered to take part in a 10 mile walk there, organised by work to raise money for Guide Dogs. I used to do a lot of hiking, although I’m terribly out of practice now, as my legs testified to after the walk. Last Friday it was time to do the walk. I met a group of colleagues bright and early and we were lead out on the circular walk by guides from Yorkie Talkies. There was a certain joy in not logging on to sit at my desk on a Friday morning and instead spending the day walking and getting to know people I work with better. There were hills, and it was demanding but the views were worth it. There’s not really a lot to write about a hike other than how restorative it can feel just being out in nature, walking. It took around 4 hours, then we finished up in the cafe with tea and cake. I can’t lie, I was aching that night and so stiff, but what a joyful experience ...

Little miss has been back at school over a week now, and the rhythm of Autumn, the return to routine, cooler evenings and rain showers (who would ever think we'd be glad to see the return of the rain?) are well and truly setting in. The last blog post brought us up to around mid-August though, and there were still a few weeks between then and now to fill with adventures. Let me give you a whistlestop tour.  I'd booked train tickets to Leeds waaaaay back in June, adamant that if I didn't book them then we wouldn't get there. Typically, I'd managed to book the only day of the summer holidays where it rained pretty much continuously. All wasn't lost, we didn't make it to the Cathedral as we'd originally planned, but we were able to stay mostly dry in the large shopping centres.  I didn't get to see that much if I'm honest, Leeds is quite big and once you get into a shop it seems to steal all of your time. I did manage to pick up the chap's prese...

  A couple of weeks after we were back from Northumberland, the chap and I were off to a one day dance festival at Castle Howard. This is something we like to try to do each year, the difference this year was we had also booked a pitch at the Castle Howard camp site, a couple of miles country walk away from the event.  We arrived mid-afternoon, I poured the rum and colas and left the chap to pitching the tent. It's only a small one so it didn't take long. We were surrounded by envy inducing campervans, and just as I was about to depart for the toilet block to get ready we heard a holler from one of them. It was someone who the chap knows (this happens a lot when we're out and about), so I left him with them while I went off to get ready. He was still there when I got back, so we stayed and had another rum and cola before setting off for the gig.  It wasn't too long a walk, and before long we were in the packed out venue. We decided to make food our first stop, before th...