london1952 | Entries tagged with yorkshire

At the weekend I was up in Yorkshire on one of my scheduled visits to spend time with my mother. She was in good form though a little tired on the Saturday, as she'd had a poor night of sleep on Friday, but we still got out-and-about. ..And I only "snapped" once during the whole time there LOL.

When I arrived on Friday the car-hire company had decided to "up-grade" me, and so I ended up driving this car. My sister christened me "boy-racer" for the duration, and it was very easy to locate in a car-park !! On returning it on Monday I made everyone in the office laugh by saying that I was sure people would probably expect the car to be first off at traffic-lights etc so would be shocked to see me and my mother taking it all at a stately pace ! Franco (

london1967) would say it's a "mid-life crisis car" !!

We surprised my sister by calling in at the cafe she runs in Leeds city centre, the church it's "attached" to I will post about in due course, on our way to what has turned into obligatory visit for a "Pensioner's Special" at Murgatroyd's.
Large Haddock, chips and mushy peas is my new favourite main course, I never have any room left for the included dessert LOL

On Saturday we drove to the outskirts of Harrogate to visit a fairly new venture called Fodder. My sister took my mother a couple of weeks ago to see what it was like.... she's been raving about it ever since..... It's rather like an indoors Farmer's Market..... reminded me of San Francisco's Ferry Building market slightly... They also have a cafe/restaurant .... the food was very good, service excellent too...

My "Farmer's Lunch".............

The interior........

The weather forecast was for snow on Sunday/Monday, which we got, but luckily not enough to cause any problems coming home to the lovely Franco !

.....and "who ate all the pies?" LOL, our newest garden visitor......

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: home - icebox !
Current Music: radio

Well, it always is when Franco is away (he's in Torino on a family visit) and the weather has perfectly matched the mood, grey, gloomy and wet. Plus, when I rang my mother yesterday it transpired she'd gone to bed feeling dizzy and "not right", nothing immediately serious, but it is worrying, and she'd appeared to pick up last weekend and in the week. Sadly, apart from "the boys" who live next-door to her, most of her friends have already died or are having health problems themselves, so there's not much "up-beat" which doesn't help. I must say "the boys" are rather marvellous and do help out quite a bit...and when she is well she dog-sits for them and feeds the fish when they are away.

In the early stages of last week it seemed it was going to be sunny on Saturday and I planned to have a gardening day..... but the forecast changed, and then it poured with rain most of Friday, so it didn't look promising at all. But I did venture out in the afternoon and got some re-planting in the front garden, though it turned into a bit of a mud-bath ! I hoped it would dry out a bit so I could go and tidy up a bit today, but it rained most of the night and most of today........... well, good for the plants that got moved I suppose.

The rest of the weekend seems to have consisted of taking stock and "sorting out" all our floral greetings cards... it has taken quite a few hours, but is mostly done now... and we should be ready for the Christmas/Craft Fairs we have booked during the next month or so.

On Friday I was one of a very select number of volunteers from the Garden Museum to enjoy a most fascinating tour of the Poster Collection at the London Transport Museum Depot. We spent most of the time in the Archive, and I could have quite happily stayed there all day. The posters span 149 years, there is a big 150 years celebration next year, and it was amazing to find out about so many aspects of the artwork chosen and see the historical importance and progression through the years of using art......... thoroughly recommended if you ever get the chance to visit.

At least last weekend "Up North" went well, and I did manage to get my mother out-and-about which gave her a bit of a lift. In recent years, since I've been doing the driving and we've not been going to far-afield, we've taken the opportunity to go along country roads we've never found or been down before, it's really surprising how many there are quite locally.

On Saturday we visited a large garden centre with almost everything there including a restaurant and wheelchairs on loan. We left without a single plant (first time ever I think) but with 3 shirts and a scarf for me, and a cat collar for mother, well for Henry her cat !! and having had lunch.

Then we managed to find a road we'd never been on, and part way along we crossed a bridge spanning Lindley Wood Reservoir (built 1869-1876) at a narrow point, the views were lovely in all directions, so much so I had park and walk back to the bridge to take some photos.

After that we passed Menwith Hill, which I've posted about before, but on a road much closer (never been that close)... just as I got the camera out the sun went off the "ball", but as cameras were watching from all over the place, so I took a quick one...it still looks pretty impressive...

On Sunday we met up with my sister and her two boys for lunch at the Abbey Tea Rooms near Bolton Abbey......and my mother showed off her new "big buttons" mobile phone.

Now I'm looking forward to the wonderful

london1967 coming home tomorrow evening............ sigh....................

Current Mood: listless
Current Location: home alone
Current Music: radio

that I omitted to add to my post yesterday.........

Current Location: home

I've just returned from one of my regular trips "Up-North" to visit my mother, we had a good time and I was (thankfully) able to drive a rental car as usual. I know I was a bit naughty, as the post-cataract info booklet says not to drive until given the all-clear at the hospital check-up two weeks after, but my eye seemed perfectly fine and I had no problem with vision. I did wear "shades" all the time so people probably thought I was either Italian, or a moron !! LOL Considering the awful weather we've been having, we were lucky and escaped any rain on Saturday and Sunday, and even saw the sun every so often. And mother was in good form.

My mother was concerned about me driving too far so we decided on a run of not too far to the visitor's centre at Fountains Abbey near Ripon. We've been a number of times before as it has plenty of disabled parking, loos, a large cafe and a gift shop - it's run by the National Trust, so we can kill a number of birds with one stone !! It was rather overcast, but the rain stayed away. The Abbey ruins are the largest monastic ruins in the country, and well worth a visit, it's set in wonderful valley with a river, meadows and wood, and is very atmospheric. From the visitors centre courtyard the top of a still-intact tower can be seen quite clearly as we are on raised ground.

On our way back home we spotted a little Tea Shop that we've passed before though we were always too late or had had tea elsewhere. Being earlier than usual we were able to get a table and have a pot of tea and a slice of strawberry and nectarine gateau each.... I had to take a photo to remind me to try and make something similar... it was lovely !

On Sunday my mother navigated another run out in the countryside which would lead us to a pub she had spotted for a traditional roast lunch. My sister had taken her on the route a couple of weeks ago, the road was unfamiliar, a lot of it being one-track, but the scenery was fantastic and really had the "Yorkshire Dales" look..... we both enjoyed it immensely. The only hiccup was that said pub was nowhere to be found where mother thought she'd seen it so we gave up the search and made for home...however, after a number of miles we found it.... my mother was rather pleased she had not "imagined" it ! We called in for lunch - it was excellent ! (and may well be on the list of places to go when Franco (

london1967 next makes it for the weekend)

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding...... at the Roe Buck

Mother's cat, Henry, was waiting for us when we got back, looking none too pleased to be kept waiting.........

On arrival back home in Victor Road I bumped into a neighbour who said our little front garden was looking "pretty as a picture", so as I had my camera with me I thought I'd take a snap ! The hydrangeas and lavender certainly like the wet weather ! .....and the sweet peas in bloom at the moment have an amazingly strong fragrance...these pearl-y-pink ones are so pretty.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: home
Current Music: gaydar radio

Well, my weekend in Yorkshire, visiting my mother in Leeds, went very well, though I am thrilled to be back home in the arms of my lovely Franco (

london1967 ) now.

On Friday the train journey went very well and we arrived a few minutes early in Leeds, giving me time to nip into M&S and buy some flowers (gladioli) before meeting up with the car-hire guy who was coming to collect me (the office is a little out of the city centre, so they have a great service of collecting/dropping-off by prior arrangement). It's become a bit of a tradition for my mum and I to then drive over to Murgatroyds fish & chip restaurant on the outsirst of Leeds, and we always have the "pensioners special" (3 course meal) - it's very good, though as no-one has ever questioned my age, I should be a little perturbed! LOL

On Saturday we drove through the countryside to the Burnby Hall Gardens near York, they are home to the national collection of hardy waterlilies, as well as very pretty gardens. It's probably well over 10 years since we last visited, and in that time they have built a car-park, visitors centre, museum, and cafe, as well as opening up some more areas of garden. The weather was lovely too, and with the aid of one of their wheelchairs mother was able to see everything.