Joan and Ted Johnson’s
Web Pages
DIARY
2008
13 – 24 September. We’ve had a
wonderful holiday in the
After leaving Maggie and Alvan near
Chester we went to Helen’s for a couple of nights. We had a walk around Rivington with Helen and
Mike. Then we had a couple of nights on
The Wirral with Sheila and went to visit Kath and Phil in North Wales. Ironically the weather for the last few days
was gorgeous. Below are just a few
photos from the holiday.
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Walking
round Buttermere |
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View towards
Fleetwith Pike |
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Nichol End |
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Walking
round Tarn Hows |
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Back Torver
Common |
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Ashness
Bridge |
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Walking
round Loweswater |
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View from
Latrigg |
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A view from
Pigeon Tower near Rivington Pike |
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Conwy Castle
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29 August. We’ve just
spent a lovely day checking out a walk for the publishers of the
Reader’s Digest book of walks around Britain (1998), which is being
updated. If you get this book in the
future and get lost on a 4½ mile walk from Walesby you’ll know who to
blame! It’s actually a lovely walk and
we sat outside the Rambler’s Church
enjoying the wonderful view as we ate our picnic.
26 August. We spent Bank
Holiday week-end at Keith and Kate’s home, babysitting on the Sunday and having
a day out on the Monday. We went to
Kirklees and had a ride on the steam train.
It’s quite a scenic route and at the end there was a play area, bouncing
castle and balloon artists so good for a family day out. Click
here for a few week-end pictures.
18 August. We now have a
new drive and we’re really pleased with it.
The pots in the garden may be looking a bit tired but the vegetables are
really doing well just now. We’re eating
carrots, parsnips, beans, spinach, tomatoes and apples. Unfortunately there’s not a single plum on
our one tree which for the past two years had been laden, but we’ve started
freezing apples as well as beans.
Keith, Kate, Alice and Danny were here
this last week-end and we had a trip on the train, played in the sandpit, fed
the ducks and went to the pier on the road train. Click
here for one or two pictures.
We went to see Mamma Mia last week and
really enjoyed it. Our senior screen was
packed – showing it in two cinemas for the third week running.
29 July. Have finally posted a few photographs from our family holiday in Ireland.
25 – 27 July. We’ve had a
really brilliant week-end, staying in Knaresborough, with Brian and Janice,
Peter and Pat + Phil and Ros – all friends from University days. 3 years ago we’d had a reunion in Leeds, 40
years after graduation, so this time we decided to go somewhere different. In the event we spent Friday in York and did
a walking tour of the city, went to Harrogate on Saturday and explored the
Valley Gardens and walked to Harlow Carr –
the RHS garden, and then on Sunday we pottered around Knaresborough and
enjoyed the river, the castle area, Henshaw’s
Art and Craft Centre and the unusual “Town Windows.” The latter are paintings on panels that cover
the blocked windows on many of the Georgian buildings. Here are just a few pictures from our week-end.
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One of many
shots in the Valley Gardens |
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Kitchen
Garden at Harlow Carr |
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Meal at
Bella Sicilia |
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Classic view
of Knaresborough |
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Some of the
“Town Windows” in Knaresborough |
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22 July. Yesterday we finally
moved back into our bedroom and now we’re busy trying to get the rest of the
house straight again. We’ve moved things
around so much. I don’t think we’ll
remember where anything is!
Hilary and Pat have been over from
Lincoln for the day. We hadn’t seen them
for quite some time. Meanwhile our
friendly neighbourhood builder is putting up new fencing and will shortly start
on a new drive. It’s all go!!
14 July. We’ve had a few busy days catching up with
things since we came home. St Peter’s Church
was entering the Cleethorpes in Bloom competition and Joan did the altar
flowers. We walked on Wednesday and
yesterday Ted led an 8-mile walk from Walesby for the Wolds Countryside
Service. That went well and it was a
gorgeous day. We’ve also had an area
meeting in Lincoln and Joan’s been to the Witness Service barbeque, when it at
least stayed dry.
Today the fitters have arrived to do our
bedroom so hopefully in a week or so we can get everything tidy and our rooms
back to normal. Now we’re home for a
little while we also hope to catch up with work on the photos. Ted has started labelling the ones we took in
Ireland. There are a few new ones of
Alice and Danny here.
01 July – 08 July. We just had 48
hours at home and then we were back to Keith and Kate’s house to look after
Alice and Daniel again. Keith and Kate
celebrated their 5th Wedding Anniversary (doesn’t time fly) with a
holiday in Valencia so we had the little ones for five days. It was lovely to have so much time with the
grandchildren. Unfortunately the weather
at the week-end wasn’t good but we still took them out – to a farm on the
Saturday and for a ride on a steam train on the Sunday.
18 - 29 June. We’ve had a
family holiday in Ireland. We all met up
in Liverpool and we stayed with Helen and Mike for a night, meeting Keith,
Kate, Alice and Daniel for a meal in the evening, then we all arrived together
at the Gladstone Dock for our ferry crossing to Dublin. This was really enjoyable – even though it’s
now mainly freight. We had two meals on
board and in between could wander round both inside and on the deck. It was nice and calm and the children seemed
to enjoy it.
We had two nights in Dublin. We all did our own thing here. Keith and Kate took the children to the zoo,
Helen and Mike did a History Walk and Joan and Ted went on the open topped bus
and also wandered round Trinity College and St Stephen’s Green. We saw The Book of Kells – very
impressive.
We drove to Killorglin in Kerry for a
week in a cottage. We saw all of The
Ring of Kerry including the Skellig Ring, visited Dingle, where we did the
dolphin trip, and Tralee. We particularly enjoyed Killarney’s Lakes and
Derrynane House. We returned via Dun
Laoghaire, staying at the Bewleys Hotel in Leopardstown for a night. We had a look at the racecourse. We returned to Holyhead on the fast ferry,
only disappointed that we couldn’t be outside to wander round. It was great to have all the family together,
though disappointing that it wasn’t beach weather for the children. Ireland was colourful, wet (most of the
time), very green, often frustrating, mostly very friendly (one or two
exceptions) but above all beautiful. Click here for a few of our photographs.
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14 June. Ted’s brother Barry is 60. We joined the family for the birthday
celebrations at Barry and Pat’s home near Lincoln. There had been really heavy showers in the
morning and just as we arrived, but in the end we were able to be outside for
most of the day. |
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07 June. 22 of us set
out from Scartho on the outskirts of Grimsby, to walk the 25 mile Silver Lincs
Way. A few of us had completed this 2
years ago. Some detoured to Ludborough, so
walking around 14 miles but 16 of us made it in the end to Louth. It seemed harder than 2 years ago – maybe
because it was wet and there was a lot of long, wet grass plus fields of rape
to negotiate – or maybe it’s just that we’re two years older! Whatever, we were a bit slower than the
previous time but we finished in less than ten hours and still made the same
bus back to Grimsby.
04 June. Our Wednesday
walking group has been on a coach trip to Ilkley. Ted led a 10 mile walk and there was also a 7
miler and some people did their own thing.
We had such a gorgeous day and Ted’s walk was lovely! I’ve put some photos on the RA website. In between times Ted’s finished decorating
one bedroom and we have been shifting furniture around so we’ve not had much
spare time.
01 June. Ted’s festival
walk on Friday was a great success. 59
people turned out, including six youngsters, maybe encouraged by the promise of
chocolate tasting at Special
Editions Chocolates, towards the end of the walk. The walk was a 10 mile one from Willingham
Woods and the chocolate shop is just nearby.
They had laid tables outside for us and provided welcome chilled water
and flasks of hot chocolate as well as the numerous samples for tasting.
Today was Joan’s 7 mile walk from
Caistor. This was on the last day of the
walking festival and there were 38 walkers.
The Evening Telegraph covered the event and took lots of photos. Afterwards several of us went to Hall Farm in
Stainton-le-Vale as it was Open Farm Sunday.
There was lots going on there, but we just had time to browse the various
stalls and enjoy samples of crisps, cheese and more chocolate. There had been tractor rides and walks and
demonstrations during the day.
27 May. Ted has been
wall-papering all day and it’s been raining so I have had some catch up time on
the computer. A few of our Slovenia
photos are now uploaded. Click here to see them.
25 May. We’ve just
embarked on our bedroom project. We’re
decorating the spare double room just now but we plan to swap the spare single
and double rooms around and then have our bedroom fitted out so we shall be in
a bit of a mess for a while. We’re also
waiting to have our drive done and some new fencing so the front of the house
outside is a bit of a mess. Our friends
Jenny and John were here yesterday and it was great to see them before they
move down south very soon. We shall be a
bit limited for visitors for a little while until we get everywhere straight
again.
23 May. Went on a
beautiful 15 mile walking festival walk – determined to keep the fitness up!!
14 – 21 May. 27 from our
walking group enjoyed a week in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. At first the weather was beautiful but then
we had some dreadful days of non-stop rain.
It didn’t stop us walking though.
A waterfall walk was particularly dramatic on the last – very wet –
day. Will write more about this when
we’ve had chance to have a proper look at the photos.
13 May. We accompanied
Alice on her nursery school trip to Sherwood Forest Farm Park. She especially enjoyed the tractor ride, the
pigs, the goats and the wallabies. We’d
done our holiday packing before we went as we would be having a really early
start for Manchester Airport the next day.
02 – 05 May. Keith, Kate
and the children came over for the Bank Holiday week-end. Cleethorpes was buzzing with the Beer
Festival and lots of extra trains running along the front. Trains are Danny’s favourite thing just now
and we all enjoyed a ride. Alice liked
the sand-pit. We also went to the local
playground and of course fed the ducks on the boating lake. On Sunday we had a day at Rand Farm Park. This went down well with both the
children. Here are a few photos from the
week-end.
02 May. We’ve had a
busy spell. Barry and Pat have been to visit,
we’ve done a few walks and travelled to Preston for a family funeral. This time it was Joan’s cousin Jennie. Last month it had been Ted’s cousin, Ian
(only 46 years old) and Auntie Rosie – both on the same day in different
cities. We made Ian’s in Lincoln but had
to miss Auntie Rosie’s, which was 5 minutes earlier in Ipswich. The only good thing about these events was
seeing family members who we’d not seen for ages.
22 April. We’ve been
keeping busy with RA meetings and things – as well of course as the
walking. Joan led a 7 mile walk from
Cleethorpes last Saturday. Yesterday we
went to Ilkley to recce a walk for our coach trip in a few weeks time. We were lucky with the day. The sun actually came out.
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04 – 08 April. Sheila has
been over for a few days. In spite of
the really wintry weather we’ve been to Gibralter Point where we saw our
first swallows this year, to Far Ings and Ness End Farm near Barton and we’ve
been to watch the birds on Cleethorpes sea front as the tide came in. The picture shows a snipe at Ness End
Farm. Yesterday we went to The Fishing Heritage
Centre in Grimsby. Somehow we
hadn’t managed to get there before.
Isn’t it always the case that you don’t go and visit the tourist
attractions close to home? It was
actually very interesting and included a tour of the Ross Tiger, one of
twelve ‘Cat’ class trawlers which fished from Grimsby between 1957 and 1984. |
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25 March. We had a
fairly quiet Easter week-end. On Sunday
we got up to a real winter wonderland – about three inches of snow everywhere but
thawing so fast that most of it had gone by early afternoon. On Easter Monday we went to Lincoln and met
up with Keith, Kate, Alice and Daniel for lunch at Tootsies and then while Ted
and Keith went to the football, Kate and I took the children to the Play
Zone. They loved this and it was quite
exhausting for us. Unfortunately I’d
forgotten to take the camera so haven’t got any pictures.
17 - 19 March. We decided
to try one of the P and O mini-cruises from Hull. It was a really super
trip. We arrived at the dock around
16-00 and were soon able to board our ship – the Pride of York. At 19-00 we were sailing and enjoying a
really good buffet dinner. In the
morning as soon as we docked the bus was waiting to take us to Bruges, where we
had ample time for lots of sightseeing.
We went in The Church of Our Lady, The Cathedral and The Church of the
Holy Blood, climbed to the top of The Belfry for great views of the city, did
the bus tour of the city with very good commentary and walked round much of the
city as well, including the Minnewater Park.
Here are a few pictures.
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07 – 08 March. We’ve been
babysitting. Here are another few pictures.
01 March. Alice was
three on 28 Feb and we’ve been over to celebrate her birthday. Click
here to see the pictures.
18 – 22 February.
We’ve had an excellent short break, staying at Holly Lodge Guest House in
Windermere. We can recommend this guest
house – we’ve been several times. We
arrived in the Lake District in time to catch the last of the spell of gorgeous
weather they had been enjoying. While
the sun shone we walked up to Orrest Head and the next day climbed Fairfield
from Grasmere. After the weather changed
we did a low level walk going to Little Langdale and visited Grizedale
Forest. Here are just a few photos.
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These two
photos are taken from Orrest Head, looking towards the Langdales. |
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We went up
Fairfield via Stone Arthur and descended by Alcock
Tarn |
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Our lunch
stop at Elterwater and a very tricky path near Little Langdale |
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Two of the
sculptures in Grizedale Forest |
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8 – 10 February.
All the family have been over to Cleethorpes for a week-end. Here are the latest photos of Alice and
Daniel.
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January. We had a quiet
start to the New Year, gradually getting back to normal after the busy
Christmas. Bitterly cold winds seem to
have been a feature of our walks early in the year, but it has been good to get
back to the normal walking. We’ve had
quick trips to Tankersley, to look after Daniel while Alice went to see the new
nursery where she will have a place after her third birthday, to Lincoln for an
RA meeting and to Liverpool to take some things for Helen and Mike.
Now we have just returned from a week in
Egypt, cruising on The Nile and visiting the usual Ancient Egyptian tourist
sites. We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday
– an unusual one for us – no walking! Click here for the photos.
