Vera comes to stay

Climbing in Arnside

Vera finally made it 'up North' this weekend.  We had planned a visit for a while but for one reason or another, it had got cancelled a number of times.

She arrived at Lancaster station on Friday night - Tom and I went to pick her up, whilst Matt saw the weekend in at The Old Post Office, where we caught up with him.  We had a quick drink (I introduced Vera to Rhubarb and Ginger Gin which she liked) and then we headed to La Cascada for tapas - think we had one of everything again!  We certainly ate up well.

Saturday
Tom had football practice in the morning, whilst we got ready (Vera of course is rubbish first thing in the morning because she doesn't go to sleep until the early hours - especially so this weekend as Claire had introduced her to a new app on the iPad and Vera being Vera, she was obsessed with it and couldn't put it down and go to sleep.  We were even sneaky by turning the wifi off at night time to encourage her not to play - but it didn't have an effect - must be an offline game!  Oh hum!

37!

Anyway, Tom got in from football and then we all loaded into the car to Arnside as Vera wanted to see Morecambe Bay.  We had lunch at The Ramblers and then did a little walk along the beach before heading up to Arnside Knott in the car for a look out across the whole bay.  It was very pretty but very cold.  The temperature difference between here and London is significant at the moment as she brought a thin coat and no gloves, scarves or hat with her - so we had to kit her out.  She didn't look her best in my bits and pieces, but she was warm(er).

Amazing sunset

In the evening, after dinner, we headed out to Broadrake (where Matt and Tom have been learning about star gazing) as they had put out a message saying that there would be clear skies and to visit.  Vera wanted to go too (she doesn't get any chance of unpolluted skies where she is).  It was freezing cold, but the skies were clear and there were many many many stars to view.  I learnt a couple more constellations and met some new people - although I have no idea what they look like as I couldn't actually see them!






Certainly worthwhile doing - there are A LOT of stars out there.

Sunday

The night sky from Broadrake

We decided to head to Malham via the high road to see if we could see our favourite beasts.  At first we thought they would let us down, but we found them eventually and went for a word.  Vera somehow managed to fall over on the road, but fortunately as she was wearing all my thick clothes she rolled rather than smashed.  Phew!  She is determined to injure herself when she visits.

As we got in the car to carry on to Malham, some cows decided to walk in the road towards us, they passed by very close to us.  They certainly are very handsome.  We carried on to Malham, checked to see if Vera was up for a walk, she was, so we did the walk along the paved path whilst Matt and Tom went ahead and climbed up to the top of the cove.  The sun was out, so it was looking beautiful and there were rock climbers going up the cliff, which was good fun to watch.

Hairy roadblock

We walked back and headed to the Lister Arms, our favourite pub for lunch.  The food was as fabulous as always and then headed up and over back home via Ribblehead.  We then had a quiet afternoon: Tom washing the car, Vera playing on her iPad app and me making a roast!

Monday
Was a nasty nasty weather day: lots of rain and cold.  As we had route marched Vera all over the place over the weekend, we thought we should let her off today so had a quiet day.  We headed to the Courtyard Diary for lunch where she had raclette, which was very naughty but very nice (and huge!) and then to Settle for a quick stop at the garden centre (she wanted some broad beans for her allotment - and brought some for Tom's gardening club) and home.

Tuesday

The Tsar or Malham (minus hands)

Vera headed back home - we took her to the train station, got her on the right carriage and seat and said goodbye before heading to Lancaster Honda for some test drives - Matt has the urge to change the car.  We've gone for the newer Civic Model, small engine size but with all the bells and whistles.