Catch Up

Cottage near Bolton Abbey

As usual I have got behind with the blog, sorry!  Life sort of gets in the way, and I have been working hard on my Lily Pad Bakery Christmas collection this year, maxing in on the chocolates and of course things never go right first time...

Anyway, Saturday 13th October was a grey miserable day, so after football, we got in the car and headed over to Buffers Coffee Shop which I found by accident on the Internet one day and is down a country lane just past Bolton Abbey.  It's not somewhere you could find by accident.

It was an interesting place, a huge tea room with usual greasy spoon options and lots of interesting cakes.  It was also a shop - selling lots of model railway things - buildings, track, trains, wagons etc, also lots of farm vehicles.  However, the best thing was upstairs where there was a huge model railway.  It was of an age (ie from the 1970s / 1980s) and it certainly hasn't been dusted...EVER...but it was very very interesting and there were some dials so you could control the trains on certain parts of the track.  It was more for looking and admiring than anything else and it was all behind perspex (not miniature Wunderland) however, the longer you looked at it the more you saw.  Not sure it has been touched in years.  I wonder what the story behind it is?

Anyway, we had lunch which was extraordinarily cheap, did some shopping (Tom), another look at the railway and then headed home.

Hull Pot with its waterfall

Sunday we wanted to get out for a walk, as it has rained a lot recently we thought we would head to Horton and Hull Pot to see if there was a waterfall there.  Hull Pot is normally a dry river bed leading to a vertical drop off a cliff into a hole.  When it has been raining a lot it turns into a river and waterfall, but it doesn't happen very often.  We were lucky in that it was a waterfall.  Matt took his photos and then got talking to a lovely old lady from France who was travelling alone and spoke amazing English.  A true Anglophile, she comes to the UK a lot: loves the Bronte sisters, loves Scotland and is spending her retirement travelling - why not?!  I hope I'm like her when I get old.  We were chatting for ages.

Jack with Tom and Sierra hiding behind

We did debate climbing Pen-y-Gent, but decided not to as the Blezards were coming for the night and due around lunchtime, we weren't sure he had enough time.  Just as well because they turned up early - about 30 mins after we got home.  They were already on half term and on their way down to Center Parts in Warminster (£450 cheaper than the one in Penrith).  Both Rory and Lewis seemed to have grown up loads, none of the usual bickering, they all went to bed nicely and just generally got on really well with everyone.  As the sun came out, we took them for a walk around the village.  Lewis and Tom ended up barefoot in the river (ouch).  We then had a massive roast dinner - used our £10 pork joint from Keelham.

Friday 19th October
A good day - lots of things came together so we could have a great day out.  Both Matt and I were low on work so we decided to have a date day on Friday, then on Thursday evening Tom got invited out to the cinema after school on Friday meaning we could stay out longer.  On Friday morning at school drop off a mum commented on the fact that I was dressed differently to normal, I explained we were planning a date day in Leeds and she immediately offered to drive us to and from the train station meaning we could drink.  Yay!  We had such a good day out.  A little bit of shopping, then to Bundobust for lunch and craft beer, then a bit more shopping, followed by cocktails at The Alchemist, a bit more shopping and a last beer in another craft beer pub.

Surprisingly we weren't too affected by alcohol, just happy!  It was a lovely day out, Matt bought a new phone and I got some new clothes.  We brought back a Wasabi picnic for tea too and then got met at the train station by Janine and Charlie (6) who came running towards us shouting "did you enjoy your alcohol?!" at the top of his voice - so funny!

Taking a breather on the bridge

Saturday 20th October, Tom had a football match at home against Settle.  They won easily.  We celebrated with lunch at Inglesport.  We then arranged to go for a walk with the Mannings around Austwick.  We did the big loop and then added Smearsett Scar so ended up with a good 6 mile walk, not bad considering we didn't start until 2.30pm.  We then all headed to the Mannings for tea: veggie lasagna - was a really lovely night out - don't think we got back until after 10pm!


Sunday was a horrible, grey, rainy day so we decided to head to Manchester to do our usual stuff, but without a visit to the Komorowskis - we seem to be unable to see each other at the moment due to commitments.  We headed straight to The Glamorous for lunch (the usual weird and wonderful dim sum in a very very crowded restaurant), then Wing Yip for an Asian shop (no curry blocks needed this time as we still have loads left over from our trip to Japan) and Go Outdoors, so I could get a new pair of walking shoes (my current pair let the water in) and Tom got a new (huge) winter coat.

48151 at Blea Moor

We were then into the last week of school before half term.  On Friday Tom came home with a Head Teacher's Award.  We weren't sure what it was for, neither was he, but Mrs Colledge was in the playground so we asked her.  Her response: "For being a thoroughly lovely person and a valuable member of the school family"  It is a new award they have brought in this year - I think to acknowledge people who are helpful and do nice things rather than just academic achievement certificates.  I know that Tom helped cut up KS1's roast dinner for them this week and he took football club at lunchtime as the Year 6s were away on their residential.

Tom with air on the pump track

Saturday there was no football as loads of people were away due to half term.  We found out that there was a  Steam Train heading for Ribblehead, so went there to watch it - this time, walking to the aqueduct after Blea Moor.  It was freezing cold and it was late.  We were just debating how long to wait when it arrived.  Phew.  We had lunch at Inglesport and then a useful afternoon.  I went down to the iCentre to set up the tombola for the Autumn Lights Festival.  The evening was spent at the festival.  It was a good one, the dodgems were there.  It didn't rain.  It was freezing cold, but that didn't matter.  The tombola was manic - people are mad for a little flutter, they were queueing out the door!