Half Term

So we didn't stray far for half term, we wanted to stay in the area to support Bob and Pat.  

On Monday we went to see Pat and Bob.  Poor Pat had declined considerably, she was barely able to communicate with us, all her words were so mumbled that it was extremely hard to understand what she was trying to say.

On Tuesday it was sunny, not too hot and hayfever not bad, so we decided to head out for a bike ride that I have been wanting to do for ages to Elaine's at Feizor.   

It was a beautiful bike ride, the countryside was at its best, we stuck to all the small roads and enjoyed the view and dodging the sheep.  Once we got to Austwick, we decided to via the lanes to Feizor - Tom and Matt decided to ride through the ford (I went over the bridge).  Tom made it, Matt didn't, he had wet feet for the rest of the day!!!!!  We got to the cafe in good time and got an outside table.  Baked beans on toast for me (pretty much all I can order these days) Tom had a huge bowl of crumble with custard whilst Matt was on cheese scones.  We then headed up the hill to the top for the good view of Pen-y-Ghent and then round to Wharfe and back through Austwick, then to Clapham - a quick stop by the river for a refresh and then up the Clapham Old Road to Ingleton.  It was 21 miles in total but a lovely ride with my favourite people.

Sunday we went to see Pat.  She had declined again considerably.  She was unable to speak at all - she was just groaning and she couldn't move at all by herself.  It was very sad to see her like that.  We ended up sending Tom to the lounge to watch Dad's Army on the telly whilst Matt and I sat with her and spoke to her about our week.   

This half term incorporated a 2 day bank holiday for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee (70 years).  Obviously as we are both self employed and Tom on half term, it didn't really affect us, but I did put up some bunting as I felt I had to do something.  

On the Thursday we went on another bike ride - this time to Ribblehead, via Oddies Lane, and once again a lovely ride out.  We got to the viaduct - I had a thing about having a photo of me with a bike underneath it.  On the way back, we came across an ice-cream van, luckily I had some money on me, so I bought one each for the boys and then we headed on our way  back.  As we did, we noticed a bridleway heading off towards Twistleton and decided to head along it.   Oh my, the route took us through some deep bogs, so much so that our bike wheels disappeared into it from time to time.  It was a hard slog (even with an e-bike) and it steadily went up hill too!  I don't know how the boys did it?!  When we got to the top, we then had to cycle over limestone and then down the limestone onto the waterfalls trail.  That's not something I am particularly great at - going down at a steep angle on sheer limestone...as we got to the waterfalls trail, I whimped out, my leggings got stuck on the saddle and I was left completely stuck not able to forwards or backwards.  People were giggling at me, and the boys didn't see and raced off down the track - oh hum....eventually I managed to dismount, walk it down and then carry on - I didn't look back!  We then carried on back to Oddies lane and back home.  Another good mini adventure.

On Saturday there was to be a village picnic on the cricket field, but it rained, so it got changed to the Community Centre, which was ok, but Alice and her band were playing which meant that you couldn't chat as they were so loud. 

Of course the sun came out, but it was too late.  Anyway, we caught up with some friends, but after an hour or so, we decided to call it a day.  We then jumped into the van and headed up to the Howgills as we had planned a night away.  We were returning to our special place we found last year which overlooks the railway but is way off the beaten track - very much in the middle of nowhere and down some very narrow lanes.  We got there and we had the place to ourselves - yay!  The sun was out as well, which was a bonus.  We got ourselves settled in and had a very pleasant night out.  One thing though, the pump on the water tank failed meaning we couldn't get any water out of the tap - a bit of a problem when you are counting on it for cooking!  Luckily Matt knew that there was an escape valve, so we were able to collect saucepans of water by sending Tom under the van to collect it.

On 5th June Tom had his first cricket match for the senior Ingleton 2nd team with Matt over at Coniston.  A beautiful ground and a lovely sunny day, they had a good day too.  It was the perfect match for a youngster to make his league debut - beautiful surroundings, excellent tea, good bowling (3 wickets for me, 2 for Tom), and we won by 9 wickets, so Tom didn't have to face any bowling, although he'd have been fine.