Today I shall be Mainly...

[Marilyn]

Don’t think too many people will be looking fondly in the rear view mirror at 2020.

[Sue]

Morning

Yes, a good day Wendy, may you have many more like that. I hope Col is not having too many side effects today after his chemo

Is it really the end of this dreadful year! 2021 has got to be better, but what a shock Greater Manchester going into tier 4. Our numbers tick along, sometimes up sometimes down . We just expected to stay in tier 3. I see Langdale in the Lakes is also tier 4 so our annual timeshare holiday is definitely off. I think some of this action is to stop big gatherings celebrating the New Year . It won’t make much actual difference to us whichever tier they put us in, but there is a psychological difference. I felt utterly deflated. Not more restrictions I thought ! On a lighter note we received a surprise little package yesterday. A singing Christmas card and a couple of little packets of french chocolates from our neighbours in France. The card was beautifully written in English inside. I think possibly translated by the second eldest child. The eldest did Spanish not English at school. The message was that their thoughts were with us always and a small gift, just this year, because of how it had been. So nice and thoughtful of them.

Yesterday we finished decorating, that is, of course , Bob finished decorating. It all looks nice and fresh, clean and light. I popped down to Dunelm for my click and collect curtains. I am glad I had bought them online the night before to just pick up as the queue to go in the shop was huge. I nearly didn’t bother until I noticed that there was a separate queue for click and collect and only 6 in the queue including me. I still had to stand out in the cold for 20 minutes. I hadn’t taken gloves as I was driving in fact I haven’t seen my driving gloves for ages, I wonder if I left them in France. Anyway, the system was good. A lady came out and took our order numbers and the goods were brought to us. Meanwhile the other queue got larger and larger as more joined than were allowed in the shop. At home a quick iron of the curtains and then up they went. They are a nice neutral linen look ( polyester linen really) and add to the fresh light look. Today we shall move the furniture back and start re filling cupboards etc.

I managed to photograph half of my knitting machine stuff, today I hope to do the rest, but first thing I have a physio appointment on the other side of Rochdale. There has been no improvement in the pain in my feet , if anything it is worse, so we shall see what he has in store for me. Its about to start snowing which is not good news. The road home, back up the hill from Rochdale is notoriously bad to drive up when it snows, as is our own road. Many a car has been abandoned half way up the hill causing utter chaos. Hopefully the snow will be light.

So lets hope the snow is short lived. It often snows or freezes badly on New Years Eve, just as we are driving to our friends in Whitefield. This year we are all meeting up on zoom at 6.30 for apéritives and a chat before we eat separately. As Bob says he won’t miss that drive home at 2.00 am.

Have a good day everyone

[Stanley]

I shall be in bad by 20:00 Sue and hopefully there will be no fireworks!



Good progress this morning on the engine and lots of small jobs done as well. Looking forward now to Melvyn Bragg and 'in Our Time' on R4.

[Marilyn]

I might go a half hour past you, as a bedtime, Stanley.
Fast asleep by 2100hrs at any rate.
Let the world celebrate...without me. I just don’t have the staying power to bother partying...

[Stanley]

Wendy, had a reply from David Nelson. Yes the coal drops at Dodge Carr were for the estate coal as everything ran off coal in those days.

[Sue]

I have no idea what time we shall go to bed this year, its the first time in 30 years that we have not been with our friends in Whitefield. It certainly won’t be the usual 2.00 am. Probably midnight . We normally go to bed and 11 and read for some time

[Wendyf]

Wendy, had a reply from David Nelson. Yes the coal drops at Dodge Carr were for the estate coal as everything ran off coal in those days.

Thank you Stanley! I wonder when they were last in use, it was surprising to see them in reasonable condition.

[Stanley]

I was just thinking about you Wendy. We have light rain in the town, I was wondering if it's snow on the hill.

[Wendyf]

No it's not falling as snow here, we have a damp mist instead. It is thawing slightly at the moment turning the track into an ice rink. Our neighbour has placed a traffic cone in the middle of the track up by the road to stop the unwary from coming down!

[Big Kev]

It's getting misty down here too

[Marilyn]

We had a beautiful long walk along the beach this morning. 24C and sunny.

[Stanley]

We had that mist all afternoon and this morning there's evidence of a recent light sleet shower.
I shall have a normal day chasing Margaret's engine, cooking, reading about China and trying to stay uninfected! That's enough for one day!

[Stanley]

I've had my hour and a half in the shed....



More work done on the crankshaft and its components. Nice productive morning. I've had my second walk, am having my breakfast and second sleep is beckoning.

[Sue]

Morning


Late again this morning! New Day, new year, and for the first time in three days fog free. Its been rather horrid round here. The couple of times we have gone out ie Dunelm and the physios we have dropped out of the fog, so I suppose really it was not fog and we were sitting in the cloud. It was certainly very damp, any snow we had disappeared in minutes. This morning there is a very light covering.

My trip to the physio resulted in a new diagnosis and different exercises. The exercises I had been doing actually aggravated the problem, but what it did do was reveal what the issue is. I have aggravated the nerves in my heel and across my feet, it does not appear to be back related. Luckily I have no issue at all except when I do certain movements in pilates and yoga, so I can continue as normal and replace those movements with the exercises the physio has given me. Bob took me to physio and I walked back which is mainly up hill, about 2.5 miles. It was bracing and at one point I was snowed on. I managed it in 45 minutes, a time I was pleased with .

We had a pleasant evening. We had our 6.30 apéritives zoom meeting but Joan and Eddie had not got the link so we postponed till 10.00 after we had all eaten . We then had a lovely chat for two hours. We haven’t been all together like that since last New Years Eve. We saw the New Year in together then we watched the laser light display and fireworks in London on T V , had a cup of tea and went to bed.

Today we will finish putting everything back in the study, and I will finish photographing my knitting machines and bits and pieces. If the weather holds we shall go for a walk. As our settee was not collected by British Heart Foundation, we shall put it on gumtree as we need it out of the garage so my car can go back in.

So thats our day, hope you all have a good one.

[Stanley]

Does that mean that parts of pilates and yoga were actually harming you Sue?

[Sue]

Does that mean that parts of pilates and yoga were actually harming you Sue?

Nope, it just means I probably did something once that caused me to overstretched the nerve. I may have done an exercise slightly incorrectly. The physio said we will never know what caused it, and the exercises he has given me are pilates exercises anyway. Remember we are being watched and are watching on a screen and it is not always possibly to get it exactly right. In a live class our positions can be adjusted or at least more visible to the teacher when there are only 14 of us. On zoom there may be 25 and not all visible at the same time. Then of course there is all the hill walking, slipping on muddy paths etc. The physio is not over concerned but said it may take time to retrain the nerve not to spasm on the two particular movements that aggravate the nerve. He emphasised, not to stop, just modify. He was very impressed with my flexibility and general range of movement.

[Stanley]

I'll hobble on with my walks Sue, slow but steady.
Today I shall be keeping the faith and chasing Margaret's engine.......

[Marilyn]

We had a long walk in pleasant temperatures (24C) and wall to wall sunshine. A neighbour 3 doors down stopped us for a quick chat, warning us he had suffered thieving from his back yard. We all back on to the Golf Course, but the best anyone can steal from our backyard is the garden hose and sprinkler...

[Sue]

Morning

There is a beautiful sunrise forming and it is -3 degrees. Its a bit chilly out there. Today there is no market at Bacup, so no rush to get up and out there in the cold. Today we shall continue with our tidying in the study. Actually I think we are just about finished and it all looks clean and fresh. We are very pleased with our few weeks of work . I have just one more knitting machine to photograph then I need to compile a little document with all the photos in for the dealer in Solihull. There is no real rush as no one is going anywhere for the time being, but I like to finish any job I start.

Being in tidying mode I did a thorough tidy out of the drawer in the study. There were a number of pens that didn’t work and elastic bands that had perished plus a considerable amount of assorted rubbish . The drawer now shuts properly. I am worried however that I am turning into my Dad as we now have a number of labelled jam jars on the desk top containing different varieties of marker pens. Family members will understand what I mean. .

Today I will do a similar job on the drawers in my sewing room. The art section doesn’t need doing as have not done much art since the last tidy up. The drawers of fabric on the other hand are a bit of a mess, having trawled through them several times for fabric to make masks and the 35 coasters I made for small Christmas card inclusions. Hopefully a couple of quilting kits I bought in Alaska will turn up. I decided that will be my next sewing project. My mind turned to them after watching Torvill and Dean in Alaska last night. The programme reminded us of a fabulous holiday there and how beautiful this wilderness is, but also how fragile it now is. I don’t know if anyone else watched it. I love watching ice skating, I wish I could have learned. It looked like a wonderful experience dancing on ice in the wilds of Alaska. I suppose its the skating equivalent of wild swimming .

So thats me sorted, I have just noticed that the beautiful start to the morning has turned into fog . Have a nice day

[Stanley]

It helps stem the thoughts Sue if you don't label the jam jars! I have the same problem but don't label them and yes, it's about time I had a clear out!



A nice morning, everything firmed up on the temporary base board and I've started making the parts i need for the fitting. The finished base can wait until we have some better weather!

[Cathy]

I too was lucky enough to see the footage of Torvill and Dean a few days ago. It was like everything stopped and we were taken back to Bolero.
I remember in the 70’s / early 80’s when I worked for RM’s, they visited our showroom, it was quite a moment having them there. Both so young , quiet, shy and polite.

[Sue]

I too was lucky enough to see the footage of Torvill and Dean a few days ago. It was like everything stopped and we were taken back to Bolero.
I remember in the 70’s / early 80’s when I worked for RM’s, they visited our showroom, it was quite a moment having them there. Both so young , quiet, shy and polite.

Beautiful ice dancers and a wonderful interpretation of the music. I went to see them for a birthday treat at the Manchester Arena about 17 years ago. Jane Torvill was not as light on her feet then, but was still magnetic in her performance . She has lost a lot of weight over the last few years as they have done a number of programmes where they dance. My cousin replied to me this morning and it transpires that she and I were both at the same show all those years ago.

[Marilyn]

Drove South to a long stretch of beach with firm wide sands - a popular beach for those with dogs and horses. The sand is so firm that 4 wheel drive vehicles are allowed too. After walking as far as the eye can see, we walked back, then walked the beach markets. It was thrilling when a load of horses came thundering along the beach, but I wasn’t quick enough to capture them.
People were “cockling” too, hence buckets and containers.

[Stanley]

No cockling here Maz, the snow is still with us and there has been a light sleet shower but I don't think it's actually freezing at the moment.
I shall be quietly pursuing Margaret's engine. N ot walking in snow and ice, I shall take a view later on exercise!

[Wendyf]

The beach looks lovely Maz, it's a long time since I saw the sea!
Yesterday was food shopping day, Lidl in Colne was deserted at 9.30am and with a quick dash across the road to Aldi I got everything on list except Bovril which Col enjoys drinking at the moment. I was home by 10.30am and after a coffee I nipped down to Earby co op where a jar was secured. It had started snowing by then and I couldn't believe how fast it was settling! I'm getting used to driving in snow and ice now and the Ssangyong copes well so getting back up Bleara was no problem.
When I pulled off the road onto the track and stopped to check the box I put there for post a white delivery van stopped behind me. It was yet another Amazon delivery and we quickly established that it was for Colin but the quite charming young man said he couldn't give it to me there, he had to walk to the house! He was perfectly happy to walk there and back in heavy snow, and gave me the parcel at the door with a smile. He didn't have to photograph it, just scan it.
Lunch, then stable duties and fetching snow covered ponies in early followed by a sit down ( and a drink of Bovril) before heading back out to feed ponies and hens. I couldnt get into the hen run in the morning because the frozen ground stopped me opening the door so that needed sorting before I could get in with a few handfuls of grain for them. Logs, fire lighting and settle down with a g&t before a light tea. Col has had a rough couple of days but he was coming round by the evening and he slept solidly last night. Not sure what today will bring, hopefully no more snow!