York - Crowds and Christmas

With Christmas madness on the horizon decided to treat ourselves to a long weekend and revisit York.

The advertised Christmas Fayre was one attraction of the weekend, but it  wasn't quite such a nice idea in practice.

On the Saturday at least it was far too crowded with day-trippers to see anything - in fact we soon de-camped to a pub and settled in by the fire.  It did quieten down by the early evening when I finally managed to get close enough to the stalls to see what they were selling!


Shopping wasn't the only thing on the agenda mind you (much to Martin's relief!) and we did also manage to revisit the National Railway Museum.

The 'warehouse' area is particularly fascinating, with offerings ranging from the packaging from the last microwave burger served up on a GNER train (!) . . .


. . . to a wonderfully verbose memorial tablet to William Huskisson (who managed to get himself run over by Stephenson's Rocket):

Sunday was sunny (if a tad breezy) and we completed the traditional circuit of the walls, wandered the narrow streets, and rounded off the day with a curry at the excellent Mumbai Lounge.


All in all a good weekend - but might avoid weekends with Christmas Fayres in future!

Canute Lives!

Well not exactly - but if he'd had £12.9 million to invest in coastal defences he may not have got his feet wet!  Still, it is a rather large sum of money, so we headed out for a quick look at how the coastal defence project at Borth was actually doing ....

Unfortunately we seem to have managed to miss all the dramatic scenes of 10 tonne rocks being moved around*, instead the diggers were cosied up to each other standing silent.

The beach does at least look a bit like a building site at the moment:

 - and in due course that £13 mill should deliver new rock groynes and breakwaters, an artificial multi-purpose reef (which will have the added benefit of turning Borth into a surfing destination of choice) and 'beach nourishment' (which apparently isn't as interesting as it sounds and just means they are going to add more sand and shingle!). 

Borth could well be a much more 'happening' place to be in years to come ....

* As seen below: 

© Copyright Chris Denny and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Fly Past . . .

Garage-cam has captured a fair few flying creatures over the last few months - how many can you name?

Putting the Garden to Bed

Finally had a couple of sunny days, and a chance to get out into the garden to complete the last few tasks before winter finally arrives.  The (still rather damp) grass got its final cut . . .

. . . and the ornamental pear tree its annual haircut!



Also got the main veg plot tidied up (just leaving the sprouts in situ, as they may yet come to something). Once it was weeded and dug over, spread it with a layer of (relatively) fresh seaweed that we harvested the other week - which will hopefully feed the soil for some bumper crops next year!

That just leaves us then with the leek crop in the small veg plot - they went in a bit late, but seem to be coming along nicely enough   . . .

Wot No Snow?

October arrived in blazing sunshine, and while it didn't last it remained a rather warm (if wet) month overall - certainly we didn't see the much-rumoured snow!