Need a longer arm

How many goes does it take you to do a selfie? Lots, ha ha. Ooops, cut his nose off. 

Ooops, cut my head off.

Where did that shadow come from? My nose looks a bit red.

 Oh sod it, smile Rocky.

We went a walk round Alkborough Flats today, it's a wetlands area on the banks of the River Trent. Hoping to do a bit of bird spotting. Not many about, think they have all flown south for the winter. This cold weather is not very good for Rocky's arthritis at the moment, he can walk a little way, then his front leg gets a bit sore. He still wants to go out though, so the pushchair is ideal. I get a walk and exercise, he can snuggle under the blanket and feel the sun on his face. He likes the sun.

We have had a bit of snow here, but not as much as other parts, thank goodness. Most of it has melted, only a bit left on the areas that don't get the sun on it. Have a nice weekend.
Toodle pip

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A windy walk in the Lincolnshire Wolds

Hello. I've had a smashing day out with my walking buddies, Paul and Paul. It was my turn to drive,  pick the route, and lead the walk, and I chose a ten mile walk starting at Nettleton near Caistor in the Lincolnshire Wolds. I have done this one before, and wanted to make a return visit to the Old Rectory at Claxby. 

Just as we were getting ready this morning it all went black and the rain was blowing sideways. It didn't look too promising so I texted Paul, and rang the other Paul, should we give it a go or would it be best to abandon the idea. We decided to go for it. We parked at Nettleton at about 10.50am and set off down the Viking Way. The path passes a farm gate and this notice caught our eye, and gave us a chuckle.  

The path follows Nettleton Beck for a mile or two, It goes past the old chalk quarry, and crosses a wide track. Several 4x4 vehicles were parked there, and men with guns and dogs were setting off to go and blast some poor defenceless pheasants out of the sky. The beaters were behind the trees down there, where we have just walked past.

We arrived in Normanby le Wold to find the church door unlocked so we could sit inside and eat our lunch. It was a bit too gloomy for me, and I found a bench against the wall in the sunshine. It was nice and sheltered from the wind.

It was a short walk to Claxby, and we made straight for the church where the Old Rectory is behind it. And here it is. If you have been reading my blog for a long time, you will remember I did a post about this building, it was abandoned left to be swallowed up by the creeping ivy and overgrown bushes. I am sad to say, it is still in the same condition, one year and five months later. Such a beautiful building, such a shame. 

If you want to read the post from the 12th of August 2013, it's here. You will see that someone who was a gardener there a long time ago read it and put a comment on it. It really does need someone to come along and look after it. 

We headed north out of Claxby on Pelham Road, and took a path along the bottom of the hill back to Nettleton, joining the main A46 for the last half mile. Mostly it was along the edges of fields, which were very muddy in places. Paul, the one on the left, likes to go wading straight through the mud whereas I like to try and skirt round it a bit. When you put your foot down you don't know how far you are going to sink into it. 

We were well wrapped up against the wind, and got back to the car at 3.50pm. An exhilarating ten mile walk, I shall sleep well tonight.

Thank you for visiting my world, and thank you for your comments. Catch you tomorrow.
Toodle pip.

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A good blow out

Hello. The things I do to take some photo's for my fab readers. Yes folks, this is me all wrapped up, stepping outside of my comfort zone, aka my living room, and forging my way through the countryside in a force nine gale. It looked a nice day when I looked out of the window this morning, it was a lovely warm car journey to Epworth, the start of the walk, but, chuffin heck, was it BLUSTERY when I set off, and it didn't let up all day. Definitely brass monkey weather. Like the scarf? Yep, I found it, been chucked.

On the outskirts of Epworth now, you can't see my trousers flapping like crazy, if I had one of those wing suits on I would take off. 

I've seen these Alpacas at Epworth Show, here they are on their home ground. There are six of them but the others were huddled inside their shed. They have such cute faces.

Here is John Wesley's house. Not open today.  Blue skys all day, but don't be fooled, it was bloomin cold.

What do you think of this black and yellow shed, oooops, sorry, it's a house. It doesn't look right on the main road, the owners of the bungalow next to it must have been a bit miffed when it went up, goodness knows how they got planning permission.

It's connected by a covered passage to the brick building next to it, which looks like a converted barn. Oh my, what a sight for sore eyes.

Across the road are the council offices. This sign made me smile, it's on the front of a planter against the wall next to the entrance.

 The Council Offices are also the entrance to the cemetery.

Off I went following footpaths along the field edges. This is an old bridge that the railway used to go over, which is long closed, no tracks left.

I climbed up on the bridge to have a look down.

Lots of horses around here, shredded wheat for lunch. I often wonder if horses get bored standing around all day. Doesn't look a very exciting life, waiting for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to be served up. 

The path was long and straight and came out on a tarmac road at Epworth Turbary. I wondered what a Turbary is. Here is a bit from Wiki.
Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog.^[1] The word may also be used to describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from the turbary. 

I was ready for a bite to eat but nowhere to stop and sit down, then I saw a farm and sat on a lump of concrete with a bit of shelter from the side of a barn. The wind was blowing all the plastic crates across the road, there didn't seem like there was anyone about to pick them up. Then I had a long walk down Greenholme Bank. It's a wide track used by farm machinery and was very muddy. The fields all around had recently been ploughed. Black clouds were up ahead and it started spotting with rain. I decided to take a short cut through Haxey Turbary to give me some shelter from the biting cold wind. This was a bit more pleasant, and low and behold the rain passed over and the sun came out again.

Past some farm buildings at Haxey Carr, then I came across a graveyard for Massey Fergusson farm machinery at Haslams Farm. There must have been a hundred or more, all crammed together in a big yard, and spilling out onto the track outside. I have tried googling but I can't find anything connected with MF. Some of these are really old, maybe they are butchered for spare parts, or exported whole, who knows. 

The track takes me across the fields towards Haxey. This is looking back at Haslams Farm.

Aaah, small ponies, aren't they cute, I want one, ha ha. 

The church gate at Haxey is a bit unusual, it pivots on a centre pole though doesn't go all the way round in a circle.

The church is massive for such a small village, there are several good views of it, but this one doesn't show the clock which is on right hand side of the tower. 

And I will finish off with some colour. Some people don't like artificial flowers on a grave, but I don't mind. It's too expensive to keep putting fresh flowers out. More colour I say. 

From Haxey I got onto the disused railway track again. It runs parallel to the A161 for a while, then there is a path further up which joins the road back to Epworth. It was 4.30pm when I got back to the car, just right, it was getting even colder once the sun had gone down. Ten miles walked, some of it hard going against the wind, but it was good to get out, I needed the exercise. Talk about a good blow out, constant runny nose, and watery eyes, the sinuses are now clear.
Toodle pip.

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I'll have a slice of soup please ;o)

Hello one and all. Miserable, wet and cold to start off with today, but it turned out nice again. My food stocks are getting dangerously low, the fridge is empty, and not many tins left. Yesterday I decided to use up the half packet of dried soup mix, which was only two years out of date. Soak it for eight hours, bring to the boil and simmer. I added the last onion, a large potato, and three packets of frozen home grown runner beans. Then I zapped it with the stick blender. 

Anybody like a slice of soup, ha ha. Had some for dinner last night, lunch today, and another bowlful just now. I think I'll go into business making healthy baby food, ha ha. It tastes alright, I watered it down a bit so it goes down more easily without chewing.

I made time to go to the park this morning. They are busy with clearing the leaves at the moment, one tractor with a blower on the side, and two men walking around with hand held blower machines strapped to their body. They didn't seem to be making much progress, just moving them around. 

The ducks lolling about in the sunshine.

It was a lovely afternoon so I did a bit of tidying in the garden. The brown bin is to be emptied on Monday, and as I haven't put much in it over the last month I thought I would trim up the hedges between me and next door. I'm afraid I went a bit crazy with the loppers and hacked quite a lot off. It won't all fit in, I will put some in my neighbours bin, he won't be doing any gardening before Monday.

The gas and electric bills came through the letter box this morning, I was keen to see them because it's about a year since I changed supplier. Three weeks short of a year actually, so my bills are from 12th Jan to 23 December. My four electricity bills add up to �89.09, and my projection for the next twelve months is �107.06. There is a mistake with the reading on the gas bill, they have taken the November reading instead of the December one. It comes out at �10.25, they are 39 units short. I rang them up and they are going to send another bill. I estimate the new bill to be slightly more than double this one. Total gas over the three bills is �57.07, they project my next years usage will cost �71.73.

All in all I am pleased I changed to Ebico, no this isn't an advert, they are not paying me, I have no standing charge, no penalties for quarterly bills, and their prices are frozen across the board for everyone until 2016. If you are considering changing you need to know your  annual consumption, this company may not be the best for you if you are not a low user like me.

I've just seen the time, I'm off to Tesco now to search for yellow stickers. Toodle pip.

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A walk with friends

Hi de hi, the walking has started. Today I went a walk with my two buddies, Paul and Paul. We went over the Humber Bridge and parked at South Cave. Paul was the leader, the one on the left, he got the route off the internet. I took my map anyway, because I like to plot out where I am going. I had done some of it before, and you may remember the picture of the two bendy wooden benches, at Little Wold Plantation. 

The weather wasn't very good when we started off, heavy clouds which rained down on us a few times. Misty and damp, glad I had the brolly. The ground underfoot was muddy and slippery.

We walked alongside a dismantled railway line for a while, then there was a long climb through Low Hunsley Plantation. Boy was I sweating when I got to the top, I think I had too many layers on. At the top there was a vast expanse of wide open farmland, and the wind was whipping across, it was freezing cold, I was glad that I hadn't taken any layers off.

Then on to Drewton Manor, we found a sheltered spot in a barn to eat our lunch. 

k

We meandered down the lane of the large estate and spotted Drewton Manor, half hidden through the trees. There are holiday cottages to let.

We crossed over the A1034 and headed for North Cave. Coming into the village the chickens were enjoying their foraging. The weather had changed and the sun came out. 

The church stands splendid on the corner. I like the way the shadow of the tree is thrown across it.

Out of North Cave down a long straight road, over the dismantled railway, and on to Everthorpe. I think this picture is elsewhere on the blog because I have been here before. The grey skies have all gone and now it's a beautiful shade of blue.

Across some very muddy fields out of Everthorpe, we then skirted round the edge of a golf course. Chance to scrape a bit of mud off our boots. Here are the boys standing outside the gatehouse of the Castle Hotel, at West End on the way back to South Cave.

Back to the car by 3.30pm, and home by 4 o clock. I've checked the miles on bikehike.co.uk, it came out at ten exactly. Ignore the pink line, that's from a previous walk.

I've had a brilliant day, lots of fun, and a good laugh. I've got such great friends here in the village. Now, where to next  ;o))

Ooooh, I've just noticed, I've gone past the six years of blogging, 'twas the 2nd January 2009 when I started. Happy Anniversary my little blog, and thank you to my bloggerettes who have stuck with it.

Toodle pip.

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