Friday 30 July 2010

We made the papers!



We made last night's local paper for our Canal Walk. I'm so very excited, I almost can't stand it!

We still have plenty of room for more walkers. If you'd care to join us, let me know and I believe the event organizer will have a T-shirt for you to take home. We just need to know how many to get.



Here are last year's walkers. Sorry, I'm not in this picture, I was the one taking it! As they say, "You can't be in two places at the same time."

Wow! We made the papers!

Thursday 29 July 2010

Test blog from phone

In a couple weeks the Mr and I are going on a narrow boat trip.  During this time I wont have internet access. So just to see if it works I want to see if I can add picture blogs from the canal using my cell phone.

I have added a picture with text during this test...

Here's hoping it works!


The test worked!

This picture was taken on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal during our boat trip on the Nutmeg in 2008. It's such a beautiful peaceful scene that I use it on my phone as a background.

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Lets Do This!

You are all invited to come join us to help raise funds for the British Lung Foundation. A walk on the Leeds-Liverpool canal on Aug. 8th 2010 at 10:30 am at Bar Lane swingbridge in Riddlesden. Any questions or need sponsor forms let me know or go to http://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Dobson0. Or if you prefer not to be sponsored, it's £10 to join the walk. That's only a pound a mile!

We need more people to join us. Will you help? Would you really want to miss out on scenery like this?




Or this?



Yes, thats the famous Bingley 5-rise!

There will be a support team who'll have refreshments and help cheer you on at each quarter mark and we can give those who have trouble finishing a ride back to their car.

The route is begins in Riddlesden at the Bar Lane Swing Bridge, to the Hirst Lane Swing Bridge and Lock in Shipley and back. It's almost 10 miles and afterwards a meet up at a local pub! What could be better?


To get a better idea of where we'll be here's a map of the route from Google Earth.


Come on! Won't you join us?

On a personal note: I am part of the support team due to a knee injury.


Monday 26 July 2010

Going to the Flea Markets or as they say in England, Off to the Car Boot

We first started out later than we normally would on a car boot day. Normally we'd be off and running about 7 a.m. but this week we slept in. Nice change!

The Car Boot Sale in Gisbon was our first stop; we parked in a field and made our way to all the goodies. Unfortunately; at least in our point of view, it was mostly vendors with very few stalls manned by people who were clearing out their homes. The house cleaners are the ones we prefer to look for. We left Gisbon car boot empty handed.

We decided to head to the car boot in Clitheroe. When we got there we drove through the gravel lake of a parking lot and finally found a spot in the very back on the fringes of what could have been a small gravelly duck pond. After carefully leaping out of the car and narrowly missing out on a good dunking of the day

While we were there strolling from stall to stall, most of them strewn with very well played with toys and games, collector’s items; old and new. books; some newish looking and others that looked like they’d been read by many generations of owners and kept under a bed for an extreme amount of time, various man toys (tools) that looked as if you took all the rust off there’d be nothing left. We saw electrical and non-electrical items that defied any kind of explanation as to what they were or what they’d be used for. We spied lots of vinyl records, but we don’t have a record player – so no good to us.

I, of course was trailing three or four stalls behind the Mister. Him, scanning for stuff he might have sold on eBay in years gone by and me actually just enjoying myself looking at the variety of items on hand.

Suddenly I hear him yelling at me “Come over here! I think I found that broom you’ve been wanting!” I put down the book I was thinking about getting and hurried to his side, passing a woman coaxing to get her little girl away from some toys while drinking a coke. By the time I got to the Mr she had child in hand and was just passing us as I looked at the broom in question. Without thinking I said to him “Oh for gahs sake!! That’ll NEVER get me off the ground!” Out of the blue, next us I hear a sudden eruption of laughter and felt a slight spray of what I thought was rain but only on my hand. The woman had heard us. I turned and saw the very embarrassed woman holding her hand to her mouth, her other hand holding her coke and she was laughing so much she could barely contain herself. Then the Mr and I realized what I’d said and starting laughing too, she apologized if she’d sprayed us, but said she couldn’t help it. At least we made her day, by adding a bit of laughter!

This is the broom in question.

We left Clitheroe with a DIY book and an exercise mat that would've sold for £10 to £15 at our local Argos. We spent a total of £2.

We were quite hungry by now, so we decided to have the Sunday roast lunch at The Anchor, which sits right next to the Leeds-Liverpool canal in Gargrave. They have lovely food with large portions there and wonderful service. We recommend it highly. They also have a very large outdoor area sitting next to the canal and lock so while you’re having a pint you can watch the narrow boats go by.

After we ate, we wanted to walk off some of our meal so we travelled to Skipton and meandered through town and as always we ended up walking along the canal. The first thing I noticed was a narrow boat that brought back so many wonderful memories. We rented Nutmeg for a weeks’ holiday two years ago to celebrate a milestone birthday for the Mr. It was also the very last family holiday because the kids are all leading their own lives now. That trip made me fall in love with narrow boating and the canals of England.








This is the beauty we rented from Snaygill Boats in Skipton. If you lead a frantically hectic life and feel the need to escape before you murder someone out of sheer frustration. You may want to consider renting a narrow boat for a relaxing, peaceful holiday with ever changing views to help you de-stress.

Thursday 22 July 2010

Blog Change.

I've decided to take this blog in new direction. It's time for a change.

This blog was originally intended to be used as Rant and Rave page and some of the postings were quite angry because I needed a place to vent. Well, I haven't touched this page in almost a year. So I must not need it for that purpose anymore.

Recently, I have been reading other blogs. Quite a few of them written by non-professionals. People just writing about normal everyday life, a place they have travelled to or something that's happened that they'd just like to share with others.

Well, I'm not a writer in any sense of the word, but I do like to share events and my point of view, sometimes.

For now, some of these posts may be back-dated to when they happened. I'm taking this blog travelling.

Recently we went to Greece, but we've also been to Mallorca (Majorca) and to mainland Spain. Usually on the weekend, Sunday we go somewhere in the UK. That's what I'd like to write about.

I have completely taken down the old blog. I did export it, so it may pop up somewhere else under a new title. Right now though, its staying on my hard-drive.

Hopefully, you'll like this new blog.

Thanks for understanding about the removal of the old one. I truely hope this will be a better blog. My new phone has a ton more storage than my old one did and I can now take pictures of things I find interesting. I would love to get some followers who will leave my blog with a smile or a happy memory.

Wish me luck!