28/09/2009 by admin.

Continuing my growing love affair with the Settle Carlisle line, I called into Settle on Friday on the way to the Lakes.

There I watched Northern Rail director Heidi Mottram unveil a plaque to the refurbished station.

The Settle Carlisle Development Company has been working since last November with money from Northern, North Yorkshire County Council, the Railway Heritage Trust, and others to fit bio-mass boilers, lag the loft, fit new windows, and renovate the waiting rooms. It looks like toytown but it is a working station and I actually met a commuter.

In fact, she was more than just a commuter. She was a parish councillor who dropped into the conversation that she and her fellow passengers did Tai Chi while waiting for the 07.35 to Leeds. She didn’t realise what a good story that was and refused to adopt a Tai Chi position on the platform for a picture so I had to get just “waiting for a train”.

Settle won Small Station of the Year at the National Rail Awards last week – such a surprise that Northern didn’t invite the station master to the ceremony.

I’ve offered the whole package to the Yorkshire Post for its Country Week Saturday magazine but I’m still waiting to hear….

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17/09/2009 by admin.

Continuing the rural idyll, we went to two shows…very different in nature. To be honest the Westmorland Show at Crooklands was too busy and because we didn’t realise how early it started, we were caught in the most horrendous traffic jam. The sun shone and the crowds broke all records. It took us two hours to get there from Staveley, no more than half a dozen miles away – and ten minutes to get back.

When we enquired at the terrier ring about Lakelands, one winner looked at Roxy and said, with all the snobbery and contempt of a working dog owner: “Oh, the way she’s cut, you want the Kennel Club Show over there by the pylon.”

Over there by the pylon turned out to be in a separate field altogether and I wondered why the two events were kept so separate. It was a small affair and by the time we got there, it was winding up. There wasn’t a Lakeland Terrier in sight.

The highlight was a travelling sheep show introduced by a New Zealander living in Dereham, Norfolk…and awfully long way from the Lake District.

He introduced several different breeds, cracked a few jokes, and then sheered a sheep. Brilliant.

The International Sheep Dog Trial at Lowther Park, near Penrith was an altogether quieter affair. We watched one or two of the competitors, getting a free commentary from an old retired farmer from North Yorkshire who knew everyone and how good they were.

Watch a demonstration at the show by a chap from Cheshire at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElVt-RwNRNc

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10/06/2009 by admin.

Very amusing piece on BBC news about their discovery that an MP was being paid by the Caravan Club and asking questions about caravans and the Olympics.

It was a long piece and they had got somebody to drive a Jeep across Westminster Bridge so they could get the House in the background. There must have been a convenient turnaround somewhere because the same car and carvan drove past about six times!

Posted in Media, Travels, Motors, Politics, Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

26/06/2008 by admin.

Having been flooded out of Keswick, rained off at Staveley, I arrive home in Littleborough early from holidays and look at the Environment Agency website to see what I have escaped. There is only one flood warning in force in the country. Guess where?

Littleborough

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23/06/2008 by admin.

I am currently nestling in my caravan at Staveley, near Windermere, in the Lake District - a refugee from the tsunami which hit Keswick.

40 hours of rain!!!!!

A few years ago we left my daughter and her friend in our caravan and went home. This was against the rule that the tow car had to remain on site but we persuaded the wardens to allow it because we had turned up to pitch on a neighbouring Camping and Caravanning Club site and they had lost the booking.

I still remember the phone ringing at 3am …”Dad, we’re being evacuated!”

Of course, they needed us and the towcar to be evacuated so we drove to Keswick through the night and arrived as dawn broke. Our caravan was alone in what had become an extension of Dewentwater, though the flood had, in fact come from the River Greta which feeds the lake. My daughter had placemats made of her photo of the stricken van.

This week was only our third visit to this site. It couldn’t happen again could it? Oh yes it could.

Mrs S took the dogs for a last walk and reported back that the outer reaches of the site, nearest the lake, had been evacuated. I was relaxed, she was in a panic.

I went out about 11.30pm and people were getting restive. I got back and there was a knock at the door. The warden said: “prepare to evacuate!!”

We didn’t have to in the event, though the bags were packed and not much sleep was taken.

It was only in the morning that the true nature of the devastation became clear. Caravans and tents under water, awnings in disarray, campers in disaster mode …bonding in little groups.

We offered to move and the offewr was gratefully accepted, a comparitively dry pitch quite an assett as the wardens set about relocating those whose caravans had to be dragged from the rising waters of the lake.

Here at Staveley, the evening skies are clear and cloudless….and Mrs S is dead to the world!

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22/06/2008 by admin.

What’s the point of having a website if nobody keeps it up to date. I’m sitting here under a flood warning at Keswick in the Lake District. The River Greta could sweep us all into Derwentwater at any time but don’t worry….the Environment Agency floodwatch is on the case.

 Except that when you log on to this location, it says that there is no warning in force….dated January 2008!!!!!!!

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20/06/2008 by admin.

Visit Craster, Northumberland for the best burger van in Britain (www.piperspitch.com). I dined on Auchtermuchty burger (two slices of haggis with bacon in the middle). Mrs S chose buttered Craster kipper in a bun. We wish him well.

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16/06/2008 by admin.

At first sight, there are a lot of hoodies here. Then you realise that they are simply protecting themselves against the midges.

They are shocking this year. We went to Kielder and ended up looking like we’d caught chicken pox. People are sitting outside in the sunshine wearing ballaclavas!!!!!

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