Update from Cowan Bridge via Lancaster

24 August - 3 September



The recovery took longer for me than for Brian. I don’t think I started to feel over it until we were about to leave Wivenhoe which we did a week ago. We had three very enjoyable days with Bill who as always was the perfect host. We had a delightful lunch the first day at the Jubilee Cafe and met Bill’s friend Terry O’Brien whom we had heard so much about and then the next day, Billie and Jean took us to a pub not far from Wivenhoe for another delicious lunch. Bill’s other son, Ronnie came around in the evening – to repair Billie’s attempt at fixing the light outside Bill’s back door. I was delighted because it was the first time I had met him.


The trip from Wivenhoe to March went well and we dropped into the Costa Coffee shop at the Tesco store at Ely. Found out there that coffee size as well as food servings are huge. From now on I’ll only be ordering a small coffee. The medium one was about the size of two mugs at home.


Tina and Alan made us feel very much at home. They have been doing some renovations and the new bathroom and kitchen are great. They have a new Jack Russell dog – called Black Jack. He was named by Jodie’s daughter Georgia and I asked her if we could rename him BJ telling her that Aussies always shorten names. She seemed agreeable, but Mason, who is a couple of years younger, was not very impressed. Saying sensibly, I have to admit, that the dog might get confused. However, we both won BJ’s approval, Brian in his self-appointed role of pack leader and me by taking him for a few walks.


We had an Aussie style B-B-Q lunch on Sunday with Danielle and her boyfriend Kenny, Jodie, and Alan and Tina’s delightful 92 year old neighbour, Evan Jones. You won’t be surprised to learn that he was born in Wales and despite having lived in Cambridgeshire for a good number of years has not lost his Welsh accent. He is very fit, totally on the ball and an inspiration to all of us youngsters in our 70s.


After lunch we began the Real Estate tour. Both Danielle and Jodie have new homes and both are impressive. Danielle is buying hers and it looks like a really good investment. It is on a large block of land which in time may be able to be subdivided. Trouble is that Danielle has not proved much of a gardener so far, and it is about waist high with weeds. She says she will get round to doing more soon.


Sunday night we spent some time on a phone call to Peter and Christine in Germany. Great to talk to them and catch up with all their news.


Bank holiday Monday, Alan and Tina took us to the lovely stone town of Stamford. We were really impressed and enjoyed a nice walk with BJ, followed by lunch at The George Hotel. Great place with a lovely open fire where we sat to eat our lunch and drink – a pint of Guinness for Brian and half a pint of Stella for me.


Tuesday went to Peterborough and continuation of the real estate tour when we dropped in on Lynette. She bought her lovely house in the village of Crowland about half way between Peterborough and March about the time we were leaving on our last visit to England 5 years ago. She and Darryl were married soon after and it is really a credit to them.


Wednesday, met up with John and Val Smeed in Kings Lyn. He is the bus driver who picked me up when we were living in Norwich in 1995. I was amazed because all I said to him was “City Centre please” and he recognised my accent immediately. Their son had just moved to Australia and John was delighted to find another Aussie he could talk to. We initially explored the possibility of swapping houses, but couldn’t coordinate the time. Who wants to be in England for the winter? However, whenever they come to Oz, or we come to UK we try to meet up. Both of them looked wonderful and we will hopefully see them again when they visit in 2013.


Thursday was spent having a good long walk around March. I discovered this plaque when I went for a walk earlier in the week and immediately thought that I should write an article in the style of Rupert Murdoch’s journalists who invent the news by creating controversy when none exists. My by-line would be headed:-


Locals angry about antiquarian history and other aspects of how life is going down the drain in this country.


That’s as far as I got but maybe I will spend some time and send it off sometime in the future. I can’t believe how boring the news has become both here and at home. I really used to enjoy both the BBC and ABC news, but now BBC TV repeats the same thing over and over again. My theory is that it is due to the increase in the number of students who do journalism at University and the Rupert Murdoch’s desire for money and power.


Thursday night we had yet another huge meal – this time at the Balti Indian restaurant in March. Tim and Hazel, Linda and Roy, Lynette and Ed’s son Daniel who is now 14 and almost as tall as I am all came. So we have now seen or spoken to all the Smith family descendants with the exception of Simon and his son, initially known as little Charlie (to avoid confusing him with his grandfather) but probably not any longer. Having spent so much time in the past visiting big Charlie, it felt strange to be in March and not be with him. One of the things we really missed was not going to visit the United Services Club – one of his favourite haunts when he was alive.


2 September


We left March around 10.30am and arrived at Cowan Bridge about 4.30 pm after an uneventful trip on the A1 to Knaresborough where we had lunch and then the A65 through Skipton. Met our landlady Sandra and her husband Malik and are very pleased with our home for the next two months. They have done an excellent job in restoring this historic house and we are thrilled with it. It is on a par with the one we had in Alhama de Granada last year and there are many similarities. Very thick walls, a wide staircase and non-symmetrical structure in that the rooms upstairs don’t line up with the ones downstairs. High ceilings, wooden floors with really wide boards and delightfully painted timber doors. The house is really light with lots of windows and lovely views across very green fields with white woolly sheep with black faces.


The Weather


The first week was coolish but grey – we saw the sun a few times, but had more rain than sunshine. Yesterday was fine to begin with, but our first day in the cottage has been wet, wet, wet.


I’m glad we arrived in time to see some beautiful flowers before the summer finally ends. Lovely hanging baskets in the main street in March as well as private gardens, with lots roses, peonies, begonias, hollyhocks and petunias. As we got further north however, most of the flowers are beyond their best, and the first signs of autumn are starting to appear. Buildings covered in deep red ivy and trees that are beginning to loose their leaves.


4 September


Today we awoke to the ‘Wow’ factor; the grey skies and the rain had gone to be replaced with a full blue sky and blinding sunshine.


Not to miss this positive switch in the weather we set off on a local walk up to Leck Fell. We took the road (just a narrow lane really) and walked the 6km to the end of the road which was near the top of the fell. Other walkers had driven up to this point to save time which was why we couldn’t continue as we were uncertain as to how long it would take us to walk up to the cairns of the Three Men of Gragareth; also we needed to consider the 6km return walk down the road. An alternative return option was to walk down from the fell cross country to pick up a track along the beck but with all the recent rain and the area of the fell being a watershed we decided to return half way by road and pick up the track at a lower point. This we did and had a pleasant walk across pastures alongside the beck back to the cottage.


Of course we were back well in time for lunch and so as not to miss the good weather we took off across country to walk to Kirkby Lonsdale via Casterton. We arrived at Devil’s Bridge in time to see all the bikers assembled for their customary Sunday muster. A ‘café-de-wheels’ and an ice cream van supplied their refreshments i.e. no booze. We walked the extra 500m to the pub and enjoyed a pint each. We returned a different way with no track which involved a bit of ‘field bashing’ including some climbing over rusty gates and through a barbed wire fence (safely I might add). Finally we got to the home run down a local road and returned to the cottage just after sunset but before dark.


5 September


Alas the good weather did not last. Showers today so we have been shopping and will now try to post this to the Blog. We have discovered that the walls are so thick mobile reception is only available when we go outside and the same seems to apply to wireless reception for the Internet. A café in Cowan Bridge reportedly will let us have access to their system, so hopefully we will be successful. If not we will have to resort to using the Library Internet service in Kirby Lonsdale which has limited opening hours.

6 September

Wireless not successful so far but we have today travelled to Lancaster and joined the library and have joined the library. So now we have a reserve access to the net if we can't connect through the wireless at the local cafe.

Tried to add a pic here but the 'puter froze on me - I will try and put them in our gallery.