adventures in England ( and Walesand Scotland...)

 We headed South after an afternoon on the velodrome at Glasgow, just over 200miles to near Oldham. Overnight with a cycling friend and off again by 9am...
We stopped for lunch in Leominster (and on the return journey too).
I could spend a day or more there with camera and drawing book....

 We patronized Cafe # 1...a chain started in Cardiff, then taken over by Brains Brewery, also from Cardiff.  Luckily they seem to have changed nothing!
The decor includes sayings.....apt for us and also the Pirate's younger daughter,starting out on a new venture ,moving to the Nederlands....

 Overnight with The Oily One then with the Carpenter (and partner and her son) in convoy to North London  for the Rixon Annual Family Get-together.
There were only just under thirty this year because of birthdays,exams and being on tour....one of our cousins (by marriage...but still One of Us!!) is one of Georgie Fame's Blue Flames, wielding his saxophone. They are on their 50th anniversary tour through May and doing very well.

We escaped London that afternoon and headed for Kent.  There near Ashford we stayed with the Pirate's Nephew and his Wife whilst visiting some of the extended Possee possee.  Help was needed to lift the pea netting protecting the onions and peas from the pigeons and grey squirrels.....

 On our way back West we visited an old cycling team-mate near Maidstone....and here they are in 1958 or 59 with the Pirate doing the pushing off duty at the grass trackmeet in Faversham

 They raced tamdem time trials together too..and were beaten by not much over a minute for first place (they were third)

 Back to Wales to celebrate the Oily One's 34th birthday with the Carpenter's partner and family....and see friends....one with a few cars.....

 then a pub lunch in Llangynidr...

 before meeting Baxter

 and The New Cat...

 went for a walk and saw a path worn by a brock....

 and the wind waving the grass

 It was good to relax with friends and make plans...then the next day head North again...360 miles in one day this time, the longest stretch.
Back again via Leominster, heading up the A roads via Hereford and through Shropshire and not seeing Motorways until the M56 that goes across from North Wales to Manchester. A quick hop to the M6 , a break in the next services before our usual stop in Westmorland at Tebay.
I managed a quick snap of this clubrun before they moved on

Back into Scotland and we changed our usual route...up to Thornhill for a break before having what we thought was a quick look at a possible new home....

Through Sanquhar and Kirconnell,then turn off up a lane...which after half a mile straight up a slope, changed to a gravel/stone road....
I said,turn back....but we tried a little more.
Then we met another vehicle...a large 4x4....and enquired did he know the cottage......yes...he had just moved out after living there for 45 years or more, working as a shepherd..and it was three miles further up the track...

We couldn't refuse the offer to see the cottage so followed him carefully up the rutted stone surfaced track, up and down,over bridges and cattle grids,thinking of gravel roads in New Zealand.....

The house and garden would have been ideal....four miles nearer the village!!
Apart from no signal of any kind, the track would have been hard on any vehicle and 4 wheel drive would be 100% necessary.  The main weather problem, apart from track washouts, would not be snow, but ice....on the last half mile of tarmacked road!!  Only once had they been stuck out there...but that was for a month.
The shepherd's employer had insisted that he moved nearer Sanquhar...good for him....and this is the first time that this cottage will have been let...IF they can find a tenant....
A definite NO...from both of us....so we're still looking!!

We had left South Wales by 10am...and arrived home at 9.30pm....not so tired as you'd think,because we'd kept the journey interesting