A Message from Yorkshire

From our holiday cottage in North Yorkshire…! No excuse for the long silence apart from the fact we are away, revisiting old haunts and having a wonderful time catching up with many old – as in longstanding – friends.
Starting and ending our jaunt staying with friends, we are spending a few days on a real busman’s holiday, as guests in a holiday cottage! We are loving the experience, too but with mobile phones and wi-fi are still almost completely in touch (and incidentally, taken four bookings – isn’t modern technology wonderful when it works?!). It has been very salutary being on the other side of the fence and we have picked up one or two hints.
We have done some touristy things: a service and a private tour in York Minster with a friend who is a guide and an extremely knowledgeable one, who had John up a ladder photographing details in the stained glass windows for a talk he is giving next month! The same friends took us to see King Lear, in Leeds, which was terrific (Tim Piggot-Smith as against Ian Mckellen last time we saw Lear).
We also spent a fascinating time at Fountains Abbey, being shown round by a most inspiring guide called Janet. Everything else we have done has been purely social, catching up with lots of friends and eating too much but very delicious food. There are some excellent pubs in the Ripon/Harrogate area as we have learnt!
Check out for us at 10 (hope we’re ready in good time) then a few miles further into N.Yorkshire for our final stint staying with some old friends from Parwich; then home… As things turn out, rather embarrassingly, we are off again at the weekend this time for a cricket reunion lunch for John in London, with wives included I’m glad to say! Meanwhile, thanks to the wonderful Janet and wi-fi all being well all continues perfectly well and normally back at the Orchard Farm ranch in our absence.