Scarecrow scare

A surprise visit by our former Matron of Dishonour was a perfect excuse to visit Kettlewell for the annual Scarecrow Festival and lunch at the Blue Bell. Marie's return visit somewhat delayed as she is such a busy women supporting the Labour Party and Unison retired members in Fife, cut short as she is attending Alex Falconer's (former MEP for Mid-Scotland and Fife) funeral on Tuesday, but crammed a lot in. Arrived last Friday in time for the committee meeting in the Game Cock which became welcome back to Austwick. Skipton market on Saturday with us popping in to "Art in the Pen" at the cattle market. How many folk take a long term vegetarian to the local meat market? We had not seen Marie since leaving Kirkcaldy on 4th october 2010 and Marie had not visited us in Austwick since the previous April, so her returned visit meant we had a lot of catching up to do. As the Scot's say "haste ye back">

Our dear mate from downunder

At long last Robin arrived safe and looking fabulous from Sydney (first class guy in first class travel but let down by British Airways on his travel to Scotland) via Fife! As you can see he was awe-struck at the magnificence of Aysgarth Falls comparing them to the streams used to in Oz! We managed to supply a bit of a bus-man's holiday visiting garden centres, formal gardens in the lake district, especially dramatic being Holehird Garden Centre operated by the volunteers of Lakeland Horticulture Society. Then much to our shame, as after visiting Skipton for many a year we had never had a tour of the Castle, the home of the Clifford family since 1314 but begun being built in 1090! It was an excellent example of a medieval castle in England. So travelling all points of the compass to the village we enjoyed the all too short visit and being joined for the last few days from Andy seen here at Holehird Garden. Morning walks with Winnie and Toby set the scene in and around the village and a couple of visits to the Game Cock completed the North Yorkshire experience. Some rainfall when visiting Kendal did not dampen our joy at having Robin and Andy with us and we hope they enjoyed the experience before they headed off South to experience the Olympic having tickets for the diving! Nor hanging about with plans for seeing some West End shows while in the capital. Robin's travel plans with Andy then include Paris, Versailles, Germany and then back to that first class experience on Quantas! Safe journey and as Frank would say "haste ye back".