Headcase Henry Does it again

Kelly has a knee Op tomorrow, but she desperately wants a morning out in The Country before she is out of the saddle for months. Brian is coaching (Jockey's at a race meeting).

Lucky me! I get Henry for the morning. I didn't ever expect to be dressing up like this again!

Henry (Smiling)and Harry. With me and Kelly - both grinning from ear to ear!

Mum’s Early Birthday

Mum turned 80 last year. I had planned a really nice present for her, but as her Birthday is in December; events overtook us and Jeff was and had been so poorly that it never came to fruition.

She is staying with us for a while, and although it is a while til her next birthday, we thought we would treat her to an early present this year. Lunch somewhere she won't have been before - although she will have been past so many times over the decades 

Sharrow Bay

We booked a window table

As it happened, it is our wedding anniversary today - so it's a double celebration 

Birthday Girl!

Bucket List Time.

I don’t have a bucket list, but if I did........

I’ve always wanted to ride on the beach. I grew up in the midlands, it wasn’t going to happen!

Nowadays, as well as riding out for James, I do a bit for Brian and Kelly as well. They have a breaking and pre trading yard (Brian is a recently retired Jockey). 

Kelly knew of my childish longing, and had a young horse she is producing that would benefit from the experience, so off we went, me on Headcase Henry (Kelly’s awesome hunter) and Kelly on Harry. Brian and Jeff were on camera duty and Kelly’s girls came along for the fish and chips!

Thanks Kelly, I had a ball!

Haweswater with Mum

There's a drought on, so like all good tourists we take Mum down to see the remnants of the village of Mardale which was flooded to make Haweswater.

So all that way down a one way road, and the very next vehicle to arrive is our friends Keith and Wendy. We couldn't have planned it but neither of us had a clue the others were going!

This should be properly under water

As should this

The old road

Looking up the old road

Zooming in on Keith and Wendy as they walk along the bottom of Kidsty Pike

Mum stands on the bed of Haweswater - it's been dry for long enough for vegetation to start to grow.

The Weeping Window

Mum is staying with us and this coincides with the WW1 Memorial poppies being at Carlisle Castle. A very moving tribute to the hundred's of thousands who lost their lives in the war.

Ed and Gerda at the Seaside

Ed and Gerda are over from Holland for two weeks. They had asked if we could go to Silloth with the dogs. We have Molly staying and nearly left her at home. She loves the seaside but we were worried that 5 other dogs would be too much for her to cope with (she is totally blind). In the end we decided to take her but thought we would probably keep her on the lead - she is sometimes happier if she knows you have hold of her. We underestimated her.

To get a true feel for what an amazing dog she is, have a look at these video clips. Sadly I missed filming her best bit, when she was splashing through the sea for ages at full tilt - but you'll get the idea!

You can't take Dutch friends to Silloth without sampling the local delicacies. It was a beautiful day to sit out and eat our fish and chips

Before picking up some freshly caught (this morning) shrimps.

A Trip to the Dentist

Breeze needed a walk and we had to be in Keswick - two birds with one stone!

Seaside

A bit of paw therapy. Is there any wonder she wears her feet out on the fells? This is how she is all day, no matter what the terrain is!

Click on the link and turn the sound up

Making Progress

It has ben a while since I updated this blog. Mostly that is because there has been no real fell walking. However the whole purpose of this blog is for us to keep a record of things that we want to be able to look back on. So instead of making multiple entries describing how we haven't really been up to much, there now follows a bit of a round up of the last couple of months or so!

6th February 2018 we had an appointment to see Sareth Avula - our Consultant.
Anyone who has lived through cancer will know that these are very scary days. So whilst waking up to a covering of snow wouldn't normally bother is, it did add to the stress a little! However, we took the long way round and arrived at the Hospital in good time. Mr Avula was really pleased - in fact surprised at how well Jeff is doing. He warned us that the effects of the complications and the infections are likely to last quite some time yet but expects that by the end of April, things should be getting back on track. After blood tests etc we walked out of there feeling very relieved. He doesn't want to see us again until August, so that was reassuring.

We have been trying to get Jeff out for a bit of a walk as often as possible, however this winter has not been the most helpful! Feeling the cold more than ever and having very little strength doesn't exactly encourage him out! We set a target a while ago, that once we made it up to Lingy Hut, then he will be ready to tackle small fell walks. This was taken on 19th February, about a mile from the car - the turning point on this occasion. We are a long way from Lingy but also a little bit further than the last time!

23rd Feb and we decided to go up Helton Fell. We call this the Cheats Fell because you can basically drive onto it and then have a fairly level walk

On this occasion Jeff achieved his longest walk Post illness - albeit pretty flat! We paid a visit to our friend Annie whose Ashes we helped to scatter in October 2015

26th Feb. Another day, another walk. A lovely - if cold - day for a change. This is on another of our frequent short walk routes, along Bullfell Beck

Dreaming of the Fells? Or perhaps just smelling a rabbit? Breeze is looking across Bannerdale on our way back down to the car.

The End of Feb and Early March saw quite a lot of snow.

In fact so much snow that we didn't leave the village for 5 days - apart from on foot

Road walking isn't really our thing - but when the roads are blocked......

Then the road is as good as anywhere

At this point someone had admitted defeat and turned round!

 So, we are now into March. Just before Jeff went into hospital we had held a party (a couple of days before in fact). It had been planned since before his cancer diagnosis and we decided to go ahead rather than sit at home worrying. On that night, we declared that we would have a re run when Jeff was through his op - little did we know at that point just how poorly he was going to be.
So fast forward a few months and 10th March seemed like a good date. Jeff is able to cope with an evening of excitement and it is my 50th birthday. So with 25 - 30 of our friends we celebrated both and at the same time said a very big THANK YOU to our wonderful friends for all of their support.
People never fail to surprise me. At the worst time of our lives we have witnessed immense thoughtfulness from so many people, some of whom we wouldn't have considered to be close friends until now. At the same time others, who you thought you would always be able to count on have turned their backs and been vindictive. I hope they can sleep at night.

On 13th March we headed out for a haircut and decided to have a walk on our way back. Parking at Grainsgill Bridge as we so frequently do, we set out towards Lingy - just to see how far we could get.

Whoooop Whooooop. We didn't think we were going to get this far!! Such an amazing achievement. These two mean the world to me and to see Jeff getting his strength back enough to make it up here is amazing. 15 weeks ago, getting out of hospital was looking unlikely. I have always loved this funny little hut, now it will always have a special place in my memory.

We ended up doing a circuit over Coombe Heights. A rare selfie as we get back down to the Cumbria way - 2 very happy people - one of whom is quite tired!!

 Further progress on Fell walks goes back on hold for a while as we head down to Northamptonshire for a meeting with Social services (about Dad) on 15th March

Breeze and Grandma catch up on some sleep

 And from there head on to Lincolnshire for Jeff to catch up with his boys who (other than a visit from them when he was in hospital) he hasn't managed to see since before diagnosis.

16th March. Breeze found a new friend - Chase - while we were staying with our dear friends Simon and Sally

Poor Simon and Sal had to put up with us for an extra day as we couldn't get back into Cumbria on the Sunday as planned. Chase didn't seem to mind as it meant he came for a walk with Simon, Sal, Myself and Breeze in the snow.

 So we made it back to Cumbria and then a few days later we were off back down to Northamptonshire. This time for Dad's 80th Birthday. A lovely Lunch at the Dunn Cow at Dunchurch, followed by a trip round the World Rugby Union Rugby Hall of Fame - in Rugby of all places! Uncle Bri and Aunty Jan came too and we all had a really lovely day.

The following day we headed back home, with Mum who is staying here for a week - hopefully to rest a little.So in the interests of resting, we have not done much worth recording while she has been here - although Easter Sunday, 1st April, we took a trip down to Gelnridding where we gave Breeze a quick run

Before moving on to Patterdale to have a look around the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Base. A really interesting tour. I can't recommend it highly enough and I sincerely hope they raised a lot of money for their efforts.