Paddy

He is a shining coat of sleek black fur. He is a hearty appetite and a loving companion. He spends his evenings lying in front of the fire and his nights on the sofa when everyone has gone to bed and he thinks we don't know he is there. Everything in our house belongs to him and he is always keen to explore with his mouth. Logs are regularly pulled out of the wood basket and chewed, with little telltale remains left lying on the carpet. If the kitchen door opens he springs to his feet to find out what tasty morsels might be up for grabs. Should any stranger have the gall to venture up our drive he is there at the window barking at the top of his holler, daring them to come a step closer. 

Paddy has been with us since the end of July. He trotted into our kitchen as a trim little nine week old puppy. Mother Tilly is half black Labrador and half Border Collie; Dad Buddy is all black Labrador and we were besotted at first sight. Couldn't say no to him. We had a week away in Wales at the beginning of the summer holiday and collected him from Raughton Farm as soon as we got back. Those first few days were all puddles and cuddles as he got to know his way round our house and all its two-legged occupants. We soon understood how long he could go between pees and managed to avoid the accidents until he was pretty much fully house trained by the time school started again in September. It seemed we had to wait an eternity before we could walk him, as we needed to wIt until the middle of August when he had had his vaccinations and waited the required period. Finally we were able to take him on a walk. But what was this? Only ten minutes? The Kennel Club recommends five minutes per month of age for the first year. This means a three month old puppy can have a fifteen minute walk and a seven month old can go out for thirty-five minutes at a time. I was so keen in August that it was very difficult to limit the walks to ten minutes. 

Now that he is nearly eight months old he has two walks of almost two miles each per day. I wake at six thirty and by six fifty we are outside in all weathers. The quality of darkness varies so much at that time of day; on a rain sodden morning the darkness covers everything and there is no glimmer of light to help us find our way. Other days the sunrise in the east lets us pick out the silhouettes of buildings and trees and the sky is delicately streaked with greys and pinks and yellows. We walk together to Orchard Cottage, Paddy biting at the lead and stopping to examine any new smells along the way. Despite the early hour we meet several vehicles on the main road, their bright headlights announcing them before they reach the corner. Once we reach Orchard Cottage we set off down the quiet back lane and I let him off the lead. He stays for a moment and then hurries off to look at sheep or roll in fox dung or see if he can get through the gap in the fence. The same gap he tried yesterday and the day before and the day before that. I keep him in sight and whistle him if I can't find him. In the beam of my torch his eyes shine back like jewels dancing in the distance. Every so often I call him to me to get a treat and then he hastens away again. 

This week he brought me a fish from the river. I had read that Labradors can be trained to retrieve fish from the sea. He is a very keen swimmer and is not daunted by the cold waters of the Caldew in the depths of a Cumbrian winter. He loves to go after sticks in the river and drop them at the waters edge. If there are no sticks he enjoys chasing the water and having a good bark at it. Most mornings we will walk near the river and he usually has a short dip. While we were walking along the mill stream the other morning he disappeared under a small stone bridge for a few minutes. I stood calling and whistling, wondering where he could be, when he suddenly emerged from the water. I offered him a treat and he dropped a silvery fish at my feet. About ten inches long, it landed with a resounding slap on the ground.

Garden

A year ago our garden was littered with debris from the builders and the weeds were running wild. We spent a lot of time in August levelling the ground, filling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with good topsoil from a large, unruly heap under the cherry tree and spreading it around the garden more evenly.

Once this was done I sowed two packs of phacelia seed all over the new expanse of bareness. It germinated well and by October it was was knee-high, where it stayed all through the winter. About six weeks ago the first delicate, pale purple flowers began to appear on the now waist-high plants. My intention in planting them was to give a good ground cover through the winter and then dig the whole lot in come the spring. But they are just too pretty to dig in, so I have kept about twelve square feet of them. The scent is not overwhelming but very lovely and the mauve flowers have attracted dozens of bees to our patch. I didn't expect the bees to visit in such big numbers, but on a sunny afternoon it is really relaxing to watch them at work.

I spent most of my Easter holiday clearing a space for a lawn and some vegetables. The grass is growing well now and ready for its first cut, and the runner beans, lettuce and rhubarb look fairly good. I'm looking forward to seeing those bright, scarlet blooms on the beans in a couple of months.

We also have a trampoline-sized hole in the garden, just beyond the new lawn. Steve spent hours digging it out. The trampoline fits inside it well and it means that the children do not have so far to go before they hit the ground if they bounce off it at the wrong angle. But in the long term the hole in the ground will become a pond once the pair of them tire of jumping around on a springy circle.

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Posted By Blogger to kith & kin on 6/07/2014 05:53:00 pm

The truth about swans

My ten year old stood and watched a swan preening itself on the choppy, chilly waters of Talkin Tarn this morning. He was thoroughly engrossed for a few minutes, and as we continued on our way round the lake he asked if people kept swans as pets. So we quickly replied that the Queen keeps them and they all belong to her. Then came the inevitable "why?" followed by much scratching of heads and shrugging of shoulders. It's like that moment on QI when you know you have just said something and actually, erm, it might just be one of those urban myths.

So I decided to check out the truth about swans and the Queen. And I didn't even need to wade into the murky waters of Wikipedia as the first site that came up was The British Monarchy. 

During the 12th century the Crown claimed ownership of all mute swans. In those days swans were a delicacy at banquets, so the royals wanted all of them for themselves. Well, you would, wouldn't you?

Today all mute swans in open water still technically belong to the monarch, but the Queen, God bless her cotton socks, only exercises her right to them on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries.

Each summer considerable pomp attaches to a ceremony known as Swan Upping, where various costumed officials row the Thames on six skiffs for five days, counting swans and cygnets. The cygnets are weighed and measured and swans are given a health check. School children are invited to take part in this historical ceremony. 

I wonder if I will remember all this next time someone asks me why swans belong to the Queen.

Merry Christmas to you all and if we didn't see you in 2013 we will try and get your way next year.

Summer

After a hot, dry July it was a relief to have some rain early in August. Despite the showers, the heat persisted; not having to work in an airless classroom made the hot weather far more enjoyable, and we had a few trips down to the Caldew with Sam's new tractor tube, and cooled off, Cumbrian style, in enviably clear and cool waters. The children squealed with laughter and howled with shock as if they were still toddlers.

We decided we really needed a family holiday. Steve moved into his shop three or four years ago and has only had a handful of days off since then. We booked a ferry from Poole to Cherbourg and loaded the car with enough clothes to last a couple of weeks and headed south. Driving in France was so relaxing after the mayhem of the M6 on the first Friday of August. Quiet, straight roads and a good map reading team were just the thing and we made good progress down through Normandy and the Loire Valley before reaching the sunflower strewn hills of the Charente. It was good to catch up with Mum, Jo, Daz, Dan and Isobel and we enjoyed great hospitality in Mum's new house. Polly, Sam and Izzy discovered much in common and enjoyed some marathon sketching sessions, and we all got involved in some fiercely competitive games of Bananagrams.

Now we are back home and the last week of the holidays is slipping away as we see to stocks of wood for the winter and finish flattening the heaps of dug out soil in the garden and shaping new flower and vegetable beds. As well as trips out into the lovely lakes and a few early morning runs each week. September is only a whisper away and we will soon be back in the busy routine of term time.

Taiwan Blog

 

Polly's trip to Taiwan seemed like months away for ages and it has sneaked up on us in the last few weeks. Here she is with bff Maia this morning waiting for the bus to pick them up in Penrith. And they look rather good in their peacock blue hoodies. Despite the early hour and very cold morning.

So they will be arriving in Taipei tomorrow afternoon (local time) which will be about 6am here. And they are writing a blog while they are away so for more news of what they get up to you can check http://www.cumbriataiwan.blogspot.com/ which I believe will be updated regularly. (Just in case she doesn't get round to writing postcards to you all.)

She will have some utterly memorable experiences and I am very happy to be able to let her have this opportunity. But I am her mum so I will miss her enormously and be happier still when she comes home in 12 days time.

Nina

Stray kittens don't come along very often. And, being fairly helpless, furry young mammals, they are very hard to resist.  Add to that the clamours from one's own human offspring, and there was no way this little bundle of fluff was ever going to leave when she found us on Friday.

She has gained weight and confidence. And she shows no favouritism in the family. She is resting her front paws on my left hand as I type this with my right index, and purring peacefully. Her once dirty and matted coat is now soft and looks a great deal whiter. After all the stroking and food and love she has received she is definitely looking and feeling a lot better. Polly has proved to be an expert at spotting and picking off ticks. We have lost count of how many ticks have embedded themselves in Nina and gorged themselves on her blood and Polly has calmly taken on the role of tick nurse.

Nina has befriended all the humans in the house. The remaining challenge for her is to win over Mouser, who has enjoyed unchallenged dominion here for some five years.

moving in

It's almost like moving house. We have two whole rooms to play with! We ate our first meal in the new kitchen on Sunday December 23rd. It was rather chilly, as we had left the door between the sitting room and new kitchen shut, thus preventing any warm air from the sitting room woodburner from getting in to heat the kitchen. So we ate quickly and retreated back to the warmth of the old house. On Christmas Eve we left the kitchen door open and the kitchen warmed up nicely. It is so well insulated that the warm air stays in here. We are gradually moving furniture out of the old kitchen and into the new, and enjoying the way things are beginnining to look. Lots of people have dropped in and admired the height and size of the kitchen. The oak purlin in the vaulted roof has attracted many admiring looks and we have been told that the new back door is American oak. The floor is reclaimed Canadian maple, the slates on the roof are second hand Welsh and the music and cuisine are typically from all over the world.



Looks good, but very high maintenance

We were given a very pretty Victorian fire place by a neighbour from Dalston several years ago. It has been kept dry and clean in the shed since then and Steve was very keen to install it in the kitchen. We have lit it a few times and it draws well, but unfortunately most of the heat goes straight up the chimney. It also requires constant attention, so it is coming out and we will fit a small woodburner instead.



The wardrobe sits against what was the outside wall of the house. We have kept the original crazy tiling and rendering.

We have also spent four nights in our new bedroom. I love this bedroom. It is well lit and far bigger than we thought it was going to be. There is a gorgeous smell of oak from the window frame and Steve and Polly laid the maple floor in there too. Once they started on the floor they both found it very rewarding and enjoyable. They further tested their ability to work  together by taking the wardrobe to bits and rebuilding it downstairs. It is perfect and fits very snugly at the far end of our room. There is a spacious loft space above our room. Various options for this have been mooted, but we haven't decided what to do with it yet.

Window removed from thick clay walls

Looking into the kitchen through newly made doorway

And the window made its way into our bedroom.

The house has changed so much and we are really looking forward to welcoming you to it. So next time you are up our way, please come and say hello!

Almost December

It cannot be possible that a whole six weeks have passed since last I blogged. So many things have happened since then.

First, I have joined the newly formed Carlisle Community Choir. We meet to rehearse on Sundays in a warm and bright church on Wigton Road. We being a group of about 50 enthusiastic singers, men, women and children. The men and children are vastly outnumbered by the women and of the three tenors only one is a bona fide male. We are practising for a Christmas Carol Service in December. Our programme ranges from Away in a Manger  through In the Bleak Midwinter to Torches. And, most impressively, we are privileged to be led by Andrew Nunn whose Glasgow choir Les Sirènes won Choir of the year at the Festival Hall about a month ago. I think we are all expecting great things of him and ourselves now. You can catch him winning and get a sense of his exuberance if you watch Choir of the Year on BBC  iPlayer. It was shown this evening on BBC4 so will be available for the next 7 days.

Last Friday the school wholeheartedly embraced Children in Need. We dispensed with uniform for the day  - except for the staff who came dressed as overgrown schoolchildren for the day. St Michael's has Talent was held and Sam and his friends Josh and Max, performing as JMS, were selected for the finals in front of the whole school. Sam bravely sang on his own and impressed quite a few with his sweet voice. You can see pictures of the day on the school website. Keep scrolling down the page to see Sam.

Our building work is almost at an end. We have a fully tiled roof (at last) and the windows are fitted. Both rooms are almost fully plastered and we are waiting for a joiner to come and hang the doors - yippee! I will not tempt fate by mentioning any dates or deadlines. Rest assured I will let you know when we move in. Tomorrow I will be in the company of a paintbrush and some white emulsion while we still have a scaffolding tower in the new kitchen.

After running 3 times a week through the summer I lapsed in September. In October half term I treated myself to a little iPod shuffle and started running again. I am using a great little podcast from the NHS. Couch to 5K aims to get you running 5km in 30 minutes after 9 weeks. I'm now about to start week 4 and am coping okay. The lady with the friendly-but-firm voice talks you through when to walk and when to start running, but her input is fairly minimal and the rest of the time is filled in with music to run to and music to walk to. The mix of music is quite varied, and because you only listen to each podcast 3 times you don't really have time to get bored with it. Trying to find time to fit in a run is the hardest part really. It's dark when I get up but if I leave the house at 7 o'clock it is getting light by then. I ran past a field of slumbering sheep when I set out the other morning and came home half an hour later to a lovely rosy sunrise.

And the other thing I have been busy with is teaching myself Spanish. I am running a Spanish club at school and am about 5 lessons ahead of the children. I love the sounds of Spanish and am enjoying teaching it. I think it helps my teaching to be put in the position of learner again and because I am not fluent I speak more slowly and have to stop and think before I respond which is probably a good thing. Does anyone have any tips for learning Spanish for me?

Does anyone recognise this shop door?

autumn life

It has been a hectic few months. Work on our building progressed very steadily throughout July and August and we (Judy, Sam and Polly) spent hours in the garden. There were slates to move, pallets to split into kindling, logs to stack, windows to paint, plaster boards to fetch and carry and doors to buy. As well as all the normal routine things. Oh yes, and insurance claims to deal with after someone ran into the back of our little Fiat Seicento (RIP) one morning in August. Sadly it was written off. Sadly because we'd had lots of adventures in it and although it was showing signs of age we weren't quite ready to part company. However, the replacement Fiat Punto (also red) is a great car and the back doors are a godsend on wet, windy mornings as I don't have to queue up to get into the car any more.

At the beginning of term work stopped on the extension. We finally got an estimate for the work from Mally, and began the process of applying for a loan so we can complete the job! And then we're hoping to see more of Mally and the boys this month and next so they can finish slating the roof, put the ridge tiles and gutters up, add the chimney pot to the top of the chimney, seal a few leaky joints with lead, render the exterior and then finish plastering inside before hanging the doors and windows and finally making a doorway into our new kitchen so we can get into it! It is going to be lovely, lovely, lovely. Our new bedroom will have morning sunshine to wake us and there will be morning and afternoon sun in the kitchen as its windows look east and south. It will be good to have it weatherproof at last.

And I have started my new job. I love it. I'm kept busy and every day is quite different. It is a real advantage to be able to observe other teachers and I have learned a lot from seeing how other people teach, what they teach and how they manage difficult situations in the classroom. So the learning curve is quite steep and I haven't had time to do much other than eat, sleep, work and catch up on chores at home.

I hope you are all well - the blog has been quiet lately. Any news anyone?

windows ready to hang

Afternoon in the kitchen

You can see the shape better now the leaves are falling

View from the back

Way in to the kitchen

A sunnier look at the outside



happy birthday, sam!

progress

We can finally give you an update on the extension. After a few months of stalling the builders have come up with the goods and the walls have started to rise around the back of the house. A scaffolding tower has appeared and the cat has started walking through the house leaving cementy footprints wherever she goes.

We are all mighty relieved. The building will not be ready in time for our Taiwanese guest who is coming to stay for two nights next weekend, but we are hoping to be warming the house before the end of the year. Tornadoes, monsoons and other unlikely weather permitting!



Five days ago a single skin went up.



Fireplace in the back wall of the kitchen

In addition to this I have a new job starting in September. I am continuing at St Michael's school in Dalston (where Sam still goes) as German teacher and will make up my hours as an HLTA (Higher Level Teaching Assistant) and receive a full time salary. I am really excited and looking forward to the challenge.

spring blossoms

Spring has come early this year! Despite yesterday's snow and an unwelcome drop in temperature over the last few windy days the flowers in the garden are doing very well. Double blossoms on the Japanese flowering cherry, plenty of daffodils up the drive and even the tiny little daffodils which I forgot to plant until a few weeks ago are showing plenty of bright spring colour.

signed and sealed

The groundworks are just about complete. Having put the drive back together after installing all the drainage pipes, it was all systems go again two weeks ago when Rob came round with his mini-digger and dug another deep trench to house the pipe carrying mains water to the new kitchen. We laid a drawbridge across the gap outside the front door for a few days and I spent hours riddling stones out of the pile of rubble that was dumped on the drive. Then re-laying the drive with the stones and topping them off with the sifted topsoil. All was looking fairly presentable and I was quite chuffed with my first efforts at landscaping.


And then along came Mally with spades and a pick. And the trench with the drainage pipe in was dug up again. He has poured in a covering of concrete to protect the pipe from vehicles using the drive. Lately there have been none, but it is undoubtedly wise to take this precaution, as the previous drainage pipe collapsed because of traffic on the drive.

So we are another small step nearer to our kitchen and bedroom extension. It has been a sunny week this week and the whole area out there has been absolutely flooded with sunshine. The cherry is about to burst into blossom and I found some forgotten daffodil bulbs in the shed. They have tried to grow and are very poor stunted little specimens. About three inches at the most, and without leaves, but still on the point of flowering. I've planted them, in the hope that they will do better next year.

moving the earth

We managed to press-gang a couple of kids into helping out this afternoon so now the back drive is usable again. It was dug up in January for a drainpipe to go the full length of the drive, as in the last few years there have been quite substantial puddles up there on rainy days. Steve and Polly riddled the pile of rubble that was standing on the new kitchen floor. Polly barrowed the finer soil out and raked it out. We now have a lovely tilth where I used to park the car and I am tempted to throw a packet of wildflower seeds over it. Sam's job was grading the stones in the trench, putting the big ones at the bottom and the smaller ones on the top. They both did a good job and I think they enjoyed being involved, once they got stuck in. They are now watching The Golden Compass and about to tuck into a helping of treacle tart. Deservedly so.

Click here for more pictures from our afternoon's work.

Co-authors

I've made a slight change to this blog. Up till now I've been the only blog author, but have now sent invitations to Valda, Christopher, Jo, Justine, Dan, Toby, Ruth, Will, Sarah and Clara to become co-authors. This means that you will be able to post photos, news and so on. I have changed the privacy settings so that the blog readership is effectively restricted to its authors. You should all have received an invitation to contribute to this blog and I really hope you do as I'd like to open it up a bit and swap news with you all.

Check your inbox for a message from me!

boxing day boys

Can you see the cobwebs blowing away? A wild and windy walk on Burgh Marsh this afternoon was just the tonic we needed after yesterday's feasting. And yes you can pig out on nut roast with divinely roasted potatoes (even if I do say so myself).

another picture of our house

Unfortunately no real progress since last time I posted but I thought you might like to see a picture of the extension and the back of our house in its winter coat.A dusting of snow early on Friday morning which lasted all weekend but has now melted. If you look at the bottom right hand panel in the back door you can see Mouser's catflap. It is made of a piece of denim cut out of some old jeans, so the wind has cheekily been whistling through the flap. We now have a big warm cosy curtain hanging up in the kitchen - so yah boo to the wind!

not just a pretty face

The Gwen Lattimer Prize 2011 for Attitude and Sevice was awarded to Polly this morning. As well as bringing home a book token she also has a certificate with a citation extolling her virtues. If you don't mind, I will share it with you.

"for the positive attitude she adopts to all aspects of school life, earning her the respect of her peers and staff alike; for her contribution to charity, completing a bike ride to raise money for Japan, as well as helping wheelchair users at the hospital; for her constant determination to succeed academically at school, never giving less than her best; for her frequent involvement in extra-curricular activities, including being a school librarian."


Mr Hamilton, Head of Year, also praised her maturity and said what an exceptional person she is and a real asset to the year group.  Big smiles all round, and many congratulations to Polly.

welcome, gabriel!

Living in the far north of England whilst much of my extended family are much further south means that we have got used to driving long distances for short breaks. Last weekend I think we set a record even for ourselves, going to London and back (660 miles) in about 32 hours! We left home on Saturday afternoon and were treated to a slap-up meal in Amersham the same evening. Chris made us most welcome and we spent a really comfortable night at his house. The little red Fiat proved its mettle by continuing on Sunday morning through central London and over the Vauxhall Bridge to Brixton. The beautifully lit Corpus Christi church saw Gabriel christened before we all made our way to Sarah and Simon's home for a very relaxed and nourishing late lunch in excellent company! It was really lovely to see everyone and to catch up with the ever expanding family.

visit by dan and isobel