Jane returned to her childhood stomping ground, Wilmslow, as we stayed with her close school friend of 60 years, Hilary and her husband Peter. Despite Jane immigrating to Australia in 1968, they have kept in close contact all those years with Jane visiting several times. Peter and I watched the Ashes Test, and it was, “You Bloody Beauty”, as Australia won in a nail-biter. One up. Enough said, as there’s four to go. We were taken to Sutton Hall, a one-time manor and convent built in the middle 16th century by Ralph Sadleir, a close aide of Thomas Cromwell in the court of King Henry VIII, on the Macclesfield Canal, for an absolutely delicious goodbye dinner. Conversation flowed freely. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with Hilary and Peter and for Jane in particular it is ... read more

Outdoors began with a 5-6km beautiful return walk through cow territory to Tarn House overlooking the glacial lake of Malham Tarn at 377m above sea level, the highest in the UK, and one of only 8 upland alkaline lakes in Europe. It was very windy indeed however the sun was already strong. We met and struck up conversation with a young couple, well most people we meet on walks are younger, who had a whippet with them. Our son Tom and his wife Whitney have just got one too. A slow drive on a one lane that took us down and then high through sheep farmland until we reached Grassington, home to the fictional market town of Darrowby in the new series of “All Creatures Great and Small.” How fortunate were we … filming was occurring ... read more

It didn’t take much to notice the wide, open valley of Wensleydale and its rounded hillocks, the fields squared with stone fences. I love ‘em. We drove through numerous small, stone villages with dry stone walls. We are fortunate to have our lodgings in Bainbridge just metres from the River Ure. The pastures are lush on the lower slopes, so it is no surprise that milk cows are the number one priority. Upper slopes are drier, so sheep dominate. Wensleydale is home to the Wensleydale Creamery, source of the world-famous Wensleydale cheese. We took the very short drive to Askrigg for dinner as it had been recommended to us by our host. We chose the Crown Inn and weren’t disappointed with its warmth of welcoming and our meal. The Yorkshire Dales Brewery is also in this ... read more

Oh, we are having such easy pace days. With so many small villages along the roads less travelled to our destinations, we continually stop to explore which entails chatting to locals about all sorts of things, photographing the sites be they historical, current, funny, different or informative, having coffee and cake and wine(s) and food, walking the streets high and low, long and wide, hillside, beachside, streetside and even inside as locals can’t resist my charm! We spent time in the beautifully kept village of Dirleton because Marjorie Stewart, a very good friend of ours, spent her childhood there, as her father was the primary school principal. Jane phoned her from the village green. Berwick was another long stopover and a place we could have again spent a few extra days. Time, the bane of travelling. ... read more

Shetland is ideal for anyone wanting remote. At a steady pace we went remote again today. Photographing, walking, conversing with locals, oowwwing and aahhing at scenery and the cute lambs were common occurrences throughout the day culminating with a seafood lunch with the trimmings at Dan Haaf in Scalloway. Scalloway was also the scene for meeting the crew of a mussel boat as we watched it dock, fully laden with 28 tonnes of mussels. Shetland produces over 75% of the UK’s mussel production. The Shetland visit wouldn’t be complete without Jane purchasing puffin memorabilia. She did. I settled for an ice-cream. For three whole days our visit on Shetland has been a thoroughly enjoyable, fun-filled learning experience. We’ve upgraded to a cabin with ensuite so should sleep overnight on the 12 hour ferry journey to Aberdeen ... read more