I've not added anything to this for 2 main reasons,
1. we haven't been out on the boat this year
2. I tried to put some stuff on with my ipad and couldn't load pictures

so... I've got my old laptop out of retirement to see if it works, here goes...

We had a trip to Canada this May and much to the locals surprise they had a late snowfall, much to our delight! It was like being in the middle of a Christmas card!

We stayed at Banff and this was the view as we were going up the cablecar to the top of Sulphur mountain. The views were unbelievable from the top and the sun came out and clouds kept skidding across the sky, quite magical.

We saw lots of wildlife and this one one of the first eagles we saw - I ended up getting quite bored with them after a while - just another eagle! yawn, yawn. Same with ospreys! sad but true, now back on the marina surrounded by wretched Canada geese (which we saw few of in Canada, they're all over here) I'd love to see an eagle, highly unlikely I suspect.

after nearly a week of staying in Banff and then Jasper we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer and here we are waiting to board it. I have to say this was an amazing experience and if you have an opportunity to do it then GO FOR IT - and do the gold - it's really worth every penny. The service was outstanding and the views were out of this world.

 

This is from the inside of the observation car that we travelled in and you can see the front of the train as it curves around a corner! you also get a glimpse of the countryside!

as we approached Vancouver we saw the logs being loaded down the river - such an iconic sight!

a bit dim because it was evening, but this is Vancouver from our hotel window. Vancouver was lovely - a really nice city and the positioning of the hotel was ideal. no more than 10 minutes from the harbour, 2 minutes from the bus stop, over the road from a mall and the shops were right there!

From Vancouver we caught a boat - the Zuiderdamm - to travel through the Inside Passage up to Alaska (it really was the holiday of a lifetime). Here is the harbour just as we were about to depart! We had a room with a balcony which was wonderful - very extravagant, but we got to the point when we'd spent that much what did a bit more matter?

an 'artistic' view through one of the outside openings on the boat of one of the many islands we passed on our way.

standing on the stern of the boat watching the wake and suddenly realising that it was wider than our boat is long! Strange but true (both us thinking it and the fact! well I know what I mean!)

First stop was Juneaux, and this is our boat in harbour! quite a size. Don't the mountains look lovely in the background? I'm pleased I'm doing this it's bringing it all back to me!

We went with our good friends Susan and Malcolm and here are John and Susan coming out of the Saloon. It was wonderful inside with all manner of memorabilia and items of interest (some somewhat dubious) attached to the walls and ceilings. It was packed and the floor was covered in sawdust and the serving wenches were all dressed in appropriate attire. It had come highly recommended and was worth a visit.

The architecture was all very what you'd expect it to be. Lots of wood and looking as if it's straight out of an old western. The sidewalks were all wooden and the background scenery was beautiful. This is Skagway, the most northern town we visited. We took a trip on a minibus up into the mountains to see the trail that the old gold-diggers used in the Ukon gold rush that used this town as it's starting point. There are some wonderful tales to be told and the conditions they had to live in were barbaric. So many died and when you see where they had to travel and what they had to carry, you can understand why.

This is looking over the White Pass that now had a rail track but in the gold rush years (1897/98) they had to walk up here on a track barely visible below it, this in the snow carrying 1 ton of supplies each in relay. They weren't allowed to start off without enough clothes, food, building supplies etc to last a year as there were no shops or opportunities to get anything once they'd left Vancouver to travel up the coast.

The snow was starting to melt during our stay and his was one of many waterfalls taking the melt down the mountains to join the rivers and sea. Some were amazing and really needed a video to capture the incredible height of them reaching from high precipices and tumbling down the rockfaces.

the highlight of the whole trip for me was Glacier Bay. Here you can see the exact moment when a chunk of ice falls after thousands of years, into the sea. The scope of the place is not something that you can capture on a camera. We were well out to sea and this glacier face was huge. The noises coming off the glacier were really moving. You could hear grindings and moanings as it slowly ate it's way through the rock and then as it starts to break up, you hear occasional sounds like pistol shots and then, if you're lucky you see the ice fall. I stayed watching it for 30 minutes on my own on our balcony and have to admit to crying at the beauty of it all.

I have more but must get on and do something now. I promise I'll get back and put some more on in the near future, but at least you know we're still alive and well.

30th Oct.'13

The whole country was waiting for the big storm - St. Jude - to arrive at the weekend, but I'm glad to say we saw nothing of it up here. We'd been down to Somerset to visit Chloe and Sam in their new flat at Castle Cary and the drive down on Friday night was horrific. Lots of traffic and then lashings of rain and wind as we hit the bits of roads we didn't know.

I forgot to take any pictures so you'll just have to believe we had a good time! We visited Clarke's Village on Saturday and I was successful in getting a new pair of boots and a dress (for next years holiday!). We met Sam's mum, Rose, who was lovely and then in the evening we drove over to Rachel's to have a meal with the family there. Cue for more lashings of rain and wind which made us think that the coming storm was going to be nasty so we were pleasantly surprised by the easy journey home on Sunday.

Apart from a bit of rain overnight and some not too heavy winds on the Monday that was it really.

Somehow or another we have been delegated to write the quiz for the marina this month. I volunteered to do 'one in the future' but that was enough! I'm quite looking forward to it actually although I'm appreciating how difficult it is to get the right level. I don't want everyone to get top marks but then I also don't want to alienate everyone by setting it so hard they all feel bad about it.

We are sorting out the grocery list for Christmas - how many potatoes do 16 people and 2 toddlers eat? more to the point how much wine do we need for lunch? I shall err on the plentiful side I think.

17th Oct.'13

Happy Birthday to Jamie - a teenager today!

This was from our day out with Jan and Rog on the railway! We did a quick 5 minute trip up the hill and there was a path leading up further - we'll bring Paddy up one day next summer and walk it as it looked rather interesting.

I forgot to mention in the last blog that we'd had our solar panels fitted. Here's Tim who did a wonderful job attaching them to our roof. We can now go out next summer in the knowledge that we'll have enough power as they seem very efficient. Onboard solar if anyone's interested, a quick and professional job, simples!

The sun going down over the Yorkshire Dales. It was really beautiful and we had a good walk that evening.

Just one of the many pictures of the water in the gorge - this is where it emerges from a narrow crack in the rock and joins the main stream that has come under the road. It's hard to capture the beauty of the place.

Looking down from the road towards the campsite. We are just to the side of the telegraph pole almost obscured by a tree!

I'm standing on a bridge and behind me is towards the scene of John's falling in episode!

...and here he is - dripping wet from his unexpected dip! The small trunk you can see in the water alongside him is what he used to rescue his hard-hat from further downstream where it was merrily floating away on it's own little adventure.

 

York is such a stunningly beautiful city and I have countless pictures of the Minster and the walls but here's one of the river. This reminds me of a trip that my Mum and I did to York back in 1985 and we took a trip on a boat similar to this. It was quite cold and I have memories of drinking rum and black at the bar on-board to keep the chill out! It was a lovely weekend.

This guy in the Golden Fleece should have had the Steak and Stilton pie like I did. It was worth going back to York just to have another portion of it. mmmmmm.

Here's the pub, allegedly the most haunted in the City. I love the fact that it looks so small from the outside but then it goes back and back and back for ages. Apparently this is very typical of the width that identifies original ancient dwellings.

Last weekend we went back to the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway for a fish and chip special.

The weather was foul but Helen and Lloyd were enjoying their supper so much the chips were a blur! £7.50 for the train ride and a fish and chip supper each, it can't be bad can it? We would definitely do it again but maybe in the summer next time, when you can see outside a bit more.

I'm off to a wool show this weekend at Bakewell and then we're going down to see Chloe and Sam in their new flat the following weekend so busy times ahead.

11th Oct.'13

Yet again a busy few weeks since I was last blogging. Retirement is really quite frantic I'm finding, but IMMENSELY enjoyable!

Jan and Rog came up to the Bubble once again, but unlike previously we were unable to take the boat down to moor there as it was so busy! Couldn't believe it when we checked and found not a space to be had, luckily we did this before taking the boat down. Everything worked though, just a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in the car, but it wasn't a problem. Luckily they are Strictly fans as well so both evenings we managed to watch the first 2 programmes of the new series. Sad but true.

On the Saturday we went up to the dales and after a lunch at Masson Mills (one of Arkwrights original cotton mills, for those who don't know) we went to Wirksworth and caught a little train down to Duffield and back. It was a lovely trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Jan, Rog and John about to board the train! it was strange actually because the rail had been build to a wider gauge than normal so there were more seats than you'd usually expect. We've been on plenty of narrow-gauge rails in the past but never a wide one before.

 

once again photos are taking forever to upload so I'll try again later.

 

I spent a few days down with Rob and Michelle caring for Halden who was a bit poorly and had forgotten how exhausting it was to be a full time child-carer. I'm definitely too old to do it now for more than a short spell!

 

Then John and I went off to Yorkshire for a break (this life is tiring, I've mentioned it before and you need a break occasionally!)

 

We went first to Nidderdale which was wonderful. It was a lovely campsite, although John did moan a bit about the narrowness of the lanes leading to it. He got over it though and we are likely to go back. Just up the road from us was the Hay Stean Gorge, a pretty little hidden gem that we went to and had a wonderful time struggling along the slippery paths and exploring the cave on our own. I'm sure Jamie would have loved it!

 

We had a bit of an incident when we went along a bit that turned out to not be on the map for the general public when John slipped (almost elegantly....well not at all elegantly actually) and fell into the water backwards! Apparently it was very cold. He lost his hard hat when he fell and unlike most people who would have left it for a professional to retrieve, he had to continue slipping his way along the edge with a very large piece of wood and managed to retrieve the hat from where it had bobbed happily along to. We had been laughing at the groups of youngsters who'd been doing adventure stuff along the gorge and all the girls screaming, well they had nothing on the noises that John produced when he went in. I have to say he came out impressively quickly. Photos to follow!

 

After a couple of days there we went on to York and enjoyed the wonderful weather whilst re-acquainting ourselves with what must be one of the loveliest cities in England.

 

We got back and the weather has changed dramatically, winter is now in the air. Tomorrow we are off to the railway again with Helen and Lloyd as there is a 'fish and chip special' so we're off to enjoy ourselves, I do hope the weather isn't TOO cold!

 

 

24th Photos

Halden striding out purposefully!

The 'real' reason for the visit?

it's all gone slow again but these are the main ones I wanted to put on!

24th Sept.'13

We've been quite busy over the last couple of weeks and much of it has been connected to the motorhome. John felt (and I agreed) that the inner door was more of a liability than anything else and so he removed it. Only to find that it formed part of the seal and now we had a large gap around the door. So he put it back on again and just took off the handle part, which has always been a nuisance and with a bit of clever fiddling about, he has made it a lot easier to manage.

The Marina had it's 5th Birthday celebrations earlier this month and Tom and family came over on the Saturday to see the sights.

 

Nellie went straight to Grumpy and wanted lots of carrying - he's delighted since he'd decided a year ago that she'd never love him since she cried when she saw us a couple of times after baby-sitting her! Men! he wouldn't be told that it was a temporary blip.

 

 

Here she is watching the small paddle boats - again with Grumpy! Next time she'll probably be on them!

 

There were quite a few stalls and things to do, all for free! The IWA could do worse than to take note, people come to things when there's plenty to do and it doesn't cost the earth!

 

We had a weekend visiting Rob and family down at Camborne (Cambridge not Cornwall). Halden has grown considerably in the 5 months or so since we last saw him and is a live wire, never still for long, quite exhausting just watching him!



We went to a farm where you could wander around the animals and have a rather nice tea and cake. It was meant to be for Halden's benefit but seeing the goats there, I wonder if it was really for Robert! I can't get the pictures to upload at the moment so am going to continue and then try again later.

After seeing Rob we collected Paddy from the kennels and prepared the motorhome ready to go off on an overnight trip down south. We wanted to see Cropredy Marina, near Banbury since we'd liked the area when cruising past and we also would like to be closer to the Thames and nearer the rest of the family for visits. However it was not the right marina for us. I think we've been spoilt here, and anywhere we move to has got a lot to live up to. After that, in the most horrific weather conditions, we went down to see Mum. We found a nice campsite near Dorking to stay overnight and then luckily the weather was lovely the next day so we were able to take Mum out into the village in her wheelchair and go to the pub for lunch.

We had problems with the starter battery and realised that it is now 5 years old and due to being left for long periods it has gone flat quite a few times, despite our best efforts with a couple of portable solar panels that we try to trickle feed it with. The problem apparently is all the onboard computer stuff nowadays. Not really my subject!

Anyway we now have a new battery and so all is well. We are hoping to go off for a few days to Yorkshire in a week or so.

This weekend we have Jan and Rog visiting so we'll be off to Stenson for a couple of nights while they stay in the Bubble Inn there. Then next week TA DA... we are having solar panels fitted to the boat so that next year we won't have the same power problems that we had this year (fingers crossed) after that we'll be free to be away for a bit. Lets hope that the brilliant weather we're having at the moment continues, otherwise we are likely to abandon the trip. Yorkshire moors in the rain don't really appeal.

still no joy with the photos - sorry Halden, I'll try to get them on next time xxx.

4th September '13

Both vehicles now taxed, MOT'd and insured - bank account empty!

We went to Calke Abbey on Sunday for a walk and found a swing in the woods!

John at a jaunty angle!

Paddy wanted to join me - silly dog!

After that interlude we have been quite busy, well John has, he's almost finished painting the boat up, covering up the bumps and bruises!

This is the last bit of the blacking to be done - he is having real problems with his right shoulder after all the stretching and straining it's had to do recently.

This hasn't stopped us going to the gym - we're quite getting into it. I'm off to my first Pilates class this afternoon to see if it helps strengthen my back. Before that I have to go and collect a new pair of contact lens'. It's all spend, spend, spend this month.

We're going to be busy though with the Marina Festival this weekend (worth coming to if you're in the area) and next weekend off to see Rob and family, a fortnight later we've got Jan and Rog visiting as well as me going off to a 'style' day with Susan at Bicester. Then it's October! Where has the year gone?