Just back from a weekend with my sister Ros in Baildon, West Yorkshire. We travelled up yesterday, planning to leave by about 8am, but by the time that Chantal had re-packed the car that I had carefully packed (I didn’t realise how many combinations there were of two rucksacks and some dog food and bedding), and had two attempts to leave because Chantal forgot her specs it was 9am before our final departure. A fast and uneventful journey (apart from a traditional wrong turning in Bradford) meant that we were at Ros’s enjoying tea and cake in the garden shortly after 11.
We had brought a bottle of Pimms with us to celebrate Ros’s new patio, but not lemonade, and so Chantal and I drove into the village centre for a brief shopping trip, and a look around the Farmers Market where I found a black pudding and red onion chutney pork pie. Absolutely irresistible.
Back at Ros’s lunch was served outside, but I was not allowed to satiate my pangs of hunger. Ros is an even more enthusiastic photographer than Chantal, and despite my grumbles of protest I had to just sit and watch while lunch was photographed.
After lunch we spent the afternoon in the garden consuming a couple of jugs of Pimms and chatting
while taking photographs of dogs, flowers, butterflies, bees – in fact anything that caught our eye., before we decided that it was cool enough to take all three dogs (Ros has a black lab cross) for a walk across the fields behind Ros’s house. It was, of course, more of a photographic expedition. Chantal is hoping to have some images accepted on a “stock photo” web site, photos that are used by magazines etc. Ros already has some on the site, but wants more. They needed a suitable model, and there was apparently only one candidate…
I think that I was told to look serious. Look out for me illustrating Short Walks for the Elderly in a forthcoming issue of Saga magazine.
That evening we had an excellent curry in a local restaurant, before retiring to bed while listening to torrential rain, and in my case wondering whether it was worth disturbing the dogs to close the car windows. I didn’t, and I should have done.
This morning it was another photographic dog walk – this time the object was a high railway viaduct, to be photographed with a train crossing it.
Trains leave the nearby station every 15 minutes. After 45 minutes we hadn’t seen a single carriage. Maybe we should have checked for Sunday engineering works, but at the least the dogs all had a good run.
Before lunch there were a few gardening jobs to help Ros with, particularly pond maintenance and pruning
This still left time for a pre-lunch Pimms, before heavy rain forced us to retire inside for lunch, where we noticed a rather odd odour. Someone had been rolling in something obnoxious, which had to be dealt with.
We enjoyed another dog walk, not so photogenic thanks to damp overcast weather, which just left time for a leisurely drink before we headed back home. It was a lovely weekend, with plenty of time to relax and catch up with news and gossip.
More images in Our Recent Photos
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
