Back for a short while

Well I'm back for a bit. We decided a couple of years ago that summers are the best time to be at home, now all our holidays are packed around that. So, what with Granny duty, such a chore (not) and actually going away, I'm off again next week and will be back in time to do a stint on our Fair Trade stall at our local Food Festival, more on that at the end of this month. Walking in Italy this time, all the way there and back by train.

Friday it was off to Leeds after the dentist; to get an NHS one I have to travel nearly 20 miles, even taking the car though, which I did this time, it's still better, financially and in principle than going privately. My gadding friend is away, but my other friend is in a cheerful frame of mind, her latest assignment at college has gone well, she almost feels a maths test might be OK and she is looking after two lovely little girls, daughters of a friend from church. They greet me politely, but shyly, and settle down to play. We talk about this and that, just relaxed together. Not for the first time she tell me how pleased she is that LASSN lassn.pir2.info introduced us, I assure her that the pleasure is a two way thing.



as good a way as forecasting
as any!

Today I was on a voluntary ranger patrol in Thornton le Dale, one of the bigger settlements actually within the National Park, www.northyorkmoors.org.uk. I do a litter pick round the car park and then round the pond, very little litter and no dog mess, what a delight after a fortnight ago at Saltergate. Last time I was here my small grandson was chasing the ducks, today they can sit on the edge of the pond in peace. I then decide to check out the paths round the fields on the edge of the village, although they are in the valley these paths are still in the National Park. All is well, signs, gates and stiles in good order, a bit of cutting back round some stiles, but I come across some delightful signs. Before I show them to you, I would like to say that I have good friends and family with lovely dogs, all people who are incredibly responsible dog owners and to whom these would never apply.



some one has put this outside their house,
I know how they feel!

 

Normally I would hate the implied violence, but
the lambs are the farmer's livelihood and on the Moors ground nesting birds are part of a fragile biodiversity



apple blossom makes an unusual
 addition to this hedge

My day ends on a good note, steamed wild garlic with our meal, a couple of glasses of red wine and then we can toast the new French President. My small society can cope with austerity, I was brought up that way, but not the intolerable unfairness of the current way that that austerity is being imposed.

As I've said before my small society is for the extras, the Big Society stuff should be all our responsibilty through national and local fair taxation.