OMG, now that's an afternoon tea!!

I didn't get much sleep last night. For some reason I just couldn't get to sleep for hours. This is something that I have noticed quite a lot since I came off my medication, and it seems that I just don't need as much sleep. So, I remember hearing on the radio that it was 1:30am, and I know that I didn't fall asleep that soon after that, but it must have been before 2am that I finally drifted off.

This morning, we were confronted with totally different weather - it was pouring down with rain. This wasn't a major problem, as the plan was to go to Keswick, it just meant that the drive there wasn't quite as pleasant as it could have been.

Never the less, the views were still pretty amazing as we took the main road from Ambleside to Keswick, passing a few more of the smaller lakes on the way, the roads being looked down upon by the large "mountains" that stand guard to the towns and villages in the Lakes.

We were able to find the Pencil Museum fairly easily, and parked in the car park by the side of it. By now, the rain was even heavier, and we were very glad that we only had a few yards to dash to get into the place.

The museum itself is basically an outbuilding of the old factory, which is still there despite not having been used for some years now (they have a new factory around 20 miles away), and the old one is simply standing derelict, which seems both odd and a shame.

The museum has a gift shop, cafe, demonstration room and the museum itself, which starts off with a dark, low and narrow entrance to try to give the impression of being part of a graphite mine. Once inside, there is a video screen which gives a short introduction to how graphite was discovered, how it's uses were found, how it became a very desirable commodity (once more valuable than gold!), and how the area became the home to the British pencil industry.





I have to confess that I found it all far more interesting than I had expected to, and did learn a lot of things. For me, probably the most interesting thing was how the Cumberland Pencil Company had been asked to help come up with an "escape pencil" for airmen during the war. It had to look and feel exactly like a real, normal pencil so that it would not arouse suspicion if the airman was captured by the enemy, but it had to conceal both a map of Germany and a magnetic compass.

The project was overseen in total secrecy by the department that made gadgets for special missions and secret agents. This department was the basis for "Q branch" in Ian Fleming's James Bond books. Only a few staff knew of the project, and the pencils were developed and constructed in secret after hours in the factory. Many decades later when they decided to revive these pencils for an anniversary pencil set, they discovered that there was no information about how these were made originally, and they had to find a way to do it all over again. Despite having computerised modern machinery, they just couldn't do it, and ended up drilling the holes by hand, and getting another company to especially roll the maps up tight enough to fit them into the pencils. They also could not find anyone who could make the compasses small enough, and so they ended up making the pencils slightly larger than the original ones had been. Fascinating.

The video room has a 20 minute show on how the pencils are made in the new factory, and despite all the new technology, it is still a fairly labour intensive process, and you can begin to understand why their pencils are the price they are. It is also sad to learn that they are the only company still making them in the UK, and also that none of the graphite used comes from the UK any more.

The museum also is home to the world's largest pencil.

When we had finished our tour and Sally had raided the gift shop (she was actually very restrained if I'm honest!), we went outside to discover that it had finally stopped raining. We decided to walk back into Keswick town centre from the museum to have a look around the shops and find something to eat.

It was here that we found Brysons bakery and old fashioned tea rooms. Having had a look at the menu, we thought, let's go for it, and ordered the afternoon tea.

Well, I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like it, and we were both surprised and pleased with ourselves that we couldn't even manage half of it! Thankfully, the staff provided us with a box to put the rest in for us to eat later on in the day!

The first photo shows what was on the tray to begin with, the second shows what was left when we had given up - talk about the TV show "Man v Food" - we turned out to be a right pair of lightweights when it came to it!!

We managed just over half of the sandwiches, the scones and some of the lemon mouse. This left the rest of the sandwiches and ALL of the cakes to bring home with us.

We then carried on walking around Keswick, trying to burn off a few of the calories, but it had started to rain again by now, so we headed back to the car, and took the A66 towards Penrith before turning off onto the road towards Ullswater. This was an extremely pretty road which leads down towards the lake itself, and then onto the Kirkstone Pass, which is one of the most infamous roads in the area. Narrow, winding and steep, the road signs warn you to avoid it in bad weather. It was now just about dry again, and the sun was doing its best to make an appearance.

I would have taken photos, but they would not have done it justice, and I was also trying my best to keep my eyes open for oncoming traffic to help Sally. It was not quite as hairy as yesterday's route, but even so was not for the feint hearted. It did delve into the realms of terror when we came off the "A" road onto the unlabelled one down to Ambleside. This is know locally as "The Struggle", and you can see why as it is stupidly steep. Thankfully, we were going down hill rather than up, but as it was single track with passing places and walled in on both sides, it was a bit "entertaining".

The photo shows one of the wider and less stressful parts of the road with lake Windermere in the distance.

We made a brief stop in Ambleside itself to have a quick run around the shops before heading back to the cottage for a much needed mug of tea. We had only been back a few minutes when the heavens opened again, and the sky became as black as night.

Sally is having a play with her new pencils, I have caught up on the news via the BBC website, and then set to writing this missive about today's activities. If the weather improves we may go for another walk beside the lake this evening.

I will finish up with some photos of Keswick town centre before signing off for the night.

Sunday 8th June 2014

We awoke to glorious sunshine - such a difference to yesterday! We had both slept well, and the bed is very comfortable I am pleased to report. The shower that is over the horse trough sized bath is a little complicated to use. You turn the handle to make the water come out as one would expect, only to find the water coming out of the "tap" and just making your feet wet! It turns out that you have to also push a button, which diverts the water to the shower head. Once you are aware of this, it's fine, but the first time you use it, especially when you are half asleep, it seems overly complicated!

Our first port of call today was the village of Hawkeshead. We had been there before when we spent a few days in the area ten years ago, so it is not too surprising that it all looked totally different to how we both remembered it. The big Hawkeshead outdoor shop is still the focal point of the village, but it seemed smaller than I recalled, and this time it had very little in the way of special offers, whereas last time the whole top floor was devoted to them. They also now have quite a large cafe area in store, which does make you wonder if that is more profitable to them than sales of clothing.

In fact the whole village is mostly given over to cafés, pubs and restaurants. It is not that surprising I suppose as it is such a beautiful little village.

We did also discover something new to us regarding car parking. There seems to be quite a few in the area that use the "pay after stay" system. Nothing new there you are thinking, except this system involves no ticket being given as you enter the car park. Instead, your number plate is photographed as you drive in, and is logged on their system along with the time you entered.

What you have to do is remember to go to the machine just before you leave, enter your registration number and it tells you how much you owe, you pay this and then drive away.

I wonder how many people get caught out by this and totally forget to pay before they leave only to receive a penalty notice in the post sometime later? The charges also seem a little odd, a standard charge for the first hour, and then a bit extra for each extra 20 minutes you stay. It can work out quite expensive if you stay for a long time, but thankfully, everywhere we have come across this system so far only has a very limited range of shops, so your stay is never likely to bankrupt you.

Next we moved onto the tiny village of Sawrey, where "Hill Top" is, the location of Beatrix Potter's cottage. This is a National Trust property, and i know that Sally was quite keen to pay it a visit. The small car park was full, but we were pointed towards the hotel carpark next door instead. The lady who signed us in told us that we were fortunate that it was very quiet today! Goodness know what the place gets like at busy times then!

The cottage itself is very small, with there being only two rooms downstairs, and four rooms upstairs available to visitors. Virtually everything in the cottage belong to Beatrix at some point during her life, and I'm sure that to an officianado of her work it would have been very interesting, but I am sorry to say that I was a little bit let down by it. Compared to all of the NT houses we have been to before I felt it lacked something. The garden was very pretty, though again rather small. It didn't take too long to see all there was to see there, but I am glad we went, and in its own little way, it was quite interesting.

Next, we had a quick drink in the small pub next door to Beatrix's cottage, and Sally made a new friend at one of the other cottages in the village. I do think that Mr McGregor took quite a shine to her!

We then went on a bit of an "adventure" down very narrow twisty lanes to Grizedale Forest Visitor Centre. If I had know just what the roads were going to be like, I may well have not suggested we take the left turn onto them. Even the in car satnav decided that there weren't actually any roads in the area! Let's just say that it was a bit "hairy" at times and leave it at that.

The visitor centre had another of the Big Brother CCTV carpark systems, but this one made it even less obvious as to what you were supposed to do, so I'm sure they get plenty of people who forget to pay before they leave and get the dreaded knock on the door later.

If we were fitter and more active I'm sure we would have spent more time here, as there are many forest walks, cycle rides (complete with bike hire), zip wires through the tree tops, climbing, jumping, sliding and what have you - all great for kids of all ages, but maybe not for two somewhat unfit oldies!!

The road then took us miles out of our way as we tried to make our way to the village of Coniston. While it was only a few miles away as the crow flies, there simply were no roads to get us there in a direct way, so we had to head South along even narrower and twistier roads until we finally hit an "A" road and were able to go in the right direction. It was a pleasant sight to see roads that actually had a white line down the middle!

We were then able to turn back North and head up the Western side of Coniston Water and finally into Coniston village itself at the North end of the lake. Once there, I realised that we had been there before. I only realised this when I saw the huge sight of the "Old Man of Coniston" towering over the village.

We had a bite to eat here, as we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, and it was now almost 4 o'clock. We decided on a bustling cafe and both had pie and chips with mushy peas and gravy. It looked nice, and tasted even better. It really hit the spot and set us up for the rest of the day.

On the way back to Ambleside, I decided that we should take a slight detour along what promised to be a road taking us to nowhere except offering a bit of a view. I should really have known better. Yes, it offered us some stunning views, but the carpark at the beauty spot turned out to not being either much of a car park or be clearly marked, so we missed it, found there was no easy way to turn around, and ended up having to leave the area via a road that even the map hardly marked. It was basically a single track farmers track. It made the roads through Grizedale Forest seem almost like a dual carriageway. It was narrow, winding, steep, and downright scary in places! If only the photos would have given the views justice, but as usual, they just don't convey the true scale and beauty of the area.

Finally back at the cottage in Ambleside we decided to go for a walk while the weather was still so nice, as the forecast for the next few days is not so good. We sat down at the edge of Lake Windermere and watched the boats for a while before finally heading back to base for a well earned mug of tea.

I had a doze while Sally did some colouring with her watercolour pens, which she is really getting the hang of and enjoying very much.

We didn't want anything else to eat until 9 o'clock, and had some crackers, cheese and fruit. We had bought some cheese from Booths yesterday that has apple, sultanas and cinnamon in it, and it is absolutely fab.

As I am typing this, it is just starting to get a little dark (it is almost 10pm), we are both tired, but happy at what we have done today - we got a lot more done than we expected to, and the weather has been lovely which was a nice surprise.

I think the two words that sum up today's experience of the Lake District are "achingly beautiful", and I have a feeling that phrase will re-occur throughout the week.

A first evening walk....

After dinner, with my headache almost gone, the rain having stopped, and the sun having decided to make an appearance, we elected to go for a walk.

What a lovely surprise we had as we turned the corner and found that the view across the lake had re-appeared and was also rather stunning. The photographs we took really didn't do the view justice, and it did make us both feel better for having come out for the walk.

We took the route that i thought would take us from where we are staying into Ambleside town centre. Just as i was thinking that i had got it wrong as we seemed to be heading out into countryside, we did in fact arrive in the town centre.

There were a lot more people about than i had expected for that time on a Saturday evening, but then again, i guess that as we rarely go out on a Saturday evening we have very little idea as to how many folk to expect to see!!

Of course, most of the shops were closed, but there are lots of restaurants, cafes and pubs that were open. There are lots of outdoor shops in the town, but there is also a good selection of gift shops, galleries and clothes shops. We are already looking forward to having a trip back into town when the shops are open!!

We did find a fudge shop that was open, and we felt it would be rude to just walk passed (!), so we did pop in a but a piece of their homemade goodies. (It is absolutely delicious by the way!)

The route we took back to the cottage was different to the one we took into town, and i think that we had walked about 3 miles by the time we arrived back home. It was a very pleasant walk, and we were both very pleased that we had done it.

Holiday time again!

Once again, we get to early June, and so it is time for our main holiday of the year. This year we have decided to go somewhere new for us, the Lake District. We have been here before, ten years ago, but only for a couple of nights at a hotel in Grange-over-Sands, which is right at the southern end of the Lakes, and is not really considered to properly be "in the lakes". We did briefly visit a few places while we were there, but this time, we hope to do it all "properly".

We are staying in a Victorian terraced cottage in Ambleside. It is a two bedroomed place with a large kitchen/dining room, and a huge bathroom with his and hers basins, a large bath with a shower over. The whole place has been well renovated to a high standard, appears to be spotlessly clean and is well equipped, having a dishwasher, fridge, microwave and washing machine in the kitchen as well as the usual oven and hob.

All the floors are solid wood, none of your laminate malarkey thank you very much! It is double glazed, centrally heated and apart from the fact it is on the main road, so a bit noisy, and the parking a bit difficult to access, is ideal. Lake Windermere is about 50 yards away, and we can catch a boat from the pier if we want to. Within 5 minutes walk are several eating places, and I have a funny feeling that the fish and chip one will have to be visited early in our stay!

It poured with rain for all of our journey here, but thankfully, the M6 was not too busy, and there we're no major hold ups along the way. We did pay a quick pit stop visit to one of the service stations for a cup of mint tea and a cake, but apart from that, the drive was uneventful.

Until we got to the town of Windermere itself that is. We knew that there was a branch of Booths supermarket there, and the plans was to get some provisions there, as we know from previous visits up t'north that Booths are a VERY good chain of supermarkets, much along the lines of Waitrose.

We hit the snag of lack of decent signage. It was very easy to spot the supermarket itself, but how you actually got to it was far from clear. Using intuition, lack of patience and bad language, after a couple of times around the town centre (and once around the train station) we finally found the car park. It was worth the effort, and we got all of what we needed there before heading on the last few miles to Ambleside itself.

The office of the letting company was fairly easy to find, and we soon had the keys to the cottage. Finding the parking space was less easy, and made us wish for a much narrower car, as the back alley we had to negotiate was rather tight. Even tighter though was the angle to get into the parking space. Sally eventually mastered it, but I suspect that we may well try to use the carpark down the road in future when we can!

We have settled in now, I've had a couple of cups of tea to try to ease my thumping headache, and as the rain has pretty much stopped now, we are hoping to go for a walk later down to the lake and along into the town.

Brandon Marsh - Sunday 25th May 2014

As usual, for a Bank Holiday weekend, the weather appeared to be a little "iffy", and while we were hoping to be able to go out somewhere, we weren't sure if the weather would be on our side.

Thankfully, it seemed not too bad this morning, and we decided to take a chance and go somewhere not too far afield for a walk. Although Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve is only a few miles from where we live, neither of us had ever been there, so we didn't quite know what to expect.

The sun continued to shine, and the wind stayed reasonably low, so we were able to comfortably explore the reserve, which covers over 200 acres of land, and is a mixture of ponds, marshes and woodland.

The map were were given when we got there showed several paths around the reserve and some "hides" from which you can watch the birdlife. According to one of the signs we saw, there have been well over 200 species of birds spotted at the reserve, so it must be very successful. I knew it was popular with the wildlife enthusiasts, but had no idea that such a varied number of birds could be seen there.

We walked along the well made paths to begin with, but ended up trying out some of the slightly muddier ones after a short time to get to the more interesting areas. Despite it being quite a nice day there were not too many people there, and some of the 6 hides we visited had no one else in them at the time.

Of course, we hadn't really got the faintest idea what we were looking at most of the time, but nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable few hours we spent there. It was very tranquil, and it was hard to believe that we were only a very short distance from both a major dual carriageway and the local airport.

We did spot a few helicopters flying around, but this did not detract from the tranquility we felt. 

One of the hides did have a bird watcher in it, who greeted us with "would you like to see a cuckoo?" - not really knowing what else to say, we said yes! He pointed to a tree in the distance, and Sally having the binoculars around her neck looked first and spotted it straight away. I had a look and found it too after a short while. We had heard the distinctive noise of a cuckoo while we have been walking, so it was nice to see it. Sadly, my camera has not got a zoom lens on it, so i wasn't able to take a photo of it, however the twitcher had taken one on his camera which he showed us.

All in all, it was a very pleasant time there (almost 3 hours, so you can tell we enjoyed it!), and we are looking forward to going again, and are also searching the internet for other similar places that we can visit.

It's been a long time...

After a ridiculous length of time away from this blog, i finally get around to trying again!! Lots of things have been happening "in the shack", new equipment, new modes being tried, and i have also discovered the joys of Twitter!

Equipment wise, the shack now consists of a Yaesu FT897 as the main radio, this is used with a random wire in and inverted V configuration via an LDG Z11 Pro II automatic antenna tuner. This is also connected to the computer via a Tigertronics Signalink USB sound card for data modes. (I also have a G4ZLP sound card, which i use from time to time while i try to decide which is better)

This gets used for SSB with up to 100 watts output, but mostly for data modes with up to 30 watts output. Mostly i use PSK31/PSK63 modes, although i do swap to RTTY and JT65 when the mood takes me, or the stations that i want to work appear on those modes. I have also had a quick play with SSTV, although the software for that has left me more than a little baffled. WSPR gets used when there is nothing else happening on the bands, and i have also had a quick go with Hellscrieber having made just one contact using this mode.

I find myself mostly using the 30meter band (10MHz) these days - no contests to get in the way, fewer stations and generally nicer people on there! 40meters (7MHz) gets a bit of use, as does 20meters (14MHz), but i would say that 17meters (18MHz) has become my second band of choice after 30meters, for pretty much the same reasons!

15meters (21MHz) and 10meters (28MHz) get a little visit from time to time, although i don't transmit on them too often. My antenna does not really work that well on 80meters (3.5MHz), so i tend to leave that alone.

I also have a Yaesu FT817 connected to a multi-band vertical which is actually tied to the downspout from the guttering, so does not work at all well, and as this radio only puts out a maximum of 5 watts, it is pretty much useless except for receiving.

Finally, a Kenwood R5000 (with all the optional filters) is the receive only part of the station. This is mostly used to monitor my own transmissions when carrying out tests, and for quickly checking activity on other bands. I also use this for broadcast band reception from time to time.

As for Twitter, I have to confess that I did not see the point of it for quite a while, but now that I have gotten my head around the basics and learnt how to use the search and hashtag features, I actually do find it both entertaining and useful. Most of the people I "follow" are radio hams, photographers and crime writers, all of which are categories that interest me tremendously.

The fellow radio hams that I am in contact with via Twitter are always full of useful and helpful tips and advice, and we also share a lot of amusing banter with each other. Many times I have had tears of laughter streaming down my cheeks during our banter sessions!

Memories.....

On the 15th of December 1979, a certain record got to number 1 in the UK singles chart. This record would stay at number one for a month. It was the Christmas number 1 that year. It was also the last single of the 1970’s to be at the top of the charts, and of course, was also the first of the 1980’s. It was this bands first hit single since the late 1960’s, mostly because this band simply didn’t release singles. It just “wasn’t their kind of thing”.

This record therefore went into the history books as somewhat important. It also went on to make the members of the band a lot more famous than they were before, and inevitably an awful lot richer than they had been before.

It also changed my life.

The record in question was “Another Brick In The Wall (part 2)” by the band “Pink Floyd”. The lyrics of “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control...” struck a chord with a huge number of children. At the time i was 12 years old, and like most kids, i didn’t really like school. Yes it was necessary. No there was nothing we could do about it. The thought of being able to rebel like the character in the song, and the children in the video that went with the song was a real buzz though.

 I can remember telling my eldest brother that i was going to spend some of my Christmas money on the album. (remember, in those days it would have been on LP - a double LP in fact, and would have cost around £12.99 - a fairly large sum of money in the late 70’s/early 80’s, especially for a schoolboy). My brother, Robert, suggested that i didn’t buy it as he didn’t feel i would like it as the rest of the album was nothing like the single, but said that he would lend me his copy of it to try out.

This he did on his next visit, i duly listened to it, and hated it - it really was NOTHING like the single. I did copy it to cassette tape though, put the tape into a cupboard, gave him the LP back and thanked him for his advice.

A few months later i came across the tape, decided to erase it and use it for something else, but before i did, elected to give it another listen. One of the best decisions of my life. Yes, it wasn’t what i would normally listen to, but there was SOMETHING there that compelled me to give the tape a reprieve. Over the next few weeks, i gave it some more listens, and quite soon i found myself actually going to bed early so that i could listen to it all the way through on a regular basis.

Eventually, i knew every word off by heart, every sound effect, i could “play” the album in my head in real time, i didn’t even need to listen to the tape anymore, but i still did. I wore out two tape copies of it before eventually buying myself my own LP copy of “The Wall”. By this time, Robert had started regularly lending me other albums he thought i might like. More Pink Floyd found itself on my stereo - he did me one tape which i remember in particular which had two Floyd albums on it - “Meddle” on one side and “Animals” on the other. I never did find out what had happened when he recorded it, but “Animals” only came out of one speaker and actually faded out to nothing at one point for a few seconds. It didn’t matter, it quickly became my favourite Pink Floyd album (and still is) - it was a bit of a shock when i finally bought my own LP of it though and heard it in stereo for the first time!!

Robert also lent me some albums by the band “Yes” which totally blew my mind - here was some serious music! Twenty minute tracks - high pitched vocals with lyrics that made no sense, but man, the music - it was like “someone from above” had reached into my heart, opened my eyes (and ears) and showed me what the world could be like.

The years rolled on - i got more and more into music, other bands like (early) Genesis, Jethro Tull, and besides these “Progressive Rock” bands, i discovered heavy metal - Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Metallica etc, and introduced Rob to these. He took to it like a duck to water, and in the end he was into more of the heavy stuff than i was!

I had “grown up” by now, was married, and we didn’t see as much of each other as we used to. I had been to a few concerts, and on one of the rare occasions we met up, we talked about them. He still hadn’t been to any gigs. At that time i had been helping out a tribute band called “The Australian Pink Floyd” with a bit of publicity - they were touring the country playing small venues and i tried to get the local ones here a bit more publicity. For “payment” i got a few free tickets to local shows, and invited Rob to come to see them with me in Stratford-on-Avon.

It was his first rock concert, and he loved it - i think it blew him away really - seeing some of his favourite music being played live (bear in mind that the “real” Pink Floyd basically didn’t tour anymore, and in some ways didn’t really exist) - This tribute band had played at Dave Gilmour’s birthday party, and he endorsed them - they were (and still are) seriously good. They even got to use some scaled down versions of the lasers and lights that the Floyd had used on their tours.

Rob now became a big fan of going to gigs, and he and his wife, Pauline, took to travelling around the country seeing various bands, wherever possible making the event into an excuse for a long weekend/few days away. We went to see the Aussie Floyd together again in Leamington Spa. This time i took one of my friends, Simon, along to see them - i’m not sure he will ever forget the encore when they played “Comfortably Numb” and i sang along to it at the top of my voice, complete with the piercing scream before almost collapsing with laughter at the end of the show - yep, i enjoyed that one!!

So, why after all these years have i recalled these events and decided to put them “onto paper”? 

I am the youngest of four. Robert got married and left home when i was about 5 years old, so i don’t really remember him being there other than as a regular visitor with his wife, and then children when they came along. Even though there was a large age gap between us, the things we had in common tended to keep us fairly close.

On the 11th December 2013 my brother Robert died. He was 62 years old. He died way too young. He had enjoyed his life, done a lot of things that he had wanted to do, but not as many as he would have liked to - i’m sure he had many more plans for holidays, trips and whatever.

I’m ashamed to admit that we hadn’t seen enough of each other as we should have over the last 10 years or so. I know that people, especially families, can drift apart. We all lead busy lives and have too much to do. We didn’t really have much of an excuse though - we only lived about 10 miles apart, we both had mobile phones and email. We had so much in common, apart from music we were both big fans of The HitchHikers Guide To The Galaxy. We had a similar sense of humour. We both told awful jokes. We were both quick with a quip or comment.

It’s too late now, but i want him to know that i loved him, that i am so very grateful for everything that he had ever done for me - for giving me the amazing gift of music that i doubt i would have got from anyone else - for helping to change my life for the better.

The last few weeks have made me realise that life is way too short - take every opportunity that passes your way. Tell the people you love that you love them, what they mean to you. Tomorrow may be too late.

To my brother Robert, one of the nicest, generous and funniest guys i have ever known. He was a hoopy frood who really knew where his towel was. I’m gonna miss you.