A Meal to Start and a Meal to Finish!

Being the half term holiday we did our usual trip and took one of the grandchildren (Mollie) for a day out to Settle (The Naked Man Cafe), Austwick (A walk with Ruby) and Clapham (to kill time) before we had a meal at the Gamecock.

Mollie tucking in to her chocolate drink in The Naked Man Cafe.

A close up of the chocolate drink, with a "99" stuck in the centre and surrounded by marshmallows!

We spent some time wandering around Settle. Mollie and Nana visiting a new shop called "The House that Jack Built", which we learnt is owned by the sister & her daughter of the man who owns the Naked Man Cafe. Having spent a certain amount in the Naked Man Cafe we qualified for a 10% reduction on goods bought at "The House That Jack Built" - so the ladies had to visit the shop!

We then went up to Austwick, where Ruby had a long walk, which she obviously enjoyed as some of it she spent walking up a stream! When we called at the Gamecock we discovered that they had a large party in during the evening and were not really offering meals, however if we dined before 6 o'clock we could be accommodated, so to pass the time we drove on to Clapham.

Clapham Beck from the road bridge which crosses the beck

There are some lovely old typical dales stone built buildings in the village. This is a view alongside the beck looking towards the entrance to Ingleborough Hall, which is just behind this house.

The New Inn is sited on the roadside. This is a view of it from the bridge over the beck. I took these photos whilst the ladies explored the shops in the village.

Clapham Falls is one of the spots most of the tourists in the area make for, as well as the caves and nature trails. The noticeboard on the viewing platform tells you a little of the history of the falls.

The Clapham Falls Noticeboard

By the time we had viewed the falls it was time to return to Austwick.This is the main street, with the Village Store and Post Office on the right. You can see the sign for the Gamecock just beyond the parked car on the left.

The church in Austwick has an unusual dedication. Most churches are known as Saint......, but Austwick is dedicated to "The Epiphany"

The notice on the right hand side of the noticeboard caught my attention. It was advertising a two course Sunday Lunch of Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding in aid of the Church at Clapham!

There was a lovely flower display in the church porch.

This was the Malteser Cheesecake served as a sweet at the Gamecock (before Dot and Mollie demolished it!)

Two Surprise Visitors

Hello there all you blog following fans. It's Ruby here again!

I don't know if you remember, but my good friend Macy had three pups a little while ago, and two of them (Raphael & Leonardo) live together, and guess what......


I had a surprise visit from the pair of them today.

Now Raphael is the quiet one of the litter, and he was content to hide under the kitchen table.




So I turned my attention to Leonardo, who I gave a good wash. Here he is on my bed, being pinned down so that I can wash him properly.

Raphael, on the other hand was quite happy to sit in his dog bed and watch the world go by.


It wasn't too long before he was asleep!

On the other hand I had to keep a watchful eye on Leonardo, who had already managed to creep between the fridge and the wall. After a bit of a struggle he managed to get all the way round and back out the other side!

My calming influence on him soon settled him down, and it wasn't too long before he had joined me on my bed!

A Visit to Thirsk & Snowfall

Yesterday we decided to pay a visit to Thirsk. When we set off it was quite dull and grey, and by the time we were driving from Dick Hudsons towards Menston it was distinctly foggy! I'd said that if it got any worse we would turn back. Fortunately as we dropped down into Otley the fog had more or less disappeared, but it was still quite grey.

We headed past Rudding Park where I had been playing a wedding only a fortnight ago, and on to the A1. Then on to the A167/A19. By the time we got to Thirsk it was time for something to eat, but sometime previously Dot had decided to bank all her collection of 1p, 2p and 5p coins, so our first port of call was at the Nat West Bank in Thirsk!

You can see the bank to the left of the Market Square Clock Tower

Thirsk Market Square Clock Tower

We called for a meal at the York Tea Rooms, which is the building with the old style gas lamp on the upper floor (to the left on the following photo).

Thirsk is an interesting place, being a long established market town, and having a fair claim to fame with some of its previous inhabitants.

You will no doubt have heard of James Herriot (Alf Wight in real life) the vet who wrote a very successful series of books about the Dales characters he came across during his life as a vet. His surgery is situated in Kirkgate, and is now The World of James Herriot Museum.

I would be surprised if you knew that Nicholas Rhea (real name Peter Walker) is based in Thirsk. He is the ex policeman who wrote many of the Heartbeat books (which became a television series) as well as the amusing series of books about his life and experiences as a country "bobby". He is a prolific writer and uses six psuedonyms!

Did you know that way back in 1755 Thomas Lord was born in Kirkgate. He was the founder of Lord's Cricket Ground in London!

You could possibly have heard of Bill Foggitt the weather forecaster who had weather records going back many years, and used his own country methods to forecast the weather. He was often more accurate than the official weather forecasters!

One of Thirsk's other claims to fame - The Ritz Cinema, now nearly 100 years old!

I would imagine that if you visited Thirsk today you would most likely see it looking like this:

It certainly wasn't a surprise to have snow this morning. It had been forcast on the TV weather last night, and I had also seen it forecast on the BBC weather forecast on the internet.

Snow falling this morning.

One of the surprising things was the size of the snowflakes. Some of them look distinctly like white feathers as they fell.

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.... to quote Messrs Rodgers & Hammerstein. Hasn't it been an awful two days? After a glorious day on Thursday of last week , with a clear sky and sunshine (it was when we ventured up to Settle and Austwick) there seems to have been little but a constant high precipitation level around. - A polite was of saying it's been raining cats and dogs.

I am still trying to work out why we have a dog who is drawn to water like a magnet to metal, but if it is raining, she avoids the rain like the plague. On numerous occasions today I tried to persuade her to go out and relieve herself, but she stubbornly and steadfastly refused to cross the threshold. I was quite convinced that by the time she did eventually venture outside, either her bladder would be bursting or her bowels would be going pop!

She eventually decided to "go" when I went to collect Dot from work!

I can now see why Noah decided to build his ark!

An Eventful Week

About a month ago I had been approached and asked if I could play for a wedding in Rudding Park Chapel. The chapel and the huge house next door was part of a private estate owned by the Ratcliffe Family, but in the early 70's it had been bought, and the house converted into a very upper class hotel.

Rudding Park Chapel

The hotel, which is famous for its Clock Tower Restaurant, now caters for the top end of the market. The grounds boast a first class golf course, holiday homes and all the usual amnities one associates with such a property. As can be seen from the picture below, the chapel (on the right) is only road width away from the hotel. So the bride and groom should have no problems in getting from the hotel to the chapel - that is as long as it isn't very windy. The main door to the chapel is at the West End of the building (furthest away from the end nearest you in this photograph). The day I went to play for the wedding (Friday 4th February) was extremely windy, and fortunately Dot had decided to go along too. She spent the whole of the service, along with a female employee of Rudding Park trying to hold the two huge west doors shut!

After the service we went along to the lounge of the hotel and had coffee and biscuits with the vicar who had taken the service.

On Monday our tumble dryer decided to "give up the ghost", and part way through a drying cycle the drum stopped rotating and there was the most pungent burning smell.

A phone call to the insurance firm we have it insured with entailed a ten minute wait with numerous messages about "Your call is important to us", what seemed like hours of piped music, and "we are experiencing very busy lines at the moment" etc., etc. When I eventually spoke to a real live person, they were unable to tell me if they would be coming in the morning or the afternoon of the day they had arranged, which didn't exactly delight me. After some time I managed to get a phone number I could ring on the day of their call so I would know, within a two hour slot, when they would arrive.

The Hotpoint tumble dryer

On Wednesday I spoke to a group of over 50's at Crossflatts Community Centre, and my talk was on My Kind of Music(als) - Rodgers & Hammerstein. It went down well with them, and for most of the musical examples they were joining in and singing along!

Thursday duly arrived, and amazingly the tumble dryer service man arrived at 9.30 and within a short time had sorted out the problems with the tumble dryer, which meant that our original plans of going off for the day were still possible.

We packed all the necessities for Ruby - food, water, dog lead etc, and set off for Settle, where we dined at the Naked Man Cafe in the village square. The meal consisted of two bowls of carrot and coriander soup, with brown bread plaits, Dot had a cauliflower cheese dish and I had the pork and vegetable with dumplings and chips.

The Naked Man Cafe in the market square in Settle.

If you look very closely you will see a figure to the left of the fourth upstairs window. This is the Naked Man.

Some weeks ago, I was working in Skipton Tourist Information Centre, when the Naked Man Cafe came up in conversation, and nobody had any idea how it got its name. A search on the internet didn't reveal any clues (and we have had queries from time to time about how did the cafe get its name) so, taking the bull by the horns, I rang the cafe and asked, "How did your cafe get its name?"

It seems that in the late 17th century the building was an undertakers, and the figure of the naked man is actually a body of a man in a coffin!

The Naked Man

Whilst we were in Settle Dot took herself off in one direction and I took myself off to have a look round the two charity shops. S.C.A.D. is the Skipton Charity Association for the Disabled, and their shop is next door to the Naked Man (It's the building on the right hand side of my photograph of the Naked Man Cafe.) I then walked round the side of the Town Hall to the Age Concern shop, and whilst I was browsing their CD's I came across a Pam Ayres double CD called Ancient and Modern, which contains some of her earlier poems and also some of her more recent ones too. On the second CD she tells a very funny (and supposedly true) story of getting a new dog from a dog's charity and the fun and games they had training it.

Pam Ayres with her two dogs

We then went on to Austwick, where Dot took Ruby on a long walk from Austwick to the tiny hamlet of Wharfe, then back to Austwick.

The signpost in the centre of Austwick

Much to the chagrin of my good lady I have finallly succumbed and joined Facebook. This came about as a result of Sally, one of Hannah & Ben's Wedding Photographers posting her photos on Facebook, and the only way I could get to them was to join Facebook!

A Change of Title.......and Dogs & Cats

The observant of you may well have noticed that the sub heading (under Bill at Bingley - Random Jottings) has changed. Over the last year or so the content of my blog has changed too.

It started out as mainly comments on current items in the news, but it has gradually developed into a sort of family events diary! So a change in the sub heading was called for.

I have also had requests from the grandchildren to let Ruby contribute. They tell me her contributions are far more interesting than mine! Over the last few blogs she has "put her paw in" and passed on a few of her own comments!

Looking back I see that the family have gradually become inundated with dogs. First of all there was Ruby, our much loved chocolate labrador, who arrived at our house on the first of March 2008, as a six months plus pup. She is now an integral part of the family, and is involved in all the family comings and goings.

Ruby after taking a swim in the stream at Flascoe Bridge in Austwick

Ruby was followed by Hannah getting a miniature pinscher called Pixie. (I think I am correct in saying that about the same time she also had a kitten called Dolly, who still lives with her and Ben, and puts up with all the dogs!)

Pixie in our back garden.

It was not too long after this that Hannah was asked if she would look after a friends Shih - Tzu (called Macy.) The friend eventually gave birth to twins, and Hannah prevailed on her friend to let her keep Macy. Macy had never really been taken for walks and I recall that the first few occasions were something of a sight for sore eyes. Macy refused to walk when on a lead and had to be dragged everywhere! Needless to say, she now thoroughly enjoys her walks!

Macy in our back garden

Not too long after this Macy was mated and produced three super little pups. They were "christened" Raphael, Leonardo and Tank - Tank being the "beefy" one of the trio. Tank eventually went to a couple from Farnley and was called "Teddy". Raphael & Leonardo have gone to live with Sarah, and after having a recent visit from Raphael he seems to have taken on Macy's early tendancies of not wanting to walk when he is on the lead!

From left to right - Tank (Teddy), Raphael & Leonardo



This is Raphael (Raffi Bear) at our house recently.

The latest addition in the Martin household is another miniature pinscher called "Twig"

I mustn't forget to mention the two cats in the Philips household - Wilson and Milo, and the two cats in the Wilson household - Socks and Tillie. So, all in all, the family has grown to 5 cats and 6 dogs!

Oh! and somewhere along the way we also picked up three grandchildren!!!

Raphael Visits Me

Hi folks! It's Ruby here again. I had a new friend call round to see me today. - well not really a new friend, because I'd seen him when he was a really tiny bundle of fur, but he's grown quite a bit now.

This is Raphael investigating my leg!


Here he is having taken over my blanket. He made himself at home on it and eventually fell asleep!

You've heard of the Stig, Well this is the Twig......

Hi there folks! It's Ruby here again. Just a quick blog to let you know that I had three visitors to see me this afternoon. Macy, Pixie and Twig. I promised you I'd get Twig's photos on the blog as soon as some were taken of her. Well here they are!

Pixie on the left and Twig on the right

Twig competing wth Macy for a cuddle from my best friend!

Pixie and Twig

Now that Twig has got to know me she plays with me just like Pixie. We had a great rough and tumble together this afternoon, whilst Macy was content to sit and watch what was going on!

Message from Ruby

His nibs had an e mail from Sarah yesterday saying that I hadn't put any pictures of Raphael (Raffi Bear) on my blog page. So here's one he took earlier!

Raphael about 4 weeks old

The Ruby Blog!

Hi there!

Ruby here.

I've just been reading HMB (His Masters Blog) to those of you who don't know my shorthand! I didn't want you thinking I'd been missing out on my walks. Yesterday we all got into the car and went up to Settle, where I had a good wander around the centre of Settle, then after him and her had a meal in the Naked Man Cafe, we went up to Austwick and I had a long walk from Austwick to a little hamlet called Wharfe and then back to Austwick!




I had a visit from Macy, Pixie and Twig today but the Lord and master was out earning the odd copper or two, so no photographs yet of Twig! I know he's up at Skipton all day tomorrow, and has a funeral to play for at Pudsey on Thursday and a Wedding to play for at Rudding Park on Friday, so it might be the weekend before he gets any photos of Twig. As soon as he gets some I'll remind him to put them on his blog!

Love,

Ruby