Mixed Fruit Cobbler

I've been away on holiday to a place where someone has dessert (usually homemade cakes and pies) daily - really what I ought to do is cut out the dessert entirely, but coming home to the half a dozen pears in my fridge which really want using, one sad apple and a dish of plums (also in the fridge, very soft, but not gone bad) I knew I'd have to wait at least one more meal before I cut out the puddings!  I added a handful of blueberries and made a change from my usual "get rid of the soft fruit" pudding (a crumble) by going for a cobbler, with a biscuity topping. It was lovely, if I do say so myself!

Dinner, 31/8/14: Roast Pork, Roast Potatoes, Cabbage, Gravy

A flying visit to Harrogate

I spent most of the day today at the Great Northern Quilt Show, at the Showgrounds on the outskirts of Harrogate, but my friend needed to pop into the centre of town to run an errand, so while she was doing that I had a very quick peek around - starting, of course, with the famous Betty's Tea Rooms - of which this is the front window. You'll pardon, I hope, the dreadful photos, which were taken with my phone...

Here I am standing across the square from Betty's, looking towards it - it's behind that annoying car, which wasn't there when I started to take the photo...

...and from another angle.

As we didn't have much time and we were both tired from the show, we just had a very brief look around (she's been lots of times) and then back home. I did spot this rather intriguing statue of a man leaning over the road, from atop a building - wonder who he is and what he's doing? [And yes, I'm really missing my proper camera - I got a call today that it's fixed and I can collect it, but unfortunately, I'm in Yorkshire and it's in Surrey, so it will be a few days yet...]

A Picnic at Barbon Fells

Started out pretty nice - a little breezy but perfectly manageable for a picnic for the girls while the boys all headed up the hill...

Here, Olivia and H are intrepidly exploring a little hill across the brook... H isn't quite 3 yet, so this was probably enough hill for her to tackle, particularly in light of the subsequent weather...

...first it began to sprinkle just a tiny bit, 

then it got a little worse, but being English (well, some of us are - KA and I aren't, but we've both lived here a long time) we stuck with it for a while. Eventually, however, it got quite heavy, so we decamped to the cars.  The boys, of course, were still up the hill at this point - they were completely drenched when they finally came back down. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that... Back to the house for hot chocolate and tumble-driers!

Dinner, 27/8/14: Lasagne, Salad, Fruit and Custard Pies

When I'm not cooking I find it hard to remember to take photos of the food - probably my mind is elsewhere - so I didn't get a shot of our lovely dinner (once again, made by someone else than me, as well!) until after we'd done eating. I did manage the desserts, though - tasty custard pie with raspberries or blueberries (or, if you are greedy like me, a bit of each one)...

We did make short work of the lasagnes - this one with aubergine and blue cheese

and this one with pasta

...and we demolished the salad. Not to mention a bottle of cava & a bit of red wine...

Boating on Lake Windermere

We took a little drive over to the Lakes today - Windermere is about an hour away, though we just went to Bowness and had a little stroll around, some lunch, and an hour's rowing on the lake. Lovely!

Dinner, 26/8/14: Cottage Pie, Sweetcorn, Beans

Homegrown (not by me, of course) broad beans and runner beans - and the potatoes for the mash were homegrown as well. Not to mention, the meal was cooked by someone other than me, while I sat and sewed and chatted.  Gosh I like being on holiday!!

A lovely walk across the Dales

As it was a beautiful, sunny day, we set off for a walk across the Dales, from Austwick to Clapham (and back), over the top of one of the local (quite steep to start with, but actually fairly small for around here) hills and down through some tunnels into Clapham...

The scenery was fabulous - lots of views like this, though none of the paths we walked on went up that sort of incline - Geoff kept suggesting we go up something like that, but given that in addition to our normal contingent we had one person recently recovered from a leg operation and a three year old with a pushchair, it wasn't a practical idea. Even if the rest of us had wanted to!

Although I've been missing my camera, which is being repaired even as I type, my old point-and-shoot takes reasonable pictures, even managing a few closeups of seed heads.  It doesn't have so much zoom, though, which is what I really misss.

Can you imagine a more perfect day? 

Part of the path over the dale was bricked - for probably a mile or so - we think it was probably to compensate for mud most of the year, but can't imagine the work involved in laying that much brick - they are only stuck into the ground, but still!

Along the way, KA pointed out a burdock plant to us, and showed us the most fun thing about burdock-

they stick!  Everyone had fun using Geoff as a target...

In one field, we saw hundreds of immature pheasants (or grouse or something) - the field was just covered with them...

Once over the crest of the hill, the path began to get steep going down.

And then we got to the tunnels. The tunnels were apparently  built because the owners of the big house at one point didn't want to watch the servants return home across the property, so they dug tunnels to bury the footpath. Aah, privilege.

Once in Clapham, we stopped off for a play in the playground and a cup of tea, before heading back, this time across the fields, which route was a little more flat, though there were many gates to go through and stiles to climb.  The smallest member of our party was an expert stile-climber.

Still many lovely views to be had - frankly, you couldn't find a view that wasn't worth photographing. It's very, very scenic, especially on a sunny day.

Sometimes, some of us had a little help with the walking!

And when Mummy had a rest, she also made a good sofa...

Who will get to the gate first?

Some of the children, particularly the 50-something male one, spent a lot of time running up hills and climbing up bits of hillside which looked tempting.

And finally, nearly back to Austwick - you can see the edge of the village in this photo - this is the last bit of fields before reaching civilisation (so to speak) again.  Not sure I want to live somewhere so much in the countryside, but it certainly is beautiful to look at.