Our Easter Tradition

 Over the years we have slowly developed a tradition of going to Papplewick Pumping Station to renew our membership and pick up our new cards. Generally there are other attractions on during the day and Sunday was no exception.

This year the Civil War re-enactment society were present demonstrating dress, life and warfare of the times, There were also falconry displays and the chance to hold ( at arms length) an owl.

Assorted submarines were chasing round the fishpond, hiding from the crocodile.

I spotted some patient wives or friends sat in the shade behind the tables of submarines, enjoying their knitting.

Engines were steaming, pumps were pumping.

But in the engineers work shop it was quiet, whilst the sun streamed through the windows.

Does anyone else see a stranded knitting pattern waiting to be charted in this ?

I'm back, shaking the sand from my shoes.

 Hi,

Sorry for being a little more quiet than usual but I've been up to my neck in wool and yarn (separate spinning post coming soon ) and we took advantage of the recent unusually warm weather and grabbed a few days away in the van.

We headed out to the east coast, Skegness to be precise. Not our usual choice of seaside place but we found a campsite just a little out of the town and a few yards from the beach. The beach was pretty deserted and the local amenities amounted to a bar, cafe, amusement arcade and in the other direction, a spar shop so it suited us nicely.

As the summer season hasn't yet started, the two attractions we had hoped to see were closed, one  only operating in school holidays  and the other closed due to covid.

The Village, a farm museum in Skegness looks really interesting but as covid had caught up with the staff we marked it down as somewhere to have a look round next time.

The Lincolnshire coast railway, narrow gauge diesel and steam line only open in the summer but the volunteers were more than happy for us to have a look round.

In the airfield next door it looked like a restoration project underway on the Lightning aircraft parked up to one side.

We spent a few hours in Skegness, wandering round the shops but staying out of the arcades that had opened up to take advantage of the warm weather, 

Hot chocolate and Lincolnshire sausage rolls made a a rather unhealthy but very tasty lunch break

On Saturday we walked over to the railway then on to Ingoldmells to see if the market was on as we are looking for some new throws to go on the seats in the van.

The coasters were just starting up as we walked along. We scoured the market but couldn't find what we were looking for but Ian did spot this sign, replica weapons and educational toys??

We returned to our quiet beach and got the kites out for a while then I managed to win yet another small model campervan to add to the ever growing collection on the penny falls and surprisingly it took less than 50 p in 2ps to rescue it from the machine.

The campsite was pretty full but very friendly, possibly because most people were from our part of the country. Facilities immaculate as you would expect from a Caravan Club affiliated site,

All too soon we had to go from this

To this,,,,

 and make our way home. (new rugs have been added )

Speak soon, xx

Wensleydale Railway

Ok, the reason I've been a little quiet............we had a weekend away at a bike rally in Yorkshire. On the Saturday we went out to play on the Wensleydale Railway which runs along 16 miles of track from Leeming Bar to Redmire.

We waited for the train at Leyburn to start our journey.

I'm not sure why the man was standing on the engine, maybe something to do with taking on water.
The carriages retained a lot of their original features but sadly they still had their original springs in the seats.This made knitting almost impossible due to the bouncing around.Some of the other compartments looked like  they had been restored.


The passing scenery was beautiful as ever and we all took the opportunity to enjoy it without the hindrance of crash helmets etc.

We stopped at Redmire so the engine could be placed at the rear of the train to pull us back up to Leeming Bar.

















Then we travelled back to Leeming bar and Bedale where we stopped for lunch and a pint.


Then we boarded the train again for the run back to Leyburn and the steady trudge back to the rally site.