The Pig Yard
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March 2002 @ the Pig Yard... |
| March started with another visit to see the RSC ( www.rsc.org.uk ) production of Alice in Wonderland. It was a very bright production and the costumes reflected the illustrations of the 1950 books. The songs and music were very good but sometimes the dialogue was lost in the speed of delivery. |
| We had Jane's mum to stay for the second weekend of the month and although the weather wasn't brilliant she managed to get out a bit and tired herself enough to sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon. |
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In between visitors we made slow progress on decorating the study end of the library. We removed the window ledge which had warped and left large gaps, painted the walls, fitted additional electrical sockets and phone points. Steve took a day off work and laid wood flooring. It's always better if he does this alone because nobody can hear him cursing when it goes wrong. With the final touching up underway the job should be completed by the end of the Easter Bank holiday and all the furniture back in place. |
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In the middle of the month we had our old friends Susie and Jon to stay for the weekend. Jon had managed to break his metatarsals the week before and so was hobbling a bit. We decided to go to the cinema to see A Beautiful Mind. It was excellent and gave some insight into the mind of a schizophrenic, of course it was really a love story and how love overcomes all that life might throw at us. Jane and I didn't go prepared with a box of hankies so there were some very damp sleeves. We ended the evening by going through some old vinyl records that Steve had bought at college. Reminiscing is made of this - Rolling Stones, Family, Bob Dylan, Juicy Lucy, Hot Tuna and more... |
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We have been making our own bread in a bread maker since Christmas. This is one of our successes. We haven't had any failures despite others saying that they have had complete disasters with their bread makers. The ready made mixtures are obviously the easiest option but we have done some of our own mixes, although we haven't been too adventurous. Our one attempt at fruit loaf was disappointing as all the fruit disappeared. |
| Despite some very wet weather in the week before we managed to get a fast flight in CZAG on Saturday 23rd. We flew for just over the hour and reached the outskirts of Rugby before sliding 30 metres into what turned out to be a very wet field. We managed to get the Terrano stuck in the first entrance we came across. It took us one and a half hours to get the balloon back to the road and at times we were inching our way through the mud. The Terrano carried the mud that it picked up from those fields for several weeks before Steve got the jet wash onto it. |
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The Easter Weekend started with some glorious weather and temperatures reaching 17 degrees Celsius. We flew CZAG on Friday evening with Bob and Rowena from the village as passengers. This was a very different flight from the previous week. A very gentle take off and despite climbing to 2,500 feet we had very little movement. After 50 minutes we were over the Eastern District of town and very few areas to land in. Eventually after a total flight time of 1 hour 50 minutes we managed to touch down in a car park between two large football fields. |
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Every one enjoyed the flight even though Rowena
was concerned that her vertigo would overcome her and she would leap from
the basket. If you suffer with Vertigo you will know exactly what this
strange feeling is like, the stomach is gripped with fear and although its
scary to look down there is this massive urge to jump. The kids enjoyed the retrieve and were very helpful in packing the balloon away at the end, especially as the sun had set and darkness was rapidly upon us as the pictures shows. |
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| We crewed for the Ballooning Business on the Saturday morning and Dave had a good flight landing at Walgrave. The field was owned by a very nice farmer who refused Jane's offer of hot cross buns and gratefully accepted the wine that was offered. Despite several days of bright spring weather the field was still a bit muddy. It turns out this was the last flight of the weekend, and of the month, as the weather turned very changeable with showers and brisk winds. |