Pig Yard News

We stayed in a small guest house about one mile from the city centre. After a short walk round the city centre on the Thursday evening we had an early dinner at a small Italian restaurant.

First thing on Friday morning we walked back into the city to visit the Banksy Exhibition at Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art. Our phones were locked away in pouches when we entered but a member of staff was taking pictures with a Polaroid type camera. The quality was appalling but I’ve managed to scan it and improve it a bit.

The exhibition was superb. Banksy makes fun of the establishment and uses his graffiti to highlight injustices and social issues. We enjoyed it very much.

When we came out of the art gallery it was pouring with rain. Thankfully we had booked an early lunch at the Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street. The building and interior was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

It has been looked after and although the interior furniture isn’t original it has been carefully maintained.

The lunchtime menu started at 11.30 am and we sat down at 11.27 however the waitress wasn’t going to give us the menu until it was time. Helene explained that by the time we had chosen it would be 11.30.

Despite this minor irritation lunchtime was wonderful and beautifully tranquil.

We didn’t savour going out into the rain but lunchtime came to an end and we had more to explore.

On a visit many years ago in a previous life I had a tour of Glasgow School of Art. Unfortunately there was a fire and during the restoration after the original fire there was yet another fire which was even more devastating.

The building is now wrapped in protective plastic.

With the rain gradually soaking into our very souls we walked on down to the Clyde to see Glasgow riverside.

On our grand (drenching) tour we came across many interesting buildings and paid a visit to a synagogue (closed) as well as the cathedral which sits high on a hill and has several levels, as the hill slopes away.

After walking nearly 11 miles and being on our feet since 9am we eventually sought sustenance in the form of a curry at Mowgli.

It was the perfect end to a busy, exhausting and memorable day.

The following morning we headed south, visiting this delightful building on the outskirts of Glasgow.

It used to be Templeton’s carpet factory but looked like a temple to some obscure religion.

The Porsche (parked left) performed really well on the 1,000 mile round trip. We stopped for lunch on the A66 at Cross Lanes Organic Farm Shop which I highly recommend if ever you are passing.

Helene and I drove up to stay with Tony & Jude in the Porsche rather than the Kia Niro EV because recharging would have added at least an hour to the journey.

Our first visit was to Cawdor Castle (mentioned in Macbeth) where the four of us wandered around the gardens picking up ideas for planting in our own gardens.

Helene and I took a tour of the castle which has a fascinating history.

We went on to Culloden visitors centre. It was drizzling for the whole time we were there so we restricted ourselves to the inside exhibition rather than wandering the site of the battlefield.

The following day we went for a walk around the grounds of Brodie Castle. It’s a wonderful house and grounds.

All too soon our visit was over and we headed south to Glasgow. We had a wonderful few days. Tony and Jude were wonderful hosts and we hope to return when we can find the time in our busy diaries.

On my return for California I collected Helene on my way back to Lincolnshire and we spent the hot weekend getting the vegetable into shape. Helene is very motivated and after a couple of days there wasn’t a weed to be seen. Sadly that cannot be said about the flower beds.

On Monday morning we drove over to Newark, parked up and caught the train the Kings Cross. We had booked a show and Richard and Nicola had offered to host us for a couple of nights. We had lunch in the Coal Drops Yard. As we sat chatting there was a concern that it might rain. Unfortunately we sat for to long and on the walk to their house the heavens opened. We were soaked to the skin.

Tuesday morning we went to the Lightroom to see an immersive experience of David Hockney’s work.

The event had a voice over by Hockney explaining his 60 years of artwork.

It was so good we sat through it twice. Highly recommended.

Afterwards we walked the Grand Union canal to Camden Market and then up to Hampstead, across the heath to catch the train back to Islington.

On Tuesday evening Helene and I travelled into the West End. We had dinner before making our way to The Ambassadors theatre to see Maureen Lipman in a one woman show called Rose.

She told the story of her life. A Ukrainian Jew who survived the Warsaw Ghetto by living in the sewers. She related her attempt to emigrate to Palestine/Israel on the Exodus at the end of the war and how the emigres were brutalised by the British. The story goes full circle with her children emigrating from the USA to Israel when they grow up and adopting similar attitudes towards the Palestinians the Jews had experienced in Germany during the 30’s and 40’s.

Lipman’s performance was superb. At times she was light-hearted and at others it was very sad. We caught the bus back, deep in conversation about the complicated issues that surround the state of Israel.

We caught the train back to Newark where we collected the car and the on to Lincolnshire. We spent the rest of the week in the garden and walking through the local countryside. I had the Porsche serviced and Mot’d without problems and it didn’t cost the earth.

In my final week at High Horse Clive and I continued with fixing “stuff”.

The views never ceased to amaze me and this was taken one evening with the moon rising over a distant mountain range.

On a 60 acre site the only way to get around is on a modern day mule. These 4 wheel drive buggies are great fun to drive but you need to keep your mouth closed or risk a bug getting caught in your teeth.

At the end of the day there is a tendency to be covered in dust from the various tracks and trails.

The wild turkeys are probably not good to eat but the males are certainly colourful when they are displaying to a female.

This one was only a couple of metres from the terrace.

While Clive and I were working on something near to the barn he came across this rattle snake. I asked about moving it elsewhere however it seems it was too risky. With the help of two spades the snake was quickly dispatched. Apparently they can still bite when dead so I kept well away from the sharp end.

Back in San Francisco on my final night we went out for dinner and as we got back to the house I took this shot of the corner shop opposite.

I think it epitomises the area where the live.

Sadly I didn’t get time to see any of San Francisco’s cultural centres.

I do like to visit food outlets in other countries. I walked with Tricia to this local community market store. The range of foods was delightful. Their meat and fish counters were abundant with a whole range of foods. They also had hot soup and other hot foods available.

I bought a chicken roll and wasn’t sure whether to eat it or climb it.

On the way back from Gus’s we called in on a bakery that specialised in Baklava. The baker was of Turkish origin and was very happy to give a free taster before demonstrating what goes into making his Baklava.

I was so impressed I bought a tray and managed to get them home in my suitcase.

The flight back from San Francisco was trouble free although sitting on an aircraft for 9.5 hours is very tedious. I did manage to get about 3 hours sleep. It still seems insane taking off at 5.30pm on Thursday and arriving at 11 am the following day. On arrival at Heathrow, after getting through border control and collecting my suitcase, I had to wait 55 minutes for the transfer bus to the hotel where I had left the Porsche. Thankfully it started first time despite being left for 2 weeks. I drove for 2 hours to collect Helene and she drove the rest of the way home to Lincolnshire.

Another busy day in the delightful surroundings of Pine Mountain.

Before breakfast there were several surprise visitors in the form of male deer roaming around the main house. I photographed this one as it stood looking at me with the upper cabin in the background.

They are quite timid but look as though it would be possible to make friends.

Clive and I started the working day by sorting out a couple of old garden chairs and get them ready for painting. They had become quite rickety and needed the screws either tightening or in some cases replacing altogether. Eventually they were ready to be sprayed. I decided I didn’t want to get paint on my relatively new jeans so left it to Clive (the artist) and stood well back from any overspray. More photos when the work is completed.

There’s an abundance of wildflowers, butterflies and moths. It’s difficult to know which ones to include in the blog… here are just a few. The last photo of the white tailed skimmers is courtesy of Tricia who found them at the lower pond in considerable numbers.

The mornings are truly beautiful looking across from the house to the valleys beyond and the cloud nestling there before it finally evaporates.

It is a great start to the day.

Our first task this morning was to cut down a dead madrone tree that was outside the house. Clive wanted it taken down so that it cleared the young redwoods around it and caused minimum damage. We came up with the idea of tying a winch cable around the top and as it was cut in the usual way, winch it down from the mule. This worked perfectly and as I tensioned the cable with the electric winch it first leaned and then cracked and fell.

After lunch I walked down to the upper pond and took some photographs of the flaura and fauna in the area. Although my Samsung S22+ phone has a very good camera it isn’t best suited to capturing flowers and insects. I didn’t do too badly as can be seen below.

I can sit in the house and watch the local wildlife wander across the patio. A regular visitor is a wild turkey and occasionally a hare or two will show themselves.

We’ve tackled a number of jobs over the past couple of days which include getting Clive’s Kubelwagen started and checking out the backup generators one of which was very reluctant to start but eventually burst into life.

The weather has been generally kind to us with early morning cloud enveloping the mountain top with us in it and then burning off as the day progresses. There hasn’t been much opportunity to relax on the patio but I’m sure there will be as the week progresses.

I left SF with Clive & Tricia on Saturday and headed up to High Horse. This is the barn which is about half a mile from the main house. Clive uses the upstairs as his art studio and the ground level as a workshop. It is surrounded by trees and is in a beautiful setting.

In front of the barn is one of the Kawasaki mules that are used to get around the estate.

On my first tour of the estate we stopped off at the tree “house”. In truth it’s a platform built around a tree on a steep slope so that there’s a short set of steps leading up to the deck and a 5 metre drop on the other side.

In the early morning light with a bit of solar flare I took a photo of Clive and Tricia. The seats are thankfully bolted to the floor so there’s little risk of leaning back and falling off. Personally I think I would fix a rail around the top because I’m not great with heights.

One of the many tasks to be undertaken is to get a 10 wheeler truck started and ready to be removed from the site. It’s a long story as to why it is there and I’m not going into the reasons here. When I arrived the truck was wedged onto a tree stump and despite previous efforts the truck wouldn’t move backwards or forwards. Together with the use of a splitting axe, tree wedge and chainsaw we managed to remove the stump. We need to get the truck started and that requires charging the battery. Hopefully the battery isn’t too far gone to hold a charge.

As the day brightened we took a walk around McLaren Park to appreciate the views over the city and the numerous wildflowers.

We were in no rush. As the afternoon progressed we became bathed in sunshine and our layers soon started to be removed.

The views across the city were magnificent with the suburbs in the foreground and the high rise city centre in the distance.

Above is a small selection of the interesting flowers we came across.

After three years of waiting to come back to SF (I was due to come at the beginning of the pandemic) I eventually arrived. As I’ve done previously I drove down the day before and stayed overnight in a hotel close to the airport.

The Radisson Blu is a maze of corridors which seem to go on for ever. Needless to say I was at the very end of this corridor and as about as far away from reception as I could get.

I had a salmon dinner in the bar before retiring for the night.

Not an early start in the morning and I had plenty of time to catch the hotel shuttle bus before my flight at midday.

After a ten hour flight I landed without incident. I did lose the will to live after about 7 hours but until someone invents a transporter as in Star Trek then it has to be done.

I breezed through US customs after a friendly chat with the officer at the desk and had picked up my luggage withing 15 minutes of getting off the plane.

Clive was at the airport to pick me up as planned despite there being issues with my mobile phone texting and Plusnet trying to charge me £33 for using 41 Mbytes of data within 5 minutes of touchdown despite my £5 cap on spend.

Last week I was away in Banbury visiting friends, Gary and Caroline. We went to Baddesley Clinton, a National Trust property and where they had their wedding reception.

We had a pleasant few days after which I travelled to stay with Helene.

We went to a National Theatre Live showing of Best of Enemies. It enacts the events in the late 1960s when there was the first political debate on American TV between a Democrat and Republican.

It covered the assassination of the Kennedys with the backdrop of the war in Vietnam. The play was very well produced and thought provoking.

Helene and I worked on her garden and a few minor maintenance jobs around the house. It was a very busy week.

My round trip to Banbury and home via Northamptonshire totalled nearly 300 miles. Thankfully I could recharge overnight in Banbury but had to recharge in Wellingborough (Instavolt 50kwh) before heading home. I’m finding that if I have a 100 mile journey ahead of me I like to have a reserve of 40 or 50 miles just in case.

I did try recharging at Rushton Lakes at Pod Points (7kwh) but none of them seem to be working. I called customer services and they reset them but it didn’t get it working. It was a shame because I could have recharged the car while watching the NT Live performance for free.

My interest in new technology spills over into the kitchen and I’m a succour for tech hype. There has been a lot of discussion about air fryers over the past couple of years and so I thought I would investigate further.

There were several options and in the end I decided upon the Ninja Speedi. It can do many things and I’ll leave it to you to read up on them using the Ninja link. Here are my early thoughts on using it.

Firstly I should examine the reasons for buying one. I hasten to say over the past 6 months the price has dropped from £299 to £179. It is reputed to save time and energy. It undoubtedly is faster than a conventional oven however I cook on gas which is a lot cheaper than electricity so I don’t think I’m saving money. As to the time saved… I’m not in a hurry and what do I do with the extra time gained?

It is possible to cook potatoes or rice or quinoa, etc in the bottom of the container while cooking meat in the top. The first lesson was that the top food cooks a lot quicker and therefore needs to be put into the machine after the bottom part has been cooking for 10 minutes. In my first attempts I put everything in at the same time and left it for 15 minutes. It wasn’t a complete disaster but the pork medallion was overcooked. This isn’t a machine that can be loaded with the food and you can walk away; interventions are required. I’m still on a learning curve and I shall continue to experiment. At the moment the jury is out as to whether I would recommend the Ninja Speedi.

The garden is starting to come into flower and with it the weeds are springing up across all the beds. It sometimes feel as though the weeds are growing behind me as I make my way round the beds. Below is a gallery of what is currently in flower.

The greenhouse is filling up with young plants and I’m having to make decisions on a daily basis as to when to pot them on or move them into the vegetable plot.

Next stage is to pot up the cucumber plants then put out the runner beans and climbing green beans.

The courgettes are already outside where the slugs are having a feast.

Helene and I stayed for a week in a barn conversion cottage just outside Skipton.

It was possible to walk into Skipton along a public footpath, then along the Leeds/Liverpool canal. It only took 30 minutes and we did it on a couple of occasions.

Our first visit was to Skipton Castle which for 3 years withstood a siege during the English Civil War. It wasn’t explained how they fed and watered themselves during those 3 years.

Whenever I tour old castles and churches I do wonder how hardy the inhabitants had to be to survive the cold.

Our first long walk involved a drive to Malham Cove. It wasn’t warm in the biting wind but we still managed a smile. We parked in Malham, walked to a waterfall (Janet’s Foss) before heading for the top of Malham Cove. On the way we crossed a road where a mobile food van was parked so we shared a delicious warm pasty. I confess we missed a turn and walked a couple of miles beyond the limestone pavement but we back-tracked and found the correct path.

By pure luck we chose the best weather of the week to visit Bolton Abbey. We visited the abbey and walked the complete circuit of the Wharfedale path. We stopped for lunch at the Cavendish Pavilion where it was warm enough to sit outside. It was so sunny we both picked up some colour. Another 8 mile trek on a delightful day.

The following day we decided to take it easy. We drove the Grassington where they were filming an episode of All Creatures Great and Small.

We couldn’t walk across the market square so after a coffee we headed down Wharfedale towards Burnsall.

Another day and another walk into Skipton. We wanted to explore Skipton Castle woods. It was a lovely area behind the castle and on the very edge of the town.

There were items of interest along the paths. The bird song was delightful and every slope was covered with wild garlic about to flower.

On our final day we walked from the cottage along public footpaths to Flasby. There were superb views across the moors.

We covered about 8 miles and although there wasn’t a pub or café along the route it was a good challenge.

We reached a trig point at 375 metres above sea level and had to take a pause for a selfie. Despite the brisk breeze we had unzipped our coats because the climb had made us very warm.

Still smiling after all the effort. It was great to be using an Ordnance Survey map again and taking the challenge of following the route. I do have a reputation for getting off track so I was very careful to check frequently.

During the week we ate out on several occasions. Fishcake and chips (very strange fishcake made of two potato layers with fish in between); Turkish; French, Take away Pizza and a couple of stir fries back at the cottage.

The Kia Niro EV only needed to be charged once and we managed to do that whilst at the French restaurant.

On our way home we called into Saltaire to finish the holiday.

I was invited to join Richard & Nicola for a weekend in Sussex to go to a Goodwood Motor Race meeting. Richard is a member so was able to get admission to the members weekend. It was also the 75th anniversary of Porsche so I was hoping there would be a number of Porsche races.

I drove down in the Boxster which was hard work when travelling round the M25 as it was jammed with traffic. The drive back on Sunday afternoon was even more exhausting. The 5 hour journey was torturous with a 5 mile tailback on the M1.

I visited Northampton Services on the way down and the way back. Not an experience I would recommend. The parking was horrendous.

We stayed in house on the edge of Petworth which was quaint. I had to park a 10 minute walk away but that worked out fine. On Sunday before starting the gruelling drive home we went for a walk in the grounds of Petworth House.

The sun was burning off the cloud and warm enough for me to start the drive back through the quiet Sussex roads with the roof down. I stopped before the M25 and put it up to avoid the traffic noise. A great weekend and unique event for me.

There’s always something to occupy my time. A few weeks ago my Synology NAS collapsed on me. The only data I lost was the CDs I had ripped over the past 7 years however the majority of them were on my phone so it was fairly straightforward to copy them across.

When I came to rip the CDs that were missing, I found that Windows Media Player was missing off the first track of each CD. I’m now having to go through and make sure all CDs are complete. It’s proving to be a labour of love and very tedious.

I discovered that Guy Tortora was playing in Louth. Dave bought the tickets and it was agreed that all the neighbours would go together.

His blues playing was as good as ever and we had a great night.

Gardening

As always I’ve been impatient with my gardening and no doubt have sown seeds before the ground is warm enough to put them outside. I have bought a heated pad to put under the seed trays which appears to be very effective. For the first time I’m growing Lima (Butter) beans and they require a warm environment. All is growing well and I have most things covered outside to keep off the wood pigeons and squirrels.

Helène was here for a couple of days and we took the opportunity to take a walk around Linwood Warren. It was very wet underfoot.

When we were in the sun it felt quite warm but it was only 10 degrees C so cool in the shade.