Row, Row, Row your Boat

Summer has finally arrived and it's hot! Not that I'm complaining. Ever since we arrived in June, the weather has been lackluster. Texas weather has nothing on England in its ability to change rapidly. It can be sunny, cloudy and rainy all within the space of minutes. Mostly, it's been overcast and cool, which really depresses me. I was starting to wonder if I'd wear my shorts at all while we were here. But school let out for summer break on the 23rd, and along with it came the sun. (They only get five weeks for summer this year!) It's been getting steadily warmer every day. Now I'm thankful that Bill requested to have an A/C unit placed in our apartment.

Brendan and I celebrated the sun's arrival with a trip to Heaton Park to get a little exercise and breathe some fresh air. That's my biggest complaint with city living. Even though smoking has been banned inside public places, people smoke like chimneys outside. Not matter how hard you try, you can't avoid walking into and breathing in clouds of second-hand smoke. Brendan attributes some of his headaches to the stuff he inhales. At least Heaton Park is more spread out and the smokers are fewer and farther between.

We rented a rowboat and rowed around the tiny lake that was hand-dug by unemployed workers back in the 1800's and hauled away in people-pulled carts. It's not a very big or deep lake, but it's tree-lined and there are lot of geese and ducks to mess with. Rowing is a great upper-body exercise. Brendan did the bulk if it, but after about 45 minutes, we were done. We walked around the park, enjoying the cool breeze, but heating up with each step. We didn't believe it was going to get hot, and wore jeans instead of shorts.

We had to stop to look at these two long-haired cows in the paddock with the burros and goats. They look like a cross between a cow and a yak. I've read about them, but never seen them. They are Highland Cows, raised in the Scottish Highlands for their hardiness and lean beef. Most of their insulation comes from their fur. They have the prettiest ginger coats and sweet faces, and now we can say we've touched on.

Also, this past weekend, we took the tram out to Altrincham, and an area know for it's beautiful homes and scenery, to attend the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park. It's like a home and garden show without the home stuff. There were lots of display gardens and lots of stuff to buy for the garden, food and a band playing in the bandstand.

We didn't get to explore the area as much as we would have liked since we didn't have a car. But, it's good to know that there are "leafy" places not too far from Manchester that we would enjoy living. If this contract job ever turned into something more, we could live well here.

By the way, I learned a new verse for "Row, row, row your boat" when I was working with a Moms and Tots group at Grange Park Church. It's my favorite.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

If you see a crocodile,

Dont forget to scream, aahhh!

Further Afield

Finally, after being in Manchester for three weeks, we decided to get out of town and explore. It took a tram and two trains, but two and a half hours later, we were in the picturesque town of Skipton, a place we knew from "The Calendar Girls." It's better known for Skipton Castle.


It was a lovely trip on the Trans Pennine Express, leaving the city behind and watching the green mountains (really just hills) roll on, dotted by pretty little and no-so-little villages and towns.


Skipton is a big barging town. It had canals with locks through the centre of town, and there were scores of longboaters enjoying the part-sunny, part-cloudy, part-rainy day.

The castle is situated at the top of the High Street. We arrived late, so we didn't have much of a chance to browse in the shops. they close pretty early on Sundays. We ate some great fish and chips and headed to the castle to get in the whole tour before it closed.

Skipton Castle was begun in 1090, and has been added on to several times. It is one of the best preserved Medieval castles in England. It was the last Royalist stronghold in the North during the Civil War, holding out for 3 years before surrendering to Cromwell in Dec. 1645, who removed the rooves. Lady Anne Clifford got permission to replace them as long as she promised they would not be strong enough to hold cannons. It was lived in by the Cliffords at least until 1900 (can't find a later date in the literature) and only updated it's kitchen accomodations once. We only found one toilet in the whole castle, a small room off of the old kitchen. Brendan models for us.



Before we left Skipton, we stopped for Cream Tea and Hot Chocolate, sitting outside by the canal, and then took the long train-ride home. All-in-all, a lovely day out. I can't wait to do more.

Carpet of Flowers 2008

All this week, outside the Manchester Town Hall in Albert Square, you will find a carpet of flowers made up of approx. 50,000 mums imported from Holland, laid on a thin layer of turf by approx. 150 volunteers. Brendan and I were two of them. We spent parts of Monday and Tuesday, basking in the English summer weather (rain gear and jackets required) on our hands and knees poking toothpicks in to the flowers to hold them in place. It was fun to be a part of a community project that was larger than ourselves and had such a lovely result. AND - I was on the BBC Tuesday evening news, well at least my bum was. We could see ourselves in the timelapse piece, too. Sweet!

I found out about this project from a brochure that we picked up at the Visitor's Centre. There was a call for volunteers, so I rang. I was pleased with how welcoming they were. We got to meet some locals and some foreigners, like us, but from France, who were also helping. It was a real international event.