Riverside walk, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

A weekend of contrasts – Eirene and I had been out to a Festival warm up party on the Friday evening (the festy in question is DragonGate 2012 – no doubt more on that to follow). Much fun was had at this till the wee hours on Saturday – when I remembered I had a forgetful friend staying at our house so ended up collecting the dog and going back into club-land to collect him. We called our mutual friend in California on the way home at about 5am our time +20 dec C there, -3 here. Winter has finally arrived.

Saturday – recovery day with a jaunt out to the paintball centre near Flaxby to collect Felix who was at a birthday party there. I took the opportunity, and the dog to walk the grounds (increasingly useful excuse tool for a nosey blogger like me to have) . A superb place – half of it is a huge quad bike track and the other half is a paintball, erm.. arena? zone? location?.. a paintball place. Completely wrapped in fine netting which I discovered the dog could not see in the slightest as she bounced off it at full pelt. As I got closer to the action – deep in the woods – I actually felt like I was a special ops scout. I spotted all the paintballers doing battle and they didn’t spot me. I was ready with the dramatic arms in the air whilst shouting “CIVILIAN – DON’T SHOOT, friendly, friendly..” or similar. Alas the potential war machines of tomorrow don’t notice some bloke with his dog 20 yards away only disguised by wall of black netting. I blame the video games. Kids don’t play army in the woods any more (apart from highly structured, albeit brilliant pseudo excercises like this). Mind you – army of the future doesn’t need the traditional organic skills of yesteryear. Probably. What do I care anyway? War sucks.

Sunday was lovely. After I’d parked a slow cooker of beef stew on low, we headed out to a bit of the OS 1:25000 that looked interesting. Near the Lido in Knaresborough (pictured above) – some paths by the river, some fields, some crags. We only saw two other people for the whole 2 miles or so round trip we ambled – yet we were at times really close to populated areas. I love winter for that.I’m glad winter has arrived properly.

A flurry of Adventure Shirt shots have been submitted for the gallery – due to one thing and another (broken computer that I had to fix to extrapolate saved images, Christmas and a bunch of other stuff) it’s taken me a while to get them up. Worth the wait though – some classics here – from the ice of  Iceland to the hot hot of The Sahara Desert, all leading inevitably (as all roads do) to Rome.

Slawek, Rome, November 2011

Ben, The Sahara Desert,  October 2011

Fin, Angus, Iain and Joel in Iceland, August 11 (click for biggy)

A few more photos from our walk can be viewed by clicking this.

Eirene took me on a surprise weekend away last weekend, and a very nice weekend it was.  It’s been a while since we spent the weekend, sans kids. We did take the smallest of our brood with us though – Elsie (pic’d above) – our 12 week old Springador – who got her first official walk and was suprisingly excellent off the lead – I think we’ve blueprinted on her sufficiently for her to stick close.

What was billed as a surprise mystery location, but “close by”,  turned out to be The Chevin Country Park Hotel & Spa.  Our room was in fact a lodge type building with a grass roof type affair. Isolated and cosy yet close enough to the bar and restaurant (2 minutes walk)  for it to be hotel like in what it had to offer. As we dined on the 6 course taster menu on Friday evening, who should walk in but Chall & M, celebrating M’s 30th. A surprise for her also, we ended up having a few drinks and natters in the bar whilst a happy kilted wedding party got merry around us.

Saturday – After a beautiful walk along The Chevin, to see the view from Suprise View, with a very well behaved Elsie we headed back for snacks, naps and splats by the pool / sauna / steam room combo. Another 6 course taster menu that evening (reassuringly different from the Friday evenings), we headed back to watch Tommy Cooper’s Christmas Special on the tellybox. Just like that. Not like this, like that.

The final surprise was the discovery of an outdoor hot pool on the Sunday morning, where spent a blissful half hour in the rain,  pretending I was a Japanese Snow Monkey.

The big highlight of the now is that we’ve got a teenager all of a sudden. Felix has turned 13. Lovely morning this morning of cards and prezzies. Xbox is the big un – clubbed together prezzy from several of us.  He’s having x2 sleep overs and we went out on Saturday for eats. A place called The Spice Quarter on Millennium Square in Leeds. Fantastic place – an all you can eat buffet that has Indian, Chinese, Thai and Italian cuisine on offer. Prior to that, we spent an enjoyable couple of hours in The Leeds City Museum (photos) – a superb free thing in the heart of Leeds. The natural history floor had some great things to see - defiantly worth a look!

Yesterday was also cool – we went to the Countryside Live show on the Great Yorkshire Showground.

Wasn’t quite sure what to expect – but discovered it was a less farmery and slightly smaller version of The Great Yorkshire Show. The highlight for me was a display of a sheepdog hearding first ducks, the geese. Only one of them got away. I spotted a flaw in this method of gaggle management. Things with wings generally have an omnidirectional choice – including up, over the dogs humble two dimentional options. Diggers and sheep, chickens and eggloos (of which Eirene now wants one of) and chat with some folks from a company called Oscar – suppliers of (what looks to be) high quality dog food.

It was one of those weekends that (for me at least – who’s not on half term) seemed to fly by far too quickly.

This Friday, Ben “What’s your beef” Osmond, a DragonDrop Adventure Shirt and a bunch of intrepid adventureres and sets off for the Sahara. He’s raising funds for a very worthy cause. In his own words..

“I am taking part in the Sue Ryder Sahara Trek, which consists of 100km trek through the desert! This is something my father would never have been able to achieve even before he was diagnosed with cancer. I am aiming to train as hard as i can, fundraise as hard as i can and complete this challenge to the best of my ability in my dads memory. The money raised will be going to Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice where my dad was so brilliantly looked after during his illness. 

The people of Manorlands deserve all the credit for the help and assistance they give to people in need of Palliative care.

I love you and miss you everyday Dad. This is for you.”

Hats off to you Ben – well – perhaps keep your hat on, in the interests of desert health and safety,  but you get the picture. Good luck!

If you’re even remotely moved by this, I’d implore you to stick your hand in your virtual pocket and bung him a couple of quid. Here’s his online sponsorship form»

Here’s the latest DragonDrop Adventure Shirt shot – from Ali and Marcus. This icon of obsession,  from a film I obsessed about – Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind – is Devils Tower in Crook County, Northeastern Wyoming.  For those that haven’t seen the film – go and watch it  immediately – and you’ll see why people re create the form of this monolithic igneous intrusion out of mud, mashed potato and lately, shaving gel.

There’s a bunch more excelent DD Tshirt Shots fo their current adventure over here»

Seriously – I thought we were done with summer. Last weekend I thought – it’s not going to get warmer than this until next year, then WAMMO – the highest temperatures on record, back to back for several days in a row. 30°C was reported in Yorkshire on October the 1^st.  I’m so glad we’d planned a picnic, down by one of our fave spots on the Nidd.  Sushi and Indian Tiffin, washed down with a bit of Eirene’s extremely tolerable Plum Wine in the company of beautiful people and Oliver (a dog).  Eirene, Felix and I actually went for a swim – can I state again please – in October. Just what I needed after a rather late Friday night of curry and fun.

That evening we went to a BBQ – where I wore shorts and didn’t get cold after dark – in October! Can you believe it? Some old friends and a new dog, so nice food and company. I got presented with a bottle, nay, a magnum of Niepoort ‘Drink Me’ wine as a belated birthday prezzy in a fancy presentation box.

Sunday – we chilled. I cooked some nice noms and created some HUGE Yorkshire puddings to go with it in a new Yorkshire pudding tin (actually a muffin tin) to go with it. Tripple egg batter. Splendid. I hope the weather holds up like this through the winter.

We left off where we started the camping season – at bobbybees campsite in Burton Fleming. My birthday and the last camp of the year (probably.. although I won’t rule it out entirely)

The site itself has the feel of a part built sculpture. An installation of art – of sorts. Quite a fascinating mix of things to look at (a few snaps over here)  A small contingency of us – 18 in total –  ascended for the Saturday night (we got the place warmed up on the Friday by selecting a top spot up the top of the tent field).  Hanging out, drinking, talking, chucking the very last of the summer wood on the fire on a beautifully warm and calm evening. I got to try out my new toy – a telescope – and drink rum and beer and cider and Jaegemeister (not in the same glass).

A lovely birthday surrounded with a bunch of lovely people. Smile on face inducing memories. I feel very lucky to have such nice friends and family.

I’ll miss the summer, but the impact winter hasn’t kicked in yet largely due to an Indian Summer that we’re being blessed with at the moment. Looking down the barrel of winter and we’re battening down the hatches. We’ve just commissioned secondary glazing with K glass to keep our house a bit warmer in the winter. I’ve got the a romantic notion that I’ll be hibernation, reading and cyber whittling.

It’s could be considered a ‘bit of a risk’ going camping in September – but when isn’t it in these fair isles? I love the summer (it’s my favourite day of the year) but don’t shy away from camping ‘off season’. We’ve been in wind, rain and even snow.

The weather was kind to us this weekend though after a forecast of doom. We headed back toBudle Bay in Northumberland campsite – a campsite we have been to before about three and a half hours north of Harrogate. New ownership, new rules, no stickers (they used to give you van stickers. They don’t any more. I want sticker.). Around 20 of us piled up from theHarrogatearea and filled out boots with a triple birthday celebration bonanza.

We arrived on Friday night just after nightfall and drove Clover (our van) straight into the throng of people sitting and chatting and drinking. Not literally – but alongside. Fire torches and lanterns lit, we established one-ness with the group. A reasonably steady away Friday night followed by a reasonable amount of kip.

Saturday saw me and my clan go on a solo mission to find a geocache. More than that – it looked liked (and proved to be) a beautiful walk around Budle Bay. Not sure what it was – perhaps the full moon – but our boys we’re about as argumentative as it’s possible to be with each other. They we’re even arguing over things that don’t actually exist – along the lines of – if one of them has an Xbox 360, would he let the other one play on his save? Crazy hypothetical arguments that we desperately to tried to ignore enjoy the nature abound but unfortunately eventually had to intervene.  Quite glad we had the brunt of that storm away from other people. We hung out with a local family for an hour or so as they waited for the tide to reach their (maHoosive) jet ski. Got some local knowledge. Always good.

Late afternoon, we got a bus into Seahouses to go to the ‘tacky shop’ as it was described to us, and get some chips. Nice chips, timed to perfection as the heavens opened as we stood in the chippy eating them. 15 minutes later, it was blue sky again. 22dec C type temperatures as well. Oddness. With tacky shop filled bags, we headed back to camp.

The evening blessed us with an incredible sunset – pictured above – and was perfect for sitting around a fire bin (ahem, self contained, LNT, off the floor renewable fuel outdoor heat source – defiantly not a “campfire”). Drinking and laughing. Stories under a still and crystal clear sky.

A top time.

We came home via the Metro Centre to grab some Lamb (M&S) and some shin-pads for Felix (a sports shop). I played in the Apple store. The recession doesn’t seem to have hit that particular retail indicator – it was packed (Although I didn’t do anything nerdy like a ‘how many people are actually carrying bags’ type survey – just the gut feel.

Again… it all went by in the blink of an eye.

Limetree this year ticked pretty much all the boxes and then some.  Textbook festival fun. Having had a few pre festival jitters enhanced by last minute unknowns – within minutes of arriving, I’d discovered that some good friends had saved us an awesome plot for our van. I then discovered that I had a full compliment of fresh tickets and that a whole bunch of friends were there. After setting up camp, we headed into the arena.

The last time I went, there didn’t feel like there were quite enough people there – this years had a veritable bouillabaisse of people. Young and old, smart and bold, the ravers, the jazz heads, the beautiful people, the family guys. The Costume de rigueur, the visual uniter was mud. Everyone from at least the knee down was emblazoned with a tasteful portion of the afore mentioned. Another common accessory would be the smile. Happiness abound.

The site itself had grown – The choice of stage for a festival of its size was remarkable. In the eastern section of the site, a circus big top flanked by two large dome tents proved the main venues for dance / DJ based entertainment – a cracking sound system almost taunted DJ’s with ‘go on, lets have your best sub bass’. To be honest, I didn’t spend a huge amount of time in this area but from what I heard (we were camped just the other side), they had it XXL.

The main arena – a ‘proper’ main stage showcased some fantastic music and provided a focal point. I was blown away by Aradhana Arts on the Saturday afternoon. The sheer brilliance of Sanju Sahai – one of the best tabla players alive today – was incredible to watch at close quarters.

That was undoubtedly my musical highlight – so glad I caught that.  The arena field was satellited by stalls, stages, props and shops. One of these stages was The Bet Lynch stage – essentially a huge camp dressing up box of a stage showcasing some quirky, avant garde type affairs. We watched a duo in there called Hectic Egg – funny, beautiful, unique. They sang a song about wanting to be with mum for Christmas. Brought a lump to my throat.

The West field Next door was home to another big top and a fully fledged Jazz Club. A blacked out marquee that had a full bar at the back and around 30 tea lit, 4 chair tables. The blacked out walls were adorned with tastefully spot lit muso pics, the atmosphere – quite surreal. Kind of like when you go to a cinema during the day. At one point – around 5.30pm on Saturday afternoon, the heavens opened – quite a guilty pleasure being comfortable and warm in said venue.  Some friends of ours had been working on front row seats all afternoon and we were lucky enough to saunter in at the last minute and blag some in time to see The Scapegoat Kelly band who were sporting a fairly new line up.

I’ve always loved Scapegoat – since I saw their first ever gig at the legendary Harrogate Theatre Music Party (RIP) many moons ago. A great gig. Tight. A big Blues Bar contingency took ownership of most of the front of the venue, there was a dancing, and a singing, and a music.

Next door to the Jazz club was another big top. This had a bunch of great stuff in it, but the ones that did it for me in there would have to be Middleman. M’Good friend Allan and I caught the last bit of their set – big grin tastic. The energy was a bit like early Prodigy and the groove was akin to Rage Against The Machine. Bosh. Amazing. A band called Senser did a thing back in the 90′s where they fused crunchy guitar with hard and heavy dance noises – Middleman reminded me a bit of that.

Seeing Middleman was part of my proper party wander. After tea on the Saturday, I went deep into the no agenda festival fun zone. Eirene was fairly partied out as she’d had a look over at Leeds Festival on Friday night and was pooped. I wore full orange waterproofs – which always seems to do the trick of stopping the rain. After sticking my head into unknown stages and tents we settled down in one of the two silent disco’s. Light, upbeat funk / disco meets reggae was the DJ’s output whilst we hung out there on and off till 3am. The format of silent disco is superb – especially when it’s in a super snug big ol Papakata style double teepee. You can get into the music – in super hi fidelity stereo, or you can chat to the person next to you without the usual “Y’WHAT MATE?”

After that, I popped back into the Jazz Tent where the Governor, Shaun was pulling pints. I’d not met him before – lovely lovely chap. Had some great chattage with cast and crew who’d assembled for a late taste before heading back via some randoms party in one of the residential, set-up and ready-to-rock teepee’s (of which there were loads!). I got to see the sun rise before quietly trying to take off my big muddy boots and layer of orange plastic without waking anyone or falling over.

I wish it was still on. It would be ace if festivals could run all year and we could dip in for the odd couple of nights every now and then. I suppose on paper, ‘towns and cities’ offer some of the trappings – but it’s no where close.  If I could wave a magic wand to make any fest a perma-fest, I would do it with Limtree me thinks. The land and the crew need a well deserved rest though! Can’t wait till next year.

Photos by me | More over yonder»

I say biased because my boys were in it. Having said that, if I’d gone as a pure ‘punter’ I would have loved it. This year marked the 25th Anniversary and the final night marked the 100th performance for The Abbey Shakespeare Players presenting a Shakespeare play at St. Dogmaels Abbey, Cardigan.

There’s something unparalleled about outdoor Shakespeare. In this case, the Abbey itself presents a set that you just couldn’t hope to recreate within the boundaries of an indoor theatrical stage. The terraced rake of the old cloisters, the openness, the natural bounce-back acoustic reverberation,  the weather and elements, the natural fade of light – these were all things exploited to add to the brilliance of this entertainment. Mind you – the weather did perhaps upstage everyone for a while during a terrific downpour on the last night. Poor Tom. The guy running the sound desk told me of a cue that he skipped: “fade up | gentle rain sound”. Clearly no need for that as it was raining stair rods at the time.

Until last year, as mentioned in this post, I didn’t really get what the love of Shakespeare was all about. The language archaic, the context abstract, the format, not on a sofa. You have to concentrate like billy-oh. I now see the above as the appeal. In contrast to other forms of entertainment, there is an effort involved  in watching Shakespeare and as a result the rewards are superior to a lot of other formats on offer.

My (5 year old girl) Sophie also watched it with relish. Three times. Couldn’t drag her away. She had her favourite bits - particularly the violent battle scene and removal of eyes scene.  The appeal to her was admittedly, initially largly due to the appearance of her older brothers, as well as the rest of the cast who had befriended her, but also due to the repetition.  Young kids like repetition. It’s why DVD’s get watched over and over, it’s why bedtime routines exist. Seeing the play three and a bit times was a real treat for all of us. Seeing it subtly develop from one performance to the next; seeing the direction change here and there; seeing the actors perfect their scenes whilst getting an opportunity to re-run some of the slightly harder-to-grasp first time round bits (there is no pause, rewind – just Play).

King Lear & Gonerill. Photo : Stephen Whitehead

King Lear himself, was in my mind, the star of the show. Richard Carwardine – an arresting actor of the highest calibre and with a not unimpressive off-stage career.  He’s a founder of the company and passionate artist. Carwardine far from carried the others though – some star performances all round. The sons Edgar (played by Ed Long) and Edmund (Andrew Cleaver) proved to be excellently cast. Cleaver’s ducking-and-diving, slightly downtrodden wide boy stage manner suited the part to a tee whilst complementing the marvellously changing facets of Ed’s part. Richard Mitchley’s charismatic Fool had us warmly chuckling whilst Joe Kao’s Cornwall had us clinging to the edge of our camping sofa. The three daughters provided a portrayal of contrasts – the pure beauty of Mary Glynn’s Cordellia was in stark contrast to the visceral spit and spite of Heledd Hart’s Gonerill and Georgina Ferry’s Regan.

Hanging out with the crew – a lovely family of players, or rather several families, some of whom have been involved since they were kids – was special. The very hard work, especially in the week prior to the opening night, was offset with play, mainly in the format of enjoying the majestic local beauty spots and ales. Rarely off stage re-enactments, but snippets from some of the Shakespearian comedy-genius verbiage was voiced. Flibberty Gibbet. Untimely death. Serviceable villain. Handy Dandy. Poor Tom. Poooor Turlygod. Pooooooor Tom. Ahh, Mrs Hugget? (oh no, hang on.. sorry in joke)

I’m already really looking forward to next year.

A new initiative by the Royal Shakespeare Company called Open Stages 2011 / 2012 recognises the void between the amateur and professional Shakespeare productions and is all about bridging the gap. This year’s production was flying the flag for this new vehicle – I’d say it could well be in with a shout at the flagship.

More photos from Stephen Whitehead»

Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Here we are on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, en route to the Witches Cauldron – a fantastic swim through cave to a secret beach. More snaps»

We’ve been in Wales. Mainly camping at Poppit Sands (pictured above), exploring North Pembrokeshire, Cardigan and an involvement in King Lear at St. Dogmaels Abbey (the boys were in it). More to follow on those bits. In summary, great time, lovely people, was over far too quick.  After that Eirene and the kids stepped over the St. Georges to see her dad in Ireland whilst I went to watch England beat India in Edgbaston. Stepping out of the sleepy tranquil haunts of West Wales into the grime and crime of Birmingham was a bit of a culture shock to say the least.

Getting back home after living in a van for the best part of 3 weeks was quite nice. 240 volts, WiFi and running water. Full blown utilities. I’m now back at work – got a busy week going on. Time to crack on!

At the weekend we headed out to to top left hand corner of Yorkshire to celebrate Jaygo’s 10th birthday. We wanted to make it brilliant for him – regular readers will know he’s had a rough old time this year. I think I can safely say we ticked all the boxes.

Jaygo wanted a camping weekend. A couple of years ago we had a fantastic time in at Hoggarths (blog post)  - so I emailed them to ask how they were fixed for a large group – and they said they had another field nearby that we could use. From the map and photos I scoured of the area, it looked idyllic – an oxbow field surrounded on 3 sides by the River Swale .

Hogarths is billed as a wild camping experience. Friday night was textbook wild! Rain in biblical proportions hammered down – luckily after we’d set up a waterproof gazeebo and various other dry hangouts. A fairly chilled night around the fire ensued after the rains. The River had ‘doubled’ in size and was roaring and sandy brown with mud that it had ripped from the sides of its valley. Quite an impressive sight.

Saturday morning -I started the day by making a damper. A trip into Kirkby Stephen for supplies and a pint on the way back at the rather nice pint serving Black Bul Inn, Nateby.  Whilst England were winning the ODI cricket series on the trusty Roberts radio (one of my only concessions to electronics for the weekend bar my Nikon D70s camera) we saw our party pad out to it’s full compliment size of 31. Our field was not only home to Clover (our land ship) and all who sail in her, but Olive the Hymer,  A pop up waterproof gazeebo (brilliant invention), Bingo Bongo, several tents, a Yurt, a composting toilet tent and a battle arena which all the boys waged nerf battles all day long and absolutely loved it.

Sunday –  Jaygo’s birthday.  Beautiful day ensued. A happy chappy was presented with a scooter and an MP3 with some music on it. We pottered around and slowly packed up, soon after giving Jaygo is cake before heading up to the Tan Hill Inn (Britain’s Highest Pub) for a pint on the way home – a truly memorable weekend, shared by a lovely bunch of people.

Wild camping prep tips

We’ve never quite prepped as much for a camping mission as this one. The latest addition to our camping kit was a composting toilet – a ‘models changing tent’ from Argos for £16, coupled with a toilet seat on a sturdy wooden box, a sack full of sawdust and a spit for digging big ‘oles with and some sanitiser. We moved the toilet every 12 hours or so and capped the old one with a plug of turf we’d saved. This was suitable to service 30+ people amicably. As well as this, we’d previously acquired sails to act as shelter for the side of our van, and Tibetan Prayer Flags to act as pretty things and guy rope don’t trip over signallers.  The barometer was also quite handy, being utterly removed from the usual methods of telephone and internet signal luxuries. We had asked everyone to bring some wood for the fires, and sawdust – in the end I acquired a boat load of sawdust, but was very grateful for everyone’s wood contributions.

Best clothing for wet camping tips

Friday afternoon brought with it torrential rain. I actually quite liked that. My rain kit comprises of a Driza-Bone Sou’Wester, A Barbour Wax Jacket, trawler fisherman  waterproof trousers, RAB Gaiters and Asolo boots. A sou’wester is one of the best things I’ve purchased in recent years – they don’t restrict head movement like hoods tend to and gaiter / boot combo mean you don’t get cold and / sweaty feet like you can do with welly boots after a prolonged period.

Campsite midge protection tips

Near inland water, in North England and Scotland at this time of year – until mid September ish, midgies can be an extreme irritant. We’d purchased full midge protection – including mosquito head net hoods (although they look silly, and are a bit restrictive do the trick). Avon Skin So Soft (as used by the Royal Marines, so I’m told) – which acts as a base layer that midgies cant bite through and some deet wipes. All based covered. I also find smoking helps (although wouldn’t recommend unless you already smoke!) and a woodfire also help.

Best clothing for hot camping tips

As little as possible. Don’t forget the sun block!

A bunch more photos:

Click the image blow to see the photo set, or click here to start a slide show»