Ordinance Survey map detail, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Had a great weekend. Friday saw a very traditional ‘early doors’ with some old friends (ended up in the Tap and Spile – how old school is that?)
On Saturday we went to see this place (featured in pic) – John of Gaunts Castle (site of) that I’d seen on an O.S. map just outside Harrogate (just off Penny Pot) Great walk – got a few nice snaps. Lovely weather. A great discovery – really nice short walk.
On Sunday, we went up to Harlow Carr Gardens to see a mushroom exhibition type thing. Quite interesting. I cooked – got my pork crackling about spot on. All in all a really nice Autumnal weekend.

So, an unexpected festival occurred this weekend. We’d been planning to go camping anyway for Tinanana’s birthday but Eirene phoned me on Friday morning to bring me up to speed with the plan reset arrangements – we were off to The Northern Didgeridoo camp / festival thingy. This was at the Lime Tree Farm site where the Thornborough festivals are held.

Friday night there were just us and our good camping buddies and their same shape as our family clan. (we’ve both got x 3 kids about the same ages) Had a nice fire, met some nice people and bimbled about, jammed a bit with some folk, went to see a couple of bands who were interesting and creative.

Saturday, set up the cricket set and played a bit with the kids and the big kids. Birthday girl Tinanana turned up with a couple of other friends. On the evening we did the usual tag team exploratory missions (some stay at camp, keep an ear out for the kids, some go to see bands and that). We’d got the camp set up really well. Awnings, vehicles, everything set out in the right place with (thankfully) loads of windbreakers in place as it was really windy.

Sunday – this was a surprise highlight for me – we went for a guided walk with the Lime Tree farmer – a really nice and very knowledgeable chap called Peter. Lime Tree Farm has some fantastic conservation programmes going on. A huge badger colony and a very hi tech hide were top things to see. Some gorgeous ponds and fenland areas alive with (thanks to the wind dropping for a bit) all sorts of nature. We got to see a barn owl fly past us at very close range. After that, we came back to camp and cooked, packed and came home. On arrival, the box set of The Blue Planet was waiting on our doorstep for us, so, fish and chips and nature programmes were the order of the end of the day. Nice end to a nice weekend.

Cracking weekend. Went up to Spiers House campsite in the North Riding Forest again. Went with some friends of ours who have the same shaped family as ours. Ended up stopping up for a bit on Friday night, Saturday we went for an epic walk across the moors and country lanes. Picnicked by a river then let the kids fill themselves with fresh clean air as we strode through a sea of purple heather – that was probably the highlight. Beautiful neck of the woods quite literally.
Stopped up very late on Saturday night round the camp fire. Drank and was merry. On Sunday I accidentally went to sleep for most of the day. It felt like the first proper full UK summer weekend I’ve experienced this year!

Hardraw Force, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

I’ve stuck a bunch of photos that I took (and that Alex took) from our marvelous camping adventure up on my flickr space. Click the big pic above or www.flickr.com/photos/dragondrop for more browse-o-vision.

Cor – it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Great weekend – went camping up at Hardraw Falls. This was followed by a superb FIRE party at XS nightlife. I’ve not enjoyed playing that much for ages. Ended up at an after party. This was followed by a rather chilled Monday. Photo’s from FIRE XXXX are up on my flickr site..