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

I’ve had the same semi-joke resolution for around the last 8 years – so far, un fulfilled. I’d like to drive a tractor. Preferebly a big monster of a tractor with loads of equipment fore and aft.

Another resolution is to give up smoking in 8 years from now. My strategy for this is quite simple. 3 years ago, I gave up smoking for all of January. Two years ago, I gave up for two months, last year, three months and this year, I’ve set myself the target of 4 months giving uppedness. Next year, my intention is to do 5 months – etc. etc. In around 8 years, I should have given up entirely.

I also want to keep on bloggin’. DragonDrop is 10 years old this year. Time and location based reportage, comment and interaction with the fine burghers of the internet. I’ve blogged at least once a month (up to several times an hour) over this 10 year period. I’ve bolted on a few other things since then – twitter, social networking, foursquare, etc. but the essence of what I’m doing is still the same. The difference is that (thanks to social networking, facebook, et al) the rest of the world has joined me in my quest to fill the internet.

I took this photo on Christmas morning…

Exactly 4 years ago I took a very similar photo…

It’s amazing how much and how little changes with the passing of time. Sophie has grown up so much yet she’s still got this adorable little quiet smile that make me melt a little bit. Christmas was lovely. Lovely food and drink, company and gifts, smiles and laughter. We had Eirene’s dad over (hello!) – it’s always lovely having him around (I’d better say that, as I know he’s a regular reader!) and we ate and walked and visited and talked and snoozed and opened and then far too quickly waved goodbye.

Santa was really good to us. I got a new jumper, a scarf and a Sargent Pepper Mill and a book called ‘Mess’ that look quite fun – an interactive book. Eirene got a watch and a 3G kindle, as well as a ticket to an event in Birmingham in Jan. Felix got a remote control helecopter – a G Bladez which.is.SUPERB. Jaygo got a claymation type rostrum studio with clay, software, backdrop and everything.  Sophie also got a watch and everyone got new pajamas.

..Amongst a whole bunch of other top stuff. Textbook lovely Christmas. We’re in that weird inbetweeny week and I’m working. Steady away though, steady away.

Here’s a link to a set of snaps from our Christmas.

A colour combo I spotted outside our house earlier

Twas the night before Christmas, well the day at least. I’ve had the busiest period at work I’ve had in a long time – huge deadline – nailed. It’s held off the ‘Christmas feeling’ for me, but today – it’s upon us.

We’ve got Eirene’s dad over for Christmas (lovely). Went for a bit of a stroll with him down to the (surprisingly un-busy) sorting office this morning, wi’ dog.

Popped out for a few drinks last night with some old friends to The Muckles (a pub) and have so far had a lovely morning. I’m currently mid production of a pan of Chestnut and Bacon soup and looking forward to seeing RichP, who’s popping over for a hello in a bit.

Later this arvo, we’re off to the Christingle service at St. Peters, then I’ve got a whole bunch of wrapping to do. I may do some rapping as well. My old chum SimonB is bezzing over tonight, and we may imbibe an ale or two to keep us amused.

 Yesterday we went for a beautiful sunset kissed walk round John O Gaunt’s Castle, near Harrogate with some friends of ours and their Polish Mountain Dog.  An unseasonably mild afternoon where the reservoir was like glass and the golden light of the first day of winter clock’s sunset was incredible.

It’s now Halloween. All Hallows Eve. Hallow be the word I’ve just looked up in a dictionary;

A day shrouded in mystery, and tradition. Trick or Treat? Pumpkin lanterns (it was turnips in my day – pumpkins were fictional) and dressing up to look scary. Vampires, witches, ghouls and ghosts. Stuff of folklore, stuff of nightmares. Stuff to make kids behave or the mosters will get you.

I quite like the reference that it’s the last day of Autumn, the last day of the warmer months with flip flops,  and the onset of the antitheses, with gloves.  It’s and a chronological bookmark reminder to get ready for the onset of winter. The going back of the clocks adds to the foreboding – I for one have to drive for around 50 minutes in the dark every day now until the clocks go forward. Not looking forward to this, but, I’ll get used to it. Again, then the advent of spring will see all the more sweeter.

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.

Jaygo haircut before & after, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Jaygo asked me to give him a haircut. It’s been a while. He asked me to give him a haircut as he’s meeting the Mayor of Harrogate tomorrow and giving a presentation about his schools commitment to recycling. We have a deal when I’m cutting hair. He can play his Nintendo Playstation on a school night.

I’m quite pleased with the result. I can see my little boy again – I knew he was in there somewhere.

Felix and a view, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

We went on a walk up to Beamsley Beacon yesterday. Windy, but nice. It’s got the the time of year when we can officially come out of hibernation. There IS enough hours in the day to go off and do an activity and not have to worry about getting caught out in the dark before we’ve finished. Yesterday a gentle stroll took us from the road to this location which afforded stunning views – I could see both features near my home and my place of work (which are separated by a 32 mile distance)

Sunset over Harrogate, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

I’d had 5pm in my diary for a couple of week now. Id’ spotted that sunset was at 17:00 my time today. This means that from now on, I’m in with a shout of catching some actual sunlight – after work. As I sat in the last meeting of the day from 16:30 onwards, in a room with big old windows I watched as rays of actual sun hit the scenery around me. It made me feel rather happy that we have most defiantly ‘come out the other side’ of it.

We’ve got snow drops in the garden – the first new growth I’d noticed this year and a couple of people have mentioned that they’ve seen buds on the trees. Crocuses, next, then daffodils (my favourite). I don’t think we’ve seen the last sting of winter yet, but there’s light, at the end of the tunnel.

A traditional North Yorkshire Mummers Play

I saw a world that I didn’t know existed last night. Whilst sat having a quiet jar with a friend in the (Graeme) Swan on The Stray public house, we were ‘warned’ that there would shortly be a performance and we may not like it on the grounds that it may be “a bit loud”. We were told there was to be a ‘Mummers Play’ – some kind of “Medieval thing” and a profusion of pre emptive apologies were proffered. The up-coming performance was pre-empted along the same lines as if someone was about to enter with a small dog who takes a special interest in ones legs. The general ‘medieval, play and loud’ bits piqued our interest, so we decided to grab a ringside seat.

Several minutes later the show began. In comes the first player. A pitch of introduction, belted out at the top of the lungs by someone dressed in a top hat, a ‘blacked up’ face and dark suit covered in coloured rags. Over the course of the next few minutes, all of the players came into the pub in a similar vein. “IN COMES… ” and then their pitch. Intrigue, a sword fight and a back stabbing murder were the next events – quite outrageous for 8pm on a Tuesday evening in Harrogate! A unique spectacle of vintage surrealism. Some of our fellow patrons even put down their iPhones for a minute to passively observe this comedic spectacle.

I felt rather lucky to have been in the right place at the right time to have see this.  It certainly falls under the ‘you don’t see that every day’ category. I was quite amazed that others punters seemed to think of it as a bit of in imposition, an inconvenience at best. My friend Henry, who caught a later performance in the (Andy Flower) Coach & Horses also enjoyed it – he said “It’s nice to hop back a few hundred years during your pint! It reminded me of the mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream who do their own Mummers play.” He also noted the general apathy to get involved in this less accessible form of entertainment, which he summed up the patronage’s attitude with “Unappreciative and seemed narked at being distracted from thinking about their Audi’s”

I had a brief chat with one of the company after their performance and have subsequently done a little research – it seems the roots of The Mummers, although a little patchy, stems from the middle ages when troupes of actors used to perform a seasonal play to collect money from “The big houses” for charity. I am so pleased to see such a bizarre, obscure and quintessentially English tradition lives on and give this a  ’like – thumbs up’ in the traditional sense of the phrase.

More info & links

Catch The Knaresborough Mummers on tour! | link to their website»
See a video of the above described performance»
Read more about the history of this tradition»

Thanks to @RevDino for the photo

Snow bikes, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Heard an interesting debate on the radio this morning. One chap was saying that his kids just “aren’t that into the snow”. Cry’s of outrage from his co-broadcaster only to be levelled by a comment from a third person saying “perhaps their taste is so sophisticated now, that they don’t want to go out in the cold stuff any more”. Begs the questions – are DS-X-Box-Wii-Stations and the like more fun that snow, or for that matter, reality in general? Could you really illicit the same or more levels of fun without having to get cold and wet? I personally think not, but sliding down a hill on a bit of plastic for a few seconds, verses racing round Laguna Seca in an (albeit virtual) Oreca GTS-R Viper could be a compelling argument. I’m relieved that my own kids are still hugely entertained by the snow.  Are we in general though, in danger of letting technology get the better of apathy if we leave it unchecked?

We as adults can be just as bad. People ask – “What is it with the UK? we grind to a halt the minute there’s the slightest dusting of snow” (or words to that effect). I’d say – firstly, our roads are amongst the most congested and unfit for purpose in the world and unlike, for instance, our Nordic cousins, we don’t have snow chains fitted by default, so we do have some excuse.  The snow does seem to lead to a notion of procrastination though. I’m lucky enough to be able to carry on working from anywhere that has a computer and an internet connection,  but do we over egg the snow excuse, to down tools completely, rather than adapting to a new environment.

Technology beats snow. Rock Salt, Paper Scissors.
Couple of links of interest this snowfall:

Live ICEcams from around North Yorkshire»
#uksnow : Twitter fed live snowfall info»

I was lucky enough to do a lot of my favourite activities over the past 5 days or so.
Thursday – went to watch the cricket at Headingley with a lovely bunch of people. ‘My’ team (Yorkshire) won one of it’s key matches of the season – they beat arch rivals Lancashire by 17 runs in a confident win. A train ride back to Harrogate, followed by a few drinks in town ensured a healthy hang over the next morning. Luckily, I’d arranged the day off so one of the first ports of call was coffee in town followed by a few missions to stock up for the festival we were headed to for the weekend.

As I’d mentioned in last years post, Lindley Woodstock is technically a private party but had the feel of a small festival – stages, fires, PA’s, people, curry van, bouncy castle etc. Very lovely it was as well. I ran the top stage – the format of top stage act > bottom stage act > top stage act (etc) meant that the music could go on seamlessly (ish) all day and night. The highlight musically for me on that stage was a psychadellic act who’s name I missed – all Gong / Hawkwind ish. really interesting. The highlight for the bottom stage for me would have to be Mick Artistic, who I’ve seen before somewhere but who was on top form at Lindley.

After a lovely Sunday in the sun we headed home to get the kids settled for school night. The next day – Monday – I went and had quite a major haircut followed by lunch at home, followed by the delights of seeing Sophie at her Baby Ballet class. Very cute. Very pink. We let Sophie have a potter about in the KidzPlay at Hammerian House – they had a TV on where I got to see the second half of Portugal thrashing North Korea. The big think of the day was Eirene and I’s 10th wedding anniversary. ‘Tin’ apparently. 10 years ago that day we had our wedding reception / party (and oh boy oh boy, what a party it was!) up at the Harrogate Arms. This was back when the club downstairs was still serviceable, so we took over that with DJ’s, set an acid jazz / funk type band upstairs and I think we had more stuff outside… all very much fun) so with those thoughts in mind we headed back up there with the kids after school for a look. Downstairs is no more, the pub has been knocked about a bit (still nice) and outside has donkeys and birds of pray! what a difference 10 years can make!