My 8th week - July 15-21

July 15

Very sad to leave this gorgeous area of County Durham.The week is over, gone so quickly, a wonderful respite from the real world, with time to explore and get to know an area I had never seen. Randy and Lynn were so hospitable and I felt so at home and comfortable. 

Before leaving to catch the train, I had a quick visit to a new house which I was curious about. The owners, Phil and Joy recently built a Passivhaus. http://www.new-bold-design.co.uk, which matches beautifully with the 12-15th century cottages opposite. It turns out that Chapel Hillian, Chris Senior of Anchorage Building was one of the first to build this type of house. 

The four friends.

Randy then drove me to Penrith over the moors to catch my train. We stopped to see the breathtaking view all around us at the top of the moor. The road from here was the first to be tarmacked by Edward Macadam. The winding road is perfect for bikers honing their skills, look out cars!

This where the first road on the Pennines in England which was tarmacked around 1820.
The Scottish inventor was John McAdam

From County Durham, I was going over the Pennines to Penrith to catch the train to Leominster (pronounced Lemster, as the Brits call it). The two changes were easy and the trains were very comfortable with wide windows to enjoy the beautiful scenery, although the fields that were supposed to be green, due to the lack of rain over several months, were very dry and brown. 

My Dartington friend, Janet met me at the station which is a 20-minute drive to her home in Presteigne in Wales. Having visited this area on several occasions, I enjoyed recognizing the roads and countryside. Presteigne is in Wales, but when crossing over a little bridge, you are in England. Janet also lives in a 15th century (I think) cottage and has had a beautiful garden for many years, but this year was quite upset at the state of it, as, with the hot weather and no rain, it wasn’t looking its best. Still, she was able to harvest some beans and raspberries which were delicious at supper one night.  Compared to NC it was almost Chelsea Flower show standard, as was Randy and Lynn's garden. There’s talk about water restrictions in the North West. 

Later in the cool of the long summer evenings, it was lovely to take a walk around the town after sitting on the train.

Trains celebrating 100 years of the Royal Air Force.

Later on, we watched Prom #3 on TV. It was the Celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Young Musician competition. It's wonderful to hear these performers who won or were finalists in this annual event, and who are now solid members of the classical musical world. Of course, I loved the piece "Violoncelles vibrez!"for 4 cellos by Giovannia Salima. Included in the quartet was the most recent cellist winner, Sheku Kanneh-Mason. His Young Musicians' winning performance was the Shostakovitch #1. Earlier in May, for the Harry/Meghan wedding in St. George's Chapel Windsor, he played an exquisite set of 3 pieces.  North Carolina should be proud of our connection to the wedding, as the conductor of the wedding orchestra was Christopher Warren-Green, who is also the conductor of the Charlotte Symphony

July 16
A day of relaxation, walk around the town, catch up on family news and the blog. 

A lovely banner Janet made for her Senior Club where she volunteers.

The neighbor's cat. Perfect spot for seeing what's going on.

July 17
A trip to the town of Knighton, which has a great store for women's clothes. I was interested in getting some thermal underwear. Not that we use it much in NC but this past winter made me realise I needed to upgrade. I could not find any in catalogs or shops wherever I was, but Janet knew the perfect shop, and she was right! It's a bit like the Vermont Clothing store. Very quickly I got everything I needed, plus a couple of pairs of compression socks for the flights. For some reason this time I had quite swollen ankles and legs after the flights. 
On our way back, I saw a sign to the Offa Dyke. I had heard about it but did not know it was in this area. Janet knew more about it and showed me on the Ordinance Survey section of it around the Presteigne area. It is somewhat like the Appalachian Trail, but is only 144 miles from North to South Wales.  We decided to do a section the following day, instead tonight taking a nice walk around the fields around Presteigne. 
July 18
To get some sustenance for the walk along the Offa Dyke, we had lunch in a cafe that had good soup and veggies.  We drove out a few miles from home and found the section of the Dyke which was pretty level. Yet another gorgeous day with miles of views all around. 

July 19
A drive out to Ludlow, a market town in Shropshire. The oldest part is the medieval walled town founded in the 11th century after the Norman Conquest and includes the castle, now a ruin. 

We had taken a picnic lunch into the castle courtyard, and after enjoying it in those surroundings, we walked across the market square to a cinema and saw "The Bookshop". It will be coming out in the USA on August 24th. I thought it was an excellent story with a good cast. 

July 20

Made my way to London via Reading, stopping there for a few hours to see the Kennet and Avon canal. There's also a large shopping center, the Oracle, on both sides of the canal, with lawns going down to the water. A lovely place to have lunch, which I did, on yet another glorious day. 

A Cornish pasty (yummy) fake ice tea(yuck) the Times (good)

Oscar Wilde spent some time in Reading Goal. This is is the commemorative walk along the canal. 

The old and the modern. 

The Old Town Hall.

July 21 
I and another long-term friend are filling up Louise's house for her party tomorrow. Food preparation everywhere. At least we can help, which we are doing.