After celebrating in last weeks blog that the renovations with all trades were completed, there was just one job left to do. The Curtains. We had decided that any jobs we could potentially do ourselves that could not affect the structure of the house, we would have a go at. Hence Richard spending days building a cupboard around the new immersion hot water tank, and lots of scratching of heads fitting the new skirting downstairs.
I have made curtains before, so not a complete novice, my biggest issue was actually remembering how to work mum’s sewing machine. Much to mum’s amusement I was following a tutorial on YouTube that started sewing the hems on both the lining and the curtain first. I had watched many video’s and this seemed the simplest method that made sense to me. I think I did ok!! The only real issue was that they were 10cm too long but that was easily remedied by cutting the length from the top before I added the header tape. I think we also chose well, using a checked Harris Tweed type material as it was so easy to pattern match. I do still have the small matter of a Roman blind to sew next week.
Wedding Anniversary Celebrations
The years just seem to whizz by! This week saw our 28th wedding anniversary, it only seems like yesterday we were walking down the isle. Those 28 years have certainly seen some changes, raising our 2 wonderful children and all the fun that entails. Many amazing years watching them grow into strong, independent adults that we are so proud of. We have both started and retired from our teaching careers and have lived in many different houses along the way. It feels amazing that we can now just enjoy each others company and as Richard’s mum likes to say ‘We can do WHAT we want, WHEN we want. The 28 years and early retirement has only made us stronger.
We decided to mark the occasion by getting away in the van. I was determined to find some puffins, our first choice would have been a trip to Northumberland and to take a boat trip to the Farne Isles, luckily I checked before we set off, the boat trips are not landing this season due to Avian Flu. After a little more research we decided to go across the county to the Yorkshire coast to Bempton Cliffs and Flamborough Head. Of course, we also needed to fit in our old favourite haunts of Whitby, Robinhoods Bay, Ravenscar and Sandsend. The journey was just under 3 hours from the Dales to Sandsend, yet we were still in the same county of North Yorkshire!!
We stayed at a great little campsite for a couple of nights, Wold Farm Camping and Caravanning, just outside Bempton that has a track leading straight onto the coastal path in the area where there is a small puffin colony.
On the first afternoon, we could not see any little orange beaks and feet amongst the thousands of sea birds, so we set off to walk the 4km to the RSPB centre to see if they would have any more information on where and when it would be best to spot a puffin. It was such a beautiful walk, on what was quite an overcast day. Not massive twitchers, we don’t know much about sea birds, but we thoroughly enjoyed the displays of nest making, swooping and soaring, crooning and canoodling. A white barn owl made an appearance sweeping and searching the fields for his prey for about half an hour.
WE FOUND PUFFINS!
FINALLY, after nearly 5km of walking we saw a small crowd gathered on the cliff top. Amongst the thousands of seabirds, one very tiny and slightly awkward puffin made several attempts before his success at landing on a teeny ledge. He was absolutely adorable and posed for the cheering crowds.
The next morning we decided to take one more trip down the track to see if there were any other puffins around, and after about 5 minutes we were rewarded. This time the teeny puffin was joined by a mate and it was with some amusement that we watched as they searched for a suitable place for their burrow. They are rather clumsy creatures when balanced very precariously on a ledge and the male was quite adamant that he wanted the hole that a couple of razorbills had nested in. There was quite the stand-off. What he hadn’t realised is that his mate had found her own hole and had disappeared, it took him quite some time to find her again!
Flamborough Head
Venturing further into new territories, we decided to visit Flamborough Head. What an amazing place! It was busy around the lighthouse and the carpark, but as ever, 5 minutes walk along the coast and the crowds thinned. The colours of the white cliffs, milky waters and blue skies made for some great photography opportunities. There was a large seal colony and dozens of the curious creatures were playing and fishing in the shallows. At one point, one came within about 5 metres of us sitting on the beach and spent a good few minutes watching us. Having visited on a busy Sunday afternoon, at high tide, we think this is definitely a place we will return to mid-week now we are retirees!
Cottage Visitor
I stayed at mums for a few days while I made the curtains, Richard quickly retreated back to the Dales out of the way. Mum drove me back and decided the house was suitably ready for an overnight stay. It was lovely cooking and chatting in the open plan downstairs and to be able to have a fire as it is still a little chilly in the evenings. Hopefully mum and our children will see the cottage as their second home to visit as much as possible – even when we are not there!
As a consequence of another busy week and our anniversary celebrations we decided to take a short break from our YouTube Vlogs but will be back on Wednesday where we will be discussing our need to now establish some routines in our early retirement after the chaos of all the renovations.
Have a great week
Jackie and Richard
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