10 Fun Things You Didn’t Know About Me.

• I recently passed my Grade 5 piano exam.
• I love growing plants from collected seeds. I collected fallen tree seeds in Amiens and have loads of little baby trees coming up. Don’t know what to do with them!
• I make all my own cards—birthday, wedding, birth congratulations, Christmas.
• I enjoy walking in the countryside. I live in an area that is good for that. Both hills and flat areas.
• I like cooking and baking. I have written a recipe book which includes many very old recipes from my grandmother, dated 1909.
• I don’t enjoy housework, although it has to be done.
• I learned to tat when I was at school. It’s a dying art. We moved to a new school and the cookery rooms weren’t finished, so we did craft instead. The teacher offered to teach us to tat. I and my friends took her up on it.
• I have been using computers since the very first pcs came out. It was called a PET and we still have it, although it no longer works. This was in 1979.
• I hate crowds and cities, although I didn’t used to worry about it. I prefer the countryside.
• My family has farming roots. Dairy farming. My sister was still farming until last year.

What is interesting about you that we didn’t know? Let us know in the comments.

Feel free to share with your friends. Please link back to my blog if you do.

The Pennine Way

I have recently got back from a holiday in Scotland. On the way, we stayed in the Peak District National Park as it’s too far to go to Scotland in one go.

We decided we’d walk some of the Pennine Way while we were there, This is Britain’s oldest long-distance trail, being 268 miles across some of England’s best scenery.

In 1932, ramblers did a mass trespass on Kinder Scout, one of the peaks in the Peak District. It was done to bring to notice the fact that walkers in England and Wales were denied access to many areas of open countryside. This led to the ultimate opening of large areas and the idea of the Pennine Way was born.

If you look online, it will tell you that the Pennine Way was opened in 1965. This is not true. Only the final stage to Kirk Yeltholm was opened then. The trail known as The Pennine Way was in existence long before that. The idea was proposed in 1935 by a man called Stephenson who had been inspired by long-distance trails in the US–especially the Appalachian Trail. I cannot find when the first part was begun, though, but I do know it was before 1965 because I have walked on it before that date! And it wasn’t considered new then.

It begins in the village of Edale, in Derbyshire and culminates 268 miles later in Kirk Yeltholm, just inside the Scottish border. It passes through some of England’s most beautiful scenery including, as well as the Peak District, The Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park.

The route follows the Pennines, known as the Backbone of England. This is a range of mountains and hills that runs down the centre of Northern England.

The popularity of the trail has been a problem. Even in the 1960s the path was becoming worn away, and so some parts are now paved.

If you enjoyed these pictures and a bit of history, please leave a comment in the comments box. I enjoy reading what you think of my posts.

I have recently heard that Vengeance of a Slave is now available in hardcover. You can find it here.

And Viv’s Family Recipes is available in paperback. You can find it here.