Monday 7 August 2023 - The Worth Valley Hot 7, with singer Ruth Gardziel.

The car park was full due to a bowls match, and our hall was pretty full, with 95 attending - the most since the heady days of Bernard Callaghan, according to Reg. We were treated to a fine performance, with 'Summertime' and 'Colorado Sunset' particularly memorable in my book. Note the familiar face of trombone player Richard Slater, whose presence on the Eagley stage is ubiquitous!

Ann and Peter also shared their recent celebrations by distributing Cup Cake wedding cakes, together with small boxes to transport them. I didn't need that, I ate mine.

5 and 6 August 2023 - Wythenshawe parkrun #534 and a Community Run

While Sue and Julie got a taxi to the airport for their flight to Lisbon, I drove in torrential rain to Wythenshawe Park to join a tally of 188 participants plus volunteers for the 534th running of this event.

Several clumps of trees provided temporary respite from the rain.

I was dressed in full waterproofs and waterproof footwear, so I set off at the back, and didn't overtake many people, coming in 172nd out of the 188 'runners', but staying dry.

I took a few photos on the first loop, before stashing the camera.

It was good to meet up with Alistair Pooler at the end, and we enjoyed a coffee together, with Jenny Raffle there as well, but none of the regular clique. Alistair and I swapped saddening news regarding TGO Challenge friends.

Full results are here.

Luckily, Sunday morning brought excellent conditions for running, and 73 boys, girls and children assembled for the Wythenshawe Community Run - 2km or 5km. Paul did his usual spiel, following which they all dashed off.

I was on timing duty, handing out tokens to finishers to ensure they were all recorded in the correct order. That kept me occupied for a good 40 minutes after an 8 minute break before the first 2km finisher arrived.

31 July to 4 August 2023 - A Visit to Center Parcs Whinfell

Here are a few pictures from last week's visit to Center Parcs in the Lake District. There were six of us on the trip, and we met up - as pictured above - at Tebay Services on Monday morning. Sue and me, my daughter Kate, her children Jacob and Jessica, and Jacob's friend Seb.

Soon we parked up at Center Parcs and most of the group (everyone except me) went for a swim in the building to the right of the next picture.

On Tuesday, Jess was taken to play football....

... and Kate and I visited Starbucks.

That was after I'd sorted out Jacob and Seb with some Field Archery.

Jess was the only footballing girl, but that was fine - I didn't even notice at the time.

The boys enjoyed their archery.

A nearby information board was being inspected by a red admiral butterfly. Apparently global warming has resulted in far more of these butterflies than usual staying as UK residents.

We hear of aggressive seagulls. None of them here, and red squirrels were only occasionally seen. But this twenty strong gang of mallards were doing their best to invade our house.

They really were pretty tame.

Wednesday was a wet day. We cancelled a planned visit to Lowther Castle and spent the day playing pool, ping-pong, Rummikub, etc.

The sun came out on Thursday, and while Jacob and Seb went to play with crossbows, Kate, Sue and Jessica went kayaking.

This duck didn't really appreciate Jacob's attention - it deposited poo on his shorts.

There were several ping-pong interludes

Seb likes ice cream

Our team of chefs excelled

The mallard family get on well together

Here's the crossbow arena

Kayaking

Later, Jacob and Seb had a go on the quad bikes, which they declared was the highlight of their visit.

Our house - 91 Meadow View

The Prince mushroom is one of the tastiest wild mushrooms that you can find. Sue did find a clump of them, and duly took advantage...

Delicious - the pan behind has halloumi

Our house had a games room with a pool table. This kept the children occupied for hours, and we enjoyed a tournament.

The time went all too quickly, and after more ping-pong on Friday morning we headed back home. Meanwhile, Sue had taken pictures of several more fungi. I'll annotate these later.

All in all, an excellent few days with well behaved family.

Breakfast at Moose

Thanks go to Kate for arranging a small family gathering this morning at a Moose Coffee shop in York Street. A very enjoyable occasion with excellent food and service and some very well behaved children. Here are a few photos, just for the record. More captions are welcome.
 

Chess champion

Interim orders

Well, that was exhausting!