Wk 23 17th to 23rd Mar

Well, from the sublime to the rediculous, or from the fabulously craggy to the mind numbingly flat, that was this week - Lakes (via Clitheroe) to Lincoln - in retrospect not a great idea, but geographically necessary!!!

Monday 17th March – day 142

We are leaving Norfolk today, after our Lakeland interlude, it would be lovely to revisit some of the north coastline and explore more of its atmospheric salt marshes, but it is onwards and upwards again for us!
Down the A17 yesterday, and back up the A17 today - and it didn’t look any more interesting looking the other way, flat, flat, flat and wet! However the journey though tedious was easy and we had made it to Donington in Lincolnshire by 4pm, for another farm stay and again in splendid isolation, but we expect company soon as the Easter weekend approaches.

Tuesday 18th March - day 143

We are off to visit Skegness today to see if it is as bracing as the posters indicated! First stop Boston though as we have to drive through there on the way. The centre of town had the most historic charm obviously, but also the largest parish church in Britain, which they call the stump, no-one knows why, they just do!! The ceilings were, as many before them quite beautifully painted, the attention to even the smallest detail must surely have been done to Gods glory although we are also really enjoying them. After Boston we drove on to Gibraltar Point just beyond Skegness to picnic and to walk through this strange national nature reserve by the sea. It was indeed bracing and several layers were needed to keep out the elements, but we were prepared. What we were not prepared for though was the difficulty in finding the sea! We knew it had to be there somewhere, but we could not access it across the marshes, though we did find a nice warm lookout shelter, the first of several, as there is some serious bird watching to be enjoyed around here. However we did find another route and we were soon back by the water, which again we had all to ourselves, searching for oyster catchers and sea shells – joy! We had yet to see Skegness itself though and dusk was drawing in so we would be seeing it lit up – may be its best view. It was all we expected, a neon, brash, fantasy land of amusement and adventure, what we had not expected was just how much of it there would be; and how many static caravan parks there were, and for just how far along the coastline they ranged. For miles we passed a melange of manmade, plastic and artificial fun factories in the shape of Fantasy island, Butlins, and Coral Island, there were more electric light bulbs per square foot than most major towns ………… and we could not face getting out to see how bracing it was!

Wednesday 19th March – day 144

We woke this brilliant sunny warm spring morning to the sound of much baaing, and on view just outside our caravan were a real mothers union of ewes and their very frisky lambs having an animated group discussion, unfortunately the meeting closed before I could get to the camera, but we did catch them departing, though we are not sure who took the minutes! Today we are off to check out Lincoln, but have a few admin chores to catch up on, so enjoy the morning in our farm field.
We drove through Sleaford on the way to our destination which was charming indeed, we didn’t stop this time, but think we will need to go back. Lincoln was lovely, particularly round the cathedral. It was set on top of a hill, and surrounded by characterful cobbled streets (a bit of mix of York and Gold Hill Shaftesbury) descending down to the city centre. We of course lingered in the cathedral to view its delights, not least of which were the most evocative set of “stations of the cross”, and a quiet area for prayer, filled with huge candle sticks. We sat awhile in the nave, whist the choir made angelic music in preparation for evensong, before we left to explore the environs, and a slow walk back up “Steep Hill”

Thursday 20th March – day 145

Back to miserable weather, we had planned to go for a walk in the Wolds (are now desperate to see a hill!) but the foul weather outside keeps us prevaricating until well after lunch, until finally we make the decision to go out in search of excitement! Unfortunately it needs to be free and dry, so NT property Belton House at Grantham wins the vote. Unfortunately pre bank holiday queues and a detour to Sainsbury’s for bread and milk (and hot cross buns!) meant that there was not enough time to really explore the house, but by now it looked like the skies were clearing so we headed off for historic Stamford. We were so glad we did, the rain held off for most of our two and a half hour stroll (including a cup of tea!) up and down old and narrow cobbled streets, past endless number of churches, over bridges and by water meadows, it was so charming that it was only the drawing in of the evening, and camera exhaustion (Chris now had a blister on his finger) that caused our holt.
Friday 21st March Good Friday – day 146

Woke to a very windy abut sunny morning, buckets and boxes scattered across the camp field, but all easily retrievable. After breakfast we are going to St Matthews Church in Boston to be part of the Good Friday events, so off in the car in good time, only to be brought to a dead stop outside Boston in a great queue of traffic stretching into the distance, here we sat for a good while! Not to be daunted we switched to some side streets to try and circumnavigate the traffic, but as usual this was doomed to fail. Time passed and we very soon realised that we would never make the start of the service, in fact it could have been nearly half way through by the way the traffic was moving. Sad at heart we pulled off and headed towards Sleaford for a walk round after our drive through the other day. On the way we found a huge derelict maltings store, these are so extensive that they are too large for conversion to any other use. Unfortunately Sleaford did not live up to its earlier promise. We did have a look into a local church there but they were also in the middle of a service but with no external signs of invitation we went for an unsatisfactory cup of tea - what no Earl Grey! So Helen a lemon burst(!) and I had PG, (sadly even the tea cake failed to live up to inspire).
A couple of small delights found on returning to the car, were a small side alley and the smallest jewellers’ shop we had ever seen. It could have not been any deeper that 6’ and 12’ long, flanked on one side by a wide water filled drainage dyke, and access to the first floor was by removable ladder. By now the promised rain was heavily upon us so back to the car and a return to the caravan, for once so early in the day that we had time to play scrabble, and yes Helen did win, convincingly, and I was left with a 10 point Q. There will be a return match.

Saturday 22nd March – day 147

What a weird and wonderful day today has been, having recently had a long discussion about the increasingly dire shape of our funds (or the galloping approach of the lack of them!!!) the increasing burden of the price of petrol (top price noted this week - £1.20 per litre for diesel- yikes) and the frequency with which we are having to refuel – at least once a week- let me work that out for you … yes we are spending £400 plus per month on petrol alone, no wonder there is no beer money left!
So today we decided to make the 200 mile round trip to Middleton Cheney to visit Audrey and Gordon. And once we got there we were so glad that we did. Getting there though was a bit of a surreal experience as every 10 miles we seemed to pass through extreme weather changes – brilliant blues skies that had us reaching for our sunglasses one minute, and horizontal snow storms that had the wipers running at double speed the next. The change in weather was as frequent as the stripes on a zebra and we were starting to feel quite seasonally bemused!
Anyway we arrived at Fernleigh fashionably late (no change there) but with good reason this time, and stepped back into a time warp. It had been a decade since I had last seen the house and Aud, but neither seemed to have changed, Gordon is thinner now, but otherwise it was all comfortingly much as I remember; including and particularly the wonderful warm welcome and excellent lunch that was prepared for us. We spent a lovely afternoon with them, and stayed until about 5pm as Gordon was tiring, so then took our leave. As we were driving out of Middleton his nibs proclaimed “Betty (his lovely and long suffering secretary) lives round here I’m sure” so with only a little detective work (he has a nose like a blood hound!!) we rounded the corner of Betty’s drive, and were thrilled to find both Betty and daughter Sharon in and ready with the kettle. After another interlude of different reminiscences we made the return journey in a more settled climate.

Sunday 23rd March – day 148

It is true to say that the weather forecast had promised snow to the south and east of the country, and it is also has to be said that I was wakened in the night several times with an unusually cold nose (one thing we have always been in this caravan is snug and warm) so I should not have been surprised at 8am when I first lifted the blinds, to find ourselves in a winter wonderland with snow at least 3inches deep! It took some doing to get Chris to go outside and sort out the water, and it was only the promise of wearing my pink wellies that persuaded him - but he was again the hero of the hour as he went and dug for our water barrels! As we set off for Sleaford to share fellowship with the New Life church this Easter day, we were a little disheartened to realise that the snow was melting fast in our already soggy field, and it is now a really squelchy scramble to the car. It is a good job we are leaving on Tuesday as we are slowly sinking into the quagmire and all around is slushy brown! Yuk!
The celebration at New Life was fab, and we set off in joyous mood to find the Wolds. The journey was a bit like the one we had yesterday, intermittent snow storms and sunshine. We find the Wolds pleasant but without a map were unable to pick out a walk route, so headed off for a last glimpse of the sea as from Tuesday we will be inland for a month or so. We arrived at Saltfleet in the sunshine, walked along the seas edge in sleet and hail for part of the way, a very stingy experience indeed, and ended the walk in sunshine – I think we looked a little steamy as we made our way back to the car! The journey back took us down through Lincoln’s seaside mecca, and again we were reminded of all its nefarious joys, but swiftly through as we had to be home in time for the final episode of Lark Rise to Candleford – joy!