a small chapter which tells of subdued birthday and yuri gagarin celebrations...

Life is very quiet at the moment - due to the pandemic we had to forgo the usual Yuri Gagarin first man in space celebrations which was a shame given it was the 60th anniversary -

flying the flag for Yuri (T Shirt actually)

as this date is also Dr Freds birthday we did have 6 friends for a picnic in the garden - post snow with a firepit. We were all wrapped in blankets and ate enough curry and cake to make our bodies keep warm burning calories - but we missed the space tunes and the other party goers but the occasion was marked and we reminisced about the 50th anniversary party in the scout hut near Hebden Bridge where most people dressed up and we had a very tuneful night - much food and alcohol was consumed - good night...

50th anniversary pic 2011... don't have permission for all faces.....

This year we didn't even get the yuri bunting out or the CCCP rocket stored under the spare bed, no space suit or dancing light up shoes ..... these days will come again....

Other news - defo two hedgehogs roaming the garden so I'm hoping for babies - no frogspawn yet I hope the frogs (and hogs) aren't all gay - the crows nest is big but seems uninhabited - Its possibly there second home....

Life continues to ramble on in Coundon Tower...

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Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

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