Busy Easter

[shewhomust]

We had no particular plans for Easter, but in the last seven days, Monday to Monday, we have:

• been visited by D., and done our best to entertain him by inviting two separate guests to two separate dinners, plus one drive up Weardale, because we felt like an excursion and had no particular plans;


• seen Ryhope Pumping Engine at work - Victorian heavy engineering, driven by steam, run by volunteers, housed in red brick waterworks gothic;


• shopped at the Co-op in Houghton - all part of the quest to reduce our reliance on Sainsbury's and Tesco's (the Co-op, alas, is not the answer, but at least it isn't the problem);



• inspired by how beautiful Weardale was looking when we drove that way, returned for a walk, and explored Harehope Quarry (about which we first heard from Vane Women, who put together a book there): willow sculptures and a heron and Frosterley marble, oh, my! Here, have a picture - in fact, have several! The route of the walk needs work: the first part, Harehope to White Kirkley, was new to us, and splendid; the mid-section, along the Bollihope Burn, was familiar and beautiful, but very busy around the caravan park; then there was an awkward bit of road work as far as Hill End, before a pleasant descent through the fields back to Frosterly;


• and, just when we thought all the holidaying was over and we were back to work, had a surprise visit from samarcand and family, which was an ubexpected treat.

Signs of Easter observed: there have been hot cross buns for breakfast. There were lambs gambolling in the fields along the Bollihope Burn; also a surprising number of dead rabbits - some of which had been dead longer than others, so it's not just that someone particularly thorough had been out shooting. This must have set my mind running on macabre lines, because when I started seeing fragments of something white and smooth along the burn, my first thought was that it was something nasty. Then I started seeing shards of shell, and realised I was seeing the aftermath of a massacre of boiled eggs. Even then, it took a moment before I remembered the date - Pace Egg Day - someone had been rolling pace eggs down the sloping riverbanks (as you do, and the winner is the person whose egg rolls furthest before it breaks up). Signs of spring and approaching summer, too: I put on sunscreen for the first time this year.

Comments

Ryhope Pumping Engine

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

I used my allegedly still camera to video this and the results can now be seen on YouTube.