A week on from my actual birthday our big-and-getting-bigger family are gathering for the main event the following day (Sunday - today as I write this).
Here they are, some of them, thoroughly enjoying a rugby game between England and South Africa after a tasty Indian meal at Settle's famous Ruchee restaurant.
Our often ridiculed ginormous TV and surround-sound came in handy. They deserved a rest having come from all over an England still being battered by storm Babet. No trains either.
When the weather is suitable it has become our habit to sit and watch the weather from the roof-room, looking west. Last evening's sunset was okay but at the sun dipped below the horizon it lit up what few clouds were in the sky. Most were the remains of aircraft vapour trails, decaying and spreading as their heights and directions dictated.
Sometimes, recognisable or imaginable shapes emerge and last evening was fleetingly amazing. The platform lights of Settle railway station were already alight as darkness had descended when, from left to right, an enormous firebird emerged out of the blue. (You may need to click on the picture to see its entirety):
Well, it's out there on Facebook so I might as well come clean. Yesterday was my (Mark) 80th birthday. The sun shone in celebration. Lots of lovely and thoughtful gifts and cards. Family get together here next week.
The icing on the cake, quite literally, was a surprise visit by our Ukrainian guests living in our annex. Evgenia Євгенія Лебеденко * and her 11 year old son David arrived at the kitchen door armed with a candle-lit birthday cake, a bottle of wine and the biggest Toblerone you ever did see. The lasting and now treasured gift was a cuddly sheep, expertly made by Evgenia herself. Still thinking ** of a name for him/her or whatever he/she self-identifies as:
The occasion also presented an opportunity for this lovely photograph:
* Things linguistic get complicated. Evgenia (we pronounce it Jenya) is Євгенія Лебеденко in Ukrainian Cyrillic script. David (pronounced David, thankfully) is settling in well as a new boy at Settle College. They are lovely people who, along with thousands of others fled their home town near the Russian border with whatever they could carry. It is a privilege and a delight to be able to give them a safe home.
** Name decided. It's Vlodymyr.
Unusual, perhaps unprecedented, the Sandite train stopped at Settle station yesterday early evening for an hour or more:
Sandite? I hear you cry. A mixture of sand and antifreeze, used for assisting rail traction adhesion during extreme weather. Sandite S4 also contains steel shot to assist track-circuit operation. It had stopped at Settle, necessarily blocking the up line, because of flooding on the line to the south. Where better than Settle to stop anyway? Toilets, good conversation and coffee. It eventually moved away northwards, wrong line, towards Blea Moor in darkness.
This was our view of all this excitement from our roof room viewing platform, through its rain swept windows. Note the handrail which is dead level, demonstrating that the train is on an uphill 1:100 slope, left to right.
I do believe this is just about the dullest posting I have done in quite a while. You need to know that I have just been accepted as a member of Facebook's Dull Men's Club (212+K members incidentally). I may just try them with this post to check if I am on the right wavelength.
Update. It was rejected.
As part of the deterrent war on flies inside the tank, Rentokil came yesterday.
Here's their lovely van. Understandably, they're at pains to play down the K-word.
Now they have done their thing with all the likely fly-breeding places I can set about preventative measures to keep the little critters away. Priority is a new fibreglass roof-cum-walkway surrounding the roof room, this time with a 1:60 even slope downwards towards the rainwater drain to prevent puddling, we hope. That will wait until next year for completion in warmer weather. Meanwhile there is a below-floor gap running right round the roof room to be filled with expanding foam - probably during a predicted October Indian summer towards the end of this week. Never a dull moment here.
