Flying Settle Salmon

It is incredibly difficult to get a picture of the salmon leaping up the river so this picture of one on this year's migration will take some beating:

 

Family Cuddles

Lorna and the boys came here for the weekend and we had a lovely, quiet, undemanding weekend.   For the first time since April I felt confident enough to eat out without disgracing myself.   Aiming a forkful of food with a broken wrist at a mouth that won't totally oblige size or position-wise has taken some working out.   Grandson James was the advance party to find a dark corner table at The Talbot for grandpa to hide and eat without becoming a spectacle.   Whitby scampi and chips.   Another achievement.

Lorna did another heroic job on the garden and the house, reaching those corners that are rarely reached.

There was a combined effort on the summer house / site office, with which I was able to take a fairly active part:

 We watched the Saturday qualifying sessions for the Singapore Grand Prix and Ben decided to plonk himself alongside grandpa for a cuddle.   Aaaah.

At The Talbot the boys were discouraged from playing real darts.   Their mother Lorna, resourceful as always, took herself off to Car and Kitchen* and found a magnetic dartboard which actually works, thanks to todays powerful magnets:

*Car and Kitchen is a Settle market place institution.   A one time garage, long since turned toyshop,  gift shop, cafeteria and kitchenware shop, hence the name, you can be sure of finding what you, or someone near to you, want/s.   Lorna has been going there since she was old enough to have money of her own to spend.

Car and Kitchen

The top lawn and containers had some t.l.c. too:

 Stripes above and winter bedding below - thank you Lorna.

A Temporary Site Hut

Having submitted our planning application we enter a hiatus awaiting a decision during which it is senseless spending any money directly related to the application.   Even so, we want to make rapid progress once we get approval - if we get approval.   There are some almost cost free things that can be done, high on the list of which was the removal of the black summer house / shed which would have obstructed access to the site and relocating it as a potential site hut.

This we (me and Steve) have almost done and it sits well in its new location on the knoll:

Neighbouring trees and our shrubs make it less prominent a feature than it was and it is now at building site level.   It is very much a temporary building - indeed this is its fifth location, having been with us at The Folly, Well House and here.

It will house the building plans.   Eventually it may resume its role as a visitors refuge / display room if we decide to resume that facility.

Still work in progress.   If we want it to stay where it is we shall need Listed Building consent at least.   Yet our much more prominent coal truck and the enormous water crane have 'the planning status of garden gnomes' apparently.   I suppose gnomes need somewhere to live don't they?

A Memorable Trip Downstairs

Ever since my epic fall on 11 April I have not attempted to walk down that flight of stairs.   In part there was a psychological barrier but mainly it was for fear of retribution from a concerned wife.   Having the lift and an alternative shallower flight of stairs made those stairs avoidable anyway.

The thank-you visit of my ambulance crew, Wendy and Luke gave an opportunity to cross that Rubicon.   Safeguarded fore and aft therefore I made it down the stairs, pausing at the bend in the staircase to admire the  dent in the wall left by my head.   Photos Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

And here is a last word from grandson James.   Bless him, he had composed a script but come the moment he could not bring himself to read it out.   Sound on, Kleenex at the ready:

The link doesn't work for me so probably not for you either but he says

"My name is James Gavin.   Thank you for saving my grandpa's life".

"Thank You For Saving My Grandpa's Life"

Today has been a day I have been looking forward to for a long time, and felt privileged to attend.

Thanks to the Yorkshire Ambulance Service I was able at long last to say thank-you in person to some people who had helped us immensely when I had my fall and broke my neck.

We had an informal and enjoyable lunchtime get together with YAS Ms Fixit Brogan, ambulance crew paramedic Wendy, ambulance driver Luke, neighbours Les and Val and mercy mission fast driver Bob.

 Pat, Mark, Wendy, Luke, Val and Les.   Bob is behind the camera.

Sitting in the 'cinema' to watch Restoration Man 'Best Towers'

The big green and yellow taxi returns.   Bob Swallow's the man in black, for completeness.

We had a fine finger feast courtesy of Pat and Edwin Booth then sat down in the lounge to watch the 11 minutes of the water tower part of Restoration Man's 'Best Towers' episode.

We went through the events of the night back in April and I think we were all able to fill some nagging gaps and to get a much fuller picture of just what had happened.   I found it particularly interesting as I had been unconscious for most of the time.   My most spectacular contribution being to bleed a lot - as Les and Val know all too well as they cleared it up the following day - as well as seeing to dog Bess and cat Purrcy in our absence.   Bob had driven Pat at speed to Preston when they reported 'we think we're losing him' five days in to my stay.

I regret to report that I made a seriously spectacular mess of the inside of the ambulance.   Besides the copious bleeding I performed a man sized projectile vomit which hit the ambulance roof and went 'everywhere'.   The rubber mattress on which I was strapped was deemed beyond salvation and had to be replaced.   It took five clinical waste bags to deal with the cleaning.   Not just that, Wendy had slipped on the literally bloody floor when attending to me as we raced towards Preston thanks to Luke's skills.

Arriving just too late today were two video clips from grandsons Ben (9) and James (13) both of whom had sent a message for Luke and Wendy in particular "Thank you for saving my grandpa's life" they both said.   The videos will of course be forwarded.

It was at times an emotional lunchtime as well as a very happy one.   I lost my composure a couple of times as I thanked Wendy.   Those videos would have had everybody in tears!

And a cheery final wave from Luke as 'my' ambulance resumes work:

Footnote;   by sheer coincidence this was the very ambulance that took me to Preston.   It was not the one that was stolen and involved in a police chase across the Dales back in July (see Blog posting of 14th July 2018).

Rainbow Over Yorkshire

I do not know who is the photographer but suppose the most credit must go to The Lord Almighty for this:

click to enlarge

It was posted on FaceTwitterBook by the Yorkshire Shepherdess.

Planning Application Now Online

Recent posts have shown plans for a single storey first floor extension to the rear of the tower.  Our planning applications have been validated and are on Craven District Coucil's planning portal, numbers 2018/19637/HH  and  2018/19638/LBC.

https://publicaccess.cravendc.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=PDIF4WFKIZS00

You have to go to the far right of the screen to open a particular document.

We now have to wait until 25th October for a result.

The entire World was built in seven days - but perhaps planning took a bit longer.