What I am going to do with these later on today…..

Blackberries picked yesterday while out walking with Geoff

And Cooking Apples, which came from a tree in Cloudgazer’s garden.

Every time I try to visit Deb Acle

I get this warning on Firefox…

and this on Chrome…

So I have been unable to read her blog or leave any comments 🙁

Does anyone else have problems visiting her site ???

Last week-end was spent with Geoff’s sons, and Granddaughter.

Nick Mia and Isla live in Dubai and Steve and Ren live in Nottingham so they don’t all get together very often.

We Took Isla to Wimpole hall farm to see the animals, she especially wanted to see the horse.

After Geoff had got over the disgustingly High entrance fee the day was enjoyed by all.

This week-end we travelled North to Clowne For Geoff’s brothers 65th birthday party.

His sister Jenny was there too so it was great to see Roger Geoff and Jenny altogether. 

Marilyn had done a beautiful spread of food so a great afternoon of eating drinking and chatter.

Roger and Marilyn’s grandson, Cameron was the star of the afternoon, at 6 months old he is such a happy boy who smiles every time someone talks to him.

Morris Maxine and Cameron live in Bermuda so it was a treat to see them all.

On Sunday when I was going to the local corner shop from Geoff’s.

A Romanian girl, called Anna, stopped me and asked me if I could help her.

She was a student starting her studies in September, going to Kings College ( I think )

Basically she had travelled to Cambridge from Ely to try and secure herself a place at the YMCA.

The guy, she did give me his name but I cannot remember it now, had taken £200 off her to secure her a room with 6 other girls.

This left her with no money and she needed to get back to Ely to collect her belongings.

So I took her to the train station and got her a return ticket rather than just give her money.

On the way she told me all about her family and how poor Romania is compared to England.

She told me how little they earn but also how cheap thing were in Romania compared to England.

Now a lot of you think this was a sham and that I was conned .

If I really wanted too I could look her up at the YMCA but I don’t feel the need too.

The ticket only cost me £3.50 and I would like to think if my boys ever needed help someone would be kind enough to help them.

Also it gave me a lot of pleasure to help this girl out  and the feel good factor was worth far more than £3.50.

Thanks to Geoff , who not only got Andrew a job  interview but came over from Cambridge this morning to take him to the interview.

Andrew now has a job at the National Construction College in Bircham Newton.

Its a residential college and Andrew is going to work in the catering department which is run by Sodexo 

Its 12 miles from my house to the college and to begin with he will bike to and from work, hopefully we shall sort something more suitable out before the cold dark winter months come.

The other unbelievable thing is he also has an interview at Morrisons tomorrow for a full time job.

Matthew was also offered a job today at Morrisons , 14 hours a week working on the grocery department. He was delighted and it will fit in well around college when he starts his brick laying course.

All that has to fall into place now is Andrews fitness instructors course…

I have been waiting for this day for many many months and I can tell you days like today are priceless…   JUST LIKE GEOFF  🙂

I have been twittering for around 18 months now, and have always thought I was the only twitterer in Norfolk.

Imagine my surprise, when soon after athinkingman and cloudgazer started following me,I realized that not only were they from Norfolk but better still Kings Lynn.

Even more amazing is that cloudgazer is from the next village to mine.

So tomorrow Geoff and I are off for a twitter meet up with cloudgazer and her husband.

Hopefully we shall get to meet athinkingman too one day 🙂

Just another exciting day with Geoff…

How it all began…

In 1932 Geoff’s father was a warden at Overton Hall Youth Hostel in Derbyshire.

Geoff has a set of photos on flickr named Overton hall.

Last week a lady called Maggie got in touch with Geoff after finding these photos on flickr.

She now lives in part of Overton hall and is keen to collect as much history about the place as possible.

Maggie told Geoff that this weekend they intended to open the Overton Lead mine once again,and he was more than welcome to attend.

So that’s how I found myself at Overton hall yesterday going down an old lead mine.

I was not quite sure what to expect and my first reactions were ones of shock.

To get into the mine you had to be winched down 80 foot on a small seat, through a man hole.

Thankfully I  was given a hard hat to wear and a head torch.

While being winched down you became very aware of the beautiful stone that sparkled with the light from the head torch.

Once at the bottom I realised how wet and muddy it was,also how small the corridors and caves were but also how wonderful to see all the fossils and orange iron deposits.

We spent 3 hours walking, crawling and sliding through tiny gaps,amazing to think these used to be working mines where men/boys spent hours chiseling away for the lead. 

A truly wonderful day and many thanks must go to Maggie, Liz, Nick and The Wirksworth Mines research group for making it all possible.

After we all got safely out the mine Maggie gave us much needed refreshments and treated us to a tour round Overton hall.

Going up on the roof was the highlight for me, the views were spectacular and we got to see the beautiful Greenhouse and gardens.

It was hard to pick just 3 photos to post here as 273   fantastic photos were taken  but they can all be seen  here .

Certainly a day I will never forget  🙂

An old couple came into Tesco and asked to speak to a manager.

A few days earlier they had bought some disposable BBQ’s from Tesco.

when they opened one to use it they were very disappointed to find the meat missing.

The manager explained that they don’t come with meat but the couple was sure they did because the lid of the BBQ said so !

The manager had to explain that it was just a picture showing an example of what you could cook on a BBQ.

He offered a full refund and all was well.

As they went on there way the man was overheard saying to his wife…

"best we go get those other 2 out the freezer then"

Honest its true and I laughed about it all day 🙂