I've just got back from a very interesting time with the woman who took pictures of me in the cafe on Saturday. When she left the cafe she asked if I would like to meet up for coffee or a drink some time before I leave Ulverston and gave me her card. Now anyone who knows me well will understand how it cost me a fair amount of dithering today to decide whether or not to call her. But I finally did. She suggested meeting at The Farmers pub which is just a hundred metres up te road from the Sun. She was already there when I got there, we sat and chatted for a while, both of us dithering over whether to sit there outside or go in. She got us both a drink and asked the staff to turn on the fire because it was a bit chilly. Apparently the gas got turned on but no one came out to light it so after a while she complained of the cold and we went inside. I fear that I rather monopolized the conversation. She bought us a plate of nachos and eventually another glass of wine each and we carried on setting the world to rights.
All in all a very pleasant early evening's conversation. My turn to buy drinks next time.
@ninalanyon Re-reading that I can see that I haven't said anything meaningful about the conversation.
We had the usual exchange of condolences that people living outside their birth countries do. We both feel exasperated about the direction our respective countries of origin are heading in. But we also talked about our, mostly my, lives and how we came to be where we are. In her case divorce after a 30 year marriage, spending a few years in Dublin, meeting her future second husband there, and then having problems with becoming resident because apparently the Irish authorities couldn't figure out how to do it even though her husband being British had no problems at all. On a visit to Cumbria they visited Ulverston and fell in love with it. In amongst all of this were the trials and tribulations of COVID (she's had it twice, husband had bad), and Briexit (apparently a contributing factor to the Irish residency problem, though goodness knows why it was relevant).
And I gave my usual potted explanation for how we ended up in Norway. Explained that my wife died of cancer almost eight years ago and how that ad been the trigger for having to discover myself. Then the ticklish question of how to express my start at dressing. Online I usually just candidly say I bought a bra and some knickers and got on to an internet video chatroom while in my hotel room and wanked for people to see. Somehow that didn't seem quite appropriate for the moment. So i omitted the video chat part. I mentioned Sparkle and how the more I do this the more appropriate the term trans becomes. Etc., etc., I won't bore you with more because it's just a retelling of what this blog is all about. I did mention that I might visit Scotland and that I have a brother-in-law there but he doesn't know this side of me at all so I think I won't visit; I should come out to my sister first.
08:14. On the 08:10 bus to Coniston. Return five past one or quarter to four.
Most of the passengers are schoolchildren known to the driver so we waited for Lizzie :-)
There are advantages to not carrying cash, the driver's payment terminal has stopped working so I couldn't pay by card. He asked if I had any cash and when I said no just waved me on to the bus.
Should be in Coniston by about 09:00 so that gives me just under four hours to walk to Hawkshead and take the bus back. Better check a timetable if I can find one.
I've been sending a lot of email lately because of the work being done on my house while I'm away. Every time I write my name I have to make a conscious effort to not write Nina.
The B5281 to Coniston has a centre line but the lanes don't look like they are three metres wide to me perhaps the rule is different here.
08:38 Now on the A road and the road is better but not a lot wider.
The landscape is like a softer greener version of eastern Norway.
Just looked at the map and i can see that we took B road to avoid traffic. But now we are behind a highway maintenance lorry. And heading almost directly away from Coniston.
08:45 just arrived at Greenodd village to pick up more school children.
And now back on the A5092 in the right direction.
Arrived in Coniston about twenty minutes behind schedule, the school children must all have been late for school.
I'm glad took the bus, too much traffic on too small roads for me and my car.
@ninalanyon The trip back was in an even smaller vehicle. Apparently the traffic was so bad that the driver reckoned the only practical was was to detour on single track roads unsuitable for a vehicle larger than a Transit.
I'm early for the bus back which is at 13:05 according to the driver, 13:10 according to the timetable leaflet I was given at the Tourist Information centre, and I'm sure I saw something different online.
So I've set an alarm for 13:00 and walked across the road to the Cosy Corner Café, or is it the Coffeezzeria? Ambiguity seems to be today's theme. Anyway I wanted a mocha but as I walked in the proprietress said her coffee machine wasn't working. Having tea and a cheese and onion pasty.
That's two café visits in one day. I'll have to starve for the rest of the day.
@meggie It reminded me a little of home although Cumbria is greener and the hills rounder and less jagged. Perhaps Norway will be more like this if the temperature continues to rise.
@ninalanyon i think everywhere is changing, and we will be able to grow things that once our climate was too cold for. I listened to an item on Radio 4 recently that mentioned this. I planted pumpkins a few months ago, and they are thriving with all this hot weather.
@meggie It's good for some kinds of agriculture in the north. But I read somewhere recently that some part of France are already too hot and unpredictable for winemaking.
A few pictures from today's wanderings. I didn't walk all the way to Hawkshead. Instead I went to the north end of the lake and then up the hill to Monk Coniston where the National Trust is restoring the gardens.
@Nyloncapes It was very peaceful I met a few people as I was walking but I was expecting it to be busier. Perhaps it will be once the school holidays start.
Google Photos just notified me that it has created an album from recent pictures and videos.
Usually when it does this it's just a few pictures but this time it created a huge album covering the trip from Eccles to Ulverston, several days of pictures.
I edited it just to remove a few superfluous near duplicates but otherwise it's just a big chronologically ordered list of all the pictures from those days that still exist in my Google account. Eventually they will be deleted because I quickly run out of space.
