Memories

What a difference a day can make. Today I once more was up in the gloom of 8.30am. Grey damp days have returned. I much prefer the icy chill of the bright winter's days we've had of late. You can wrap against the chill & the blue sky sends a song to my heart. I hope such days return again soon.


Readers of the Fox's blog will know of our trip out to Silverdale & its hotel. In the '90s it became a favourite watering hole for us. It was lovely to sit out in the garden on warm summer days, eating & drinking. That was particularly valuable then, as we had discovered the one big disadvantage of living in an upstair non-purpose built flat. Heat rises. Our kitchen was tiny, with only a very small window. It got rapidly hot in there even in winter with no heating in the flat except in our lounge. In summer it could become unbearble. Escape to the gardens of the Silverdale Hotel & its beer garden was a lifeline.


The hotel itself has had a few changes. One great improvement is that now there are foldable dividing doors between the lounge area & the conservatory. There used to be just a thick curtain which was never sufficient in winter to keep out the draughts from the unheated conservatory. Apart from that, seats have been re-covered but remain the same low chairs. It's recognisably the same place, even to having a designated non-smoking room - a bit obsolescent these days!


On the way there we passed by our old cottage at Crag Foot, our first home as newly weds. As we headed on to Silverdale you could see the twitchers were out, binoculars to eye. This area is part of, or adjoins, the RSPB Leighton Moss bird sanctuary, as did our cottage. We couldn't see at first what had attracted so much interest. Then we passed fields full of wild geese, great flocks. We didn't stop to identify them.


On the way back we returned over Warton Crag. I remembered one day when I'd had a letter to contact the Job Centre immediately. The Fox had the car. He was at college for the day. We had no telephone. I had no appropriate change for the public telephone so I set off to Warton in search of small change. In those days only two buses went along that way, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. The morning one had already gone pass. I set off. I walked the couple of miles to Warton. By then the shops in Warton had all closed for lunch. On I walked to Carnforth, where I eventually got some change. I made the phone call to discover it was a waste of time. Then of course I had the walk back. 

Those were the days. These days I couldn't even begin to think of doing that. I couldn't even get to the end of the road, let alone so many miles. Oh what it is to be young!