There & back again

We’re back from our trip over to Harrogate. In the end the hotel I tried on Friday evening had a room at a reasonable price but only on that Saturday & Sunday, or else the trip would have to wait a couple of weeks. We hastily rang our friends to check it was okay with them, then packed the next day & were off.

For once we were lucky with the weather on our journey through the Pennines, both there & back. The sun shone, bringing out the autumnal colours all around us. The trees were a mixture. Golds, yellows & oranges, fiery reds, all contrasted with the odd dark pine. The land was more muted as the grass was falling asleep for the winter. There was a hint of purple from heather. There was even the odd vibrant colour shining out as the sun caught a patch of golden bracken or the reddened leaves of willowherb. 

We regretted not taking our camera with us. We didn’t think there was much point in taking it as we have visited Harrogate so often over the years. As it turned out, we would have loved to take some picture of the fountain & the autumnal trees in the hotel grounds, the drifts of yellowy brown leaves on the Stray.

We’ve come back absolutely shattered. We went to do the big food shop yesterday & instantly regretted it. Even before I’d pushed myself halfway from the car into the supermarket I was flagging. By the time we’d contended with items being absent or moved around – the store has started a big refurbishment in part of the shop – & the inevitable wonky-wheeled trolley, the Fox’s hip was aching badly & I was aching with sheer exhaustion.

Usually we’ve returned from such a trip on a Sunday which means I have had the Monday to sort washing out & we’ve had time to get our bearings back before starting on things like shopping. With Linda, our home help coming yesterday, Tuesday, I’d had to hastily sort out the washing on Monday as soon as we were home. Neither of us had got our thoughts back to the norm of homelife to really recall what we did & did not need at the shop. Another time we would leave that task another day to give us that bit of time to recover first. Still it must have been a good break since we had let go our everyday worries so thoroughly. Even watching the news on the TV, seemed like we’d been away for weeks rather than a couple of days.