Christmas Decorations..

It's Christmas Eve, we've got a few decorations up so thought we'd put them on here. Have a good one y'all. The music for the soundtrack is Troika from the Lieutenant Kije Suite by Sergei Prokofiev and available for download here:

It's A (Not So ) Wonderful Life

A first Christmas JibJab starring some usual suspects , Hodge as an Angel and Jan as Zuzu. Enjoy!!

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Also we can follow that with one of the greatest ever Christmas Songs by the Raveonettes picked up by Dobbies for the Christmas push!!

Adventures in A Yorkshire Landscape 3: Castle Howard

The first attempt to visit Castle Howard was stopped by snow and ice on the approach road , but we got there eventually. The huge country pile is the setting for the TV production of Brideshead Revisited and recent film (DVDs , soundtracks and books available here). I must admit I far prefer the series "Brass" with Timothy West which managed to do for Brideshead and every Catherine Cookson book and mini series ever made.
Took some video of the impressive Atlas Fountain, the peacocks and several photographs , soundtracked by the original theme to Brideshead Revisited by Geoffrey Burgon available here.

The grounds are massive with a couple of lakes and follies and are well worth a visit, we shall be going back. The House is interesting too , while still bearing the scars of a 1940s fire. The Official Castle Howard website is here.

Adventures in A Yorkshire Landscape 2: Fire and Snow

The second installment of the holiday entry. We approached Oswaldkirk on a Friday night in the dark and fog , with ice on the roads , not helped by the fact that Sutton Bank on the A170 is a one in four hill (ie steep). The benefit of this is that during the day you can get some excellent views, though towards the end of the week anything but a main road was very dodgy for our renault Clio, seen below at the far end of our snowbound car park.

Once we were in Oswaldkirk we had an excellent meal in The Malt Shovel , and meant to get back there but weather and other commitments meant it will have to wait until our next holiday.

The short video below starts with the chimeniere (we have two in our garden and they are fantastic) outside the excellent Star Inn at Harome near Helmsley (A Michelin Star pub apparently , and the food is excellent). The place is run by Andrew Pern who's published a history of the restaurant cum cook book called "Black Pudding & Foie Gras" , available here.


The following section sees birds behind the Fox and Hounds in some village that I cant remember then a lot of snowscapes. The music is "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape" by Bebop Deluxe from the album Axe Victim and can be downloaded here should you wish to purchase it!

Surely They Didn't Mean That!!!

Many years ago I was working in Scotland and stopped in the village of Carnwath to get some cash from the bank there. I got the money and turned to go back to my car and saw something across the road that I thought must me a mistake. It wasn't , in the window of the local Post Office cum shop , bold as you like was this:

ARE YOU A TWAT

 After some research a mate of mine found a web site that confirmed that here : "TWATS (Tarbrax Woolfords Auchengray Theatrical Society) use the hall for their production of an annual pantomime." 

While I've got no problem with innocent mistakes and the like , you would think that someone would have noticed the acronym was in fact a very naughty word!! 

Adventures in A Yorkshire Landscape...The Start

Just to say we're back from a week in Oswaldkirk , Yorkshire , which included being cut off by snow, not being able to get a mobile phone signal , a public phone box that didn't take cash , a most excellent pub called The Malt Shovel that does excellent food , and has very friendly clientele.

The cottage we stayed in in called "Honeysuckle Cottage" at the details are here and below is the road the cottage is on.

Energy Efficient - Well We're Getting There

About two months ago our energy supplier E-On sent us and electricity monitor. These things look quite impressive and are very easy to set up. The main thing I discovered was that leaving the PC on all day cost about a quid, so it's something I now dont do , thus saving a bit of money.

However about two weeks back I noticed that the meter was about 33% up on its normal running level (£40 a month instead of £30) . Thought what was running at the time, two five live chandeliers (energy efficient bulbs) , the fridge , the heating , two PCs and the cooker clock, and....

a hallway light that used a standard 60 Watt candle bulb which was causing the increase . In theory replacing that with an energy efficient bulb has saved me about £5 a month. The new bulb did cost £1.99!