2 January 2014
I am a bit late with the Ashton’s Christmas/New year blog
but I have good excuse - we have just got back from my nephews wedding! They got married at a church in St Helens but
had the reception at Langtree Park: home to The Saints! Chris is a keen rugby
player and the pictures were taken in the stadium and on the pitch with a group
photo of everyone in the stands. We had
a good time and it gave us a chance to meet up with family although it did make
me feel old!
Talking of feeling old, Helen and I reached another
milestone this year with us celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary. We
decided to treat ourselves to a few days in Moscow and St Petersburg. We had
always fancied going and really enjoyed it. Highlights were numerous and
although the weather wasn’t wonderful we made the best of it. We managed to
negotiate Russian buses and the Moscow underground. We saw Lenin in his tomb,
did The Kremlin and lots and lots of churches including the spectacular St Basils
and of course Red Square at night. I took lots of pictures as usual and you can
see some of them on my flicker site http://www.flickr.com/photos/80209069@N03/
I am still working for the Wildlife Trust and had a busy
year delivering the final year of our Local Food project which involved working
with lots of schools helping them to grow veg and also finished a new
qualification which means I am now qualified to deliver forest school
activities, which I enjoy doing on some of our nature reserves. We had the BBC
visiting Portrack Marsh and I was involved in doing a short bit for a programme
about butterflies - typically the weather wasn’t brilliant and it took us a
while to find any Grayling butterflies which the show revolved around. Good job
we did do it in June because the site has now suffered recently in the bad
floods with the Tees coming over and damaging a lot of the boardwalk and paths
we have just put in.
Helen is taking her time to settle into her new role
especially since they have moved them out of the Library into some inadequately
furnished porta-cabins whilst they build a new library. Hopefully they will get
things sorted in the near future and she can concentrate on working on the new
library development.
We have had our usual eclectic mix of cultural events
including a bit of rock with Bon Jovi at the Stadium of Light and the slightly
more modern Vampire Weekend at the new Leeds Arena. Durham has featured a lot including a visit
to see my other nephew playing in one of the Brass bands at the Miner’s Gala. In November it was the Luminaire and of course
we couldn’t miss out the opportunity to see the Lindisfarne Gospels in July.
For our summer holidays Helen took the chance to meet up
with someone who she had not seen since University over 31 years ago. We met
him in bar in Windhoek in Namibia - very bizarre! We managed to spend 3 weeks
in Africa. We started in Pretoria meeting up with Aruna and then much to her
amusement we caught an overnight greyhound bus to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second
city (it was touch and go whether we would get on the holiday at all because we
were waiting for our passports and visas to be delivered by courier on the
morning we left the UK!). We were the only whites on the bus and had to negotiate
the SA/Zimb border at 2.00am – it took us 4 hours to get through the border!
Bulawayo was an interesting city - very quiet - the shops didn’t have much
except for the occasional tourist shop. The taxi driver who took us to the
railway station didn’t have a good thing to say our Mugabe! From here we caught
an overnight train to Victoria Falls; the web showed an idyllic carriage pulling
into Vic Falls but the train had seen better days. We thoroughly enjoyed our
stay in Victoria Falls - it must be single handedly keeping the whole of
Zimbabwe economy going.
The Falls themselves are one of the most impressive places
we have ever been – a complete assault on the senses with views, sounds and in
places getting very wet. Plus there was plenty of wildlife in the area as well
including splendid Trumpeter Hornbills and elephants to negotiate on the path
from the hotel. We treated ourselves to a helicopter flight which gave us yet
another prospective; as did the sunset cruise on the Zambezi with views of the smoke that thunders in the distance and
very close hippos and crocodiles. We also strolled across the bridge for a beer
in Zambia but didn’t do the bungee jump!
We managed to fit in a day trip to another country and this resulted
in one of the best day’s safari we had ever had. Chobe in Botswana is situated
on the river Chobe and as a result gives you lots of variety. From the vehicle
in the morning we saw lots and lots and lots of giraffes amongst other things
including various antelopes, elephants, vultures and water buffalo. But the highlight
was the afternoon boat trip which meant you got even closer to elephants and we
saw elephants swimming which is very rare. We also saw lots of Pied
Kingfishers, Spoonbills, various egrets, African Fish Eagle and the ubiquitous Lilac
Breasted Roller. On the boat we got really close to crocodiles and hippos;
quite a day.
From here we flew to Windhoek where in a brew pub we met
John Church - Helen still recognised him even though she had not seen him for 31
years. We had a day in the city and then moved on to some of the more picturesque
places. We drove through desert and then more desert and then more desert to Walvis
Bay on the south west coast of Africa at the edge of the Namib Desert and is
Namibia's principal port and growth centre. Walvis Bay is known for 60,000 Greater
flamingo and lesser flamingos which we could see some from our bedroom window.
We went for an interesting drive along the salt pans to see more flamingos and
lots of other wetland birds including 3 types of plovers and pelicans. Yet
another boat trip saw close encounters with more pelicans as well as fur seals
that even came onto the boat.
We made our way back to South Africa and would have spent
longer in Namibia but you need to hire a 4 wheel drive to make the best of it.
We travelled and spent some time in the West Coast National Park and made our
way back to civilisation at Cape Town. After a brief stay in Cape Town enjoying
some good food and beer and occasional views of Table Mountain when the mist
cleared we flew back home.
In November I had to take 2 weeks off work to recover after
an operation on my hand to see if they could straighten my little finger - Dupuytren's
contracture – after the operation I had a huge bandage which gradually got
smaller and now I have to do exercises during the day to bend the little finger
and at night I wear a splint to straighten it – it doesn’t know whether it is
coming or going!
And that brings to now – we didn’t get away for New Year
(last year we had a cottage in Coniston and did lots of walking and saw
fireworks on the shores of Lake Coniston on New Year’s Eve). This time we saw
the New Year in with Chris and Catherine family and friends – a good time was
had by all.
In summary another busy year in the Ashton household and we
wish all our readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year. And don’t forget if you
are passing Sedgefield you are always welcome for a cup of Coffee!
Love Steve and Helen
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