August 6th 2015 - Seascale

August 6th 2015 - Seascale

A few days ago a friend posted some pictures on facebook of her children at a park, it looked really good so I asked her where it was.  She told me and I looked it up, I had heard of the area but wasn't sure where it was.  Well google said it was half hrs drive from us up the coast.

We loaded into the car and set off up the road to Seascale.  Upon arriving hubby took the money for parking and came back with it - the car park was free thanks to the "local residents".  So the afternoon started well.

We went down onto the beach and the sea was quite away out.  I told the boys they could go in it as long as they rolled up their trousers above the knee and didn't get wet as we had no spare clothes with us.  Here are the 3 of them in the sea:

They also spent ages on the mini pier:

 

 and were fascinated that some of the gaps in the pier were filled with rocks:

The tide came in really quickly and we had to leave the beach so they went to play in the park:

A nice afternoon was had by all.

March 28th 2015 - Family Walk

March 28th 2015 - Family Walk

This morning the weather was really bad,  it was cold, wet and really dull and overcast.  I thought this was going to stop us going on a family walk, however, after lunch it brightened up and stopped raining so we stuck shoes and coats on and we headed off in the car.

Yes I no I said family walk and we went in the car, but we were heading 10mins up the road to a nature reserve we had found on the net that looked really good.  We found the turning in the road and went up it and parked the car in a lay by just down from Harrington Nature Reserve.

First impressions as you walk by the big fenced off area to where the gate is situated is "there's not much water here and it looks like waste land".  Not a good start.  Before we went through the gate we looked at the map and it looks like there is quite a lot here.  We went down the path and onto a bridge and the kids played pooh sticks - they love this simple game!

We followed the path round to the right and the river just stops as it goes under the road, so we followed the very wet and muddy path round a piece of grassland and came back to the main "rezzer" which again had very little water in it, only a few ducks and lots of dead trees and plants and rubbish!  I don't mean drink bottles and crisp packets but tires and road cones and broken things.

Sadly this walk was a big disappointment to us as the Harrington Nature Reserve website makes it look so much better than it actually is.  I would like to think that it is in the process of being tidied up the fact trees have been cut etc, it is a great site and has the potential to be a very nice place to visit.

Here are a few pics that I did take there.

After we left here we headed 2mins up the road to the Salterbeck "rezzer" which again didn't have much so we took a short walk up to the sea - most of the cliff top didn't seem very safe and you could see where a lot of it had collapsed down to the beach.  I'm not sure if it used to be a coal pit/mine or something else but it was definately buildings of some sort.

We nipped to Harrington Marina on the way home and some of the waves were huge, not as big as I have seen but big considering its not very strong winds.

The kids did enjoy being out of the house for a bit, just a shame the initial place we went wasn't as good as it looks on the net.  But never mind.

Whitehaven Parade

Today May 6th was a lovely day all round.  The sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was the day of the Whitehaven Freedom Parade through the town.

Me and hubby decided to go down and watch.  Now this sounds like a good plan, except for the fact its only 2weeks since I had my knee operation, i'm still hobbling about, I didn't take my crutches or the folding chair (this wasn't thought about until the last part of the air display!)  Plus we parked at the multi story and had to park on level 5 and then walk down.  So by the time we had left the car park I was already knackered and in pain.  Oh well, we're here now!

We took a slow walk to the harbour front.  As we were walking down the harbour front we got asked by a steward if we were part of the parade - errr no we're here to watch it and we're heading down to the navy boat.  We were allowed to pass.  He did inform us that the parade was going that way and coming back the way we were walking.

As we approached the quay down to where the navy boat was they had a sign up showing its name -

and on the metal gate was a sign that said open 10:30am-4pm, we said that it would be worth getting the boys from school and heading straight down so they could look round the boat.  We walked down the quay to the boat (which was at the far end!!!)  As we got nearer I could see a rope ladder at the side of it - the only way on board - great!  I decided not to go on board as I didn't want to risk hurting my knee any more than the walking was going to do.  Hubby went on and had a  look around.  I took a few photos of the outside of the boat and then wandered back to the harbourside where I could sit down.

After a short sit down on a bench I could hear the band playing and someone said that the parade where on their way back to the harbourside.  I stayed seated until I saw the band come into the band stand and then I stood up.  I had a lovely view from where I was, that was until the police and stewards decided they were going to stand there.  However I did manage to get some nice photos of the parade.

After the parade had all been inspected and everything else done they marched past the end of where I was standing (couldn't sit now if I had wanted to as the area behind me was full of people).  The cheering and waving of flags and clapping was really nice.

It was then time for the arial displays to start.  They were really good, and I managed to get some photos that are very clear even though I only had the small cameras with me, yes cameras I had 2!

Following this great display it was the turn of the red devils parachute display team, from air to sea.  The plane had to do a few laps before it was cleared to go.

Apparently the sea was very cold, 1 of them said as they walked past - I will believe him as I have no desire to find out until the weather warms up much more! 

Finally there was another plane doing lots of tricks and leaving smoke trails.

I was glad I had gone down there for the event but I certainly knew that I had stood for nearly 2hrs.  I was in alot of pain.  By the time we got home my knee had swollen up and I have taken lots of pain killers and elevated my knee and had ice on it.  I got some really nice photos and had a lovely time.  The atmosphere was brilliant and there was a great turn out for a small town.