Yorkshire

We flew into Manchester and drove straight to the Yorkshire Dales, stopping in Skipton to do some grocery shopping. We stayed in a small village not far from Masham called Nosterfield.

Walking distance from the cottage was a nature reserve, which seemed to be primarily a reserve for birds. It made for a nice afternoon walk.

The next day, my sister, Sarah arrived, together with Thomas and Jody, my nephew and niece. That evening, we went out for dinner at a "foodie" restaurant in Masham, called "Where there's smoke".

It was a fixed menu with many courses. Although the portions were small, it was a great meal and we enjoyed the experience.

Thomas and Jody drove back to Ilkley that night, so we didn't see them again. However, Sarah stayed on for three nights.

Next day, the three of us took an "afternoon tea" train on the Wensleydale Railway.

Next day, we went to Coverham Church to meet with the Vicar, to discuss reserving a burial plot for ourselves. We also took a look at the untidy mess behind my Mum's gravestone. (The area behind the grave has since been cleaned up.) It was a bright, sunny day and we worked through all the paperwork quite quickly.

Sarah flew back to Belfast the next day, leaving us on our own.

On Thursday, we drove towards the coast to meet Kristine old flat mate from the early '70s and long time friend Carol and her husband Ken, for lunch.

Lunch turned out to be better than we expected - actually quite gourmet and we had a nice view of the river as well.

The next big event, two days later, was the long planned and anticipated Memorial Service for Joan in Lytham St Annes. We drove over the day before and stayed at the Glendower Hotel. Jackie and Terry joined us for dinner that evening at the hotel. Afterwards, we sat outside and chatted until late in the evening.

Next day was the Memorial Service at St Cuthberts Church. It was only a small group of nine (Terry is taking the picture).

The vicar said a few words and then Kristine added her own thoughts. 

John helped pour Joan's ashes into the small hole which had been prepared.

There's a permanent "memorial wall" with Joan's name inscribed.

And Kristine's final thoughts to her beloved Mum.

The entire service was all over in less than ten minutes and happily, the day was warm and sunny. Everyone agreed it was very nice and Joan was where she wanted to be.

Once the service was over, everyone except Jackie and Terry went for lunch in a private room at Lytham House. We don't have any photographs, but it went well, and everyone enjoyed the meal. After the meal, we all went our separate ways. 

(Much later in our trip, we went back to the Church and in the meantime, the memorial area had been tidied up and flowers added to better define the area set aside for ashes. It looked much nicer.)

During our stay, we spent several days visiting different heritage train services.  The first was the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which starts in Pickering and ends at Groton.

The journey to the end of the line took us through some pretty yorkshire countryside.

There's nothing more impressive than a full size locomotive in full steam !

On our way home, we stopped at Ripon Cathedral, which we have driven past many times, but we had never stopped to look inside.

After two weeks, we moved from Nosterfield to West Scrafton, where we stayed at "Barn End Cottage" on "Poverty Street".

After visiting the Cheese factory, we stopped and had a walk around Hawes.

Another day, we visited the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway

On the  way back, we ran into a proper Dales traffic jam. Nothing you can do except wait and hope the sheep don't scratch your car.

Our last day out was to visit the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway - famous because "The Railway Children" was filmed here - twice !

After our train ride, we drove in Haworth, which was surprisingly quiet, perhaps because it was quite cool that day.

We walked to the bottom of the hill and back and then had a quick look around the church where the Bronte family would have worshipped. Our last stop was for fish and chips, which we ate outside.

Finally, some photos of West Scrafton, which doesn't change much, but there are a few notable changes.