I seem to have developed an allergy to being 49! Towards the end of Christmas day I was developing a sore throat which sadly has turned itself into a cold. So the last couple of days I haven’t ventured off Lillian, staying in the warm and dry, finding out who won Masterchef and doing my best to eat up the Christmas left overs.
Mick, Anna, Christine, John, Paul, Sean, Marion, Kath, Fran. Thank you John for the photo
Festive Kings Cross
Mick yesterday ventured down to London to meet up with much of his family for lunch. His trip on the East Coast Main Line was fairly uneventful, although a refund is on it’s way for our Two Together train tickets. A lovely lunch was had by all and some more present unwrapping took place. With news exchanged Mick headed back to see how I was doing.
The last couple of days we have been watching the news and social media regarding the floods in Yorkshire. The images of Hebden Bridge where we moored for the Tour de France summer 2014 were scary, the park we moored next to under water from Hebden Beck and the River Calder. My old school friend Julia has a shop at Hebble End Studios and is currently scrubbing out all the mud as the waters have receded.
The view in 2013 of Fulford Ings
York has also had it bad. Every year York floods at least once. I grew up overlooking Fulford Ings, the flood plain south of York, we would have a mile wide lake at the bottom of our garden on a regular basis. York has always had the problem of two rivers meeting in the centre. The Foss, normally more a tranquil slow moving river and The Ouse, which has to cope with water from most of the rivers in the Dales. In 1987 the Foss Barrier was constructed to stop flood water backing up the Foss from the Ouse. This for nearly 30 years has done it’s job well protecting thousands of houses. However, the pumps within the building were in danger of failing and a decision was made to raise the barrier, effectively putting the defences out of action. Parts of York are under water that I haven’t seen since I was a teenager and the telephone exchange is out of action. Our thoughts are with those coping with the floods and really hope that the river has peeked at 5.14m above it’s normal summer level.
The Trent above Newark
We are mindful that we are living on a river at the moment. So we keep an eye on the Environment Agency levels.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 left over sandwiches, 2 left over evening meals, 1 jigsaw finished, 2 new crochet stitches mastered, 1 trip to London, 3 out of 4 sisters, 1 bunged up head, 43 tissues.
NB Lillyanne 