What a difference a day makes

On the 16th January it was a ‘pea-souper’ as my parents used to say.

You can just about make out the sea

Ah, so that’s where I am: approaching l’embarcadère…

…very atmospheric!

Just 24 hours later it’s a different story…

…with colours we’re more used to.

I’m sure the sanderlings were quite oblivious to the weather!

Back to La Tranche

Our usual crossing wasn’t running but we could still catch the Portsmouth to Ouistreham ferry with a late night sailing.

It gave us chance to stretch our legs a bit before queuing to board. The view over part of the harbour to the Spinnaker Tower was well worth it.

I dug out this photo from 2015 to show Sacha the view from the glass platform towards the top of the tower.

A very evocative name for this pub (the beer wasn’t bad either)…

…and another photo from 2015 showing the pub and a ferry arriving.

Back to La Tranche means back to daily walks. I’m sure you can make out the ice droplets at the end of each spine.

At Matt & Cynthia’s, Father Christmas brought the promised palm tree (the moon came free)!

A couple of great presents from Jean & Monique: a jigsaw for Sacha made from one of their exotic holiday photos…

…and a brilliant jigsaw of Tine’s original replacement hip. Her surgeon is a family friend of J&M and he saved the hip (unbeknownst to us) for his studies/collection!

Finally Sacha pleased to see us again after his trip to Mexico and ours to the UK.

AlfnBets come to the caravan

A&B didn’t go back to school until the week after New Year so we came to the rescue for Nadine & Simon, both returning to work.

Tine came up trumps with her Galette des Rois, totally delicious….

…and look who was ‘La Reine’.

We met our niece Vics with Ste and Rosie on a VERY cold evening. Everybody looks happy though.

One day we drove into Bradford for Mamie to introduce A&B to Lister Park 

Guess which part was most popular!

Meanwhile after an aborted mission to get some beers for Matt I took a trip down memory lane to Selborne Grove where we lived (on the middle floor) in 1975…

…and Ashburnham Grove where friends Anne, Brenda & Pauline lived one year when we were students. The following year Lindsay S, Sue & Christine lived there.

No trip to Bradford is complete without a trip to the Bradford City Football Club shop, this time for a new top for Sacha.

By request we did another visit to the 5-Rise Locks, this time no barges going through as it was midweek. 

A very special photo: Alfie stroking Helen & Mo’s dog. Special because he’s very fearful of our four-legged friends.

Back at the van Betty’s getting stuck into the washing up…

…whilst Alfie & Papy have a Uno tournament!

Return to Newmillerdam

Between Christmas and New Year we decided to meet Nadine, the children and Philippe at Newmillerdam Country Park, not far from Wakefield.

The weather was good despite earlier rain

Alfie was in his element...

...Betty too (here enjoying the children's trail of wooden statues).

There are some magnificent trees to be seen...

...and mushrooms too...

...even squirrels (nearly always grey in Yorkshire).

Now what are these two long-haired hippies up to?

Ah, la bataille royale!

All this, followed by a pub lunch. Who could ask for more?

At the caravan and walking with old friends

We drove back from the Yorkshire Wildlife Park to find it had snowed up on Baildon Moor!

Only a thin layer…

…but inside Christmas was still evident!

We spent a lovely afternoon with old friends Meryl & Dave…

We met in Ilkley and went on a search for ‘stanza stones’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanza_Stones_Trail)

Lovely Meryl…

…and one of the stanza stones.

I can’t remember if these were taken before or after picnic lunch!

Back at the caravan park

Sunrise…

…dusk…

…and sunset. Beautiful!