Unexpectedly in Teesdale

So, when we last exchanged views I was stuck in Lathus, in France, whilst the boss dashed back to Yorkshire.

To keep things short and to explain the Bliphiatus - my lovely MiL died on Valentine's Day.  The funeral was delayed a little due to a backlog at the crem, so Mr L got back on the train and came home to collect me and Vincent from Lathus. He then drove us back to Yorkshire.

The funeral was held a week ago and we have been spending time with the family. It has not been camera time.

Yesterday we drove up from Pocklington to Barnard Castle. This was not our planned destination but the site at Masham where we had booked telephoned to say that the ground was in no fit state and canceled our booking. It was quite difficult to find a theoretically open caravan site that had (a) actually opened and (b) a hard standing pitch accessible. Many of the sites due to open on 1st March had simply not bothered to unlock the gates in the bad weather. 

We did find the CCC site at Lartington outside Barney to be open and here we find ourselves.  The photo is of Vincent all on his lonesome.

Barney is my old stamping ground and I lived in the next village along the road up the dale from here  when I was a teenager, before moving into the town until I left school and then moved to Teesside. Later on I returned to live in a village locally then moved to Darlington for a few years, only to return to live outside BC again. For most of my life I have considered Teesdale to be "home" but I do not get back here very often. I enjoyed the walk into town today and relived some memories.

The snow had cleared in Pock when we left yesterday morning so it was a little shock to the system when we reached Scotch Corner and the A66 to find considerable snow... and fog. It was not very pleasant here when we arrived!  Heavy rain overnight has cleared much of the snow and all of the fog, happily. We were able to walk Nell today, though it was a very muddy dog that returned to the van.

Tomorrow we are going North, to Wark in Northumberland and to The Battlestead's. We have two nights booked in a lodge room with Observatory experience and Tasting meal included. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to my first bath since August, or to a bed that doesn't move anywhere...

We will return to Pocklington next week and spend more time with the family but need to be back in France by the 23rd in order to sign papers on the house purchase.

Hopefully the camera will be out of the bag more often in the coming days.See you soon.