Cheddar is gorgeous (sorry)

When I was a really little kid my nan took me on a coach trip one summer holiday on Sheasby's coaches to Wells Cathedral and Cheddar Gorge. I remember practically nothing about the journey except trying to convince the coach driver that I wasn't a grockel (West Country slang for a tourist - it means 'cabbage' in Cornish) as I had Dorset blood and that my nan bought me a necklace with a Coke bottle pendant on it, of which I was inordinately proud and which inevitably turned my skin green. My mum went once in her pram and my dad went as a small kid too. Apart from these early trips none of us have been to the gorge. This is unsurprising, as it's only about 50 miles from our family haunts in Dorset but takes over two hours on the dreadful roads of the South West.

However, it's well worth the visit, if you can actually get to the gorge. Due to recent flooding the majority of the road is closed to traffic and there is simply a 'Road Closed' sign with no diversionary signs. Our sat nav was most perturbed.

The first place we visited was Gough's cave which was where the most complete Mesolithic human skeleton ever to be found in Britain was dug up in 1903. It also has great limestone cave features: loads of stalactites and stalagmites.











It also has some real cheddar cheese stored there to mature.




Alongside those limestone features that always make me think of dragons' innards







Afterwards we went to another cave: Cox's cave. This one also has lots of karst features alongside a faintly hilarious recreation of Lord of the Rings. The wraiths made me giggle but a falling portcullis made me almost jump out of my skin.







I also bought my right to a cream tea by climbing Jacob's Ladder to the top of the gorge: there were about 300 steps and I really felt the final 100. At the top was a lookout tower and I am so proud that I have conquered my fear of heights sufficiently to climb it and view the gorge and Somerset levels from on high.




View of Glastonbury Tor




The gorge itself






Afterwards we went to - where else - a cheddar cheese making dairy and tried the wares.











And the afternoon ended as all afternoons in the West Country should:




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Legacy and legends

Today we did something that we wouldn't have done if we hadn't been lucky enough to go to the Olympics and Paralympics last summer. We went to the British Athletics Indoor Trials in Sheffield. However, I've only just discovered that I never finished writing about our Olympic experience so I need to write about that first to give some context.

I can't believe I never wrote about the Olympics because it was one of the best experiences of my life. Truly I believe that London 2012 was our country at its very best. The experience of being at the Olympic park was a privilege: the crowds were so good natured and joyful.




Walking into the park I ended up tearful from the emotion of really being there. Although, to be fair, in common with most of the country I spent a lot of August 2012 with something in my eye.




We were in Park Live when Andy Murray won gold at Wimbledon before watching basketball.




The next morning we were in the Olympic stadium to see David Rudisha in the 800m heats and Lisa Dobriskie in the 1500m heats








The experience was so fabulous that I spent a lot of time refreshing the wifi in France in order to get Paralympics tickets




Where we saw Team GB gold as Aled Davies won the javelin.

So, was a sleety Sheffield day 6 months later a true legacy event? We were at the European indoor trials and it was brilliant to be so close to the action.
We watched pole vault, including Steve Lewis who was placed fifth in the Olympics.








We also saw Christine Ohorogu run in the 200m and Olympic bronze medallist, Robbie Grabarz, go in the high jump.








However, all these Olympians didn't quite provoke the excitement that realising a 100m Gold medallist was sat 5 rows in front of us...








Linford Christie. Legend.
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Writing and cooking Saturday

Last weekend I was at a party and two lovely people told me that they read this blog; in fact one said that they had missed me posting. During the week my son said that he wanted to make this 'Cooking and Writing Saturday' so it seemed to me that I ought to get blogging again.
I slept in this morning and when I got up my son had written an article about the Percy Jackson novels for a book club blog he has written for previously. He was clearly taking the Writing and Cooking Saturday theme seriously.
Therefore, we dug out the cook book I bought him for Christmas and planned a lunch for him to cook.




The recipe he chose was Crunchy Cheese Omelette. Sadly in Tesco we couldn't find any croutons or chives so he ended up making a Cheesy Mushroom Omelette (obviously I could have made croutons but - ugh!)












To be fair, that's not a bad first omelette. And he certainly enjoyed it:




After a good lunch we headed to town to go to the Nike Savvas: Liberty and Anarchy exhibition. It's very beautiful indeed and well worth a visit.




















My son observed that he had made something very similar in year 4 and that it had bored him immensely to do. Everyone's a critic, eh Nike?
The final phase of the day was going to see Spielberg's 'Lincoln' at the cinema. Recently I've taken him to a lot of 12A films: 'Skyfall', 'The Hobbit', 'Life of Pi' and 'Les Miserables'. It's great to be able to see something a bit more challenging and talk about it with him. Recently we've discussed what the carnivorous island in 'Life of Pie' might be metaphorical for; totalitarianism following Les Mis; and today led to the difference in the constitution of the USA as opposed to Britain. It proves to me that we endlessly underestimate children: they are totally able to engage with really complicated concepts, if they're just given the chance to.
I have had a great day and am so glad that my son invented Writing and Cooking Saturday: it's given me the impetus I needed.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, gang aft agley, an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, for promis'd joy

Last night my car broke. I had planned to spend today visiting sites in the West Midlands but it was very clear when the temperature gauge sailed through 90 and the STOP sign insistently flashed and beeped on the dashboard that this was not going to happen. We stayed in a hotel overnight and then called the AA out. Their mechanic's diagnosis was a burnt out radiator fan and a tow back up the M62 and M1.

I thank my lucky stars that this happened on the way home from holiday, not on the way. Also that it happened in a city, not on a motorway. And finally that I have AA membership. It's easy to overlook that lone parents have one income to pay for at least two people, where young couples may well have two incomes for just themselves. It would have been easy for me to economise by not having the AA membership but right now I'd be well over £300 down in tow costs before the cost of the repair.

We managed to have half an hour visiting the Bullring for lunch whilst we waited for the tow truck.

In all the waiting today my son was amazing - he read his book quietly and was overjoyed at the chance to ride in a tow van. He's a joy to be with.














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Thoughtless Youth

A long time ago I was a second year literature student at the University of St Andrews and I was supposed to study Wordsworth. I forget how much effort I put into reading Tintern Abbey but it won't have been much. It amused me today because I went to Tintern Abbey with my own, rather more thoughtful, youth and realised the truth of that poem.

The day started out in Cardiff and we visited Castell Coch. This castle is a Victorian rebuild of a medieval castle that was destroyed in the fourteenth century. It was a project of the Marquis of Bute, reputed to be the richest man in the word, and work started in 1875. It was hardly ever used as it had no guest accommodation and Bute was interested in the project, not the outcome. Inside the Arts and Crafts inspired furnishings are incredible.













Afterwards we drove to the former Cistercian monastery of Tintern Abbey on the banks of the Wye. It was impossible to capture the beauty of the surroundings with my iPhone: the colours of the autumn leaves were glorious. I sat for a while and read Wordsworth's poem and was very struck by these lines:

... For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

That is how I felt in the light rain at Tintern Abbey looking at the hills, the trees and a perfect rainbow 'a sense sublime'. It was a real gift.



















The rainbow

Afterwards, my son and I did the huge trek up the hillside opposite to see Offa's Dyke and the Devil's Pulpit from where we surveyed the beauty that is Tintern and the Wye Valley.







To quote Wordsworth again:

And this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy

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