Spring is Sprung ( Well, nearly!)

More in the way of chit - chat on how life is treating me.

'Not too badly' is the short reply.

The rejected Bike shed was duly re-packed and made ready for pick up. Not having access to a banding machine we (M.and I) set ourselves to using all the packaging materials in which the shed had been delivered. The results were not at all bad and 3 large string and sticky taped bundles waited over last weekend for collection on Tuesday. As previously mentioned we await the refund with bated breath!

The weather over the North Eastern Coast of the UK has had a very welcome and marked change for the better, with the prevailing Westerlies bringing a milder if slightly moister air to help the drying of the winter floods. Being in what I learned as an 11 year old, the "Rain Shadow" of the Pennine chain of mountains, which run in a roughly North / South direction, from the Scottish Borders to the Peak District, we "East Coastal Dwellers" benefit from the dryer air as it leaves much of its rain to fall on the Western slopes. The local Council's annual display of daffodils which line the approaches to "Sunny Blyth" are about to blossom and are a real sign that Spring is just around the corner.

This drying out of the ground is much more noticeable at my golf course which last month had to call in the heavy gang to drain the soggy fairways. Nature has combined with Man in removing several hundred tonnes of standing water from the surface of the course, and has provided a much harder and dryer ground over which we stride in our ceaseless quest for that perfect golf shot!

The kinder weather has encouraged me to extend even further my cycle rides, and yesterday I achieved the summit of what is probably the only hill within several miles. Now we're not talking of the Mountain Section of the "Tour De France" here , merely a 50- 60 foot gentle rise over about a mile. The Cycle Path is good smooth tarmac and set to one side of the main road leading away from the East Coast and as such, presented a personal goal which I set myself awhile ago. Selecting a medium / low gear at the bottom of the slope I got about half way up before engaging an even lower gear and arrived triumphantly at the top just as the ache in my legs was becoming a bit too much to bear! A rest was indicated and I parked the bike against a fence and swapped pleasantries with an elderly horse which was cropping the grass nearby.

Looking across the fine view to the coast I recalled a 'Walkers' pamphlet which described that very same vista only 50 years ago, as being completely obliterated by the smoking pit heaps of the coal mining industry which polluted the entire area from Seaton Delaval in the South, to the banks of the Blyth River and beyond, to the North. Today those spoil heaps are long gone as is all of the old mining Industry in this Island, which , it was once said, was "Built on Coal" The only relic left standing is the Woodhorn Colliery near Ashington, about 10 miles from Blyth. This now serves as a museum to show our children how "King Coal" once ruled in England.

See here......
http://www.experiencewoodhorn.com/colliery.htm