Down the Road We Go

Kristi in the Pitts driveway 

We are currently at the home of Roger and Patti Pitt.  I love staying with Roger and Patti.  They are some of the most proficient gardeners that I know.  I'm not even certain how they have the time to do all of the things that they do.  They make wine, chutney, jam.  They have three small greenhouses and a large hoop greenhouse that they grow things in.  Peeking into one of the small greenhouses I saw that their tomato plants were carefully pruned and supported both vertically with a pole and horizontally with with string.

Solar panels at the Pitts

They have chickens, and bees.  It was great to listen to Roger talk about their exploits with bees.  They collected a swarm of bumble bees from a local farm and transported them to another location where the bees, and the humans would be more comfortable.  They are often called when there are bees swarming somewhere locally.  They are quite generous with information about all of their activities.  They were out singing Handel's Messiah last night.  We stayed here and I took care of some business that needed to be done.  After rehearsal they dropped by to pick us up and take us to the local pub where they go every Wednesday night after choir rehearsal.

In previous years Patti was a school teacher, and Roger a draftsman.  Now they are both retired, but interestingly enough, they are still engaged in their most intense life interests except that now they travel more than they did.  Their home is in a rural location.  I believe that Roger said they've lived here at "The Mill House" for 38 years.  Indeed, it is an old millhouse with a few remnants of it's former existence still lingering.  Roger detailed for us some of the different modifications that they have made to the old house over the years.

Did I mention that they have a dog, a cat, 9 chickens, and a local population of wild creatures that frequent their property.  There is a heron who doesn't understand that he is not to eat the fish in their fishpond.  They keep a screen over the top of the pond to discourage him.  There were a couple of large hares grazing in the grass when we returned from the pub last night.

We came here from John Montague's.  We were at John's for a couple of days.  We actually were at the local Ibis Hotel which is very reasonably priced.  John fed us bteakfast on Monday and Tuesday.
We had arrived on Sunday night after a long drive from Scotland.   He fed us supper on Monday and Tuesday as well.  John's wife Angela works during the day and John works on his myriad musical projects during the day and many times late into the night.  They are very hard working, generous people.

Portrait of John Montague

Just a quick note here.  We have been coming to the UK since 2001.  We have visited people with whom our acquaintance ranges from 2001 to 2014 so far.  We've known John, and Angela Montague since 2002.  I think we may have met Roger and Patti the same year.

We left the Pitts day before yesterday.  It is now Saturday and we are at the Travelodge near Blyth.  We left Bishop's Stortford yesterday just after noon.  We had a nice visit with Geoff and Jacqui Leeds.  We stayed with John and Hillary McNamara.  Everyone gets around to asking about Donald Trump eventually.  My understanding is that Trump's favorite world leader is Vladimir Putin, for all intents and purposes a dictator.  Telling.

We went out to the Lincoln Folk Club last night.  Kristi had had a conversation with the organizer before we went which made us a little uneasy.  He had insisted that she couldn't bring her amplifier to the folk club.  I can tell you that he plays melodeon a good deal louder than Kristi would ever play the bass guitar in such a situation.  I found it difficult to enjoy playing some material without the bass guitar.  Before we left we had figured out what works and what doesn't.  We were invited to come back sometime and get paid for it.  It was about 45 minutes each way to get there.  We crossed a toll bridge.  It cost 40 pence each way.  It was a good deal cheaper than the Narrows.

I feel pressed for time.  It seems like I never have enough time to write what I want to say, and sometimes I just don't feel like I have the right head space to write what I'm actually thinking.  It isn't a good idea for me to just write any old thing, which I'm doing right now.  I could actually be saying something.  I could be telling you how we went for a walk while doing laundry on Thursday.  I could tell you about purchasing a map of the UK to augment our GPS and the map app on our tablet.

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Kristi here.  It has been fifteen long years since we first came to the U.K. and from my ethnocentric eyes a few things appear to have changed.  A number of things have grown cheaper, namely groceries, dry goods and lodging. No longer are the few lodging opportunities in B & B's.  Hotel and motel chains have proliferated and are reasonably priced.  The Travelodges still don't have ice machines or refrigerators but they're clean, roomy, quiet and comfortable.  In fact there seem to be a new crop of B&B's owing to Air B&B, but many people here have never heard of that phenomenon.   Radio 4 BBC reported yesterday that automobiles are becoming more unfashionable while it would appear to me that there are more of them on the roads.  I guess that may be chalked up to population growth.  In any case there are a myriad of reasons not to drive here, and I have spoken to one young woman who has no desire ever to get her license.

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You never fly with the cockpit open
You never drive through the rain with the top rolled down
You always drive on the large safe roads
You never get too far from town.

You never smelled the burning rubber
Never rushed through all of the gears
You never ran for your life through the tundra
You stacked up a big pile of years

Canal through downtown Bishop's Stortford

We are looking at bookings back in the states nearly every day.  Kristi used up all of her phone time so I suppose we'll get her some more today.  We both have as phone now.  Kristi has pointed out how handy phones can be when we wander away from each other in a crowd, or a grocery store etc.  This is the first time we've been here and actually had someone recognize who we are.  Last night a gentleman approached me and asked if I was me, said he recognized Kristi, but not me.  Have had someone suggest that I've changed my look.  I stopped dyeing my hair is about all I've actually done other than accumulate a few wrinkles.  That guy had seen us at the very same folk club about ten years ago.  We were visiting Lincoln that day and just happened to see a flyer with our picture on it.  Now I haven't let this story get out as I don't want anyone to get the impression that Kristi and I are not reliable.  This is the first and only time it's happened.  We found out on the flyer that we were booked at the Lincoln Folk Club that very night.  Serendipity doo dah.  We were a bit shocked that we had acquired a booking that we didn't make a note of anywhere.  All's well that ends well or so they say.

Kristi wants to go down to Greggs for a sausage roll.  I'll leave this here.   We're coming into the last legs of our tour.  Keep the home fires burning.

Kristi's note:  We ran into two people we knew within 8 hours of our arrival, the duo Fool's Gold Acoustic.  We also ran into Deborah Walton at Hobo's Retreat Club who followed us after having seen us 12 years ago in Conwy.   I guess we have different sets of definitions about  familiar people we "run into" in our travels.

Busker,  Bishop's Stortford