But in truth it might be. I don't know any of the history of this place, so I can only go on what I see.

It is awesome, isn't it?
I've really lucked out here.

OMG, are you alright? :p:

I know! I think I might need to get some shots.
Luckily Diz presses his furry cheek against mine every morning to decontaminate my brain. Or to tell me it's 05.30 and time for breakfast, one or the other.

So a whole nation in exile says thank you to my new town.
They've taken me in too, I might manage a painted pebble at some point.

I make a point to walk past this garden as often as possible.
Which isn't hard as I can make it part of my walk home, to The Other Supermarket, to the library, Post Office or Wetherspoons (although I haven't been there since I got connected at home).
It's just so gorgeous. Brianna would have adored it.
Dani, it's right next to the bus station!

When I win £85m in the Euromillions tonight it's exactly how I'm going to ask my gardener to lay out my garden.

And I'll have enough money left over to pay for a bit of Old Cock too I reckon.
No, I haven't been in. Looks like a bit of a spit and sawdust place. Once again that's probably me being unfair.

Another couple of hostelries (I haven't even started taking photos of them properly yet!)

One which tickled my fancy re the parking situation.
And the above mentioned Wetherspoons. I expect I will go there with Mum when she comes up, because it's clean and cheap and cheerful and does a host of hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, snacks and main meals.

Sundae, I'm so glad you're enjoying your new hometown and sharing it with us all! When I was there (too briefly) helping you move I could see it was charming, but if didn't realise just how charming!


Sent by thought transference

The inside of The Bowling Green is a typical Wetherspoons. Carpet, dark wood tables, open fire when appropriate.
But... as you go to the bar you walk through the centre section which is like a conservatory. Flagstone floor, vaulted glass ceiling and whopping great swathes of light even on rainy days. On sunny days (aha, I mean during sunny spells) it makes me sneeze like a pig.

The Ladies is up a set of stone stairs, the first and last of which are not the same height as the others, which is slightly jarring.

It's a great place to while away some time with a book or an iPad, as long as there are not too many screaming babies. Which sometimes there are, but I understand why Mums bring them there, it really isn't like a pub at all.

When it's not raining it's also a great place to sit outside, but you have to accept that many smokers can't read, or simply don't care. The back courtyard is 100% non-smoking, but doesn't get that much sun. Fine by me. Except that people will come out of the side door and stand and smoke on the street, and invariably ALL the smoke blows back into said courtyard.

And out the front, which catches all available sun, the section closest to the pub is actually designated Non Smoking, with signs, and with no ashtrays on tables, apparently due to customer feedback (presumably from non-smoking parents) but 9/10 you will get a smoker sat there oblivious. I don't mind that much, except I don't like rules being broken. It's only that you can bet if I have food the smoke will head directly for me, only me, and right into my greedy open mouth.

Better to go sit in the park now I can come home and get online when the rain starts again.

I console myself that even if I had been in a fit state to start appreciating it immediately, it was all closed down by that time and wouldn't have surrendered up its charm properly.

I so can't wait for Mum to come up.
Even if she does want to waste half a bloody day in Harrogate.
I can't deny her though; she's always wanted to go there and with Dad so crook these days she's unlikely to come this far North with him.

I think Otley will surprise her though. I think she thinks of it something like a small version of Aylesbury, and can't understand why I would like her to spend the full two days just here. She's coming up for three nights, but I'm not counting the first evening or last morning... She'll be shattered. I was :blush:

Re: The Bowling Green

Bowling Green (15-25 minutes up the road) is our (Kentucky's) third-largest city, and the fastest growing.

To get wet, or tour the facilities and gardens?

Foxglove, bluebells, daisies, it looks like my front yard right now.

Stopped by after work last night for the first time in a while. It was late enough that the courtyard had the sun, and I had my new (to me) Game of Thrones book to read. It was very peaceful in the back courtyard, but the rest of the place could well have been Kentucky's third largest city! Because I'm working overtime tomorrow (well, later today) I honestly forgot it was a Friday night. And a Friday on which it hadn't rained all day. Never mind, storms due later today, business as usual.
No idea TBH. We may have hit a snag. House sale still not finalised, 'rents paying 2x taxes and charges. No money for frivolities, which includes no money for jaunts up to Otley. Keep everything crossed for me, I knew I was looking forward to her visit but I didn't realise how much I had invested in it. I had a real howl when I put the phone down earlier this evening. Because it's all just about the bloody timing, not because it's genuinely financially out of reach. I mean I wouldn't cry because I can't go to the Bahamas.

Need to be more grown up. A birthday is just a random date. She'll just come when she can (booked bloody time off work and everything, wanted to get flat all nice, even got B&B booked for her, grumble grumble)
You have an English Country Garden.
That's it, I'm moving in with you. As well as Sarge and 'Spode and Bruce (as his potato wife) and Carruthers (to help with his Dad and his plot of land)...

Okay, a grave undertaking.
A churchyard I sometimes cut through on my way home in the evenings. It's not the fastest route home, but it is the shortest if I am going via the Other Supermarket. And it's an old enough boneyard to be an oasis of calm.

.

And as I'm touring this green and pleasant tract, I come across a jarring note.
So ostentatious it must be Victorian.
So out of keeping with the harmony of the other graves it must be a nouveau riche testament to the passing of somone in Trade :thepain:

Of course I'm not that snobbish. It fascinated me.
Well.
Turns out it isn't a monument to ego. It's a memorial to men who died on the railways. One particular railway and one specific tunnel.
Their families would probably have preferred the money, but at least the deaths were recognised. Albeit in an overblown Victorian way.

Where Mum would have been staying/ will be staying when she comes up to see me. The Horse and Farrier.
Please don't ask how I know how nice the rooms are (locked myself out of my flat, £60 I couldn't afford)
I promise I will tell you one day as an amusing story (when I get over the fact I spent my Council Tax money on a B&B because I locked myself out of my flat)

Anyway it is clean and quiet and perfect for Mum, with amazing power showers and HUGE breakfasts.