Demons, Seeds, and a nasty cold

Greetings all...

Before you ask, yes it is still raining.  We have now entered our 9th straight day of rain in the lake district.  The saying "Rain before 7, fine by 11" clearly has a veto option for the lake district.....unless they are referring to month numbers of course!

On Saturday we decided to venture outside of the Lakes for a while.  We did, and guess what..it wasn't raining there!  We spent a lovely afternoon at Brough Castle and Brougham Castle, two English Heritage properties about 50 miles away from where we are staying.  I won't go so far as to say that the weather was wonderful, but it was nice to have a little break from the rain.  The odd break in the clouds also meant that I was able to break out the camera for a short while.  More than a little rusty, due to my summer being devoted to Cisco and wedding plans, I was a little nervous at first, but soon got into the swing of it.  I even spent some time with a standard lens on my camera...that didn't last long though, and soon I was back to my beloved lensbaby kit.  I shot some images of James, one of which is attached here.  A little different from my normal work...maybe a new direction?

Afterwards we headed back into Cockermouth.  You may recall, dear readers, that we had reservations at "The Bitter End" for dinner.  We dined on Supremes of Pheasant, pan fried in butter with Juniper and Thyme, with Roasted Garlic Mash Potato, Parsnip Crisps, and a selection of vegetables. Totally awesome, and for those of you who think that English food is bland, I am very sorry to have to disappoint you!

Sunday was to be a trip to see my sister in Congleton.  The drive there was about 3 hours and we spent the day with Jane and Mike and ate lots.  It didn't rain there either, which was nice.  Then, back to the rainy lakes of course.   I have developed a nasty cold as well, which is annoying (which also gave me a bunch of bad dreams too...or maybe it was the scotch and ibuprofen?).  We haven't had a single chance to do any walking yet, and it looks like we won't this week either.

On Monday we had an important task to complete.  This was the day that we would give notice for our Civil Partnership in Kendal, having completed our residency requirements.  We arrived (with me sniffing a lot) at the register office to met by two ladies who would process our application.  One was the spitting image of Patricia Routledge (Mrs Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances) and the other was the spitting image of her next door neighbouor, Elizabeth.  Every time something went wrong with the registrars computer she would call the other lady "Lynne, come here please" in this stentorian voice, and Lynne would scurry over to fix things.  It was somewhat hard to keep a straight face through it all, but after a whole hour of Mrs Bucket tapping away at the keyboard we were duly processed.  Now the notice of Civil Partnership has to be displayed for 14 days before we can get hitched.  Our residency is now complete, so we can leave the area officially.  Accordingly, we are heading off to Menorca on Thursday for a week!  Pray that the rain doesn't go with us.....

Today, with me still full of the cold, it looks like the sun might be out for a few hours in between the constant rain.  We are heading into Keswick and plan on taking it easy for once.  James has a bunch of paperwork to catch up on, and I need to blog a little too.  Can't disappoint our readers!  I'm hoping that the weather may brighten up tonight and that I feel a little better, as I would like to buy some venison to cook at the campsite....I'm thinking of some Aged Venison medallions with some Juniper, red wine reductions, and new potatoes....anyone want to come visit!

So that's all folks!  Tomorrow (Wednesday) we drive down to Luton for the night and then head out to Menorca early on Thursday morning.  We'll keep you posted as to where we are!

Big Love to all,

D&J