Double Bubble

Today's blog is a double hatter, two stories for the price of one; a report on Cottingham Day yesterday 7 July and a visit to Burnby Hall Gardens in Pocklington, East Yorkshire today.

I had my stall with my partner in crime Linda in the Darby and Joan Hall in Cottingham for the Cottingham Day celebrations in East Yorkshire, a day celebrating the best of the village and what a fabulous day it was and the weather shone like high summer - well done Mother Nature for smiling on us just for one day! The day was fantastic and a huge success.

Our stall

I met two old school friends, neither of whom I have met for 39 years and many other friends came to say hello. I also met a friend who was in the Cottingham Dramatic Society with me a lot of years ago. We sold a bit on the stall and had a wander round the village centre and saw all sorts of stalls and events, vintage cars, a parade, Her Majesty the Queen look alike, music, games, food and fun. I was carrying quite a lot so didn't take my camera which is very unusual but I took some photo's on my phone which isn't quite the same, but here they are:

Someone's been busy polishing

Vintage and not so vintage motorcycles

Village green taken over to keep the kids happy

Vintage cars

Today I went with a friend to Burnby Hall Gardens in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, which I've been to in the dim and distant past,  to see the magnificent ponds with the nations collection of water lillies and a hungry shoals of hundreds and hundreds of huge koi carp set in beautiful gardens.

The gardens are run as a trust for the benefit of the community, left by the former owner Major Percy Marlborough Stewart who died in 1962. There is a very good modern visitors centre, a small museum and a lovely cafe. There is a small collection of birds in an aviary and hidden gardens. There's a children's play area and a Victorian garden. You can even buy some of the plants which can be found in the gardens. The prices are reasonable to get in and you should put at least two or three hours to go round everything. There are regular events, band concerts and displays for the public.

Just bear in mind the pictures show a tiny fraction of the lake and huge number of lillies (I don't know how many but there seems to be hundreds) in many acres of water. Here is an amazing bit of nonsense footage, but shows you the size, quality and voracious nature of the Koi carp in the lake:

Hope you've had a great weekend.

Chat soon.

Ta-ra

Come up and see us sometime...

I've had a great weekend so far; very busy both in the garden and in the house doing just bits and pieces but achieving a great deal. As Saturday and Sunday has been so productive, and my wife is decorating my son's bedroom on Bank Holiday Monday, I thought I'd just nip onto Google and check 'things to do on a Bank Holiday.' It just took 0.23 seconds to come up with 119,000,000 (one hundred and nineteen million) hits. See the screen grab to prove it.
So, as it's an impossible task, (at an average of 30 seconds scanning the average site to decide whether it's the sort of information you require) it would take me over 113 years without sleep to scan all of them by which time I will no doubt be passed bloody caring what to do on a Bank Holiday weekend. So thanks Google for not helping a great deal. I've read a news article today (and for the life of me I can't find it now) that says there is a new rival to challenge Google who will make searching more relevant to what the searcher wants. It says it will revolutionise searching - hooray, hours of searching saved.

I've decided to go and see my parents and take my son who's learning to drive with me - just going to have a leisurely day. Where I live, in East Yorkshire there's plenty to do generally. We are within easy driving distance of the coast and three towns of Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea and if you like it a bit wilder, Spurn Point is isolated but splendid for coastal walks, bird watching and bracing air but dress up because except for high summer, it can be chilly with sea breezes. If the sea is not your gaff, the countryside is beautiful. It's not mountainous or anything, but green, lush and pretty and plenty of it. The iconic Humber Bridge is good to stop off and see and it has some great vistas.

The Humber Bridge south bank tower (click to enlarge)

For non-seaside places, Hull can be a bit disappointing for things to do with a few exceptions. The best attraction is The Deep with its sea life aquariums, that's good for half a day. There are some museums, Wilberforce and the Street Life museums are good and interesting and some of the architecture around the city centre is okay. If you're into ice skating it has an arena as well as a climbing centre. Other than that - it's just like any other city with its 'same-old, same-old' production line standard food outlets, cinemas, City Hall, theatre, bowling alleys and shops, providing of course the recession hasn't hit you in the pocket and you can afford to do these things. Hull is simply in need of regeneration - full stop.

The Deep, looking like a shark peeking through the concrete, (click for larger picture)

Beverley, an ancient market town is cool and great to walk round with nice shopping areas and weekly merkets, plenty to see and you'll have read my blogs about the Minster. Driffield is a lovely wolds country town and good to walk round. Indeed either round Hull or anywhere else, the best plan is to walk. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council has lots of planned walks, long, medium and short, details of which can be obtained and in Hull there is a city centre 'fish trail.' In Pocklington, there are the magnificent Burnby Hall Gardens with extensive lakes, manicured gardens and one of the biggest collections of water lillies in the UK I understand.

Burnby Hall Gardens (click to enlarge although this may be a little pixilated - it was a large file)

So there we have it for now - only a snapshot of the East Riding of Yorkshire, if you're ever thinking of visiting the area, let me know and I'll give you some tips.

Finally, there may be worse off places to visit: "It's a ghastly place. Huge gangs of tough sinewy men roam the valleys terrorising people with their close harmony singing. You need half a bucket of phlegm in your throat to pronounce the placenames. Never ask for directions in Wales Baldrick, you'll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight."
Rowan Atkinson on Wales, Blackadder.

Chat soon

Ta-ra!