Whitby with kids

Whitby with kids

Whitby is a sedate sort of place. Yes it does have sands provided the tide is right; it even has an amusement arcade but mostly it is a town of small shops and middle aged folk. I experienced a slightly different side with Alice and Ben. Matt has just got a new job starting mid July with the Ministry of Justice and could hardly take a holiday in his first few weeks. So it was that Frances took Alice and Ben to stay with us.

I travelled with Frances while Annette is staying longer and travelling by train. A perennial complaint by Annette is that I’m a rotten passenger always criticising ( I call it advising ) the driver. She made me promise to be on my very best behaviour.  She need not have worried ; Frances is an exemplary driver and it was a pleasure to be driven by her. ( Well perhaps just the small point of unnecessary gear changes…. )

The kids were superb passengers amusing themselves with hand held gaming consoles. None of the expected “are we there yet?” with patience perhaps fraying just a little towards the end of a long journey.

I didn’t take much part on the beach. I went once but sitting on the esplanade walkway wasn’t any fun and I bowed out afterwards.

We went on the NYMR heritage railway to Goathland. Ben at 6 was totally unimpressed not even looking much out of the window. The destination was chosen because the station apparently plays a big part in Harry Potter movies. The kids are both Potter obsessed. However there was just a bit of Potter memorabilia in the shop and otherwise it was a typical 30’s branch line station. We walked the short distance to the village where the ambience is 60’s Heartbeat. To say this is flogged to death is no exaggeration. A few old cars including a 60’s police Ford Anglia is permissible but the pub and garage retain their TV persona while the shops are packed with Heartbeat tat. We didn’t stay long.

For me the week was dominated by flat issues. We have planning issues over the car park. Already small, Scarborough planners want to make it smaller. All is vastly complicated by the fact that Mariners House is a listed building and subject to much more restrictions than normal. We, that is another flat owner and myself,  had an informal meeting with the planners with Frances taking notes. This was quite positive. Then we had our block meeting. We have a management company comprising all the leaseholders of which I am acting chairman. This went fairly well although the man who owns 3 of the 6 flats didn’t come himself but sent a representative.

We interspersed a few walks ( I didn’t go on most ) with beach trips. Annette did play cards a couple of times. Ben seemed to pick up sevens and a form of poker very quickly- perhaps a future card sharp! The kids had brought a number of DVD’s with them and we had plenty of Harry Potter and Lego movies ( called Ninjago ; I never worked out why)

I’m not sure how I am as a granddad. I soon get bored playing and I just haven’t got the right empathy. Definitely the best moment came on the return trip. We called at York Outlet centre and while Frances was waiting at the Clarks show shop I was waiting with the kids near a Cadbury’s store. When I suggested a quick trip round to select something they didn’t need asking twice and were obviously surprised I made the suggestion.. Later during our lunch stop at Trowell services I was able to share out my bar of fruit and nut. They both had an item- well Ben had a mini pack of bars. Going off like this while Frances was away felt very subversive and just the thing a good grandparent should do. I was rewarded by smiles and thanks.

Why did the mathematician turn off the heating in his home?

So he could be cold and calculating

Drought

I’m finding the drought increasingly depressing. Our garden is suffering now quite badly. Annette is saving water even directing the washing machine into a watering can. By this means she is ensuring the flowers on the patio are thriving. Everything else is suffering. I am watering our French beans as we value the crop and there aren’t many. Adjacent marrow ( courgette ) plants are also getting water but a other than that we are in the hands of nature.

I had been carefully cultivating a replacement heather patch. We inherited one which I liked but it became overgrown and out of control. About 8 years ago I cleared it completely and started again. The heathers took a long time to grow and it is only in the past couple of years that it had started to merge plants into a satisfying bed. Now one has died completely and there are signs of distress in others. It doesn’t help that they are in probably the driest area very near to tree shadow. And of course in full sun which doesn’t help at all.

Fruit is very early. I’ve been picking blackberries for a few days which is about a month earlier than I expected. The crop looks decent helped by the fact that that they have spread now I am cultivating much less ground. Plums look ripe and are falling so I need to start picking soon.

Apples look a mixed bag. Mature trees appear to have good crops but trees planted on dwarfing rootstock about ten years ago are looking dodgy. The problem appears to be that they are producing a lot of small fruit which aren’t maturing. I’ve been thinning the fruit quite vigorously in the hope that fewer fruit will mature better. We shall see.

Clearly it is difficult to make a direct link with global warming. However an item in “New Scientist” .sees a clear statistical link with the probability of extreme weather sharply increased. Certainly the general climate forecast seems to have been supported by the experience with extreme events occurring more frequently.

There is a glib assumption that the UK will benefit from a few degrees temperature rise. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that as extremes inflict problems whether flooding, drought, gales etc. . The feature I dread is a big change to the Gulfstream, that Atlantic flow which has given the UK an equable mild climate even though we are quite far north on the globe. If the Gulfstream becomes less influential we will end up with a climate like Norway with heavy winter snowfalls and low temperatures combined with bursts of summer drought.

There is some action taking place. The global consensus of restricting greenhouse gas emissions to below a 1.5C rise now looks unachievable- it will be higher. In some areas there is recognition that that a switch away from fossil fuel burning is essential. It is interesting that China as a command economy, has extremely ambitious targets. Sadly Trump in his profound stupidity is doing his best to ensure USA nationally does nothing. What is heartening is that much of the US is proceeding without him and moving to reduce fossil fuel use. The USA is home of the premier electric car company, Tesla, in the world. It is also true that Tesla are planning to expand in China where the government is savvy enough to see that a good position in electric vehicles will be a big competitive advantage in the future. It is also true that the Chinese suffer badly from air pollution which is a big reason to move away from fossil fuels.

The green claque are fond of criticising big oil companies ignoring the fact that they are responding to demand  not creating it. This looks very much like blaming the other feller rather than seeing what individuals can do in their own lives.Similarly the green lobby actions on nuclear power don’t seem very helpful.  Big oil is certainly positioning themselves for a time where service stations are about charging points not petrol pumps.

It is very unfortunate that many green groups are captured by the extreme left wingers. They have an agenda of blaming fossil fuel companies and the free market economy in general for climate issues. This is well put by something I’ve read about them being “melons” ie. green on the outside, red on the inside. Frankly climate change is too serious for this posturing which only increases suspicion among deniers.

I’m reviving the idea of ending with a joke.

A man went into a bookshop and asked the woman behind the counter “Do you keep stationary here?”

“No” she said” sometimes I wriggle about a bit”

Grandchildren

We have had four for the first week of their summer school holiday. These were Alison’s two, Ellie and Nate and Frances’s two, Alice and Ben.. It has been interesting and tiring. Their week coincided with the heatwave. Generally we aimed to limit their time in the sun particularly between 11 am and 3 pm. Since we had already had several weeks of the heatwave we were generally fairly well prepared with fans, drinks and sunshades.

Although the children got on well together with no squabbles it was soon apparent that Ellie at nearly 14 is now a young lady and although she joined in to an extent she has outgrown much of younger children’s games. Nate is taken up by reading and listening to audio books. I thought I was a voracious reader when I was young but he easily exceeds me.

Before Nate came he had said his interests with the others would be football and chess. Well we didn’t see a chess set all week. We had bought goals and other football equipment but apart from desultory kickabouts  he didn’t have much interest. I did notice he has become quite skilful with his kicks quite precisely aimed. His tuition after school has paid off. However this was just a temporary interval away from a book. He even insisted on having an audio book when in bed. I was disappointed also that he has reverted to being very picky with food. Alison says he likes simple food not any mixtures.  We tempted him with chocolate mousse which was successful at first only to find that when supplied with a different brand he rejected them part eaten.

Alice and Ben ( aged 9 and 6 ) were simpler. Foodwise Ben could eat for England. He can also drink likewise: if he ever takes to beer then trouble. I felt I  got to know Ben much more this week. Before he had always seemed in the shadow of Alice but he now emerged as a robust, self confident boy with lots to say for himself. I noted how robust he was when he fell and stubbed his toe quite badly. He sat and rubbed in for a bit and then re-joined the activity. He had no problems asserting himself in games.

The big success of the week were pump up water guns. Annette had managed by searching many shops to find 4 identical ones. So water fights were a continual feature. Ben always seemed to end up thoroughly soaked but he didn’t seem to mind. Towards the end of the week the smaller ones were deliberately showering themselves out side from watering cans rather than take the usual indoor showers.

At the start Annette had laid out some activities such as clearing the table and in general this worked well. The routine was that we laid the table and then after the meal the allocated child cleared away ( Alice was teamed with Ben )

Ellie cooked for us a couple of times  ( sort of assisted by Alice ). She did a lasagne one day and a cheesecake another. Both were good.

Annette had a number of craft activities planned. Alice who is quite artistic did enjoy these. Ellie did some advanced work such as silk painting. Ben did a bit of casual sticking and painting but wasn’t too interested while Nate preferred a book.

We did have some DVD’s of Harry Potter films. Ben even has a little Ron Weaseley film book. I had hoped Ben would read with Nate who is fluent but Nate wasn’t interested. I tried to get Ben to read with me but after a couple of times he decided this too much like school.

Todays smile

How do you confuse an Irishman

Lean 5 shovels against a wall and say take your pick.