We meet an author in Bronte Country

 17th July

 It seems as if every morning I have something to moan about, but so would you if you heard the patter of several feet on the roof as well as those pigeons calling to each other from 4,30 am! How Ian slept through it all was beyond me! And they never stopped until well after 7 am! By then Ian was awake and wondering why I was in a grumpy mood. Trouble is it is difficult to park for the night anywhere these days that doesn't involve trees. Middle of a field maybe? I think the farmers might have something to say about that! Anyway I climbed onto the seats, stuck the camera out of the Houdini and snapped these photos.

It rained again this morning. Glad we didn't get the awning out yesterday; I'm sure quite a few campers ready to leave wish they had got theirs away last night. 

I want a new cooker. The one on MB has never truly worked properly, it only cooks food if it is right on the top shelf, and the door is dangerous. It opens to the right but if MB is not dead level the door wont stay open. Extremely dangerous when trying to take anything hot out of the oven  Nop I have put my foot down and said we must replace it. 

 

Oh, and before you wonder why the oven gloves and folding kettle are kept in the oven, well the gloves stop the racks from rattling, and it's the best place to store the kettle!

Nearby was Ebor caravan spares. Opened at 10 am, so we thought we may as well check out the ovens. Of course, it meant going in the wrong direction, our plan was to head to Bronte country, so we joined the traffic heading back toward Scarborough. That plan was short lived! We hit traffic, stop start with no sign of it abating. So with a right turn coming up. Ian swung MB down that lane, managed to turn around in a field gate and abandoned the whole idea of looking at cookers. Secretly I think Ian was relieved. I don't think he thought it necessary to replace the one we had.  Hmm, maybe he should do all the cooking from now on!

See what I mean. We were in that queue!

 

Of to Bronte Parsonage museum It was about an hour's drive away heading back towards Bradford.  It's in a place called Haworth, the same place where the Keighley and Hawes Valley steam Railway have one of their stations stops. I'm a big fan of the Bronte sisters so for me, it was a must-go visit before leaving this part of the world.

We found a pay and display car park which had an attendant directing the cars to free bays. He pointed us toward one right in the corner, I was a bit concerned we may get hemmed in so another was found. Ian went off to pay the £2.00 for two hours parking fee and ended up paying £10!!

It was all because the car park attendant was also an author selling his own books. Persuaded Ian to buy one of his for a tenner and said we could now stay at the car park for as long as we liked. I took a photo, his name was Edward Evens and had written over 8 books. Apparently he had some rave reviews, and what I liked about him was his charitable donations every time a book was sold. So I suppose we were doing our bit for the various charities. This from Amazon 

Author Edward Evans lives in the Yorkshire village of Haworth, home of the famous Bronte sisters. He is using his writing to raise money for various charities and in this, his first published book 'II PY' has sold well and has raised over £6,000 for the homeless.

The Parsonage was up quite a steep hill and entry was through a side gate. It was a small but imposing building. Patrick Brontë (father) was the priest at Haworth Parish Church, a position which brought with it the house next door. Click HERE for the history

The visit only took about an hour, very interesting with plenty of facts about all the family. With the steam railway about quarter of a mile away, our plan was to walk, and we did start in that direction, but it seems all roads from the Parsonage lead down. Not a gentle incline to walk down, nop, it was really steep! As I may have mentioned earlier (several times in fact) my knees are not up to walking down hills so a slight change of plan was needed. Walk to see the town first before then taking MB to the station.

It was quaint, and I could just imagine the Bronte sisters walking these streets. We stopped to look in windows but we I resisted the temptation to buy anything. Back to MB having only been away from the van for 90 minutes. Turned out to be a very expensive car parking fee!

The station had a small car park and for 30 minutes all we had to pay was 50p. Gosh we were lucky. Within 5 minutes of leaving the van, the loco arrived!

Roughly 2 miles from Haworth was Penistone Hill Its a disused quarry situated on Haworth Moor and a park 4 night in the book. We pulled into the bottom parking area and by pure chance noticed a sign saying Bronte Waterfall. The sign said 1.5 miles. It wasn't ideal walking conditions. The sun beat down. we were hot but it wasn't something that would stop us from going. We couldn't resist and so armed with two bottles of water, set off across the moor.

It took nearly 40 minutes to do that 1.5 mile. Slow going, the heat was draining and I stopped frequently on the pretence of trying to find butterflies. We got there in the end, well we thought we had. Stopping by the stream the shoes and socks came off and what a great feeling of cold water running over hot tired feet.

Too many people were not stopping but walking on. Realisation hit when we realised the falls were a lot further on. By now both had had enough. We had yet another 1.5 mile to walk back, it was  just too hot to continue on.

Back at MB and we drove to the top car park. Hardly anyone parked so choosing a spot which overlooked both sides of the hill. a shandy was poured out, all windows flung open and the breeze that came through was indescribably wonderful. Oh, and more importantly, no trees nearby...yea! This is our last night away. Tomorrow we head back to FS. It's the NHS grabbing Ian this time, to possibly remove a growth on his hand. I'm not relishing getting back to the boat. The basin holds the heat and we have no shade. I suppose the only good thing is the washing will dry quickly.

and wildlife

Thank you, Jo, for the identification. It is an Emperor Moth caterpillar

Crickets