Sunsets and Rainbows

Heading into our tenth week here at Burrs Country Park. The season is racing by at a speed of knots that I’m finding hard to keep up with. A lady on site said hello today, she said they’d decided to come to Burrs after following my blog. Then the penny dropped, I need to get back to my writing. Something I’ve let lapse in recent months.

Following on from my health scare and hospitalisation at the start of the season, I’m feeling fighting fit, a lot healthier and certainly happier.

Our bosses this year are a lovely couple that we trained with and have been so welcoming. My training this year has been different, I’ve learnt a new skill thanks to Sally’s patience. A couple of evenings and a bit of cussing and swearing on my part and she’s taught me the basics of crocheting. Something my grandma tried to teach me nearly 50 years ago and gave up. I’m now sitting under a pile of granny squares that I’m determined to make into a blanket, watch this space.

Our compound is all set up, we even acquired a couple of free settees and a big off cut of carpet from Facebook market place for a bit of added comfort in our new Isabella awning. New, I say half heartedly. We bought it two years ago whilst working at Longleat, this is the first time it’s been out of the box. It’s taken until today, the start of May for the weather to warm up enough to allow us to use it in the evenings, hopefully we will get a good summer to help us make the most of the extra space.

We haven’t had much in the way of the mizzley drizzle that I remember from when we lived up here, so far the weather has been kind to us, long may it continue. We’ve had the odd shower that’s left behind rainbows and that delightful smell of wet grass – petrichor. A smell I love almost as much as muck spreading. Strange I know, other people like the smell of fresh bread, for me it’s farm yards and muck spreading.

We’ve caught up with family and seen a few friends, there are still lots more people we need to catch up with but we’ve got 6 months ahead of us to do that.

We’ve had a few days out and countless trips to Bury Market. A trip to Manchester on the tram and following an art trail in Bolton town centre. We’ve walked around Rivington, exploring Liverpool Castle and searched the graveyards for my distant relatives.

We’ve driven over the hills to Yorkshire and found ourselves in the beautiful village of Gargrave, lunching on Yorkshire’s finest fish and chip lunch, snapping some lovely photos of doors for my collection, then onto a specialist tandem shop. Again, this is another of those ‘watch this space’ but, don’t hold your breath, their lead time is lengthy and we haven’t signed on the dotted line… yet…

We’ve cleaned toilets, cut the grass, pulled the weeds out, checked folk in, checked folk out, that sounds slightly rude. I’ve paused for thought as countless steam trains have chugged past. It doesn’t matter how many pass the site, I have to watch. Our train line this year is slightly better than Broadway’s. Almost every pitch has a good view, as the line here is elevated. The Bank Holiday weekend brought Thomas the Tank Engine to the East Lancs Railway. Never a fan of Thomas but I did get a little star struck and giddy when he first tooted his way past site. The guy I was checking in at the time made me promise that I’d grow old but to never grow up, such lovely words that will stay with me.

As longer days and warmer weather creep up on us, the sunsets continue to warm my cockles. Not quite as stunning as my Broadway sunsets but still good for the soul.

As the sun goes down tonight I’m watching it sink behind a big top, visiting the show ground in Burrs Country Park adjacent to the site. Not something you see every day.