Mick's 60th - October

As it was Mick's 60th birthday back in August I've been arranging little surprises throughout the year to celebrate the occasion. I'd been hoping to organise something each month and so far so good, although the surprise this month had to be changed.

Storm Boelo hit Yorkshire last weekend and along with the devastation it caused in it's wake, it left my plans in tatters. It was too late to sort something else out for the weekend, though we didn't really want to leave the house anyway with the storm raging, and unfortunately, I couldn't move what I'd arranged to another day so I had to think of something else fast as the end of the month was approaching. We're also rather busy this week with one thing or another but Mick managed to move some work engagements to other days and took yesterday off. Meanwhile, I started wracking my brains as to something fun I could book at short notice and came up with The Crystal Maze Experience.

You may remember this television programme from the 90s where teams had to solve a series of challenges in the Crystal Maze in order to win time for the final challenge in the Crystal Dome. Years ago, when we used to visit St Anne's for weekends away with our extended family, we always used to have a trip into Blackpool to visit the Crystal Maze attraction there, it was something we all looked forward to. It's a long time now since it was in Blackpool but since then, new Crystal Maze Experiences have sprung up in London and Manchester so I thought it would be fun to cross the Pennines and give it a go. 

We were put into a team with six other people and the whole experience lasted over an hour. It was exactly like the TV show, we had a guide who came round with us, just as Richard O'Brien did in the programme, and the maze was split into four zones: Aztec, Medieval, Industrial and Futuristic, and four task categories: Mental, Physical, Skill and Mystery.

It was brilliant fun, the theme music played as we raced from zone to zone, trying to complete the timed challenges and earn crystals. Each member of the team had a go at two challenges each, Mick won crystals on each of his, his tasks were physical and skill, I earned only one, my tasks were mystery and mental, and the team together earned eight crystals in total. I would have liked to have taken some photos inside but unfortunately this wasn't allowed.

Salford Quays is just a couple of miles from where the Crystal Maze is situated so afterwards, we drove there to take a river cruise.

The Princess Katherine took us through Salford Quays and the Manchester Ship Canal onto the River Irwell. The onboard commentary was very informative telling us about the buildings we could see and Manchester's industrial past. It was really interesting.

We've never visited Salford Quays before but it's the home of the BBC and ITV, including sets like the Coronation Street tour. The Imperial War Museum North is here, along with The Lowry Theatre and Quayside Media City, leisure, shopping, restaurants and bars. It's definitely somewhere we'd like to visit again as we just didn't get to explore it all as the time we had was limited.

Mick had to be home for a prior engagement but in the evening, we went for a pizza at a fabulous restaurant within walking distance of our home. They serve authentic Neapolitan pizza made by chefs from Naples. It was a good job I'd made a booking as the only vacant table when we arrived was ours, a testament to how good the food is here. We'd never been to this particular restaurant before but we shall definitely go again. Having recently visited Italy we can say that the food was as good as anything we'd had there. It was a lovely way to round off the day, and though my plans for October changed at short notice, we had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Happy News

I've got some very happy news to share, I'm going to be a granny again.

Eleanor and Jacob are having another baby and Jack is going to be a big brother. Of course, as soon as I heard the news I pressed my knitting needles into action. They're not finding out what they're having, they want it to be a surprise just as it was with Jack, which means I either knit neutral colours or I knit double, one for a boy and one for a girl. I'm sure the one which isn't used will come in somewhere down the line. I just loved the Toadstools Romper by Julie Taylor which I made for Jack, this time I've changed the embroidery on the pink one from toadstools to daisies. Julie Taylor also has a Daisy Cardigan pattern so I've taken this flower design from there.

I envisage a very busy Christmas this year as the new baby is due Christmas week, how exciting is that. We can't wait to welcome another little one into the family.

Our Sorrento Holiday

In my last post, Mick's 60th - September, I told you about our visit to Pompeii. That was on the Monday. On the Wednesday we visited the island of Capri.

Again, we made our own way there catching a ferry from the port in Sorrento. We'd caught the first shuttle bus from the hotel at 9am but in hindsight, we should have caught an earlier ferry than we did because Capri was packed and there was so much queueing. It's a beautiful island though.

The first thing we did when we got there was take a bus from the port up to Anacapri, the mountainside town on the west of the island. The buses were supposed to be every ten minutes but we waited ages in the queue until we finally got to the front and onto a bus. The roads are not for the faint hearted, twisty turny and barely wide enough for two vehicles.

From Anacapri we took the Monte Solaro Chair Lift to the highest point on Capri. Again, a very long queue. I'm not a lover of heights but the chair lift isn't too high from the ground, passing over gardens, vineyards and lemon groves, and takes about twelve minutes each way. The views are amazing.

The chair lift takes you to the highest point on the island where you can take in 360 degree views looking out over the Faraglioni Rocks, the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. There's also a restaurant. We came back down on the chair lift before exploring a little of Anacapri and having a meal in a lovely restaurant there. Afterwards we got a bus back to the port, yes, another long queue. We would have liked to have explored Capri Town on the eastern side of the island but we just didn't have time after all the queueing. I think the secret to Capri is to arrive early to avoid the queues.

The Friday was our favourite day, we climbed Mount Vesuvius. We took a train to Pompeii and then a bus which takes you to the upper parking area at 3280 feet. Vesuvius stands at about 4203 feet so you have just under a thousand feet to climb. This photo was taken from the bus before our ascent.

There's a steep gravel path from the car park which takes you to the crater rim. It's a bit of a cardio workout but there were a couple of children doing it, and some oldies. For me, the hardest part was coming down again, goodness, my knees were complaining.

It's so worth it though, it was quite emotional reaching the rim, especially after visiting Pompeii and knowing the devastation that this volcano wreaked in the past and will again some time in the future. It last erupted in 1944 during WWII destroying nearby villages.

The views from the summit over the Bay of Naples are amazing.

Looking down into the crater. How amazing is that, to be able to look down into an active volcano, it takes my breath away just thinking about that.

Of course, visiting Pompeii on the Monday and climbing Vesuvius on the Friday all tied in and we looked out from the third station, the final resting and turnaround point, and somewhere down there is Pompeii.

We raised our glasses of wine and thought about the volatile forces of nature and those who have succumbed.

In between our excursions we spent some time in Sorrento. Again, we didn't get to see everything we wanted to, there's so much more to explore if we return. We loved Sorrento, such a pretty city, a scenic cliffside resort, bustling with tourists.

I just loved the historic stone alleyways where you could pick up souvenirs or sit at a pavement cafe for a drink or something to eat.

The architecture of these alleyways feature limestone and lava stone arranged in a grid formation characteristic with the ancient Greek-Roman world.

We ate wonderful meals, pasta in restaurants overlooking the Bay of Naples whilst watching the sunset.

Pizza at alleyway restaurants. Actually, this was a wonderful place to eat, fabulous food and attentive staff. The evening of our visit to Vesuvius, a perfect day from morning till night.

Desserts a plenty. We shared this Torta Caprese, chocolate and almond flourless cake. It was scrummy. 

We ate more than our fair share of gelato. Of course, Sorrento is famous for lemons and the lemon flavour gelato from Sorrento is something else. Mick was sampling the tiramisu flavour here but he concurred with me that lemon is best.

We had such a wonderful week and we may return to the area at some point in the future, there's just so much to do there, you could never get bored.

Mick's 60th - September

I'm arranging monthly surprises for Mick right the way through 2026 as it was his 60th birthday in August. I'm a little late in telling you about his September surprise as it actually ran over into October.

I knew that Mick had been wanting to visit Pompeii so I thought it would be a nice surprise to arrange a holiday to nearby Sorrento. This is one surprise which Mick knew about in advance as I wanted him to have the enjoyment of looking forward to the trip. I did keep it a secret until his birthday, I'd wrapped up a guidebook which I gave him to open and that's when I told him we were going to Sorrento. We flew out from Manchester on the 27th of September for a week.

I'd been tracking the weather and it was in the high 30s through August. I chose the time of year for our visit based on the predicted temperature, I knew it would be no fun at all exploring Pompeii in the extreme heat. As it was, it was still in the high 20s when we visited, still quite hot but I'd booked a hotel where we could relax in between our excursions.

We stayed just outside Sorrento in Sant'Agnello, a quiet clifftop town overlooking the Gulf of Naples. It was close enough to walk into Sorrento but the hotel provided a good shuttle bus service which ran at various times throughout the day. It was very handy. The train station was just a short walk away so this was handy for exploring further afield.

There was a lift to take you down to the small public beach but we ventured down the ramps and stairs, winding our way through the tunnels cut into the cliffs, and used the lift to take us back up again.

We arrived last Sunday and, wasting no time, set off to visit Pompeii on the Monday. We didn't book any organised trips on our holiday, we just used public transport hopping on and off trains and buses as required and it was so easy.

I can't begin to tell you how vast Pompeii is and how much there is to see there. I was speaking to someone who had visited three times and each time they choose a different part to explore. That would definitely be the best way to do it if you knew you were going to return, but as we only had the one day we did as much as we could but only really touched the surface. The one thing we did notice was how Vesuvius looms over Pompeii, it must have been terrifying for the people when they realised it was erupting.

The city of Pompeii was buried under nearly twenty feet of ash, pumice and pyroclastic flows when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. It wasn't rediscovered until 1748 and it's remarkable how well the buildings have been preserved.

An invention of modern times being viewed through the skylight of Casa degli Amanti, or House of the Lovers.

The Teatro Piccolo, or Small Theatre. Holding 1300 to 1500 spectators I wouldn't exactly call it small but there's a large theatre too, the people of Pompeii certainly enjoyed their leisure activities.

The Amphitheatre of Pompeii was the most impressive building of all for me. It measures 135m long and 104m wide and was built to host around 20,000 people.

Inside, the amphitheatre is just as striking. It was poignant standing there thinking of the gladiators who fought and died there.

And the tunnels through which the gladiators were led into the arena. 

There's lots of artwork to see in Pompeii, this on the wall of one of the brothels. Yes, there were brothels in Pompeii, quite a lot in fact.

But I think the thing people think about most when they visit Pompeii are the people who died in the disaster. When hot ash and pumice buried the city, it completely encased the victims. The bodies completely decomposed over many years and what was left behind were cavities inside the hardened ash which mirrored their final shapes. In 1863, an archaeologist invented a method in which to pour liquid plaster into the cavities and once hardened the surrounding ash was chipped away to reveal the final shapes of the victims.

It's heart wrenching to see how people were trying to protect themselves. Most of the victims died from breathing in a dense, choking cloud of hot ash and poisonous gases, others died from thermal shock from the high temperature pyroclastic flows and others were crushed inside buildings or hit from falling masonry or killed from earthquakes which were happening at the same time as the eruption.

The saddest of all are the casts of the children.

The excavations at Pompeii are still active. About 15% to 33% of the city is still buried so work to uncover more will continue for many years.

I think I'll leave it there for now and I shall tell you about the rest of our holiday in my next post.

Pompeii is somewhere Mick's wanted to go for a long time and it didn't disappoint, there's just a taster in this post. We spent the whole day there and we could go again and spend another whole day seeing things we haven't already seen, it's huge, but so very interesting.

The Devil's Arrows

We were driving home from a day out in North Yorkshire earlier on this year and as we passed Boroughbridge on the A1, we decided to take a detour to see The Devil's Arrows.

This alignment of three standing stones was erected in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age between 5000 and 3500 years ago and they consist of some of the tallest standing stones in the United Kingdom. Two of the stones are located in a field and the third, larger one, is across a road.

Early accounts record varying numbers of stones, usually four or five but one account records seven standing stones. 

They're composed of Millstone Grit and thought to have been quarried and transported from Plumpton Rocks nine miles away.

The stones are spaced unevenly and run from north-northwest to south-southeast.

The southernmost stone is the second tallest single standing stone in Britain, 6.9 metres, taller than any at Stonehenge.

You can read more about The Devil's Arrows if you click on the photo above. Isn't it amazing how man was able to transport huge stones, which are believed to weigh anything from twenty five tons to over forty tons, all that distance without any form of machinery. It's also amazing how they're still standing after thousands of years, withstanding erosion and anything else which has been thrown at them in all that time.

Back To Cross Stitching

It's been a while since I've done any cross stitching. When I looked back and found that I'd finished The Twelve Days Of Christmas back in 2023 I was flabbergasted, I didn't realise it was that long ago. Just another example of how time flies. I had considered finishing off Mum's Cross Stitch but my heart just isn't in it at the present time, I don't know if it's because of the memories attached to it, whether I don't want to work on a piece which someone else has started or if it's the actual design, but I just can't bring myself to work on it at the moment.

A few Christmases ago Daniel and Jasmine bought me each of the seven charts which make up Jack Frost's Tree Farm by Little House Needleworks. They're lovely designs which can be finished separately or stitched as one piece, I've decided to do the latter.

I've chosen some sparkly evenweave fabric, a Zweigart 32 count Murano. I thought the sparkles would look like snow in this Christmassy design, though they don't really come across in the photo. The charts give the recommended Classic Colorworks colours but they also give a DMC alternative so that's what I've gone with.

I'm in no rush to finish it, I thoroughly enjoy taking my time with my crafting, putting a few stitches in here and there. It's a mindful process for me which is all the more enjoyable for the thoughtfulness and intention with which I complete each piece. I may not be prolific where cross stitching is concerned but I enjoy every stitch. I do find that my other hobbies take precedence over cross stitch though and since I've started looking after Jack, the time I spend on hobbies has reduced considerably so I do know that this will take quite some time to complete but that's okay.