Tuesday, June 3, 2003

Good Morning. The weather - still summer-like. It hasn't rained in days and folks around here are beginning to complain that they are being forced to actually water their lawns and gardens. Yesterday morning it was overcast with some fairly dark clouds and looked as though things were getting back to normal, but by mid-day all that had changed again.

Jonina and I paid a visit to Lindsay and Patricia yesterday, while Byron and Dave began the process of salvaging some light gauge rail from an old mine adit up the hill from us here at the cottage. The drive from Weardale to Kendal normally takes about one and a half hours and involves some narrow and winding stretches of road. With the weather having been so warm lately many of the farmers are bringing in their first crop of hay already, which meant that farm equipment was about on the roads. The farm tractors over here seem capable of traveling much faster on the roads that the ones encountered in the states. Even still, it tends to make the trip that much longer. The area between here and Kendal was particularly hard hit by the foot and mouth epidemic and last year this time there were very few grazing animals to be seen. Fortunately, the fields now seem to be slowly refilling with cows and sheep.

Lindsay and Patricia seem well, and after taking care of some business such as paperwork for local permits and such we got on to discussing the state of minerals, collecting and dealing in the UK and elsewhere. As always, numerous rumors, innuendos, and perhaps a few verifiable facts were offered up by all present. Patricia put on lunch and afterwards we adjourned to the back yard for coffee and watched the sun emerge for the afternoon. Lindsay and Patricia have a new cat, which is a Burmese named Pandora. The cat, evidently the first they have ever had was a recent birthday present for their son Oliver, and though only 11 kg (5 lbs) in size is quite a terror. The cat toy of choice appears to be wine corks, which bounce to good effect on their wood floors.

After coffee we moved down to the mineral room to see what was in evidence these days. Fortunately for me there were few Northern English fluorites of any quality within the current "affordability" price range so I escaped unscathed. Lindsay has been rather successful lately at acquiring specimens from Cornwall and the Leadhills in Scotland and had several drawers full of old classics. He also had acquired a small collection of Welsh minerals that could be best described as "location pieces" (i.e.: esthetically challenged).

The drive back up Hartside grade and through Alston Moor was quite pretty as the sky had completely cleared and the lowering sun was casting long shadows across the moors. Back at the cottage we found Byron relaxing with a beer and a book. His report for the day was that there has been a recent collapse in the mine adit containing our rail. The good news is that he thinks that it is small enough that we can dig it out without too much trouble, but may be forced to do some timbering to keep everything else in place. Fortunately for me, I gave up long ago thinking that things would go as planned with this operation.

On today's schedule, Dave will begin working at recovering our rail, Jonina has her assistant Sarah starting here at the cottage, I have my first mine tour with some visiting customers from the U.S., and Byron will be doing what he does best - digging. As I went off and left my camera at the cottage, I have no photographic documentation of yesterday's activities. I promise I'll do better today. So today's photo is from the archives and is of the view looking up the dale from the mine landing.

Forward in all directions…

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

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