Saturday, June 7, 2003

Good Morning. The weather - sunny and breezy, about as good as it gets around here this morning. Yesterday's morning overcast and drizzle lifted by mid-day and it has been nice since. At least the wind has stayed with us so the dale is quite clear.

Yesterday morning I headed up the dale with the first load of fluorite bits for Killhope. Jonina has made arrangements with someone there to have the stuff picked up from us, but I wanted to stop by and see Ian and pick up a copy of their new book on the history of fluorspar mining in Weardale. Had a good visit and met one of their new volunteers, a retired geology teacher from Allendale. Everyone seemed quite pleased to be getting a large tub of our rejects, and Ian thinks they will be a real hit with the school tours, of which there were two there that morning. While there a couple local policemen showed up asking if they could go underground to test the reception of their portable radios. Ian had a good chuckle over this saying that he didn't understand what they hoped to prove as their radios seldom get good reception in the upper dale even on the surface.

Got back to the cottage to find Jonina having fits over the saw. It seems that the motor on it draws so much power when it starts that it frequently blows the 13 amp fuses in the plug heads of the leads. Of course we had no spares, so off I went down to the DIY in Stanhope. I also picked up some 20 amp fuse wire for the plug on the saw. Hopefully the increased amperage will solve the problem.

Dave and Byron had set off in the morning to finish cutting and hauling out our salvaged rail. By the time I had dropped off the fuses for Jonina and got up to the old mine site, they had gotten everything out and left for the Rogerley. Off I went down the dale again, only to find a pile of rail at the mine and everything shut tight. Evidently they had dropped it off and then gone back up the dale to settle up with the fellow who owned the rail. We got it all for only 50 UKP, but I think everyone involved paid a good bit more than that in effort to get the things out.

About that time I decided I was tired of racing up and down the dale, particularly as each previous time I would invariable get stuck behind someone who wouldn't go more than 30 mph and wouldn't let anyone lined up behind him pass. While getting myself psyched up for another up-dale drive I wandered about the quarry and discovered that the wild orchids were in full bloom. There are a couple spots in the quarry where there were literally hundreds of little purple stalks of flowers poking out of the grass. In the quarry we also have hundreds of rabbits, which seem to eat a lot of growing things. Fortunately they don't seem to like the orchids. Today's photo is of one of them.

Today Byron is going to take Jonina up to the old mine site for a look around. Should be a beautiful day up there on the moors. I'm planning on sawing up a couple specimens and then have a small group for a mine tour. I suspect I'll see Byron at the mine for a bit of collecting this afternoon as well.

Stay tuned for more…

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

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