Friday, August 8, 2003

Saturday, August 16, 2003

Good morning from Weardale.

This Saturday begins sunny and clear as before. Yesterday's weather adventure, as usual, did not go as predicted. Sunny and warm until mid-afternoon, when fairly heavy clouds rolled in and cooled things down a bit. Never quite got around to raining though, and by evening it was clearing again.

Yesterday was spent at the mine helping Byron clear up the backlog of large specimens awaiting the chain saw. This is very wet work as the saw sprays out several gallons of water a minute as it cuts, and I was, for the most part, the one holding the specimens in place and thus directly in the line of fire. At least it was a nice, slightly breezy day so drying off wasn't a problem. It was also the one job around the mine where you want an old pair of gloves with a few holes in them to allow the water to drain out.

Dave spent the day mucking out the last of the rubble from the east tunnel, left from the last extension of the Dipper pocket drift. He also finished drilling the main face in anticipation of the next shot, which will happen this morning. Today's photo is of Dave having a go at the face with the jack-leg drill. Rob efficiently scoured the mine and wrapped up anything resembling a specimen, and by the end of the day he had accumulated a large collection of tubs to be lowered down on our improvised gondola. Toward the end of the day David Rennison came by to have a quick look around at the summer's progress and have a look at some of the past week's "bonnie bits" that we had trimmed up.

On the way back up the dale with Rob I had to stop for petrol and after continuing, came across Byron and Dave at the side of the road near the Heights quarry. A quick stop revealed that the Peugot had suffered a flat and the guys couldn't find the jack. Rob and I pulled the one out of my rental car, but that one wouldn't fit under the side of the Peugot properly. About that time Jonina zipped past, heading toward the mine. Fortunately she saw us all and returned. Even more fortunately the jack from her car did fit so we were back on the road shortly there-after.

Back at the cottage I found Joan relaxing after her trip to Craigside with Cal and Kerith. The place, near Alnwick, is a Victorian manor house that had considerable wooded grounds for hiking. It was also the first manor house in the UK to be electrified and still has its original hydroelectric power plant dating from the late 19th century. Joan tells me that they also have an incredible collection of kitchy sentimental paintings of the sort that were popular during Victorian times.

The two of us went out to dinner at a highly recommended pub up near Derwent Reservoir. Stopped in at the Grey Bull in Stanhope an the way back and ran into Isabelle, the former owner of both the Grey Bull and the Golden Lion in St. John's Chapel. She decided to get out of the pub business last year after struggling through the prolonged downturn caused by the foot and mouth disease epidemic. Having done so, she seemed much more relaxed and we had a good chat, finally being tossed out at closing time.

Today is barbeque day here at the Mine House, so will, no doubt, be a day of socializing and over-indulgence.

Stay tuned for more…

Cheers,

Jesse & the crew.

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