Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Greetings from Weardale.

This morning it seems that our summer weather may have passed - the sky is full of clouds and there is a chill in the air. I remember in past years that autumn can arrive in a single day, so perhaps we are there. No bets, however.

Saturday morning Dave, Byron and I went to the mine to load and shoot the face that Dave had drilled the day before. Everything went off well and we were soon back at the Mine House for the day's barbeque. The weather cooperated (for a change) and in fact it got rather hot as the afternoon wore on. Cal, claiming that it was his male duty to burn the meat on the grill produced a continual stream of burgers, sausages, grilled mushrooms and other items, which were consumed along with the obligatory chips, dips, potato salad, beer, wine and soda. All in all it was a right proper barbeque, which is often difficult to accomplish with the northern English weather.

Sunday Joan and I set off for Kendal to visit Lindsay and Patricia (the former owners of the Rogerley). Visiting them is something that always involves lots of good minerals, good food, good wine and lots of conversation. We stayed the night as after going out for a very nice meal at one of Lindsay's favorite local restaurants no one was even considering driving back. On Monday we took a tour of the Cumbrian Lakes District, a part of the country Joan and I had never seen. The area is perhaps one of the most scenic in all the country and as such, comes complete with hoards of tourists, picturesque villages full of souvenir shops and traffic - at least in the summer. Fortunately, as it was Monday the traffic wasn't too bad and we got out to see some fabulous sights. Today's photo is of the Cumbrian Fells, an area popular with rock climbers, who are known locally as "Crag Rats". Aside from the scenery, one of the biggest attractions in the Lakes District seems to be that it is the home to Betrix Potter, author of all the Peter Rabbit stories. Numerous villages seem to draw a major portion of their income from selling Betrix Potter memorabilia in the form of tee-shirts, figurines, china, books, tea towels, and anything else one can think of. For some reason, Betrix Potter is particularly popular with the Japanese and attracts so many tourists that many establishments have signs on Japanese as well as English. We fortunately were able to resist the urge to acquire a collection of Peter Rabbit tea towels of our own, though did find a very nice pub for lunch in the village of Hawkshead. After a day of sight-seeing, Joan and I took the scenic back route to Weardale and enjoyed the last of the day as we drove through Teesdale and back over the moors, which are now colored purple by the blooming heather.

According to Byron, the main face was mucked out yesterday and now needs to be washed to see what signs of mineralization may have been exposed. This morning I'm planning on sorting and trimming a few specimens for possible transport back home, and will then join Byron at the mine. Jonina says that we are running low on provisions and plans a shopping run to Consett.

Stay tuned for more…

Cheers,

Jesse & the crew.

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