Pannal and the polls

Pannal remained conservative notice the small c as I am fed up with all the parties. Think most people are too with the protest vote for UKIP.
We are going to feature in a tv programme Restoration Man with George Clarke. I have been asked to help with the history of the water tower on the hill by Walton Park which is being converted to a house. I have declined the offer as I remember there was a lot of opposition to the planning application from people who live there so I do not want to become involved.
We have lost our neighbour Geoff Holberry. Poor Geoff had been ill and hospitalized since Christmas. He was a character which came out at his humanist funeral. We will miss him coming round in his shorts and saying Shirley and I are off to Sharm el Sheik can you water the tomatoes? We also used to say we are off to Bristol, Cheltenham, Wales or The Lakes (nowhere fancy) nothing to do just to let you know we are going to which we would reply "You have not asked permission". His football team and love of his football life was Huddersfield Town and when they won the Cup Shirley was out so he came round with a bottle of champagne and said "Shirley has gone out and won't be back until late and I have no one to celebrate with me" So we duly obliged. That was no hardship.
Weather rubbish. Hope it is not going to be like this all summer. Beware of newspapers saying "going to be a scorcher" Oh ha!
I have now finished my next book. Reading the proofs. It will be published in Scotland as it is about My and my lifelong friend's childhood in Glasgow and Millport, Isle of Cumbrae. On to my next one now. At least this weather is good for writing. Minute the sun shines it is down with the pencil and out. Tuesdays have been good and I have been able to golf and have been doing quite well. Course closed today. Dear me and it is summer too. 

Share of Pannal sadness

Oh dear first Joan Newby has died. Not long after Ken. They came to live in Burn Bridge after we came to Pannal so we have known them a long time. Stalwarts of St Robert's church until they were deemed too old to help. Joan was on the Pannal Village Society and was always willing to help with teas and coffees. A very nice couple apart from their fanatical devotion to the Liberal party. I am completely as they say catholic in my choice of candidate. In local elections I vote for the person whom I think will do the job properly. Having said that what is there left for in Pannal to fight for?
Our neighbour Geoff Holberry has died after a long illness. We shall miss him as he was always such a cheery soul. We look after each others houses and I always seemed to be at the sink (think I am chained to it and only let out on a long leash to garden) when he used to appear to say they were off to foreign parts and could I water the tomatoes. Knowing his dislike of cats I had to appeal to his better nature once, when my friends who came in and fed the cats were away, and ask him to do the honours and bless him he did.
I do wish May would buck up as I love the long evenings but they seem to be wet as of now. We are still walking locally (by that I mean Knaresborough, Ripon, Otley) at the moment as there are so many highways and byways to rediscover. Nearly fifty years of walking this area there are not many places we do not know. I hope you all have a good summer and I shall be writing again but I hope with cheerful news. My book on a Scottish childhood is being printed as we speak and will be published in Scotland fingers crossed.