I am probably mad as I went out to do some tidying up in the garden. Did manage a bit mainly leaves as ground very very hard. Worst part is how frozen the cars are in the morning. I had an extremely early appointment so I defrosted the windscreens and came back in to get ready. Then I had to defrost all over again as it had frozen up in the short time I was in the house. We have had no snow and I say as yet s we have had snow at half term in February before this. I have lived here well over fifty years and have seen all weathers. Very heavy snow and we had to take sledges down to get the bread order in the shop on the bridge. Much easier than carrying bags. My eldest son and his wife skied into Harrogate one year and my youngest son and his wife used their canoe up at All Saints Court instead of a sledge and were awarded a voucher for the most unusual mode of transport on the slope. There was an extremely heavy fall of snow one year in April and the tents used for the Spring Flower Show which used to be held in the Valley Gardens collapsed because of the weight of the snow. Fortunately there were empty at the time.
Well the last of my books on Pannal and Burn Bridge Their Stories only a few now in the Post Office. I have kept a few but not many. I enjoyed writing this my fourth book on this area. The others being A History of Pannal, Postcards from Pannal and A Centenary History of Pannal Golf Club. When I think of what was not here when we came to live here. We lived in Kirkby Overblow and our daughter Susan was born there and was just months old when we came to live in Pannal. I have detailed all the shops and businesses in my book. There were no houses at Dunlopillo as the factory was going strong making latex foam. Incidentally my husband's great great grandfather John Smith was Curator of Kew Gardens 1864-66 during the period when the first rubber seedlings were grown at Kew. He sent one of the young Kew gardeners to Ceylon with the seedlings were they formed the basis of the first of the great rubber plantations. GG Grandfather was mentioned in a book by Vikky Baum called the Weeping Woods.
There was no Pannal Green, no Crimple Meadows. The land (Crimple Meadows) belonged to Mr Bentley of Pannal Hall and we used to picnic there, fish in the Crimple and pick teasle. Pannal Primary School was on Woodcock Hill. no Rosedale or Rosedale Close no through road to Burn Bridge, one had to go up Woodcock Hill. No Woodcock Close there was a lovely barn in the fields there now the recreation grounds. Land behind St Roberts Church - Crimple Meadows - was a working Farm. No Walton Park.
Not wishing our lives away but it will be nice to have some warm weather. Back to playing golf and walking.Cats are not all that happy, Spending a lot of time sleeping on chairs and they take great exception to being put out of the lounge at night.
