Merry Christmas & Here's to 2017...

So what a year it has been: Brexit, US election results, many celebrity losses! But how lucky we are that it's not 100 years ago when WWI still had another two years to go.

Cumbria has slowly been recovering from last year's Storm Desmond & this week the lovely, lit Christmas trees have started to twinkle in the bay windows of the homes of Warwick Road (a main road always affected by flooding) in Carlisle.

Luckily the 'Rodgers Tribe' are all in the pink. Overall we have had a fairly busy year, especially with several weddings to celebrate of both family and friends. So here is our year in pictures...

One of the few wintry days of 2016. It's always magical walking by the beck

Yesteryear - sister Lorna & Colin

An Ulster lass is never far from a brew - Bettie

 

Bath time chaos - contemplating grand kids?

Springtime in Cumbria

April dawned with Hutcheson, niece Jo's wedding - when did we get to being the oldies? 

Hutcheson - Thornhill Family Group

Amy, Pete, Andy, Nicky & me

Mr & Mrs John & Jo Croft

 

Spring time in the orchard - there was an  explosion of blossom & so much fruit to follow

Allan Cyna - a conference break

May & June brought visitors from South and
West of the globe and cousins. Meanwhile
Colin did get some time with the Quick
Quacks in Yorkshire / Lincoln.

The Iain / Ian 'Hutcheson' cousins & me

Of course the garden is never far from my thoughts - still a curate's egg - but I so enjoy it. I don't think Colin followed the advice of the US horticulturalist, T. H. Everett (1903 - 1986) who said,

“A man should never plant a garden larger than his wife can take care of ".

The Orchard in Late Summer

The Albertine Roses

A tad wet - mid summer deluge

Here are some of the various wedding photos - the Rodgers Tribe looking fairly smart for once!

Bridesmaid Nicky & Rob - June 24th

The Boys in 'Blue' - September

The 'Brown Eyes' - September

July - The scene is set for a truly romantic Scottish wedding in Gretna of friends Sue & Gareth. And yes the minister did bless the marriage 'over the anvil'. My friend Sheila & I were given free rein to decorate the calf shed as we pleased. And it's not every day the bride arrives on her dressage horse & wearing cowboy boots!

September brought a chance to visit friends who are now living in Brittany - an easy drive from the St. Malo ferry port. They live in a granite farmhouse where they have two gites, a large garden with a pond and swimming pool plus a new Golden Retriever puppy, Amber.

http://www.frenchgitebrittany.com

Mont St. Michel - way too busy for a visit - 2nd most popular French attraction after La Tour Eiffel

Found a lovely boy - Quemada

Colin in Dinan - It really is this pretty!

December has arrived and on the first of the month, the Bishop of Carlisle was able to dedicate the Cumberland Infirmary's organ donation memorial, The Tree of Life. The artist is our Brittany friend, Sue. The memorial project's inception was under Colin's watch as the Trust's Clinical Lead for Organ Donation (before retirement) almost four years ago.

Where is Mr J.W.M. Turner RA when you need him to paint a picture? Looking eastwards, mist in the Tyne Valley from the military road, Hadrian's Wall

So

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

Love & Best Wishes for 2017
from Us All (Colin, Jamie & Nicky)
Trish x

Festive Greetings & Good Wishes for 2016

It seems strange to be writing this seasonal update after all the torrential rain in Cumbria this last weekend, resulting in such flooding & devastation. We are SO lucky to be safe & dry. Here is the River Eden at Warwick Bridge, just one and a half miles away from us;

So this year's "instead of Christmas cards" donation will go to the flood donation.

The senior members of the Rodgers Tribe are fine doing the usual; gardening, motorbiking, volunteering & holidaying in the Western USA.

Jamie has secured another year's contract in Leeds with ITV in the archive unit but with bonus of  a salary increase & laptop ( I've not managed to capture him on my iphone pics - he's pretty elusive). Nicky is into her second year of children's nursing in Newcastle - working long hours but she seems to be thriving.

So here are some photos & craic from this year:



The partial solar eclipse from Broadwath, 20th March 2015.
It was a rather moody moment.







Below is me getting Orla ready for her journey to her new home in Kent in April. A sad day for me but my friends helped me to find her a good home.

Our camellia x williamsii 'Donation' hedge was stunning this year as there were no frosts. This is such a special hedge planted over 20 years ago by my Dad, Uncles Bill & Gil. And needless to say all grown from cuttings propagated by Dad in Ayr!

The wisteria was lovely in the late spring & scent so sweet and almost unexpected in the evenings. The wisteria always blooms later & waits carefully till the temperatures are right before unfolding its racemes of flowers and bright olive coloured leaves - quite unlike it's neighbour across the path -
the camellia with all those blousy blooms on show whatever the temperature!

The back garden in full summer - haphazard but a riot of colour - blending with the re-painted arbour.
This year I, together with some friends and neighbours who are all members of the local gardening club, opened our gardens for the club's social evening. Wow it was stressful, trying to get things in order - I still had majestic collections of nettles on show in several areas! On the plus side, the garden looked it's best ever. I don't think we'll be opening our gardens for the National Gardens Scheme though ... maybe for charity???

 In July Nicky and her boyfriend, Rob visited her Nana in Belfast. 

Though in her 90th decade Bettie is keeping well. 

When Colin visited last month she had TV quiz answers to anagrams

& arithmetical problems solved long before him!

 Above is just a sample of the crazy, funny,
delightful balloons at the Albuquerque Fiesta!

We had a great trip through the western US in the autumn. We started with a visit to our friends (Alex & Lucy) in Billings, Montana. We then visited Yellowstone, drove through southern Wyoming into the Colorado Rockies (Steam Boat Springs, Bueno Vista) and into the Land of Enchantment (New Mexico). Friends (Linnea & Kent) of friends (Jeanne & Ross) very kindly treated us to wonderful hospitality in Albuquerque. Thereafter we flew to San Francisco & spent two exciting days sightseeing with Colin's cousin Jolene to guide us - our first visit to the Pacific. Colin was chief photographer this year & took some great photos. My favourite was one of Colorado's Great Sand Dunes & National Preserve,

 There are people tracks & people showing the scale.

"The dunes appear in the distance as you approach, but at first seem dwarfed by their backdrop, the 13,000-foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Not until you're nearly at their border does their vast scale become apparent: dunes up to 750 feet tall, extending for mile after mile"

 http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/great-sand-dunes-national-park/

 

 Our splash orpington cock died this year. 

But on return from the US my young cousin Andrew gave us his handsome
silver, spangled, bantam Hamburg Rooster.

We have called him President Ulysses S. Grant.

But with all his gorgeous plumage perhaps we should have named him after 

the great Lakota Sioux chief & warrior, Crazy Horse.

I took this picture of the Christmas Geese in September. They have been organically reared at Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Gosling Sike Farm in Carlisle

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Here's to a great 2015 ....

Well another festive season is over & again I'm well behind schedule with letters & seasonal good wishes to family & friends... so here goes & sorry.

Since my last post in the summer of 2014 - we are still (luckily) all in 'the pink'.

The Hutcheson family cousins often rendez-vous in a certain Cumbrian Hostelry!

 Guess who is who!

In the autumn Colin & I enjoyed two visits to Edinburgh, catching up with old friends

The Kirkcaldy Anaesthetic Team (c. 1985/6) + 1

We also enjoyed a train trip along the scenic Carlisle-Settle Line to see Jamie in Leeds. The National Armoury is superb - a place to bring Alex & Lucy when next over from Montana!

Defence strategy meeting perhaps?

Nicky graduated in December & is settling into her first Staff Nurse posting at the Great Northern Children's Hospital in Newcastle & is also enjoying her new flat...

Front Room - painted

Proud Parents

'Beau' Rob, Nicky & 'Oldies'

Colin turned 60 in December, two days after his mum, Bettie's 90th - so we had much fun with all the family in Belfast & Dublin

Colin, Jamie, Gary, Birthday Girl (Bettie), Lorna, Robyn, Jenny & Nicky

Birthday Boy at 60! - Gravity Bar, Guinness Storehouse, Dublin

All the livestock are thriving. We now have 13 'First Ladies' (hens) & Roosevelt continues to keep order. I still have Orla ( fingers crossed a loving new rider/owner will appear this year) & the Schnauzers are still in command...

Orla & me - Sea at Gretna, Solway

Fritz, Mitsy & Mr. Soot - Xmas 2014

So here's to health & happiness everyone for 2015 & a final thought...

A Whole Year has gone past ....

It’s a little warm outside just now (I know it’s all relative but hey the UK is having a heat wave) so have popped inside & am putting ‘pen to paper’ as it were, and writing some way, way over-due letters & this blog! As usual I’m full of apologies ….

Edinburgh Residence - December 2013

  We are all in good form here in Cumbria. 

The VHS Knights defend all from the scourge of The Digital Realm

Jamie is on a short term contract with ITV in Leeds working in their archive department. 

He’s had a few opportunities with various production teams but nothing more permanent so far; but he’s happy enough, getting things on his CV & having fun.  I can’t quite believe that he was 24 in May. 

Nicky (22) has just finished her Paediatric Nursing degree. She has really loved the course, had some super experiences & found her vocation. She was in the regional ITU for one attachment and has just finished four months in the SCBU – Special Care Baby Unit. Some of the infants are only 25 weeks gestation & weigh 600g! She has a few job interviews lined up so fingers crossed. In the meantime she’s having some ‘downtime’ at home. Actually she’s slaving for us in the garden and house! 

Colin continues to enjoy his retirement. There have been quite a few changes in the local hospital & many other colleagues are bowing out; such is the conveyor belt of life1! He does some volunteer IT work with a wildlife charity locally & finding his school boy Latin helpful. We have some of his distant US & Canadian relatives visiting next month; all found from his work on the family trees. It’s really very remarkable and interesting; so hopefully there will be lots of info. for future family generations to make sense of in due course.

Brother Andy retired from his veterinary practice this year – a big wrench after 37 years in harness. He has sold the business to a nice 32 yr. old vet who has been working for him over the last couple of years; so feels content that all will be well. He’ll do a few locums for the practice meantime and see what develops. He & Lesley had a relaxing, long French holiday to celebrate. Their girls are thriving. Joanne (almost 30) is in London with Unilever and Amy (28) is in business management with a hospitality company and lives in Lancashire.

Brother Pete is settled back in Cumbria (after a short period working back in Ireland) and is working for English Heritage at a Birdoswald, a roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall. His lovely partner, Diane has bought a cottage in Croglin (Pete’s little village); so we tease them about have an east & west wing. His daughter Emma is happily settled in Waterford with John, her fiancé, and their wee son Bradley who is now three.

  

I have recently had to give up my medical student teaching, as my GMC ‘license to practice’ has expired. So I am in the process of becoming a family bereavement support volunteer with the local Hospice at Home charity. It will be nice to get back to the ‘coal face’ but I’ll just have to keep myself in check as I’ll not be there in a medical capacity. I have also become a volunteer with the National Trust, as a house guide for a Georgian house near Appleby called Acorn Bank; which has an attached herb garden & orchard. It’s really interesting making sense of the history, geography and architecture of the place.

Our livestock are all well. We have a new black Schnauzer dog called Mr David Soot, or Sooty Boots, who is the full sibling of Andy’s youngster, Inge. Our 12 US First Ladies (hens) & Roosevelt Rooster are still providing us with eggs, pleasure and controversy (a neighbour still isn’t too happy with the crowing – we’re thinking of renting a peacock for a week or so as a reality check for them!!!). I have decided to sell my lovely mare, Orla (7), as she really needs to be enjoyed, worked more and (most importantly) be ridden by a confident and more capable rider than me. It’s a sad decision to make, but the right one. It may take some time to find her a new home and owner, so in the meantime my friend, Clare, rides & competes on her for me. You can see them in action on You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBupHhST1O0

Well I guess this is me up to date, so I’ll sign off & head back into the garden.

Love to you & yours from all of us...

Orchard - June 2014 - New bed planted at last.