Six - and a story.

Randy's latest post over at Ethos has reminded me of an incident that is worth recording.

On our first wedding anniversary, Steve & Kerry lent us their Austin Metro Vanden Plas (it was the posh one with central locking and bits of wood on the doors - I remember important details like that about cars) and we thrashed it up to the Lake District for a long weekend. Of course it was raining, but it didn't dampen any aspects of the weekend. We stayed in a bed and breakfast on Conniston Water, and it was lovely.


On the Saturday, we decided to climb the Langdales, despite poor weather (it was the end of November) so we did, braving the driving rain and sleet, knowing that a warm fire and some real ale was waiting on our return at the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel.

We entered the Hiker's Bar to find a ruddy faced guy holding forth in the middle of the floor. After we'd grabbed a pint and some crisps we realised he was reasonably well past it on a very rough cider, but he was reading aloud from a book, and trying to engage the others in the bar in debate and conversation.

Somehow he caught our eye, and he persuaded Felicity to come and stand up with him in the middle of the room, and read aloud from this book. The book was "Style" by Walter Raleigh, and it goes without saying that Felicity was magnificent.

After the performance we sat down to talk to this guy and discovered that he was a sculptor. Ex-Navy, he was now working as an apprentice to Josephine Banner, also known as Josefina de Vasconcellos, a world famous sculptor. We agreed to meet up the next day and he would show us around the gardens at Rydal Hall where we would have a look at the project he was working on.

To be continued...