Bizare as it sounds given i work as a graphic designer i have never been able to draw much as i would like too - i think its hand eye co-ordination which is less of an issue on a computer, but on the other hand i could do embroidery -and not just cross stitch kits but more creative abstract stuff from my own. (i could also see to thread a needle back then )quilting is another used to for the same reason.I taught myself to crohet though a couple of years back.
Good luck with the sewing machine Emz -they really hate me so i spend more time re-threading and unpicking and then trying to resore my calm than i would have if i did it by hand to start with.
I do know both those places Brian theyre a bit over commercial now - but we used to go picking bilberrys there and How stein also has "organised activitys" now but still stunning out of season. Gordale definitely does have an amazing feel about it when the day trippers have gone.There is camp site at the bottom there -the owner is, to put it very politely, a bit of a character, but the site is brilliantly located for early morning exploring, and then an evening dip in Janets Foss below it.
I have a hen pheasant hanging around at the moment and have started accidently spilling some bird food where she hangs out -i suspect as theyre normally up on the moors it is related to shooting season and she has managed to fly off and escape -i hope she has the sense to hang round for just a couple more days now until its closed season again.
I love it when nature comes too us. I,m sure your strutting pheasants have remebered where there is a soft touch.
There was a duck in our croft at the old house that used to attack you if you went anywhere near it then one morning i was hanging the washing out and the dog was stood stock still growling and staring at the pond and there in the middle was the duck with a dozen chicks. She didnt hang around very long a couple of days and luckilly the daft dog was scared of water, but he had to be kept under careful supervision in case she came on land -he would have had them given the chance so just as well she didnt decide it was home.
She took them down too the stream opposite and was later spotted by some-one else, heading for the river -but only 8 chicks in tow by then- we searched the bank but no sign of the missing ones they arnt the best mothers in the world.
We also had a nest right over the door that spotted flycatchers returned too every year.When Keith died i clung on too the house longer than i could afford partly because of them as there was a nest full of babys in the viginia creeper that the landlord had been heard to say was getting chopped so that cost me three months rent to stay until they had fledged.They were worth it though -amazing to watch them catching flys and funny to watch them dive bomb and narrowly miss anyone who came too the door.
I hope today wasnt as bad as you were dreading Brian.