andrewducker | Holiday Photos and Julie News

We are on holiday for two weeks.

Which is basically four days with Julies family in Northern Ireland, and then eight days with my family in the Lake District, for DuckerFest 2015.

Julie's family were very welcoming, as usual, we were well fed, looked after, and I got to spent a lot of time playing with their six-month-old rescue Alsatian Troy:

(He's an absolute delight, particularly for a dog that was raised in a stable block and could barely lift his tail or run four weeks ago. He's showing remarkable improvements, and was very playful.)

Then we came down to Cumbria, and met up with my parents, my brother's Mike and Hugh, and Hugh's Wife (Meredith) and Noah. Sadly, Meredith could only stay for the weekend, as her holiday time gets taken up with looking after Noah during his holidays. So we started the holiday a day early at a B&B in Ambleside. Which is probably the most touristy town ever - incredibly scenic, five different large hiking shops, every house had impeccably cultivated flowers growing out of the front wall, and the bins in the park were being emptied on a Saturday morning. These photos were from the Saturday morning dog-walk:

And then on to Sunny Bank Farm, where we have a farmhouse, a small abandoned chapel, twelve acres of land, and about a quarter of a mile of lakefront to ourselves. When we arrived there were sheep in the fields around the house, and some campers in one section which the farmers give over to a local charity. But by the end of the weekend the campers had left, and the sheep had been taken away by the farmers, which meant that the dogs had a ridiculously large area to roam around. They are _ecstatic_ about this, and will frequently just run about. Or go for a wander with anyone who happens to be walking down to the lake.

The farm has some odd little buildings:

And we have boats available if we fancy a row:

And a steam-boat comes past every hour or so, if we fancy taking a trip up to Coniston:

And, of course, the occcasional board game, to keep us company:

And nice garden to play in with the dogs:

There's also some gorgeous walking from the house - this path leads down to the Cumbria Way:

Or from Torver (a five minute drive away) we can walk up to this kind of view:

There are lots of disused slate mines (and the associated remains of buildings) along the way:

And old quarries now half full of water:

And Torver Bridge:

(which I sat next to, and waited while Mike and Dad walked along the winding path you can see behind me, up to the top of the hill and back.)

Julie is with me, of course:

And her hair is looking rather good in the light we get here:

And lastly, we have a games room. Which is a converted barn. And has a table-tennis table, table football table, and a pool table. Uther _loves_ pool. It involves both sticks and balls. Which are at his eye height, so he pays constant attention to them, and clearly keeps expecting them to fall over the edge:

"Uther loves Pool" (Watch on YouTube)

Finally - good news for Julie. We've been worried for the past weeks since we heard that her cancer levels had been stuck at 0.12 for three months (they shoud constantly fall). Today we heard that they've now fallen to 0.04. Which is in line with where it should be, and puts her back on trajectory for effective eradication in the next year or so. Which is a massive relief.