Tractors, Banjos, Horses, and Man Caves

Malcolm Jones

We had a lovely night at Hobo's Retreat.  It is a country listening club, and I think perfect for us.  We arrived early as we really wanted a good sound check and had no idea what the room would be like.  We were greeted by "Donny" who is actually "Danny" and it took a bit of repeating before I caught on that his "a" sounded like and "o" to me.  If I'm not mistaken there is a subtley to the pronunciation that I just wasn't getting.  He was good natured enough about me mispronouncing his name but truthfully I never felt comfortable addressing him by his name after going through that charade.

We have been traveling with a bass amp for Kristi and our guitars.  We haven't used PA much.  This was a great night though as there was a young musician,Luke Thomas,  a young UK country star who helped us out with sound.  It was the best sound reinforcement we've had for a good long while.  It was a straight ahead pa system with one floor monitor but we could all hear ourselves and I don't think that anyone was overpowering anyone else. Luke was great to talk to, and never have I worked with someone so cooperative.

There was a couple who got there early who were from the Lakes District and had driven over 100 miles (a long way in the UK) to come and listen to us.  Deborah had seen Kristi and I in Conwy, Wales in 2002.  She had a couple of our CDs and had downloaded some tracks off of the internet as well.  We were quite flattered to have someone actually follow us around.

Kristi with Deborah and Eric

This was an interesting night.  We played 1/2 hour sets with a 1/2 hour break in between. It meant that we really had to pick and choose what we played.  Malcolm assured us that we can book the gig back again.

Luke Thomas and his mother Jean

In the meantime we are at Croft Nook Cottages just getting a little rest before we travel again.  This morning as we were setting out on our walk we noticed the proprietor looking over his building materials in his lot across the street from his house.  His name is John and I decided that we (Gen, Kristi, Rebecca, and myself) should have a chat with him.  I wanted to take a picture of him and he decided that we needed to see his shed.  It turned out to be his "man cave" and was a lovely place for a guy to hang out.

John loves tractors, Chevy pickup trucks, rock and roll,and his wife Sue (maybe in that order).  He had a booth from a carnival ride in one of his sheds that he is going to outfit with a glass table top and put in his "lounge" with his jukebox which has a "Cosmo's Dream" CD in it.  He showed us his workshop.  He is a "joiner" by trade and has a full complement of the power tools you'd expect.  He pointed out to us that he is not part of the digital revolution not having even a cellphone, in fact he says he wouldn't know how to answer one.  I really enjoyed him as he has great humor with himself.

The Croft Nook Man Cave

After our chat with John we were off on a Saturday walk.  It has been a lovely day, not too hot, not too chilly.  We walked far enough to get a local overview.  I have been observing how much of the plants here are what I would call indigenous to the Pacific Northwest.  I think I mentioned that in my last little missive.  I've been taking pictures of plants one might easily recognize if one were from the Pacific Northwest.  They mostly do seem like they are slight variations of the plants I'm used to seeing.

Kristi, Rebecca, Gen near Shepley, Yorkshire  UK

Kristi and I had walked part of the route before on a nice rainy day.  This day we went further.  It was just far enough to have a nice walk in perfect walking weather.  There were mountains of Fireweed, buckets of huckleberry, boxes full of thistles, and lots and lots of stinging nettles.  There were mud puddles, horses, sheep, chickens, and one lonely Peacock.  Ducks too were in one field and they had left eggs lying around the barnyard.  We saw a bicycler fixing a flat tire (tyre?) and both the bicycles and the horsewomen reminded me that the 2016 Olympics had just visited and left.  

Bracken

I had a few words with this young woman mentioning the horse events in the Olympics.  She encouraged us to pet her horse letting us know that he was friendly.  She said they were going to a competition on Sunday so she was having an easy day with him.

I think it's time to mention last night again.  The UK microbrewery beers are totally different from US microbrews.  I'd have to be a bit more studied about brewing to explain exactly what's going on with them but they seem to me to be very original.  I think my tastes, which I thought were fairly progressive where beer is concerned now feel quite pedestrian.  Here I am drinking a Cherry Stout with Gen and Rebecca and looking forward to watching an English bluegrass band "The Porch Lizards".  .

We checked out of the B & B in Yorkshire on Sunday and drove to Guisborough.  Kristi and I were given a night at a local hotel, which was interesting.  It actually was kind of run down and after we talked to the guy who booked it for us we found out that he had actually stayed there in the 80s.  He'd only stayed for 3 weeks.  I pointed out to him that it looked like nothing had been done to the hotel since he'd stayed there.  Apparently the Marton Hotel and Country Club is something of an institution in the neighborhood.  When we arrived it looked like a birthday party, or an anniversary was being celebrated by a family who were there for Sunday dinner.

Marton Hotel and Country Club

Guisborough Rugby Clug  - Home of the Guisborough Folk Club

Sunday night was the last night of playing with Gen for this tour.  From here on out we will be Steve and Kristi Nebel. It was a marvelous last night.  The club had more people there than they had anticipated, which means we had a nice crowd.  I think we were something a little diffrerent for the folk club.  Monday morning we were gone by about 930 am and drove up to Scotland hardly stopping along the way although we did stop and I bought a Latte, caramel cooler which was a little bit of an extravagance, but nonetheless very nice to drink and I thought worth the little extra expenditure. 

Gen and Rebecca headed off to London, will go from there to Prague and then they are off to Berlin eventually home to Tacoma.  I will continue to blog.  I hope you'll continue 

to read what I am writing.  See Cosmo's Dream at the Stone Way Cafe in Seattle on Tuesday, September 20th 6-8 pm.  Keep the home fires burning.