Party time with Putsi and Andy

Andrew and Putsi are very dear friends of Sarah and Martin (Andy skiing with us in Val D'seire). They live in a beatiful house in Cumbria, right in the heart of the Lakes district. Andy and Putsi have been in the house for a while, the garden is magnificant. It was Andy's 60th birthday and we were very lucky to all be invited up for this special celebration. Big crowd staying in the house, on night 22 people were comfotably accomodated. Clare, Sarah and Martin really enjoyed their first evening (the Haebichs were in Lincoln) with everyone arriving, filling up the house and being spoilt by Putsi's home cooking.

andy's bday walk - Andrew

Walks

Andrew loves to go on long walks through the hills with his two pooches, 'moof' and 'twiglet. Unfortunately, twiglet was out of action, but moof had a ball on our two walks. Memma, Bill and Mark accompanied him through the snow covered hills on the first walk, the day after the big do in Blackpool (see below). Wonderful country; sheep, stone-walls, tarns (mountain lakes), heath, braken and cosy pub or two. This walk was just for an afternoon, the last section was in the dark and we were glad to get to a cracking little pub for a couple of well deserved beers.

andy's bday walk - beer o'clock

The second walk was on new years eve day (Andrews actual birthday). We followed a stream right up into the hills. After some rock scrambling, we reached a massive tarn, edged with a layer of ice. The snow had largely melted, which made the walking easier and it only rained in dribs and drabs. Andrew supplied a few brown beverages and what he termed a farmers lunch; great chunks of bread, salami and cheese. The country was 'bigger' than the previous days walk (Memma trotted along at a mild jog to keep up!) and after a couple of hours rounding peaks Andrew picked a magnificant spur to take us down to the low country once more. Pretty slippery going but we timed it perfectly and hit the road just before dark. The girls didn't agree with our timing; they'd been waiting 1 hour for our arrival; the fact that it was Andy's birthday just excused him!

andy's bday walk - moof

Funny Girls

Putsi organised a big birthday bash for Andrew (he reached the big 6 - 0) in Blackpool. Stacks of family and friends were invited and we felt very priveleged to be able to join in the celebrations for Andrew's great achievement.

As the name might suggest, funny girls isn't your run of the mill caberet venue... it featured, well, funny girls... After a raucous dinner, lots of song and dance numbers were performed by both the guests and the professionals.

new years eve

Had a great evening in a small pub out in the middle of nowhere with a big bunch of Andy and Putsi's friends both young and middle-aged. Went to a town square famous for its fireworks display and we weren't dissapointed....squeezed in a few more beers, found the wandering Andrew and discovered what was (or was not!) under his kilt.

snow walk - Memma

snow walk - tarn