North East thread 6: Everyone's welcome!

[Someaddedsugar]

Just starting a new thread for anyone who wants to join!

Wow I won’t be paying that

all garden center a drive away now elm ridge is shut

peter barrats just off the a66 Stockton , will look up what its called now,
strikes on the a167 just as you go into nothallerton

or cherry hill near boro is meant to be good as well but I’ve not been for year

i usually go to Peter barrats

Donnie’s Stockton it is now

Fgs dobbies stockton

twatting autocorrect

You have a lovely ‘Pasta’ shop in D don’t you. I sometimes buy from Field and Fodder. But one day I’m going to actually visit job.
I love peonies, they are such a gorgeous flower. I can’t grow, just buy the flowers from the shop. I do not have green fingers.🪻🌺

Yes we do but I’ve never managed to visit as the open hours are short

I have had the pasta though as the kids go to my dc old primary and they are friends of a friend. It’s delicious

Was supposed to say shop. Yes I enjoyed the fresh pasta and pesto I purchased.

Anyone tried to get into Northern Kin festival today/night?
Traffic queues were horrendous, we abandoned our car on the verge eventually and walked 1/2 mile in, then an hour's queue to get a wrist band.
No information, very few marshalls, seriously considering giving it a miss tomorrow and Sunday.

Friends who are there say it’s a quagmire!

I live very close to NK and am enjoying the mayhem vicariously over Facebook. Poor team seem swamped. Traffic is always a bit fun when they have festivals there but manageable, the site issues and having to tow everybody has made it crazy this year. Dd was over an hour late back from school because of course her school bus was sitting in it.

Doesn't sound like a great experience so far and I'm sure that lessons will be learned bit I think some people on site don't seem to realise that if large parts of the team are having to tow cars then that means there are not as many to do things like wrist bands or loo cleaning.

Still, doesn't seem ideal and lots of complaining online about lack of loos which seems poor as surely they knew how many people they were expecting.

I love the (very much minority it must be said) local complainers calling Ushaw selfish and just trying to make money at the expense of the local area. They would be the first the complain if Ushaw had to be sold and turned in to a hotel or flats. Plus I bet those same people will happily to go a festival somewhere else without a thought as to how traffic and noise affects those who live there.

I hope they do learn lessons on traffic management. Feel as though it is a mistake not directing people to a single approach, people were coming not only from both North and South bit also some straight through Bearpark, others through Ushaw Moor so it all got very messy. If you had signs to direct to a specific route with signs elsewhere clearly stating "no access to NK" then there would be one queue to manage so you could have marshals to keep them informed, you could have a management system in place to allow local traffic and emergency vehicles through and over the wider local area people would be able to get through.

Hope those going have fun. There is a great lineup. I'm very sad in not going to see the fabulous Seth Lakeman tomorrow but I do have tickets for him in Sunderland later this year. I'm going to the Magpies festival this summer for a good dose of folk. Anybody who went sod you see the Magpies last night? They are great.

Ushaw put an update on their Facebook page. About being caught out with the weather and apologised re traffic congestion.
Queues of 4 hours, gird-lock. If I was a local I would have been furious. Better planning for next year, needed.
Not sure how they could have been caught out re wet weather.

To be fair, the effect that the amount of rain has had on the site has been over and above what would reasonably have been predicted. They did have a contingency plan around camping and live in vehicles which was posted on their social media etc before the event and this was to avoid people getting stuck etc. Unfortunately far more ground was affected than anticipated and I've you got to the point that each individual vehicle needed to be towed in to place then queues were going to be long!

They have already said that next year they will be changing date to be in the summer which will mitigate against this situation.

I’m just thinking of our very water logged allotment. It’s been water logged for weeks and is too water logged for planting.
Maybe it’s to be expected, it always wet in April. Maybe end May /June would bet a better time for the festival.
A lot of unhappy people on the Facebook page.

Sorry just seen they are changing to summer, that’s a good idea.
I think I would be annoyed as a local as festivals are my idea of hell.
So it’s going to be horrendous, getting the vehicles off the site. Hopefully plans have been made for the departures.

Yeah I think last night every single car had to be individually towed out of the day car park so leaving could be interesting!

Shame about your allotment. Ours had a reputation for being water logged when we got it but we've dug a drainage ditch with a soakaway and then built up in to raised beds and so far so good. I'm just wondering if the threat of frost has actually passed now for planting. Cut my first asparagus spears though yesterday which was very exciting and delicious having previously had to watch them grow and not be allowed to eat them!

This is the first year in over 25 years it’s been too water logged for planting. All of my daffodils have rotted, I got 1 very small bunch.
It’s just been lots of rain ☔️ damp weather. I haven’t got the patience for asparagus, 3 years to crops! We tried about 20 years ago.
But very envious, enjoy with a bit of butter and some very early potatoes would be my perfect meal.
We still had a heavy frost last week, so DH is itching to get started. We have seeding on every window sill. 😆. Green house too.

Forgot to say my DH hates raised beds, no idea why? We barely even have paths, think probably is because he loves using his rotator.
I don’t garden by the way, I like to draw the plans and buy the seeds, etc. Then take a camping chair and a flask of tea, and watch the hard work. 😆. Otherwise I am an allotment widow.

Yup, ice last week. My greenhouse is unheated so I emptied all the seedlings back in to the house and have a dining room covered in pots. Lots of them need potting on. May risk putting everything back except the divas (tomatoes and cucumbers) today.

Sorry about your daffodils.

I have dh for the heavy lifting and I do the planting. We're mostly no dig but our of necessity really. The entire thing was knee deep dock and it is really heavy clay, attempting to dig out dock roots was basically digging up entire clumps of clay, we left some out in the sun and it basically turned in to bricks. So we covered everything and have gradually been building up beds from pallet collars. Getting to the point now that any dock that pokes through in to the beds is a new one with a teeny little tap root that just pulls out rather than the ones with a massive root.

I'm a very lazy gardener really. Minimal weeding etc. I have some annual stuff but filling the allotment mostly with permanent planning like the asparagus, raspberries etc. Mainly things that cost a fortune in the shops but are very tasty!

We have raspberries, they never make it home, 😆. 🫛 pea pods are a delight too. Strawberries 🍓 as well.
Anyone going to the Spark light to the city? Tomorrow in Durham city in millennium square. Looks really good, but depends on weather.

I will be mostly frantically writing with a Tuesday 4pm deadline. Except I'm at work Tuesdayb so really a Monday as late as I can stay awake deadline.

Ds1 is in the parade at Crook on Monday with his Samba drumming so will def be going to see him in that.

Good luck with your writing ✍️ deadline.

We went to Stockton GC @lifelongfrugaleer - thanks for the recommendation! We have two peonies that are well established in the garden and I've added a few more so hopefully they'll be happy and will grow. I'm not green fingered so this will be very much trial and error 😂.

A bit late in the conversation but a colleague went to Northern Kin and said it was awful - and their car had so much mud on the tyres that they had to spend ages getting it off before they could leave. Doesn't sound fun!

Is it the pasta shop on Woodlands Road that has the nice pasta?

Ah pleased you like it

yes woodlands road but they are only open some things like 10-2

Gosh, that’s not long, are they mainly take out lunch etc?
Anyone else disappointed they didn’t get the thunder yesterday, the black clouds came at work, bit of rain then nothing ! 😞 😆 . I’m weird because I love thunderstorms especially lightning ⚡️⚡️