Sheep May Safely Graze

And so off to Hull we set. As we were only travelling from Cumbria we decided to take a leisurely pace and make a few stops. Unfortunately we are now of that age where the stops we make must have the facilities we require. So, like yesterday, nothing en route to capture. Mentioning the word route reminds me of a thought, not uncommon to many people I reckon, that we have the most boring road names in the world. Well, maybe not, but they are dull. We travelled down the A66 and you can guess what song instantly popped into my head but with this road it doesn't fit. Are there any good songs with UK road names in the title? Baker Street? Nah, too overblown. Raglan Road? Not UK. Can't be bothered to think of any others.

One thing that I chuckled at on the A66 was the Organic Farm shop and café. The building itself had a roof that was covered in turf and sloped to the ground down one side. On this roof two sheep were safely grazing (see what I did there?) and happily moving around. Excellent idea with the added bonus of extra insulation being constantly added.

We arrived in Hull with plenty of time to spare but instead of having to wait ages in the car before being loaded we were ushered on-board within 10 minutes of arriving. Which was nice. Gave us a chance to make a cup of tea and coffee before pottering off for food. Whilst nicely settled down 3M did her usual of thing of wildly flirting* with the Filipino waiters (I couldn't do what they do but that's another issue). One of them went off and came back with a red rose that he had made out of paper napkins and that made an old lady(?) very happy**. Hence the subject of today’s Blip. Here is the rose, jealously guarded by Bullseye.

About 4 years ago I was bemoaning the fact that I was not in a position to have a dog so 3M downloaded a Staffie pattern from Battersea Dogs Home (part of their “Staffies: Softer than You Think” campaign) and immediately knitted one for me, which I called OddBod as it was fat (no Staffie waist) and the ears were wrong. Her next attempt was excellent and Bullseye came to be. As he's 4 years old now I calculate him to be 80 in dog years, making him 560 in human years, i.e. he's a little tatty now but he's been everywhere with me. One of the advantages is he doesn't need a pet passport when travelling abroad. And, yes, I have had funny looks from people who see him sticking out out my bag. Don't care, he's my dog and I love him.

Oh, and today's blip has been sent from the English Channel. On a ship, of course. I'm not Kate Winslet, y'know.

* Apparently my definition of 'wildly flirting' and 3M's differ. She says she was making polite conversation. Whatever.

** 3M has asked me to point out that although she is retired she's not old enough to receive a State Pension so therefore the use of the word 'old' is subjective. Yeah, yeah, yeah.