Poppleton Station

Look, my village has a station where the man pops out of his little house to open the barriers when a train is coming.

The village I live in is called Upper Poppleton. Nether Poppleton is a little further down the road. The station is just labelled Poppleton, probably so that neither village feels left out.

York Village Challenge

I currently have the best of both worlds. I moved in June to a village on the north west outskirts of York, with the city on one side, and open countryside on the other. It takes me literally only 5 mins by train to get into the city centre.

The photo is of a section of my village's name, from the station platform. Anyone want to guess what the whole thing is? (A clue: There are 2 villages next to one another with "POPP" in the name. Say them both out loud. Mine is the one that sounds like bubble wrap popping).

The FuTuRe of Travel

The number 4 from Acomb to the university and Science Park is the poshest bus in York. It is called the FTR which immediately made me think farter. But no, the letters ftr are actually a reference to the FuTuRe of travel.

The FTR is a bendybus, with spacious seats, plenty of standing room, and a TV screen which displays messages such as "For the comfort and safety of FTR passengers, please do not eat, drink or smoke in the FTR." This one kept coming up a lot last night, which was irritating, because I had a vegetable samosa and bottle of diet coke in my handbag, and was trying to suruptitiously pic-nic. Not straightforward. The FTR is the only bus in York to have a conductor, who comes to take your fare once you've sat down. Every time he got up, I had to quickly freeze my jaw in whatever chewing position it happened to be. Which is why I hadn't finished before the end of the journey.

I justified my samosa-eating recklessness by telling myself that despite the FTR TV warnings, my samosa didn't actually pose a safety threat or inconvenience to any of the other passengers. This was before a pea fell out though, and rolled right into the middle of the sparkling purple FTR floor. I must have jolted in horror because the pea was closely followed by a potato cube and several other peas. Fortunately my stop was coming up, and I was able to exit quite speedily.

For some rather better pictures of the FTR than mine, do check out this gallery)

Ruby un-hibernates

I have been hibernating. Right through the tail end of last winter, right through summer and most of autumn. Then for some reason I decide to tentatively poke my camera through the back door in the middle of a rainstorm.

It's slashing it down in York today. This view of the remaining apples on the tree in my garden is the best I can do.

Things have changed since last I blogged. I now live in a village to the north-west of York, with Mr Ruby, Erik (my eldest son), and the two younger ones who are now not so young. Life continues. And I am still Ruby :-)