Ireland day 1426. Sunday 24 August 2025- Hartley

Today’s summary	After breakfast at our friends’ house in Chester, we drove to Lancaster to pick up another friend’s son and we all drove together to Nateby. There we joined a celebration lunch in memory of the life of my friend Jonathan who died earlier this year in Croatia. We arrived at noon and left at about 4:30. Drove back via Lancaster where we stopped off the friend’s son and had a cup of tea with his mum. Then from there back to Chester for lasagne with the friends we are staying with.
Today’s weather	Warm and dry with plenty of hazy sun. Hardly any wind. Appx 23c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

I’m going to keep this blog brief today, as it’s getting late and I need to go and be sociable. Also it’s been quite an emotionally and physically tiring, so I’m actually feeling quite worn out now.

Basically, it was a day of celebration and reflection. A long standing friend of mine – I knew him for the whole 63 years of his life – died in Croatia in April this year. So today, his brother, David, organised a celebration lunch in Jonathan’s memory, for all the friends and relatives who hadn’t been able to make it to Croatia for the funeral. The event was held in the Black Bull pub in Nateby, Cumbria, close to where Jonathan and David’s elderly mother still lives.

So after breakfast at our friends’ house in Chester, we drove to Lancaster to pick up Jonathan’s nephew and we all drove together from there on to Nateby. The lunch was informal and enjoyable – there were about 26 friends and relatives there to celebrate Jonathan’s life. People had come from all over the UK, as well as Croatia and the USA (and of course Ireland!) to be there today.

Obviously, it was a sad occasion, but it was good to be with so many people, quite a lot of whom I had either never met before, or hadn’t seen for over half a century.

We arrived at noon then left again at about 4:30, when we drove back to Lancaster, where we dropped off Jonathan’s nephew at his mother’s house (where we also stopped for a quick cup of tea). Then it was a quick spin back down the M6 and M56 to Chester, where our friends had the beers were in the fridge and the lasagne was in the oven. A nice way to relax again, after somewhat draining day.

And on that note I’m going to finish.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The pub clock – my parents had an almost identical one in their living room (it now resides at the friends’ house we dropped in at in Chester, incidentally)	Val heading out of the Black Bull – a quintessential scene of pub and village green

I was there too!



Nateby village green