Grandma's Scattering

I promised Grandma long ago that I would go to her funeral, but owing to various snafus, I managed to miss it.  So I made sure to be there for the scattering of her ashes in the birch grove by Hardcastle Crags, a place she loved, and where her husband, my Grandpa, had already been scattered nearly 30 years ago.  Here she is:

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  First we met up at my cousin Jennifer's and her husband Carl's house, which is just on a bit from Crown Point.  Carl is waiting at the door:

 Here's Jennifer, probably being tactless, as is her wont:

 And here's Carl.  They have a VERY nice house - this is only the second time I've visited, I believe the first was Christmas 1990, with Jami, who was meeting my family for the first time.

 Soon, everybody who was part of the Scattering Party had arrived, and off we set to Hardcastle Crags.

 And here is everybody.  In order: Sophy, Simon, Polly (in the back - the Orangutan is named after her other Grandpa - she also has a gorilla named Jeremy), Jeremy, Martha, Margaret, Sam, Jane, the shadow of St. John and Susan (who is the daughter of Jeremy's half-sister Jill):

 And here's the photographer, who had to take photographs for EVERYONE.  Fortunately St. John (younger son of Jennifer and Carl) is very good-natured.

 Just to prove we're in the right place:

 Pretty steep, it was.  In fact, so steep that Jane and Margaret took one look and headed back to the cars.  But we only went about halfway down to the river and then turned right.

 See?  Craggy.

 This is an old quarry.  Grandpa is making up some bullshit for the kids.  Probably telling them he used to have a hidey-hole in the wall of the quarry.

 Susan and Sophy wanted no part of it.

 Of course the kids had to investigate another hidey hole.

 Let the digging commence.  We let St. John do the honors.  It was VERY stoney.  And he split his jeans, as you can see, which did a lot to lighten the mood.  (Not that it needed it - it was as un-sombre as Grandma would have wanted.)

 Here's an idea of what it's like in the birch grove.

 

Grandpa doing his scattering.  Everybody got a go.

 Afterwards Jeremy and Margaret had to head back south, Jane and Susan headed back to Jennifer's house, and the rest of us decided to cross the river and climb up to the titular crag.

 Success!  Here we are on top of it.

 Lovely view as the sun was going down.

 It being November the 5th, fireworks were in order.  And lots (LOTS) of baked potatoes, cooked in a special oven.

 This picture was specially commissioned by its subject.  St. John is now his idol, because that's his gun.

 Then it was back to Sheffield, where Peter came to pick us (Simon and Jane) up from Sophy and Karl's house.  This is their very nice sitting room.