"Back to that same old place, Sweet Home Dewsbury"
Rachel's hometown, my adopted town, is certainly a place we look forward to visiting and find difficult to leave. With the love of a wonderful family, welcoming friends and always a hot "cuppa" tea, our most recent visit to Dewsbury will leave lasting memories. Ma and Pa Holdsworth (Helen and Oz) once again went out of their way for a most enjoyable visit.

The Holdsworth family home for more than 31 years, there's always a warm welcome on Birkdale Road.

"Dewsbury Calling"

Our visits to Dewsbury are usually filled with a busy schedule of visiting relatives, delicious meals with Helen and Oz, a couple day trips to the surrounding countryside and meeting mates down at the pub. Other activities on this visit were exploring the city market, strolling through the park, visiting the churchyard (noticing Oz's expert handy work with his John Deere mower) and walking along the canal. It seems there's never enough time and we look forward to the next visit. We received a special treat this year with Oz digging out the old reel movies from their backpacking adventure through Colombia and Ecuador 35 years ago! There's no doubt where Rachel got her knack for travel. The former Dewsbury College building now converted into modern flats.

The city's gardening allotments don't look their best during the winter months, however they sprout with flavor and life in summer.

The run up to Christmas was busier than ever this year. We had our fantastic excursion to Ilkey (which you read about in the previous post), followed by visiting a friend on the waterways of Lancashire and other friends in Sheffield (details to follow). However once Christmas came along, Andrew and Eva had arrived and we were able to have a relaxing holiday filled with delicious food and good memories.

Eva, Rachel, Jason, Andrew, Oz and Helen pose for a self-timer before "tucking in" to Christmas dinner.

Christmas Dinner: a traditional feast of turkey, gravy, roast vegetables (squash, turnips and potatoes), braised red cabbage, chipolata (pork sausage wrapped in a large rasher of back bacon), two types of stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce and the obligatory sprouts. It was a heaving plate, and Andrew and I had seconds!

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Another English tradition during the Christmas holiday season is football. Most of the nation recovers from Christmas Day on the couch watching the Boxing Day football matches. I was fortunate to attend a match in person this year at Galpharm Stadium to support the local Huddersfield Town Terriers. It was my second time attending a Town match on Boxing Day. I'll never grow old of witnessing the supporters grasping their flasks of coffee and munching leftover mince pies during the match. This year's match was against the Transmere Rovers and they drew 2-2. Special thanks to our friend Michael Goldthorpe for taking me along to watch the match with his mates!

Huddersfield Town striker, Andy Holdsworth (not my brother-in-law), walks off a questionable injury en route to a 2-2 draw against Transmere.

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Another special day we had over the holiday season was a long hike through the Peak District with Helen and Oz. All four of us share a passion for walking and they always bring us to new and beautiful parts of the area to explore. It was a gorgeous day when we met in The Peaks, with pools of white cloud filling the valleys below us.
The view toward the summit of our journey high in The Peak District.

Jason and Rachel pose for a shot in the midst of open green fields, ancient stone walls and slightly annoyed sheep.

Helen and Oz take a moment for a photo in gale force winds at the summit of our excursion.

We hope you've enjoyed the latest edition of Donkey Crossing. Come back soon to read about our trip down the Leeds-Liverpool canal, our visit to Sheffield and our New Year Extravaganza in Ireland ("Another Murphy's please!").

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This edition of Donkey Crossing has been brought to you by the Bath Hotel and Pub.

"Always a smiling pint, Always a sudsy bath"