Along the canal

We've had some bad weather recently and haven't been able to get out much in the garden or go down to the allotment. It's been a case of make the most of any occasional fine spells and get out to sweep up some leaves or tidy up a bit outside.

Last week we made the most of one beautiful sunny, autumn day to go out for a walk along the Leeds Liverpool Canal from Bank Newton to Gargrave.  Gargrave is on the edge of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and it was a perfect day to admire the scenery.

I like canal walks, because they are flat.  They are also really peaceful and the scenery and wildlife is usually worth looking at.

At Bank Newton there is a group of about four locks close together.  There were a few canal boats moored there and the lock keepers cottage looked very pretty with an equally pretty garden. I love the little gardens that the canal boat owners create.

There was no signs of life on the boats, but there were plenty of  ducks about on the bank.

 

 

Gargrave is a sleepy little place, with the canal, the river, a train station and one or two shops.

 

Gertrude's Gardenalia shop caught my attention. But we were more interested in having lunch first in the Masons Arms. After a good lunch we went back to see what Gertrude's Gardenalia had to offer. There were some interesting vintage things--galvanised baths and pots etc., but the word vintage usually means expensive and so I thought I would stick to picking up the odd bargain from the local car boot sale.

Walking back to the car along the lane towards Bank Newton there were plenty of berries in the hedgerow and I collected rosehips for my Christmas decorations.

Passing by

I always stick to the same path on my morning walk, it's just long enough for me to have some healthy exercise and then get back home to start my jobs for the day. But as I walk along I'm often tempted to go off in other directions as I pass by places which look interesting, other paths which seem to be inviting me to walk along.

I love the stile at the top of the hill--I know where it goes--we've walked along there before.  It goes over the fields to the scout camp where there are beautiful views.  But that's for another day.

Down through the park and I pass by the woods.  It's always muddy there and I'm reminded of when our daughters were young and they used to play on the big rotting tree trunk.  It's rotted down completely now to feed the earth with its remains.

Further along a haze of blue catches my eye--a clump of bluebells beyond the trees enticing me in.

Then past another entrance to the woods is the wild garlic, a mass of white flowers, the subtle garlic smell will linger long after the flowers have gone over.

I continue along  and take in the pink confetti like blossom fallen from the flowering trees lining the path. It will be blown away in an instance with the first strong breeze.

Down the lane to the farm, I stand at the gate looking over the fields for a while then back home with thoughts of places to go, paths to follow on another day when there's more time.

The Tolkien Trail

School holidays is always a time when we go out and about with family.  Our daughter Sarah and her family came up to Lancashire to stay with us for a few days and on one of the days out we went walking in the Ribble Valley, not far from where we live. The walk is called The Tolkien Trail and starts in the village of Hurst Green. J.R.R.Tolkien stayed at Stoneyhurst College a few times and while he was there he got inspiration for his Lord of the Rings books.

The start of the walk took us along past the college, a very impressive building. We then walked across fields with the woods alongside. Eventually the path took us through the woods and the walk became quite magical, with trees, water, bridges and steps.

There were lots of stiles and lovely rusty old kissing gates which took quite a while to get through when there were nine of us.

There were strange shaped trees. This one looked like it might start walking.

 

We walked along the banks of the River Ribble for a while

 

 

Eventually we came out onto the road. Looking over the bridge we could see another bridge called Cromwell's bridge.

Exhausted and hungry we stopped for our picnic in a field then carried on, this walk seemed to be going on and on. Finally we arrived back, having walked seven miles when the guide leaflet told us it was five and half miles. That last mile and a half was really hard work!

Beacon Fell

We were looking after  two of our grandchildren for a couple of days during the Spring Bank Holiday week. I know they would have been quite happy to stay in and play on their ipads or watch TV but I like to get them outside for fresh air, exercise and something  a bit different to do or see. Besides which I don't like staying in and it's a good excuse for me to have a day or two out somewhere.

We decided to go to Beacon Fell Country Park, where we could have a walk, a picnic and look at the visitor centre. We hadn't been there since our daughters were young and that's a long time ago. When we arrived at the visitor centre car park, the first thing we spotted was a falconry and owl display. The children are always fascinated by these birds so we spent some time watching them.

We then headed off to the visitor centre which was quite small but had plenty of interesting wildlife information and activity tables where the children could get involved. There were word searches, colouring in sheets and an origami frog to make. We took the word searches and colouring sheets home, but our granddaughter managed to make several frogs before we dragged her away.

After a picnic lunch we set off walking along one of the trails. The children spotted some things to climb on in the woods so we took a detour. It was lovely in the woods.  There were lots of tree branches lying around, loads of pine cones and other bits of nature things. Fortunately I had remembered to bring a couple of carrier bags to collect 'nature treasures'. There were big tree trunks lying on the ground which were great for climbing on and we found a tree trunk snake which was one of several sculptures to spot around the park.

Throughout the woods there were dens made out of tree branches. These had been made to show people how to make a den or tipee. Visitors were allowed to have a go at making their own den with all the woody material lying around. We watched a family making their own den, we didn't make one ourselves because we have made one at the allotment and know how to do it.  But it would be a good fun activity.

 

We walked back onto the trail path and walked up to the summit where we had beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.  Then we headed back down through the woods again, stopping to look at one or two ponds on the way.

 

We timed our walk well as we got back to the car park just as it started to rain. I had a carrier bag full of twigs, branches and interesting things which the children had collected. We had great plans to make things with them when we got home. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to take things home with us, but when I saw other families loading tree branches and such stuff into their cars I decided it must be ok. What are we going to do with these things you might ask.  Well that might be a subject for another blog post.

Rose hips, sloes and a lovely walk

According to those who know these things, this year is a bumper year for foraging. Well there are certainly lots of blackberries about in the hedgerows. I always pick the blackberries from the lane down at the allotments. This year there have been lots and I also found some at the top of plot10b where we haven't cleared yet. I've made a mental note not to cut these down when we eventually start to clear this area.

My freezer is quite full of fruit now from the raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries grown on the allotments this year, but I managed to find room for a few pounds of blackberries.

I mentioned before on my blog about how I like to make fruit gin and vodka with the blackberries, raspberries, and rhubarb from the plot.  The one thing I've also been wanting to make is sloe gin and as  I haven't found any sloes in the area around the allotments, we had to look elsewhere. So on a lovely sunny afternoon recently Richard and I set off walking in the direction of our local scout camp where I had been told there were plenty of sloes. It was lovely to get out walking on such a beautiful autumn day, it's quite a steep walk, but the views are fantastic. As we walked up the lane we noticed that the hedges had been cut, so if there had been any sloes here there weren't anymore. There were plenty of rose hips though, so I collected those I we walked. I like to dry these for Christmas decorations, so I gathered a bag full, leaving some on the bushes for the birds.

The path went through the scout camp and onto the fields, where we spotted what looked to be sloes in the hedge. We weren't disappointed, we picked nearly 2lbs of them. I was well equipped for foraging with plastic boxes and bags.  My rucksack was a bit heavier as we set off back over the fields.

The sloe gin is now prepared and will be ready for Christmas. I also made damson vodka using damsons from a friend's garden and gooseberry gin with allotment gooseberries, which at the moment looks a bit like frog spawn. I'm sure it will taste good.

Along the canal at Skipton

Last weekend our daughter and family who live in Bedfordshire came to visit for a few days. They were looking forward to some good family days out. It was unfortunate that the weather decided to change just at that point from warm sunny days to cooler, cloudy conditions, so as we thought about where we would like to go we had to think about somewhere to go if it rained. After much discussion and changes of destination, we finally decided on Skipton. There's something for everyone in Skipton--shops, market, castle, walks and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.  We decided to have a canal boat ride in the morning whilst the weather was fine and then if it rained later we could visit the castle or look at the shops.

As we queued up for the 30 minute canal boat trip, our son-in-law had a better idea and disappeared for a while returning with a booking for a 2hour boat hire. Both he and my daughter have driven a canal boat before so we hoped they knew what to do, although he did get some instructions from the boat hire man.

We just had enough time to whizz round the shops to buy food and drink for a picnic to take on board with us.  We had a lovely 2 hours sailing slowly along this lovely, picturesque canal, relaxing, eating, watching the other boats, looking out for wildlife.

Later back on dry land we walked along the canal towpath towards the castle. The path then took us along the bank of the river and through Skipton Castle woods. We've been to Skipton many times but never done this walk before. It's an easy walk and very scenic. We didn't complete the walk as we had to get back home, but it was very enjoyable and a place we will return to soon, I'm sure.

Spring Woods and Whalley Abbey

Last weekend our daughter and family travelled up north to us for a visit.  We always try to get out and about when they visit. We decided on a walk. Spring Woods, one of our local beauty spots, is at Whalley near Clitheroe.  It looks its best when the bluebells are out and is often known as bluebell woods. The wild garlic is another flower which grows in abundance from late spring onwards and you can smell it just driving past. There were no bluebells or wild garlic in flower yet of course but we could see them poking their green shoots out of the ground. Not surprising after all the rain we've had recently, it was very muddy. A number of trees down was evidence of the windy weather we've also had.

 We saw some interesting fungi too:

After our walk around the woods we went into Whalley to the abbey.  Whalley Abbey is a former 14th century Cistercian abbey, most of which was demolished after the dissolution of the monasteries. 

A country house was built on the site and today this is used as a conference and retreat house. The ruins of the abbey remain and it is a very beautiful, peaceful place to walk around. 

January landscape

Last year I started taking a regular walk, 3 times a week after I had taken the grandchildren to school. It's not a very long walk, about 30 mins, but after the early morning madness with two high spirited children it helps to clear my head and set me up for the rest of the days' chores. It also gives me a bit of exercise.

The walk, which is not far from my house takes me down a little lane towards a farm. One thing I've noticed about being retired is that I have the time to notice things, the changing scenes of nature, the landscape.

At the start of January the weather was fairly mild and wet. The fields were muddy. Sometimes when I reach the farm I like to walk a bit further, but I wasn't wearing the right footwear on this day.

Later in the month the snow arrived, transforming the landscape.

In a few weeks time the bare branches of the trees and hedges will start to show signs of new life.

The snow has gone now I hope we've seen the last of it.

Time to stand and stare

One of the wonderful things about being retired is to be able to take life slowly.  I don't mean that I drift about all day doing nothing. In fact I'm as busy as I was when I went out to work. I still have commitments, but I have the freedom now to choose how I spend most days. To take in and  enjoy all the little things in life is a great privilege.

There's a poem by William Henry Davies:

'What is this life if full of care 

we have no time to stand and stare'

And as I walk almost the same path each day I so much enjoy the changes I see along the way.

As I passed by the woods the other morning I could smell the wild garlic, which tempted me inside.There I found bluebells, buttercups and old tree stumps.  I was reminded of years ago when we used to walk here with our children and they always played on a massive old tree stump. I found the remains of it, much rotted down now but still there.  There was a little area with lots of old tree stumps and logs and I wondered if this was where my grandson and his school class go when they have their 'woodland classroom'.

Down the lane, where I walk several times a week, everything is changing. The hawthorn blossom is out, reminding me both of the hedges near my childhood home and of our first house when we were married where we planted a hawthorn hedge. I love the delicate scent of the blossom.

 The cow parsley is out too, there is a delicate airy fairyness to it which I love. I would like some in my garden.

'No time to stand beneath the boughs

and stare as long as sheep or cows'

The cows were out in the field being quite inquisitive as I passed by

'A poor life this if, full of care,

we have no time to stand and stare'

A canal walk

Yesterday we really felt the benefits of being retired. It was a lovely day, we had no grandchildren commitments so we took ourselves off  for a pub lunch and a walk.

We went to the Cross Keys on the A59 at East Marton near Skipton, which does lovely food. We'd been there for an evening meal the other week on our way back from the Harrogate Flower Show and were keen to return. The pub is in a very picturesque setting next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

After lunch we decided to walk along the canal. I like canal walks because they are flat, easy walking--no tiring hills. It was hard to believe we were only a few hundred yards from the busy A59, it was so peaceful. We passed a few canal boats as we walked along.

This little church, tucked away amongst the trees had a sign which said 'open all day'. It was on the wrong side of the canal for us to visit.

After about a mile and a half we reached an access point to the road, so we headed off along the lane in the direction of West Marton.

I've seen a lot of this wild flower about recently.  I think it is Jack-by-the-Hedge or Garlic Mustard. There was lots of it along the lane. It's very pretty.

Our final lap of the journey was to walk back along the A59 to East Marton, not an easy walk as the road is very busy and there is not much in the way of footpaths on this stretch.

Our walk was about 4 miles and it took us an hour and a half. A good afternoon's walk although my feet were aching.